England’s two biggest North East clubs – Newcastle United and Sunderland – haven’t won a First Division league title between them since 1936, and over the last 20 years haven’t even been close to competing for it, rather they’ve been yo-yoing between the First and Third divisions, winning a cup competition on vanishingly rare occasions.
The North East was historically considered by many to be the “hotbed of football”, a tag that persists in some quarters, in spite of a paucity of success on the pitch.
George House is joined by two of English football’s most highly-regarded managers, Brian Clough and Lawrie McMenemy – who both hail from the region – and North East football writers John Gibson (Newcastle Evening Chronicle) and Doug Weatherall (Daily Mail), to debate the eternal question; what’s wrong with football in the North East?
This clip is from The Northern Myth, originally broadcast on BBC One (North East), Friday 3 October, 1975.
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36 Comments
The 2 journos are totally pompous from the off. Cloughy completely roasts them towards the end.
Gentlemen i think what newcastle need if i do say so myself is unlimited money to buy anyone and an entire country backing them and then i reckon they might do alright. Otherwise they’ll end up in the championship not winning the championship in the next century
Bloody vikings🙄
The north east is a hotbed of football failure. FACT
Geordies are still banging on about passion, best fans blah blah blah 50 years on
BORO less passion thats a joke ever been to Ayresome park crazy wild place that Holgate was mad, Boro were getting 25 to 33 thousand at this pont 75 ish pluss from a club that didn't have Newcastle n Sunderland history, Newcastle 4 league titles 6 fa cups Sunderland 6 league title's 2 fa cups, Boro Zilch Tynn wear Gateshead love in
CLOUGH as great as he is never had a good word to say about Middlesbrough born bread coz he left to go to Sunderland stupid decision more second division football bizare
Cor the mutton chops, the hair on the far left. The ties. These lads must have been high as kites or just plain mad
The comments here are spot on. This conversation highlights the lost art of Listen to Speak- yes there is some butting in but it’s very mild and doesn’t spoil the flow. Two managerial legends I’m from Nottingham and met Cloughie many times. He was a joy to say hello to. 😊 oh and classic Clough line ‘how can you argue with me if you don’t know what I’m going to say’ haha 😅
Back when footballers were real men.
Cloughie dismantled the insular and myopic Weatherall and Gibson in the last 2 minutes of this clip.
Hotbed of football, Birmingham City took over 40,000 people to an Auto Windscreen final in 1995, you ain’t got a monopoly in the north east.
From the historical archives. Great video.
Amazing. You never here accents on tv any more.
Love the way Clough brought up Birmingham and it's a great point – Blues were getting massive gates in the 70's and Villa were incredibly well supported even though they spent two seasons in the third division: they got over 48,000 in for a game against Bournemouth in that league in 1972.
Cloughie was a great listener as well as a speaker.Lawrie class as I remember him.
The plight of north east football, the passion not matched by the success on the pitch. It’s a tale as old as time
Hey bbc have you all fainted seeing white working class northerners 😂 #defundthebbc
Nothing has changed much since 1975! Still no league wins for Newcastle, Sunderland or Boro. 😢 Could be having exactly the same same conversation today.
Newcastle and Sunderland do have passionate fanbases, but they're also large catchment areas with few rival clubs. That's a big reason why they have large attendances.
Watch some of the classic YouTube clips on the political debates. You'd have two politicians from the Tories and Labour, hugely opposed to each others manifestos and yet they would calmly sit there and make their points in an adult, well researched manner and the other would wait and then when it was his turn, do the same. Proper, reasoned adult debate. I mean FFS Socrates came up with this method 2,500 years ago! Terrible to see 'debate' of any kind today. People just shouting over each other in meaningless, social media friendly catch phrases.
Gibbo, legend
The fact that Clough was never offered a job in the north east explains why there is a trophy drought up there. Terrible recruitment.
Wont have this conversation in 5 years time as Newcastle will have won everything.
Cloughie great as always, but Lawrie Mac is tremendous here as well. Great stuff KRO
Could you imagine them trying to make a show like this these days? All you would get is Alex Scott constantly interrupting talking crap and Micah Richards being obnoxiously loud and laughing every 2 minutes.
Everton are a very overlooked team in this discussion.
Looking at his shirt, Lawrie must have taken a bung from Screwfix. Maybe his knickers are hammer action! 😊😊😊
Great collars, great hair, great ties, great chats
What about Glasgow. Big crowds and passion there no?
Fantastic debate, speaking as a Celtic fan but with an interest in English football too, the question on the north east being the hotbed of football is very valid as the fact that not much silverware has found its way there in decades but it still generates massive loyal supporters so on that score I would say that my city of Glasgow is the Hotbed of European football, breaking European and World match attendances and holds record attendances.
Oh, snap! They called it “soccer.”
Interesting that they were using the words Soccer n Football interchangeably.
Love the fact that Clough, the master-debater, managed to, in a few simple statements, managed to, in such an eclectic way revealed the Journo’s failings
Great Video!
2023 Still haven't won a league title hahaha
Love the fact clough nicked his left earlobe while shaving.