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Magpies won't be going back down

Well the EPL season is about to start, and being a Newcastle United fan I have to say I am exited, not so by the prospect of playing Manchester United in the first game, and not by the 4am kickoff time in Australia. But the prospect of my team playing their first EPL game after a god awful ending to out EPL season before being relegated.

As expected many people are expecting the Toon Army to be relegated back to the new NPower Championship, sure there are all the signs there, and there is always that discussion amongst fans, and they always pick the new boys of the league to go back down.


But can Chris save his boys from the dropzone? I think he can, the team has seemed to be more close knit since their drop down, and welcoming Dan Gosling into the team would help, Newcastle will need Ameobi to shape or ship out this season, too many passengers saw the Toon ship off back down the Championship for the first time in 16 years, now it's time that some of these guys start to make a stand for their careers.

I am expecting the Magpies to finish between 10th and 15th, James Perch, Dan Gosling, and Sol Campbell presently look like the only signings in the current transfer window, but Hughton is hoping to add to that. Leaving the side over the Summer period has been Jonny Godsmark - Washington (free), Max Johnson - Inverness Caledonian Thistle (free), Michael McCrudden - Derry City (free), Nicky Butt (released), Frank Danquah (released), Darren Lough (released), Wesley Ngo-Baheng (released), Callum Morris (released), Fabrice Pancrate (released)

Pancrate seems to be headed to Turkey, and Nicky Butt was rumoured to be moving to Blackpool, yet to happen.

Newcastle's last season in the EPL was surrounded by drama, and a lot of uncertainty with Mike Ashley looking to sell the team, even last year it was a bit of a case of when will someone buy the team. It seemed like there was a buyer out there for the side, but that never happened. So now the team back in the league is going to seek redemption, they managed to gel well back down in the Championship.


But now they are entering into the Top Tier, I think that they are in for a very long game against Manchester United, the Red Devils are up and about after winning the Community Shield and I expect them to show the Magpies no mercy in their first game,.

Steven Taylor is out for Newcastle, even though it seemed like he was destined for Liverpool. The drama over Dan Gosling has been settled and the Magpies have secured him for free now. So here's hoping from a Newcastle point of view they put in a good performance.


Keeping Andy Carroll at the side, and having minimal loses that are keys to the side will see the Magpies have a good tilt at staying up. And then next season hopefully they can get some transfer funds in and buy some players to help the team head towards the top part of the ladder.

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West Bomwich Albion - English Football's yoyo

The Baggies are back, that's right the English Premier League's version of a yoyo have actually climbed back into the premiership. Did you have any doubts? I didn't I fully expected them and Newcastle to jump back into the League and make another shot at it, but I also expect the Baggies to go back down again.

I am sure they will do a bit of shopping, but they still do not have the quality on the park to really stay in the premiership, and they have too much talent for the championship so they are going to keep going up and down until they find some money or a manage that can keep them from going down.

I do not believe that Newcastle are going back down, why? Simple they have addressed one of the major concerns they had the last time they have a manager there now that has a future not a standin, not a guy that's hearts not right a guy thats there and will be there. Plus, their manager is getting the best out of them, even though they had moments where they went to sleep and played bad football, they still managed to find enough to get the result they needed.

West Bromwich are just not getting that, spending some money may help the Baggies this time around, and getting themselves something that can help keep them up for this season, and then beyond that start to look at other players. Oddly enough the Baggies have a decent supporter base, even though they have been up and down like the proverbial yo-yo.


Their last game in the premiership saw them fill the stands even though there was no way they were going to be staying up they were gone for awhile but the fans were still there. But I expect those fans to be disappointed again as Blackpool and West Bromwich Albion are headed back down to the Championship, which most teams promoted are often favourites the next season to be relegated.

I put this to you, how are the Baggies going to stay up? The obvious answer is to win games enough games, but how? Will a miracle happen for them? I highly doubt it. Getting some players may help, but finding the funds for them is going to be something they have to look into.


