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The student has truly surpassed the master. With Newcastle United's defeat to Swansea City, Working Class John Carver™, he whose Newcastle working-class upbringing was going to help provide him with the tools to be a success as head coach of his local football team, has now lost seven matches in a row. This surpasses Alan Pardew's six consecutive loss mark which had previously stood as the NUFC record for the Premier League era. The Toon Army is rightly frustrated with the club from top to bottom (mostly top and middle, really) as it's getting harder and harder to say "yeah, we're definitely up and we'll give it a good go again next year". Ok, so that second part has been hard to say for years, but yeah... the relegation zone is getting closer and closer as we continue to not pick up points as the season draws to a close.
News of expanded fan protests intended to hit out at corporate partners of Mike Ashley on an economic level has made the twitter rounds and for their part the club are now willing to at least pretend that they are willing to listen to the fans (although there is no guarantee that changes will be made).
For their part, the club hierarchy are doing their best to play the "parent of child who has skinned their knee" role as earnestly as they can (hint: not at very high levels). They don't feel that there is a very real problem, so they are bringing the fans a band-aid in the form of the season-ending Fans Forum being brought forward by a month in order to address the fans' grievances. This pat on the head will surely be full of non-specific and vague statements, avoidances and other non-answers. It will be the latest in the Mike Ashley era's actions to which they'll point down the road and say "Hey, buddies, we tried." We will have heard it all before.
In the letter that was sent from Lee Charnley to Forum members, he has stated:
We accept mistakes have been made and understand you raise these issues because you want the best for your football club.
Please be assured we want the same – we want to give you a football club you can be proud of and a team you feel passionate to support.