They are competing. At their traditional level. They are a lower mid table premier League club if you look at their historical league positions. Theres a brief sustained period of success in the 1900s then they challenged and failed under Keegan. Other than that they have just pottered along much as they are doing now.
Well explained. Arsenal are much more successful than Newcastle and only behind Man United and Liverpool in terms of English clubs.
Yes I said that then someone pointed out he had dementia now which rather put a dampner on things. They could get Dennis wise back though.
Let's not forget how much of their success has come about since the game was butchered to suit them and the rest of the 'big four', an advantage the Geordies haven't yet had.
They weren’t competing, they were investing just enough to stay up every year and not looking to improve on that, and sacrificed any progress in the cups. They also invested nothing into the club, the stadium is a mess and the training ground is practically a leisure centre
For around 75% of the EPL clubs staying up is competing though (you're competing not to go down). Does it really matter if you finish 10th or 17th? The risk of significant investment required to improve versus staying in the league was obviously too much for the previous regime to consider (and I can completely see their point).
They finished 10th 13th 13th 12th. That's competing. And it's where they've always been. Ashley just kept the club ticking along nicely and has been able to get them what they wanted. A rich idiot owner willing to **** away money.
www.bbc.com
I'd hate to be just happy with finishing 17th in the Premier league, the only person who benifits from that is the owner. It would be so dull just being content to hang in there by winning a hand full of games a season and drawing a few. It's one of the reasons why I hate the Premier league and all it stands for.
Gives us a big game to look forward to though, especially as Sunderland are settling for third division mediocrity again!
Plenty of clubs fail trying to buy their way out of the Championship. Atm they cannot even get a bang average manager let alone high calibre players.
Ashley must be laughing his c*ck off at the geordie hoards with every passing day.
Me too. Which is why I hate it when we play our reserves in the cup every year and people just accept it! Every single year. We are a nothing team in the league. We've had a right old go in the cups though. In the past at least.
It’s not really though, in the times of the best Tv deal in history having one of the lowest net spends isn’t competing, or even trying to compete. They’ve spend nothing on facilities either in this time.
See my other reply above, Ashley showed no willingness to improve on and off the pitch, perfect way to run a business of the end goal is to make yourself money, but it’s not how to run a football club
