Second - we really should be optimistic, not because I believe big Sam can bring us CL football regularly, but because we are in a much better position than we were 12 months ago. Not difficult I know, but it’s still progress.

Big Sam has really impressed me with his philosophy, and there are reasons why we should be thankful he’s here.

He can attract players, get the best out of them, can motivate those not playing well (just imagine - Luque, Carr and Baba could be our star men this season!) and he’s not afraid to bring on the youths and give them a chance. Good stuff.

But there’s one thing the club should look at and it’s the youth set-up. It may be a personnel thing, it may be a lack of talented players, but let’s just copy Arsenal etc.

The tyneside area’s a huge region and we’re the only club in it - we could have a conveyor belt of talent if we wanted. Other clubs like the London ones, Midlands, Manchester and Liverpool all fight it out with other clubs. That’s a huge advantage we have over many of our rivals (in terms of support too) that we should take advantage of.

Also regarding personnel - sorry but I just don’t feel safe with Terry Mac, Pearson and Clarkie at the club. They’re the old regime - get Sam’s men in.

Another reason to be cheerful is the fact our new owner is british. Dont want to sound like Basil Fawlty but you just never know with foreign owners, will they stick around when the going gets tough. Just feel there’s more chance of Ashley doing that than the Pompey guy or the yanks.

As for progress, we need a mix of youth and experience - and yes we do need star players on big wages if we are to break the so-called top 4.

But let’s face it when we do we’re at an advantage over every other club because we’ve the biggest fan base, the most passionate support and the biggest potential. Just imagine if what’d happened to Liverpool under Shankly had happened to us 40 years ago. With our support we’d have been a true european giant, maybe the biggest club in England.

We sometime underestimate our size. Let’s not - we’re massive. And we need to think big to get to where we belong. Not a partizan argument - if you look back at it and try to be reasoned anyone can see that we are streets ahead of Spurs, Villa, Everton and Chelski and could easily match Arsenal and Liverpool.

However, I often have to laugh at those that moan about previous sackings. Are people seriously suggesting if we were a bit more patient with Gullit, Souness and Roeder, we’d be any closer to success? It’s the very fact that we were NOT patient with them that has kept us in the league. The problem in the past hasn’t been sacking managers too early, but hiring managers with no track record of success, as well as hiring simpletons.

Give Big Sam time, but the previous sackings were needed, not sure why the point is always brought up as if they weren’t.

Simply because we sack and sack and sack managers before even giving them a chance to prove, and then what? We get another one, and another one etc etc. we sack, sack and sack… and complain…

One guy wrote that it took Ferguson, what? 5-6 years to turn manure into a champion side. And then n’castle fans just sit there,whining their a**es of, “our manager is so crap, look at the top four” blah blah blah.

Now for once, take-off and f-ing fly for all I care, truely… be happy and optimistic…. but also be patient, very patient… All good things come to those who wait.

It has happen some time - please sooner rather than later - we have all waited long enough!

I’m not interested in Barcelona. I’m interested in Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool the only premiership clubs who can equal or better our potential both on and off the pitch. Our wage bill is £52million to their £80million and upwards. We’re not in Europe and we don’t have the dizzy lights of London to attract the top players so we have to pay a bit more. Are you seriously suggesting we should drop further behind these 4?

Since we’re both toon supporters I don’t want to argue with you mate but I think considering we have a new owner with £1 billion cash in his bank account then Chris Mort and Big Sam are doing a fantastic job of keeping the lid on the spending (a couple of million so far) and just getting us back to where we were post Robson. The young kids can come later for me.

Maybe you are having “Failure Paranoid Syndrome” or you are not “Genuine” Toon Army?

There’s no way “Toon Army” would have such that pessimism because we are not that glory hunters like supporters, yet we need success and we deserve that, but to start a new season with pessimism is like we have been relegated before the season is even start to kick-off!

I think you must support whatever happened to the club, the managerial changes, and or even now the boards that have been totally refresh. I think, this is Optimism that you should write about, because the old boards of directors that probably equal to the word of pessimism now have been axed.

Arsenal investing heavily in their youth system? Give me a break! I see they have tried to lure our “release clause scandal” Obafemi Martins, and Wenger also busy looking for more French players to their squad. Have landed £7.5M Auxerre defender Bakari Sagna £8m, now they may try to get Fra Croatian striker Eduardo Da Silva, £2m Polish goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and £2m Norwegian defender Harvard Nordveit. Youth system you said? If you said like that because they are not spending much last season it’s because they’ve very limited budget after the move to the Emirates Stadium.

Spurs and Everton has supplied their first team with the products from their youth system? We also DID that in the name of Steven Taylor. Have you ever heard or read about him ben?