You hang around Englishmen long enough, you realize that they do not consider their homeland a cultural monolith. Accents can change every mile or two, lifestyles, too, and a certain level of “tribal-ness” can be found.

A particularly unique area is what they call the “northeast”, the area around the Tyne River, and particularly Newcastle, but also Sunderland. Those cities are far closer to Glasgow and Edinburgh (Scotland) than they are to London or even Liverpool.

Most of the people in the northeast speak with what is known as a Geordie accent, which is so strong that Americans often have trouble understanding it.

Some of England’s best soccer fans live in the region, and the two biggest clubs in the area are Newcastle United and Sunderland. Each is well-supported by fans, and they are arch-rivals in the Tyne-Wear derby.

Greg Lea, one of The National’s England-based correspondents, did a piece this week about strong fan support in Geordie country and success on the pitch.

Not long ago, he argues, the link was fairly solid. If you played before big crowds, you likely had a good team.

Newcastle and Sunderland, however, seem to have lost that connection. Fans continue to show up. Their soccer teams, however, often do not.

To wit:

Sunderland is at the bottom of the standings in the Premier League, and Newcastle are ahead only on goal difference.

Each has two points from six matches and, at the moment, it looks like the rivals are headed for relegation. Which, in a way, would be handy, because they could continue their rivalry, which dates back to 1898, in the Championship — England’s second division.

Each has some strong history, Sunderland has won the top level league championship six times (albeit not since 1936) and two FA Cups, England’s second-biggest competition.

Newcastle has won the top division four times (albeit not since 1927) and six FA Cups. Lots of English clubs have won none of either.

About attendance. Last season, Newcastle had the 12th-highest average attendance in Europe, about 50,000 per match. Sunderland was 27th in all of Europe, at 43,000.

Lea notes that Sunderland last season outdrew clubs like Chelsea, Roma, Juventus, and both Milans. Newcastle also sold more tickets than Liverpool, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid.

Some of that is about stadium size. Some of that is about committed fans.

All of it is undermined by bad management.

Our correspondent recapped many of the recent (disastrous) player acquisitions by the two clubs (and one of Sunderland’s mistakes was Jozy Altidore).

Newcastle is particularly a mess. Last weekend, they lost to Watford. At home.

Rea suggests the lack of any coherent playing style is a problem, compared to less-well-supported Premier League clubs like Southampton and Swansea City. That leads to the latest coach trying to reinvent the wheel in a few months or weeks, and to parts that don’t mesh on the field.

The northeast of England is a significant tract of territory, with a sizable population, and it seems good for the league to represent areas outside London, Manchester and Liverpool.

But the way things are heading, the northeast will not have a local team to root for a year from now. Not in the Premier League, anyway.