Opinion: Danny Murphy knows nothing about Newcastle United

What constitutes a big club? Is it top five finishes? Is it competing in European football year after year? Is it the size of the international fanbase? Or is it 50,000+ attendance figures week-in and week-out for home matches, with some of the highest away attendance numbers in the Premier League?

Truth is, I don’t know anymore. But apparently Danny Murphy and Ian Abrahams from BBC do, because according to them, an international support base, and 52,000 weekly supporters doesn’t mean Newcastle United are a big club.

I’ll give them the fact that Newcastle United hasn’t won anything. That’s true. But the idea that you walk down the street and don’t see anyone wearing Newcastle United shirts is insane. Newcastle United has a massive fanbase, and I’d love to use our connections here at Coming Home Newcastle to prove that with Toon Army America.

These comments are absurd. A trophy doesn’t make you a big club. You could have a stadium capacity of 20,000 and win the Premier League, and I still don’t think I’d consider you a big club. You have a smaller support base than most, but you have one hell of a team that won the Premier League. In the 90s, Newcastle United was among the top clubs in the Premier League, seven years ago the club competed in Europe following a top five finish. The club has proven time and again that it can compete.

The support base is what makes a club massive. Manchester United is massive because its success amassed a large support base, as did Liverpool, and now Manchester City. Would Manchester City be considered a huge club 10-12 years ago? Absolutely not, they didn’t have the support that Manchester United had, and since their success they’ve gotten to the point where they can be considered big.

Newcastle United has always had these numbers. Whether it be the Championship or the Premier League, Newcastle United has one of the largest and most dedicated support bases in all of football, and I’ll fight you on that. To say that Newcastle has nothing else is an insult to the community that has built itself around its club.

Listen to this abomination here...