In due course, the manner in which Newcastle United’s fortunes have been figuratively and literally transformed via a takeover from an exorbitantly wealthy foreign entity may make them as unpopular as Manchester City.
Their success will be resented, with accusations leveled that it’s been bought, not earned.
Regrettably, it feels inevitable that sometime soon the first Liverpool or Manchester United fan on Twitter will call a club with an immensely proud history, not to mention a loyal and long-suffering fan-base, ‘plastic’.
Right now though their reputational standing is at a sweet spot, blessed as they are with a considerable financial advantage but with few begrudging them of it.
This naturally will change when they begin seasons with short Premier League odds having signed that summer a marquee striker who is priced at evens in the Premier League top scorer odds before a ball has been kicked.
For now though, there are many supporters of other clubs, plus neutrals – if such a phenomenon even exists – who wish them well, if only for the novelty of seeing them do well.
This benevolence will be played out in real time at the weekend when the Magpies compete in a Carabao Cup final, vying to win their first domestic honour for 67 years.
That in itself is enough cause to want them to beat Manchester United but then we acknowledge too those loyal and long-suffering fans who have each endured a drawn-out succession of disappointments to reach this juncture.
Twice in recent times Newcastle have been relegated and once they had Steve Bruce as their manager but joking aside, this is a fan-base known and admired throughout the game for their passion and numbers.
Dropping down into the Championship barely dented the attendance at St James Park. It certainly didn’t lower the decibels.
It stands to reason therefore that when the time comes and the club’s highly ambitious project comes to fruition in the form of a Newcastle captain lifting aloft a trophy, there will be a lot of people happy to see that. They will mainly be happy for the supporters.
So far, so perfectly reasonable.
Except, as with any truth, it gets stretched by some, perhaps because the truth in itself is banal, and in this instance that means it is not sufficient to say that it will be a nice event for long-suffering supporters to experience success, one that will be well received.
Some have to go further and claim that Newcastle deserve it.
Bluntly, they do not. In fact, no supporter deserves success, nor any club for that matter, not if it’s justified by the amount of heartaches and defeats that have preceded it.
If that were relevant, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are more deserving of glories basked in, with each having never won a major trophy.
Are their fans not loyal also? Have they not put in the miles and seen their team play abysmally at a non-descript ground on a wet and cold Wednesday night?
Or what about if we go beyond the top-flight? To Rochdale or Shrewsbury. To Leyton Orient or Carlisle. In Rochdale’s trophy cabinet are three replicas of the Lancashire Senior Cup and nothing else. A can of Pledge at Spotland probably lasts a year.
It will be a welcomed novelty to see Newcastle scale the heights, and yes the supporters have earned their stripes when the good times come.
But there are a hundred or more clubs in the professional leagues alone who deserve to experience joy. None more than others.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
