Newcastle fans and the needless divide

Though our club may be named United, it is more than fair to say our fanbase certainly isn’t. As much as we all share a love for our football club to levels other fanbases struggle to match, there are many core issues and disagreements that separate us, as anyone who has ever been to a pub on match day or glanced at #NUFC Twitter will be able to tell you. Nowadays, there seem to be two core groups that best emphasise the divide in the fanbase, the so-called ‘Happy Clappers’, and the Cynics.

‘Happy Clappers’ is a term coined by the more cynical in our fanbase, used as an insult to the fans who are so happy with where the club is currently that they're far more accepting of any problems or setbacks we may face. This section of the fanbase is so glad to be done with the torturous reigns of Mike Ashley, Steve Bruce and the like that the smaller issues fail to get them down. They’re certainly the more joyful side of the fanbase, at least on social media.

The Cynical side of our fanbase, who unfortunately don't have such a catchy nickname, would argue that the Happy Clappers are unambitious and willing to accept mediocrity. As much as the cynics are equally grateful the Ashley era is over, they see it as a thing of the past and are sick of hearing about how much worse off we were before the takeover.

From their perspective, the happy-clapper mentality is holding the club back from true success. After years of suffering, this section of supporters is sick of waiting for success and wants us to cut to the chase sooner rather than later.

They are frustrated at the lack of signings, the messier aspects of the club behind the scenes, and in particular many of the tactics displayed by Eddie Howe last season. A smaller subsection of this group still wants Howe axed and replaced with a higher-profile manager, as they do not believe Howe is the man to lead us to trophies. The fans they label Happy Clappers would call these lot ungrateful and entitled, given how they seemingly underappreciate the undeniable leaps of progress the club has made in the last few years.

During the Ashley era there was a similar split, with many fans choosing to boycott, cancel their tickets and refuse to buy any club merchandise due to the hatred for Ashley. Of course, there was nobody in the fanbase who disagreed with the contempt for the man, but the other half of the fanbase continued to attend and invest due to their love for the club outweighing their hatred for Ashley. Both sets of fans displayed clear love for the club in very different ways, as one side was willing to miss out on seeing their club play for what they saw to be the greater good, whilst the other refused to stop attending no matter how bad we were suffering.

Despite the fact we all probably lean one way or the other slightly when it comes to these mentalities and the way we support the club, it is almost certainly the vocal minority who make the fanbase appear so divided. Most fans can display gratitude for our progress whilst also being able to criticise our flaws and mistakes, but we could all probably do a bit better at trying to do both in equal measure.