Letters From The Big City

As a geordie having never lived more than 20 miles from the city centre I concequently felt a little bit out of my depth as I stepped off the train at Kings Cross in September to start living in the 'big bad' city. It has however completely surprised me.... in a good way!

I have met many people just as passionate about their football as us 'up north' and contrary to what the media says, most people I have met also hold Newcastle Utd in high regard (Interestingly enough they also assume that you are a mad football fan if your from the North-East). On the whole most people seem to have huge affection for Newcastle and their supporters.. It would be interesting to hear views of other people who live away regarding how the people in their area view the current situation up there.

This is the first season since I was 14 (10 years ago) where I do not have a season ticket and have been using Tyne Talk as the place for me to 'touch base' regarding all things Newcastle. Here are just a few of my views about how the season is panning out.

This seasons premier league has the potential to be one of the best ever. A lot of the teams we thought would be relegation contenders are mid-table, Liverpool are finally showing that they just might have the ability to challenge for the title and Manchester Utd started slowely (which is always entertaining as they traditionally finish strong).

In contrast there is Tottenham suffering their worst start in the league ever and Newcastle who are also currently in the drop zone despite some encouraging performances of late. Interestingly enough with all the media hype of 'turmoil' around the north-east if Newcastle win their next game they will be only 1 point behind the 'Champions League' challengers Manchester City, equal points with Sunderland and Middlesbrough and potentially in 11th place. But still, lets keep the national media happy and continue to refer to our club as a one 'in crisis'.

The whole league is extremely tight, there is a team that was in the Championship last season in third position (and playing some brilliant football), another young team hand-crafted by 'The Magician' at Arsenal ahead of Manchester United and a great british manager challenging for a champions league place with Aston Villa.

I hope that Hull City continue to scare and surprise people, they have been a breath of fresh-air in my opinion. Good luck to Manchester City, at least they seem to be going along the philosophy of trying to play exciting football, but huge amounts of money from investors always seems to bring constant instability along with it.

I would like to think both Newcastle and Tottenham can slowly pull away from the relegation zone although it might be difficult if we don't pick up points and quick. As a lot of pundits say 'winning breeds confidence' and the more victories lower teams notch up against these two 'big teams' the more other teams will come to games here thinking they can nick something.

I would like to think one of the 'lesser teams' can sneak into the top four, highly unlikely but if you can't fantasise about football what can you fantasise about (don't answer that Leslie Grantham!)

But ultimately I would love to think that this season could be one of the best seasons in a long time, with the top 6 places wide open, Newcastle finishing safe (around about 9th would do nicely) and the relegation battle being decided on the last day with any of the bottom 8 teams being able to fall into the clutches of the Championship.

I would love to think this..... but I doubt it will happen, hands up who thinks Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool will be standing proudly atop the table come June, Newcastle will finish a mediocre just-below-mid-table and at least one of the relegated teams will be going straight back to were they were last season.