But there is always the next time they come back, maybe the next time they will come back as champions of the Championship, like they did in 2007-2008. That's something to look forward to, right?
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Circle of Hate

I want to take this time to talk to you about something that needs to be discussed. I'm talking about bad sports. In any game there is bad sports and they have no place in the sporting arena. These can be bad winners and bad losers and generally if a person is one, they're the other. I will admit, i'm a horrible winner, I love winning the game or the championship itself but nothing compares to drinking the tears of the losers and sticking the boot in and rubbing in that win just that little bit more. I know I probably take it just that extra special bit too far but I don't care, it's what the game is built on. One of the best features of following football is the tribal mentality that all the supporters share, you support your club and everyone else can go to hell, there's none of this “second team” nonsense and it's what makes the game so great and it's what makes the game passionate amongst all the supporters.

However, I think that we as a body of supporters need to start to weed out the weak, cull those who can't handle the pressure of supporting a team full time and who can't handle the back and forth banter that is thrown between supporters. I call this the “circle of hate” and is similar to the concept behind the “Chain of Screaming” episode of How I Met Your Mother. Basically, when your team is up, you gloat about it and rub it in at will. When your team is lose, other teams rub it in. It's a bit circle of hate that flows all around the world. Someone cops a loss and there's always someone around to give stick about it and then after that, the team eventually wins and the circle is continued by the same person passing on that hate they received to whoever is unfortunate to lose to them

Take me for example, I'm a Southampton supporter and have been for years. I had to cop endless time from people who laughed at us and ridiculed us when we got relegated from the Premier League. I was further ridiculed and laughed at when my beloved Saints were struck with financial problems, put into administration and subsequently relegated to League One last season. I would like to take this sentence to point out that we almost did the impossible of achieving promotion despite out 10 point deduction even though we'd be in the auto-promotion place without it but we should climb up against next year . I've even suffered a not so bad but still equally bad experience of losing a cup final, all that is excepted when your team goes through bad times and you have to cop the bad with the good. And “the bad” isn't always what happens on field, in fact “the bad” is usually everything that happens off the field, and is usually because you lost

Sometimes, there are rare examples where “the bad” happens because your team is going well. Let's take a few examples, look at Italy, Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina were all caught up in a match fixing scandal in 2006 which saw all of them, bar Reggina get relegated to Serie B and Juventus got kicked out of European competition and stripped of two titles. The effects for those fans must have been devestating, having to not only deal with the club being declared cheats but they got relegated AND they got stripped of two titles that they cheated their way to AND they got kicked out of Europe for the year and they then had to sit by and watch Inter lift the Scudetto four times in a row. But the worst part? The Inter fans rubbing in that they won the 05/06 Scudetto by default. It's just part of how the game flows.

How about another example, in China, they're still trying to recover from constant match fixing scandals that have rocked the league since it's inception. It may not mean much to the supporters who usually follow any backwater European league over their own because hey, it's Europe, it's gotta be good but there's still plenty of teams to be labelled as cheats which is perfect ammunition for rival supporters to dig the boot in and make fun of. Although that being said, I doubt there's any supporter of local Chinese football who can claim the moral high ground when it comes to match fixing and cheating

So having said that, sticking the boot is just part of being a football supporter, sometimes it happens cause your team is just plain rubbish, sometimes it happens because your team gets done over in a cup final and sometimes it happens because your team is just a pack of dirty cheats. Either way, you suck it up and deal with it. As you've read, I've had my share of bad times with Southampton and I don't regret picking them as my team in the slightest but even I've been able to return everything that I've copped over the years of being a loyal Saints fan. For me, this came in the form of Sydney FC. I've even copped my share of shit as a Sydney fan, namely last season for failing to make the finals but being knocked out of the finals in season II and III didn't come with their share of stick. But I got to repay everything that I got this year when we beat melbourne to secure the Premiers plate at Sydney and then I got even more back again when we travelled to melbourne to be crowned Champions on their home soil and I rubbed that win in viciously and if you can't tell, im still doing it now . For me, this is my reward for being a good loser, I sat there and took everything that was thrown at me and I waited and threw it back when the time was appropriate. Sometimes, it's the other way around and you can celebrate first but will no doubt, eventually pay for that later

