The Strange Practice Of Gatekeeping Needs To Stop

This week has seen a number of fans going wild on social media because they’ve seen a screenshot of some old posts by DJ Schak suggesting he was an Arsenal supporter as a kid.

There are some who say it is a fake image, but mostly I’ve seen people going absolutely nuts and calling him worse than dirt and I just don’t get it. Well, that’s a lie, I do get it, it’s jealousy – some kid has come along and fired his shot and it has worked out for him, all the while thousands of lifelong Newcastle supporters who turn up to the games every week can’t even get their tweets noticed by Mehrdad Ghodoussi. As if he’s going to personally invite you to come and sit next to him and Amanda at the next game.

It’s not an isolated incident either. Since the takeover I’ve heard fans having a go at people whose interest in football has been revitalised now that there’s something positive happening – that’s human nature, not everybody is cut out for the slog that was following Newcastle during the Mike Ashley years, there was little joy to be gleaned from it.

Also, not everybody has the same level of interest in football. You have die-hard fans and casual observers and everything in between. You as an individual have no right to dictate or criticise how someone else goes about supporting their club.

I’ve had a rant about social media before because I feel it brings out the worst in people, and this is up there for me. Piling on to some poor lad for making something of himself. Pathetic behaviour.

Then there’s the gatekeeping – those who shun the new supporters who are following the money, following the success. Who are they hurting? The more fans we have, the more revenue we can generate. If every one of these “glory supporters” buys a shirt, that’s millions in revenue for the club, that’s more money we can spend on players. So what if they had a drawer full of Manchester United shirts at home. That just means they’ll have a new drawer with Newcastle shirts. We’ve weakened their support and strengthened our own. Whether they’ve been there for the bad times or not, they’re here now, embrace them, this is how we take over!

We did it – three hours of the Vital Podcast from 8pm until the transfer window shut at 11pm. We talked about all sorts of football-related goodness to pass the time as the window was largely uneventful. The highlights were the lads winding me up about the match as my feed was on a delay.