Newcastle have seen attendances drop for the beginning of the season, and it has seen Paul Dummett call for stay-away fans to return and sell out the stadium.
Apart from the boycott from a number of fans, the performances this season have been so poor at times, that it is likely fans would have stopped going just because of the lack of entertainment anyway.
Dummett told the official Newcastle United website: “Hopefully we can get a sold-out stadium because at the moment we haven’t had the sell-outs we would like.
“When we’ve got our fans there supporting us the way they can, it makes it even harder for the opposition.”
But it is up to the player to perform to a level to encourage fans to want to turn up, and if they are expecting fans to go to games knowing they are unlikely to see anything to enthuse them, why should they bother?
His comments also sound like passing the buck for defeats onto the absent fans, if I was a cynical enough person to think that way.
And also, he stated the fans’ backing makes it “even harder for the opposition”, but the suggestion that visiting teams find it hard to face us at all this season, belies what we have witnessed.
Some fans believe Newcastle players are told what to say
Some fans are adamant that players are pushed into interviews backing the owner and manager’s narrative, and that they are stage-managed public relations attempts.
That view was reinforced by some of the responses on Twitter about his comments. Here are a selection:
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