So after all of that and after dealing with a few fans who couldn't stop crying over their teams failure and my constant sticking the boot in I have this to say, if you can't handle the bad times, you don't deserve to enjoy the good times. Sticking the boot in and giving teams stick is just part of football, it comes with being a passionate supporter and in general terms, there's usually a team who's got it worse, unless you're a Wimbledon supporter. So my advice, suck it up and deal with it and either take it as penance for your own or your fellow supporters past discretion and past boot sticking or use it as motivation when exacting revenge for all the stick that gets given to you. Remember, what goes around comes around. That means that at some point in time, you're going to have to cop some shit, and when you do, please, try to be a humble and nice loser and don't be a sore loser
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The new Fourth Substitute

Six Yard Box has taken over Fourth Substitute, and any blogs before April are not those that have been posted to this site by the new Fourth Substitute team, we hope you enjoy and hopefully comment on future blogs as we look to make this a bigger and better blog for football followers around the world.

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FFA Cup Proposal and other issues

The A-League season has come to an end and ever since that pulsating finish to the season where Sydney beat Melbourne on penalties there's been a lot of talk from people concerning the future of the game.

Sporttalk commends the fact that people are so knoledgable about these issues and that they aren't afraid to post them and express their views


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Akinfeev shines despite Inter win

A free kick from Wesley Sneijder has helped Inter Milan overcome CSKA Moscow to break into the semi finals of the Champions League since 2003 and they will take on Barcelona on 20 and 28 April with the first leg being at home.

After the goal from Sneijder, CSKA was never into the game since then, losing Evgeni Aldonin and their best player Milos Krasic to suspension only meant that Mark Gonzalez and Alan Dzagoev will be starting in their positions and the Japanese wonder Keisuke Honda will be moved into a defensive midfield position


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Who Now For Fury?

Fresh news coming out of North Queensland is that Ian Ferguson has signed a new 1-year deal with Perth Glory to become the new assistant manager to David Mitchell. 'Fergie' has finally ended months of speculation about the future of himself, North Queensland as a club and Robbie Fowler.

Before we get into the impact this has had on Fury, i just want to touch on the impact this has on Perth for a second. Perth have an established coaching team, David Mitchell is the manager and has been there since the back end of the 07/08 season where he almost immediately signed on Robbie Dunne as an assistant manager, alongside Kenny Lowe who is also an assistant manager. With the addition of Ian Ferguson, this now makes 1 manager and 3 assistant managers for a squad of 18 players (not counting Goalkeepers or NYL team) which just seems like a lot of overkill


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Survival of the Fittest

With the English Premier League winding down the fans of the teams 14 and below are wondering if there team will stay up in arguably the best football league in the world and who will be relegated to Championship obscurity? So lets get to the current league table as it stands at 18:56 GMT 4/4/10.

GP GD P


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Chelsea proves too strong for United

Chelsea has proved too strong for Manchester United at Old Trafford today after beating the title favorites 2-1 with Joe Cole scoring a great goal and soon Drogba made it 2-0 just minutes after coming off the bench to inspire the Blues to dig deeper. United caught Chelsea napping and scored rather a controversial goal which seemed to bounce of Macheda's arm, despite John Terry's frantic complaining to the referee, but no avail, the goal was given.

This win takes Chelsea to top of the league and leading Manchester United by 2 points. With a few games left in the competition, who will come a winner of this prestigious title?
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Can United still win it?

Manchester United's hopes of going back to back in the Premier League is in doubt after losing Wayne Rooney to an ankle ligament damage during their Champions League Quarter Final 2-1 loss to Bayern Munich. Rooney is believed to miss 2-3 matches including their rivalry match against Chelsea at Old Trafford and second leg of Champions League and is expected to make a return against Manchester City on April 17th.

United's captain Garry Neville believes that this injury won't stop the team of conquering Chelsea and capturing a strong grip on their fourth successive league crown


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