Newcastle United FC is Coming Back to the English Premier League

After trouncing Preston North End FC yesterday to the tune of 4 - 1, my reluctantly beloved English football squad Newcastle United FC have successfully dug their way out of the League Championship (the 2nd division of English football) and secured a place in the English Premier League for the 2017/2018 season. Oh, what a fine day it is.

This means a couple of things:

1.) I can actually watch Newcastle United again on TV. The League Championship is shown only on Sky Sports, and watching that requires some combination of subscriptions to streaming services that I'm just not willing to pony up for at this point.

2.) Saturday mornings will now be more a source of stress than pleasure. It has not been easy being a Newcastle United supporter; the club have struggled badly in the EPL during the two seasons I followed them. In 2015 they came in 17th. Last year they were abysmal, and were relegated. Moments of joy have been extremely rare. I'd like to be optimistic, but the fact is: 2017/2018 is going to be more about avoiding relegation again than anything else. I'll be satisfied if they finish 17th again and stay up. But I won't be happy unless they finish in the middle of the table, which to me means 14th place or higher.

I picked Newcastle United a bit haphazardly, by using Buzzfeed's "which team should I follow" EPL Quiz. The quiz spit out Manchester City and Newcastle United the two times I took it. I couldn't follow Manchester City because they had won the title the year before, and you just don't do that. I felt I had to "earn" my English football fandom by following a team that takes some guts to follow, i.e. an underdog. Well, I certainly got that.