Aye, I was referring to that time. Now, you're right we're more like Crystal Palace than Everton or West Ham. Which sucks. I'm old enough to remember a time when we were legitimately challenging for the title, playing Europe, getting to cup finals, etc. Now... because of an owner who lacks ambition, who doesn't care a jot about the club, it's fans or it's future, now we're a midtable club, at best. I could stomach a disinterested owner if they employed a competent board to look after us, but he's paradoxically uninterested and a micromanager. He pushed for Joelinton at £40m against advice, but wouldn't let Benitez sign Rondon for £16m.Don't agree with the "For us, Everton and West Ham, that's a decline".
If you're referring to just the days when Allardyce was there, that's fair enough.
But today Newcastle are nothing more than an average PL side, as close if not closer to the likes of Palace than they are to Everton/West Ham.
He'd rather spend £30m of his own money to get us back into the top flight, than trust the manager to spend half that on players who would have kept us up.
The hope is that whomever buys us from Ashley will, at the very least, appoint a decent manager and let him get on with things.