Dear tf,

So without a shot being fired in anger, apart from Albert's elegant strike against Lillestrom, the hierarchy at NUFC have already signed the surrender document and conceded defeat in the 2006 / 2007 campaign!

That is, if in my opinion Freddie's unofficial propaganda mouthpiece, Alan 'if I didn't start the rumour it's not true' Oliver is to be believed.

According to Freddie's Monkey we can abandon all hope of signing...Dirk Kuyt, Jermaine Defoe, Dean Ashton, Sean Wright Phillips, Uncle Tom Cobley and all!

Oliver blithely informs us that the Toon have very little money to spend, but the little we have will be spent wisely, which if true makes me incandescent with fury and contempt for our board and management team!

I don't care how much we spent on Owen, Luque and Boumsong, the fact remains we are still the second best supported club in the Premiership with ticket prices significantly higher than the majority of our rivals including Liverpool. This being the case we should be in a position to make a substantial investment in new players each and every season.

Furthermore the condescending attitude of Oliver makes me want to wipe them all out in a hail of automatic ordnance.

Statements like 'the fans are desperate for the club to sign a striker' whilst totally ignoring / glossing over our other blatant deficiencies are an insult to our intelligence.

We the people, the fans, the Black & White heartbeat of Newcastle United know full well that the signing of a striker is not the panacea which will immediately turn us into the Top Five team we should be.

We watch the Toon week in week out & though there may be healthy debate on the exact personnel I would say that 99% of us would agree that to stand any chance of success this season we need, two new fullbacks, a central midfield player to cover for the excellent Parker and Emre, a wide right player with pace to keep Nobby on his toes and not one but two Top Quality strikers who must compliment each other with power, pace, aggression, intelligence and marksmanship. In an ideal world you'd have to throw in an experienced top class centre half.

So that's a minimum of five new players we need to get through the door before we meet Wigan!

Roeder has admitted as much himself.

I fear however that this decent man is only to be used as a stalking horse and that he will be starved of funds whilst the cash is spirited away into a secret Swiss bank account in anticipation of the return of King Alan to the Geordie Camelot.

By then however we may well be playing in the Championship and I'm not sure that His Royal Majesty Alan Shearer possesses anything like the messianic qualities of the true chosen one, him that was called Kevin Keegan.

I thought we'd never return to the wilderness years we suffered before the second coming of Keegan but as I survey the prospects of the Geordie Nation today I fear we are destined for a banishment from Eden. Paradise (Premiership) Lost ! Never to be regained?

Nigel Pearson, The Jarra Agnostic


Dear tf,

It's time for a reality check. From the outside (and possibly the inside!!!) we are, at present, a just-above-mid-table Premier League team, with no money 'cos our dickhead chairman either wastes it on mercenaries or allegedly keeps it for himself, a relatively unknown manager (which, I know, doesn't necessarily make him a bad one), infamous for players constantly getting injured, and struggling to qualify for the UEFA Cup, let alone any dreams of the Champions League. Yes, we want quality signings, but why, apart from money (the reason we keep saying we DON'T want players coming here for), would a Van Nistelrooy, Ibrahimovic, Klose, Del Piero (names mentioned on the letters pages of this very site recently) etc come to SJP? We know we have the fans and the stadium, but does this really matter to these millionaire superstars? I would much rather we went for the likes of Darren Bent and Shaun Wright-Phillips, players with a real point to prove, a hunger to reach the very top and who would run through brick walls to get three points for the team, the club, and most importantly, the fans. The daft thing is, at NUFC, we never know what's going to happen!

Thing is, if we did go for youthful, raw players and it didn't pay off immediately, there would still be fuckin, knuckle dragging arse-wipes - and yes, I'm talking to the pricks who booed the team off at HT on Saturday - who would crucify the players and manager and destroy their confidence for good.

Still, I loved being back at SJP on Saturday and can't wait for the next game.

Keep the (true) Faith

Mick, Winlaton Mags

P.S. lads, you're doing a cracking job of the website and tf 51 is bloody excellent! Top stuff.


Dear tf,

As that wailing bint Cher sang "if I could turn back time". I wish that I could too. Not to place bets on known racing results or even to maybe think twice before engaging in a romantic tryst with some of the North East’s less pretty women-folk but just a few months ago to the moment I dropped the season ticket renewal form in the post.

