Bruce Vause

The Last Dance 😢 Tonight marked our final school football fixture after 19 years side by side. Next season, we line up against each other 🥊 How many nets have we put up and taken down over the years? Gonna miss my mate… not sure what I’ll do without him ⚽💔

@NUFC Haven’t seen this photo for a while. ⚫️⚪️

United 💪

Caught @stevecradock on his Travellers Tunes Tour at @GalaDurham last night. What a set 🙌🏻 Packed full of @OCSmusic B-sides 😎 Go see him if you get the chance 🎸

Well deserved recognition👏🏻 We’ve been involved with this dance school for over a decade. 🩰 ✨ Our girls love it ❤️ Best Dance Group in Northumberland!

It's been 30 YEARS to the day since that iconic Kevin Keegan rant... one of the most iconic post-match interviews ever? 🤔

Love this news ❤️ As a former youth worker there, I know just how much it means to the community. Exciting times ahead for the next generation @PrudhoeNland 🙌🏻

WOW WHAT A WIN!!! 💙💛 OUR FIRST HOME VICTORY OF 2026!! #ForTheNorth

These were Sebastian Sawe's splits as he ran a 1:59:30 marathon in London 🤯 5km - 14:14 10km - 28:35 15km - 43:10 20km - 57:21 Half - 60:29 25km - 71:41 30km - 1:26:03 35km - 1:39:57 40km - 1:53:39 Finish - 1:59:30 Yomif Kejelcha also ran sub-two, clocking 1:59:41 on his debut marathon ‼️

It happened! Sabastian Sawe of Kenya ran the first sub-2:00 marathon on a record-eligible course at this morning’s London Marathon. Sawe’s winning time of 1:59:30 not only took 65 seconds off Kelvin Kiptum’s previous world record, but assures that his name will be legendary for as long as marathons are run. runnersworldmag.visitlink.me/j_aobZ

Seattle's newest RB.

All 32 picks from Round 1  📈

But what subject would students be removed from for intervention? 🤔

Per Mertesacker stands in front of the parents of every under-eight at Arsenal and tells them the same thing. "Your son has got less than 1% to be the next Saka. We've got to make sure that we develop well-rounded individuals who still can find a bus station and are not waiting for the taxis when we leave them. 99% need to find a different job, period. We cannot just prepare them to fail. No chance, I am not in it for this." That's not pessimism, that's the most honest thing anyone in elite youth football has said out loud in years. 1️⃣ Mertesacker spent nearly eight years as Arsenal's academy manager, overseeing one of the most productive periods in Hale End's history Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Max Dowman and the foundation of all of it wasn't a scouting methodology or a training model. It was a decision to tell the truth to every parent, right from the very beginning. Less than one per cent will make it as a professional. The programme exists for the other 99% as well, and the two things are not in conflict. The bus station isn't a place, it's a metaphor for what independent, capable, grounded young people are able to do when the football eventually stops. Finding their own way, without needing someone to carry them there. 2️⃣ What he's describing is something grassroots football has always understood at some level but rarely said with this kind of clarity. Most of the children we work with will not become professional footballers. That isn't a failure of the coach, or the child, or the programme it is just the shape of the numbers, and it has always been the shape of the numbers. The question worth sitting with is whether the experience we're giving them is one that sets them up well for a life that will mostly happen away from football, or one that only makes sense if the 1% outcome arrives. 3️⃣ The line that lands hardest is this: "We cannot just prepare them to fail." Preparing children to fail is exactly what happens when the entire environment is built around an outcome that almost none of them will reach. When self-worth gets tied to selection. When being released at sixteen feels like the end of something rather than a redirect. When the adults around a young player have quietly, without meaning to, communicated that the football is the point and the person is secondary. Mertesacker spent eight years at one of the biggest clubs in the world arguing the opposite, and the players coming out of Hale End reflect it. 4️⃣ For those of us working at grassroots level, there's something both sobering and freeing about hearing this from someone at the very top of the game. If Arsenal's academy manager is standing in front of under-eight parents and reframing what success looks like, then the rest of us have permission and perhaps a responsibility, to do the same. Not to lower expectations, but to broaden what we're actually developing: • Confidence that doesn't depend on being picked • Resilience that outlasts a bad season • The ability to work in a group, handle setbacks, and keep showing up • An identity that exists outside of football These things serve the 1% and the 99% equally, and they're built in exactly the same sessions, on exactly the same pitches. 5️⃣ Mertesacker has now stepped down from his role at Arsenal, and what he leaves behind isn't just a list of players who made the first team, it's a way of thinking about what a programme is actually for. That conversation doesn't stay at Hale End. It belongs everywhere a child is learning the game, including your Sunday morning pitch. Do the clubs and programmes you're involved with talk honestly with parents about where this road leads and what it's building along the way? We'd love to hear your experience below 👇

Our Girls' Emerging Talent Centre players doing Newcastle proud 🙌⚫⚪ Both U10s and U12s teams put in an incredible performance at the England Futsal National Finals, finishing fourth and second respectively! It's been a huge effort for players and staff to reach the finals, putting in extra training to come away with a fantastic national result. Well done, lasses! 👏🏆 @NUFCWomen

Uncharacteristic for us to concede so late in a game #NUFC ⚫️⚪️

Steve Kerr said he will take a week or two to think about his future and discuss it with Joe Lacob and Mike Dunleavy. He acknowledged there is an “expiration date” on the job and it’s possible new blood is needed. Said he may return or may not. Doesn’t know yet. Full sound

Jerry West- The Logo 🏀 Right up there with the best sports documentaries I’ve seen. Amazing life. @PrimeVideo 📺

Why do clubs keep hiring Frank Lampard? 😂

STEPH CURRY. CLUTCH GENE. 🧬 🔥 35 PTS 🔥 7 3PM

@footballontnt How good was this game?! Way better than anything I’ve seen in the PL this season.

Michael Olise wraps up the tie in STYLE 🤩 Bayern Munich knock Real Madrid out of the Champions League, and progress into the semi-finals 📺 Stream with TNT Sports on HBO Max

@paulwellerHQ I remember buying the Stanley Road album 💿 with my birthday money (1995?). Played Broken Stones on repeat. Still my favourite Weller tune. Be mint to see him in the toon ⚫️⚪️

Win a pair of tickets to see Paul in Newcastle on 10 July 🎟️ To enter, tell us your favourite Paul Weller memory - a gig, a song, or a moment that stuck with you. We’ll select one winner at random... Closes 23:59 on 24 April (BST)