B speaking--who to root for?

This is becoming a bit more of a blog oriented to soccer/football than I planned, but...

British students seem a bit reticent, so to loosen them up, I've invited them to submit their claims (by email or in person) about which football club I should support now that I am a Yank in "Old Blighty." Of course, there's no reason why it wouldn't be Newcastle United , given that I live here and that I can come to terms with decades of depression and disappointment thanks to sports (Newcastle United is famous for once having been good, and having rabid supporters out of all proportion to their effectiveness as a club). But I didn't tell the students that, and I've gotten some hilarious responses. Especially this one, which would make me consider Newcastle strongly if I wasn't already:

"Speaking as someone who has sadly been a newcastle season ticket holder for 7 years now, i have caught the tail end of what is likely going to be the most successful period in the clubs history, at least during my lifetime.
However as a Newcastle fan, the argument we usually rely on is that silverware does not dictate which is the best club to support! This is probably due in no small part to the fact that the last 3 cups we won no longer exist (Inter-city fairs cup, anglo-italian cup and Inter-toto cup)

But i can honestly say that even though we are consistently mocked in the media, seen as deluded fans up in the North who expect a messiah to come and conjure up attractive football, there are many advantages to being a Newcastle supporter. You are never short of something to read, we've seen such gems as Freddy Shepard, the clubs chairman at the time calling women from Newcastle "dogs" and referring to the geordie icon Alan Shearer as "Mary Poppins", heard that our current chairman streaked across the pitch after losing a drunken bet, and we even managed
to break the national evening news by bringing out a yellow strip (must have been a slow news day).
Whether its an analysis of where things have gone wrong, reports of a training ground punch-up, players arrested for assault or another manager sacked you can usually pick up any national paper and find a story about Newcastle United inside, even though the story is usually disheartening and if its in the Sun or the Guardian usually complete bollocks
but theres always something going on at Newcastle.

The Fans! If Chelsea have money, Arsenal have attractive football, Manchester United have trophies, we have fans and lots of them. I'll be the first to admit, most of the people i speak to, drink with, hug when we score and debate with when we concede- i wouldnt make eye contact with on the street for fear of being mugged. But at St James' park each of these "characters" share something with me, an intense support for the team, we all want them to score, we all feel the same when Michael Owen plays 13 minutes of football then spends 6 months on the physio's table, we all feel nervous and a little bit sick when we see shola ameobi trying to take a shot with his eyes closed and his tongue sticking out. And we all feel ecstatic when this season we finally started playing teams crapper than us and we were able to score some goals (Tip: instead of thinking of us as in the Championship, just consider us instead the 21st team in the Premiership).

I have travelled to desolate wastegrounds (middlesborough), dilapidated stadia (portsmouth), stadiums that held more in common to a library than a football ground (the emirates) and many more besides and i have yet to meet a group of fans as down trodden yet optimistic, as vocal and as enthusiastic as Newcastle fans. And being a newcastle fan is a useful tool, many aggresive situations in pubs in the west end have been eased through a mutual support of newcastle. In London, Dublin and the Black Forest in Germany. I have been engaged in discussions with the locals that recognise the accent and want to talk about Newcastle United. But with great power comes great responsibility, for a conversation about Newcastle can be a great tool in a pub environment, but there is so much to talk about and the next thing you know it's quarter to 12, the landlord is pushing you out of the door, you have somehow managed to consume 11 pints and you havent even got on to who was Alan Shearer's greatest strike partner yet.

So yes reading this back, the football may be crap, the club mismanaged, the players over payed, and a good proportion of the fans scary. But if I had the opportunity to choose the team i would spend my life supporting, it would always be Newcastle, for all of the reasons above and a million more. And for you maybe the greatest point, is a criticism levied against almost every Newcastle fan at some time - that we spend our days living in the past, a collective identity in newcastle fans where we are more likely to remember every minute of the incredible game in october 1996 when we put 5 past manchester united than a conversation we had 5 minutes ago. And surely for a historian what better team to support than one that continually lives in the past?"