Even last year with the Scottish clown in charge I had a tiny glimmer of optimism, mainly that he would be sacked at some point. it normally takes me till the end of September before uttering the well rehearsed line of "there's always next year". this year those words have
been spoken before a premiership ball has been kicked, basically I'm fed up of the whole thing, pricey season tickets, over-rated players, gobshites running the club, gobshites in the media, shit kick-off times, Tony Blair, global warming. I've always had a basic mind set of pessimism when it comes to most things NUFC related but I've reached an all time low. The love is there but the passion is fading and i know plenty of others who feel the same way.

Vinny


Dear tf,

Again I read with interest the article “Long hot summer” and found myself agreeing with a lot of what was said. It seems that as a Newcastle fan we often find ourselves reading the daily redtops to see who or what has been rumoured on Tyneside as a potential transfer target. My first question is where the hell do these rumours start? And on what grounds. For example we have been linked with the following players this summer but none of them have even raised a bid from the chairman. If I had money burning a hole in my pocket the very least I would do would be to making sound approaches (Bids) for some of the player mentioned below.

Van Lady Horse – Madrid bound (fancies a bit of sun with old pal Golden Balls)

Bent – staying put.. (no interest in winning anything).

Defoe – No interest in moving out of London. (Diamond Geeza)

Kuyt – Liverpool bound… (good news)

Ashton – No interest in leaving east London (jellied eels must be good)

Torres – Pipe dream (Newcastle who)

Hasselbaink – Roeder not interested (old)

Viduka – Roeder not interested (Old and Australian)

Saviola – No interest in coming to gods country (fool)

And that’s just the strikers/forwards. But again like every Mackem bottom feeder we find ourselves without a glimmer of hope for the coming season.

Reasons WHY!!

• Some people have already mentioned the lack of transfer funds – If this was the case why aren’t we setting our sights a touch lower and bringing in either loan players or at the very least short term fixes which will plug some quite sizable holes in our squad.

• Waiting for Shearer to return from the World Cup with a shopping list – I have a tremendous amount of respect for shearer but what credentials as a scout does he have?

• Roeder not wanting Fat Cat over paid players – That has to be code for we cant afford the more expensive proven players.
  FFS not wanting to make anymore mistakes in the transfer market – how many clichés do you want, why change the habit of a life time, a leopard never changes its spots, only fools rush in and the obvious one “you thick twat”.

• We need to offload before we sign anyone else – Who in there right minds other that Freddy of course would buy the likes of Butt, JAB, Luque & Faye when they were either not at the club last season or if they were they had an absolute stinker. So no transfers then.

• Highly paid scouts – why do we never hear of one of our highly paid scouts unearthing a *Gem* from overseas or the lower leagues?

• Why is it reported FFS is leading the transfer dealings this season – That guy couldn’t find his knob even if his favourite Bangkok lady-boy had drawn him a map.

The excuses are wearing awfully thin Freddy….

All I am asking for is a little bit of truth and honesty from the Toon board of directors… at least then we can set our expectations for the coming season!

Ewan (Manc Geordie) S


Dear tf,

In light of Alan Oliver's revelation that we will be standing aside and allowing Liverpool to pursue Kuyt, I would also like to announce that I will stand aside and allow Justin Timberlake to continue his relationship with Cameron Diaz.

Glenn Ashcroft, South Shields


Dear tf,

I love true faith, both the fanzine and the website, but please don't start inflicting women's football on us. It's got as much to do with NUFC as the Falcons or Durham CCC or the Newcastle United curling team. I don't know anyone who has got any interest in women's football, so please don't inflict it on us in a half-arsed attempt to be politically correct. If people are interested then they'll log on to the NUWFC website. Please don't foist on us. Thanks.

Regards, Mark Turner

Ed: we’re just giving the lasses who play for an NUFC team a wee bit promotion on our site. I’m not sure what “politically correct” means but I do understand what the opposite of that oft-used expression might mean and isn’t very pleasant. We’ve given similar coverage to non-league football in the past. Sorry you feel that way, mate! We can’t keep all of the people happy all of the time!


