Alex Larter

Views my own. Lover of football, ales & food. Solidarity in all times.

[Lone Magpie @Lone__Magpie]

Bring on the backlash

"He just gets it ya knaa!"

And he did. Some of them go through the motions, mention the city, mention the region, mention the fans and the stadium.

Heard it all before mate, just perform on the weekend and then we'll see.

He did that as well.

Arrived in the relegation zone, hardly a word of the language, no exit clause if the worst happened. Left with a trophy tattooed on his leg. And his gleaming, emotional face tattooed on plenty of others.

Happy to fight, happy to play, happy to shed a tear, but most of all, happy. Happy to represent the club that took him to their heart. Happy to leave? Yeah, probably. But that's football.

Players come and players go. When we bring a replacement in we won't give two shites about the club and the fans he leaves behind. That's football. That's the game. Players with a price on their heads.

They have a price. Everything has a price. But what about the value?

It's singing the songs they really asked you not to sing on the stage on the Town Moor, either drunk on something consumed or just the sheer energy of that day and what it meant to all of us, or possibly both.

It's putting others ahead of you at the moment the trophy was there to be lifted, and then pushing the manager towards the crowd for his moment too.

Football fans aren't daft. They can see through people when there's no substance, or simply just empty words or gestures. Fuck knows we've seen it plenty of times before and no doubt will again.

But he did get it, ya knaa. And maybe that's why it hurts.

And so the backlash. The scar tissue of Gascoigne, Beardsley, Waddle, Cole and all the others who wanted to leave for more money or trophies or the lifestyle or whatever the fuck they or anyone else could think to say to make it not hurt.

More recently it's been Carroll, Cabaye, Gordon, Tonali and of course Isak. Seeing the greener grass of pastures new. Or of currency. All leaving in their own way. Playing when it suited them, when the stage was right. Or for some, not playing at all.

Does it make it easier to see him in the colour of another club? Fighting against us? Of course not. Perspective and philosophical thinking has never been, and hopefully never will be, at the forefront of a football fan's thinking. It's tribalism. It's kill or be killed. It's with us or against us.

It's like the last song at the school disco and that lass who said all the right things and laughed at all the daft jokes is off with that smooth-talking posh cunt.

So then. The name calling. The retrospective "glad he's gone actually". And no doubt the ever so popular booing.

But nothing is owed here. No debt to pay back. It's all been left out there on the grass.

So go on bonny lad, go make your move for whatever fucking reason you want to do it for.

There'll always be those memories. Those goals, those chases back, those fouls and those screams to the crowd. There'll always be the 16th March 2025, and that shiny cup with the black and white ribbons on it. He got that. And so did we.

And the backlash? Aye, it'll come. If that helps ease the pain then fine. But I know, and you know, it's not real.

It's just a smokescreen for the sadness of knowing something was amazing and the realisation that it's now gone.

#nufc

[Opta Analyst @OptaAnalyst]

When Eddie Howe took charge of Newcastle, they were 19th in the Premier League.

Since his first game, only four teams have won more points in the Premier League than them (290).

[Alex Larter @Alexanderlarter]

The fact that on points totals over a 5 year period villa and Newcastle are above Chelsea and man utd yet have to sell and are in constant turmoil says everything you need to know. Football is on its backside

[Chris Page @ChrisPage_Boz]

Been pretty shite other than a trophy apparently 🤦🏻‍♂️

This is his premier league record over 5 years mate just to prove you wrong 👍🏻

[Newcastle United @NUFC]

Memories to last a lifetime. 🖤🤍

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface

[Alex Larter @Alexanderlarter]

Social media really did give the village idiots the change to air their views and reach the other village idiots. Creating an echo chamber where they rarely get explained how the world actually works. No mate. Breweries aren't killing pubs. Pub cos and taxes are.

[Monsieur Guillotine Opérateur @DeputyGuillo]

The reason pubs are dead is because they charge 7/8quid a pint.
Breweries killed pubs.

[Alex Larter @Alexanderlarter]

@gw850 Guys they only use Newcastle because it's a guaranteed success/payout on tweets. Engagement farming on transfers that otherwise most people wouldn't bat an eyelid at.

[Alan Shearer @alanshearer]

My Hero. My manager. My friend. Sleep easy Boss 🥲

[Alex Larter @Alexanderlarter]

@gw850 the main thing for me, is they're here before pre-season. which with Howe is key. Wissa and Woltemade will now also start a full normal season too. They'll be better this season than last, as will Ramsey. And no Europe, so now the "time on the training ground" may work.

[Belgian Red Devils @BelRedDevils]

Overturn this. 🧏‍♂️ #USABEL

[Max Wilkins @MaxWiIkins]

😂😂It's so good as well #ThreeLions

[Sanny Rudravajhala @Sanny_Rudra]

Laurent Blanc missed the World Cup final in 1998 because Slavan Bilic pretended to be headbutted by him in the semi-final.

A disgraceful bit of play acting. Such an injustice. FIFA did nothing.

[Alex Larter @Alexanderlarter]

Extraordinary= corrupt as hell. Who'd have thought when they allocated this world cup to the US that in fact, it would be the most corrupt world cup in history and worse than Qatar? Shocking and depressing. Bet other teams are going to use this - red cards don't matter anymore.

[Adam Crafton @AdamCrafton_]

BREAKING @TheAthleticFC

Folarin Balogun will be available to play the USMNT’s round of 16 match against Belgium with his one-game red-card ban suspended. Extraordinary development.

Story with @Dan_Sheldon_

https://t.co/oQ61J9btzT

[Phyllis Dietrichson @OfficielKaybaye]

Do not forget he’s an absolute fucking scumbag with zero soul

[TheBossRoss 🇪🇺 🧶 ❄ 📷 6x💉 @BettinaSRoss1]

So what happens when Reform take over your local council?

This.

#KentCountyCouncil

[Alex Larter @Alexanderlarter]

@Kyle_Odegard If you get the same results, for the same money, but one will sell enough shirts and tickets to make it cost neutral, while the other is just going to mean more rubbish football, which do you choose? Seems a no brainer, even if I'm not a Rogers fan, it's night and day with JB.

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

Iranian defies odds to defeat Trump.

[Kieran Maguire @KieranMaguire]

The FIFA Peace Prize winner speaks…

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

#C4News "The strait of Hormuz is actually open if you're not part of the war"

"The Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, have got ships through"

"The idea that the strait of Hormuz is not open is not true"

"It is closed if you are supporting the illegal war"

"They have hit 30 universities"

"They have hit 600 schools"

"These are war crimes"

"66% of the Iranian diaspora in the USA are against this war"

"Iran a couple of 93 million people now has people suffering from toxins because petrochemical plants have been bombed, it is egregious to suggest that people want to be bombed"

Well said @sanambna

[Thomas Portes @Portes_Thomas]

Le bourgeois Attal porte parole d’une proposition de loi classiste. 

Le 1er mai 1891 en France à Fourmies Marie Blondeau, ouvrière textile, 18 ans, a été abattue, avec 8 autres personnes, pour s’être mobilisée pour la journée de travail de 8h.

Le 1er mai c’est un jour ferié particulier, puisqu'il s'agit du seul jour férié obligatoirement chômé et rémunéré pour tous les salariés. Un jour de repos gagné dans le sang par les travailleurs.

Les macronistes main dans la main avec la droite et l’extrême droite veulent encore et toujours s’attaquer aux droits des travailleurs.

Nous utiliserons tous les moyens possibles pour bloquer ce texte.