Dear tf,

Why are we being linked with Damien Duff who is surely made of thinner glass than Owen? We have more than enough talent on the left hand side of midfield with the likes of N’Zogbia, Pattison, Emre, Luque…. Why would we go for a left sided midfielder when our main concerns are Left-Back, Right-Side of midfield and Strikers? Especially when you could get SWP for the same price as Duff… Younger, fitter, probably ‘hungrier’…

If we haven’t got much money, why are we wasting what we do have on a player so injury prone? Something just isn’t right unless they’re intending to flog Charlie to Arsenal, which would be very short sighted. Why weren’t we in the market for some of the player’s who have already moved this summer? Johnson £8m? Gudjohnson £8m? Has Wayne Bridge moved yet (£4-5m?)? Why are we paying £10m for an injury prone player with not much to prove when we won’t pay £5m for one who plays in a similar position with more breaks into the box and goals from Fulham? Why hasn’t FFS given Roeder a budget to go spend and leave him to it? I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t piss it up the wall quite as spectacularly as Souness.

Are we really going to delay and delay to the point where we HAVE to panic buy again? Or are we just going to buy all in sight? Duff and SWP along with the entire Juventus team! Klose and Kuyt. And Defoe. We can probably get Shaun Newton on the cheap too…

Rachel Mackenzie


Dear tf,

Can anyone explain to me why the same people in front of me in the Gallowgate for the Lillestrom game decided to boo the team off at HT then applaud them on for the second half? What happened during the interval?

Pete Thompson, Stanley.


Dear tf,

If we sign Damien, is it an Omen thinks are going to get better at NUFC? I’m really sorry about that.

John, Seaton Delaval


Dear tf,

So we might be signing Damien Duff it would seem, good news some might say not so say I.

Duff is a cracking player i think most Toon fans remember the number he did on us whilst playing for Blackburn in a 5-1 massacre whilst Souness was there manager and was probably one of the performances that made Chelski pay £17m for him.

It would seem a fee of 10m is being mentioned which is probably a fair price for a player of duffs' ability and he does have the required Premiership experience that Roeder is after, but my question is this... is Duff really a better forward for £10m than some foreign guy who has just banged in 20+ goals last season?

We are desperate for forwards we already have Solano, Milner, the Zog, Pattinson, Emre, Dyer that can play on the wings do we really need another winger who is only going to play one season upfront? I would say no and I think most other Toon fans would agree.

It would seem Roeder would prefer Bent, Defoe or Ashton but that the imbecile that is our chairman has failed to find the extra £5m it would cost to buy such a player and would rather sit there twiddling his thumbs while they all either sign a new deal, play there way back into contention or simply just turn us down because we made no real effort to get them.

I find it hard to believe that duff represents better value for money at £10m then Bent, Defoe or Ashton does at £15m. Dismissing foreign players for simply being foreign is a big mistake yes the club have made mistakes in that respect before but anyone that knows anything about football in Europe could of told Souness that Luque is talented but lazy or that Emre is injury prone.

For £10m we could get Farfan the Peruvian from pre-season opponents PSV, who looks every bit as good as Defoe (any fans of pre match betting should put a quid or two on this kid to score against us if he does play against us pre season) . Or perhaps we should look at relatively unknown David Suazo of Cagliari who is interesting clubs around Europe mainly Milan and Sevilla but at 10m is 2/3 cheaper than what Chelski paid for Shevchenko, oh and Suazo did score more goals than the mighty sheva last season is probably quicker than Defoe or Bent and is as two footed a player I have ever seen, but he's from Honduras so he must be crap right?

To Quote a certain article I read recently that I thought summed things up nicely..."We need two strikers"

Ian Nicholson


Dear tf,

It’s the 18th of July 2006 and the entire Geordie nation is on tenterhooks. All of us want to know which players Newcastle intends to buy this summer and all of us especially want to know the identity of Newcastle’s new No.9. To make our agony even worse it seems like every time we are linked to someone, Newcastle issue an emphatic denial, either directly or through the Chronicle, of our having any interest in the player. The result of this is that us fans are left wondering just who the hell we are going to sign! Today’s Chron has written off any interest in three more strikers: Dirk Kuyt, Jermain Defoe and Dean Ashton. Now, I’m not particularly bothered about missing out on any of these players but it does make it very easy to start questioning Roeder’s vision for Newcastle United.

When Freddy appointed Roeder as manager a lot of fans feared that he wouldn’t be able to attract the ‘Big name’ players we needed. Recently, Roeder has said that he’s not interested in signing ‘fat cat millionaires’ who’d only come to the club to improve their bank balances. I’m sure we all agree with this, especially after the vast numbers of very well paid wastes of space we’ve endured over recent seasons! But, people will still say that we should be joining the Premiership’s big teams, and Spurs, in the mad scramble for top players going on after the Italian match fixing scandal. How can Roeder expect Newcastle to be a Premiership force when we’re not interested in signing big name players like Trezugeut, Ibrahimovic and Luca Toni?! I think the belief that buying big will automatically bring success is at the heart of Newcastle United’s underachievement. I also think that the penny has dropped about this amongst fans and in the corridors of power at St James’ Park. I believe Newcastle United will never be successful until we stop trying to build the club from the top downwards. I believe that was why Roeder was appointed manager and why he’s not interested in signing fat cat millionaires.

Ask yourself, are Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal successful because they’re so big or are they big because they’re so successful? Which came first? It seems obvious to me that these clubs are where they are because they’ve been successful over decades in the league, in the cups and in Europe. They’ve won plenty of competitions over the years and they’ve used their success to help them win even more. In my opinion these truly big clubs are showing the way ahead for Newcastle United. Since Sir John took over, we’ve been swanking around claiming to be a big club for so long that we’ve forgotten what a big club really is! The supporters as well as the board have got so carried away with our position as one of Europe’s richest clubs that we’ve forgotten about winning things! We’ve appointed a string of big name managers, spent hundreds of millions on transfer fees and given Newcastle all the trappings of a successful club. All the trappings that is except for the most important one - silverware! This is what I mean when I say we’ve been trying to build the club from the top downwards. We’ve bought all the glamour but ignored all of the groundwork needed.

It’s my view that Glenn Roeder was appointed because he wants to build this club from the bottom upwards. You can see it in the way he’s gone about assembling his back room staff and the new Academy Director, Joe Joyce. I think Roeder is dead right; we need to sign players with hunger and a real passion for NUFC. The happiest and most successful time in the club’s history was when we had exactly that in players such as Albert, Lee, Ferdinand and Beardsley. I believe Roeder’s objective is to find players just like these; players we can be proud of and who’ll take us forward. It’s these type of player that are Newcastle’s long term future not ones who either don’t care enough about the club or who simply aren’t good enough to wear the black and white stripes. Roeder doesn’t want anymore of these types of signings and neither do I! There’s nothing wrong with spending money but spending for spending sake has been United's undoing for far too long.

John R Williams


Dear tf,

‘kin hell lads, we’ve signed a quality player! There is a master plan!!!...NUFC to win the league next season!!(err....probably)...I’m NOT fickle.

Graham Hall (still Exiled)


Dear tf,

When I buy or click onto true faith I do so because I'm a Newcastle supporter and want info on my team. So what was that pile of shite called something of interest about? I hope it made sense to you 'cos it was utter rubbish to me. The first time I've been disappointed in anything you've printed. What was it all about? Runcorn do they have a team? What is wool? Where is Hough Green. Come on man get a life or was it printed in the wrong mag?

Paul

Ed: sorry you feel that way. Throughout it’s lifespan, true faith has taken an interest in music, politics, fashion and namely the terrace casual scene and we’ve published a bit of stuff relating to that sub-culture over the years as well as regular readers will confirm. We like a bit of nostalgia as well. We’ve had some favourable feedback as well, though I have to say its not true faith policy to publish stuff just to make ourselves popular and get pats on the back. true faith specialises in an “ALTERNATIVE VIEW” – just like it says on the tin. The author of the piece in question, Phil Thornton wrote CASUALS which is a seminal book on the subject of something which interests a number of true faith readers. Few would contradict the line that the casual fashion sub-culture had its roots in the North West, namely Merseyside. Runcorn does have a non-league side but it’s a township as an overspill for Merseyside and Manchester. A “wool” is someone from out of town i.e. woolly back. true faith has never claimed to have been a news service – that’s just not what we do. If the piece we published on the true faith site from Phil Thornton wasn’t of any interest to you, then sorry but it was of interest to some of our readers. We can’t please all of the people all of the time it seems.