Happy Face

I think the problem was Ashley wouldn't pay the £1 to download the accounts.

I'm probably way off. Thought I'd be kind though. The latest accounts I have are 2004, which state... That would suggests that the stadium expansion did not make up the VAST majority of the £110m debt Ashley inherited though

Geordie Jeans. They're lush and tight....around the arse.

Absolutely. The £70m debt following the rebuild in 2001 was money well spent. But the profits from increased capacity should be used to pay down that debt. 7 years later it had grown to £110m though.

Are my sums correct? The inherited debt was £110m The losses for the year in the championship were £20m The total current debt is £140m. So (if you take relegation out of it) borrowing has increased a total of £10m since Ashley took over.... Even if Shepherd had remained in charge there is no chance on earth he could have kept borrowing so low over 5+ years (or secured the finance to borrow what we would have needed). He would have paid £10m just in interest on year one to maintain the debt he had already accrued. Ashley can be criticised for footballing squad/building decisions though. His after the fact claims (once the club was up for sale) he was willing to invest £20m a year are bollocks. £20m in the summer would have seen a vastly improved performance on the field this year.

tbf there were 6 of you said lower than 10th...and a few of us who said 10th (which we're 2 points off and have spent half the season so far holding). Let's not spunk our load just yet.

Willo is twice the man when he's stood next to Colo rather than Taylor. ...probably prefer his heading ability to Pointy anyway, for this game at least.

Watched the last of series 1 last night. Only took me 4 months to get there. Really enjoyed it in the end though. Not at all the 'Murder She Wrote' style show I feared. Looking forward to starting Series 2....after I've got through the last of Breaking Bad and the new Boardwalk Empire...so about 2 years.

I'm still not sure why people want to put our (and until a couple of games ago the leagues) tip scorer out on the left wing. Fair enough last year when he'd gone off the boil and cisse was on fire, but cisse couldn't hit a barn door at the moment.....in fact he couldn't get in a postion in front of the barn door with the ball at his feet.

Don't see how it can be dismissed. He has to spend half his week with kids like tavenier and amilfitano, preparing them for European games then he gets one day on the training field with his first 11 to cover all aspects of the bigger upcoming game. These are troubles that any side qualifying for Europe has to cater to....but that Ashley singularly failed to in sticking with such a paper thin squad of lightweight backup. The irony is that CT, the biggest fan of Ashley, complains about performances this season while praising the fact that Ashley stuck with the squad in the summer. The budgie man of toontalcatraz has got his criticism totally arse about tit.

LBT can't see the big board.

Makes a huge difference though, the 5 day lead up we previously had to each league game. Bunch of zombies at the moment.

From 17/09 - 07/10 Newcastle played 7 first team games in 21 days. A game every 3 days for 3 weeks solid. 4 of them away from home. From 21/10 - 25/11 Newcastle played 9 first team games in 36 days. A game every 4 days for 7 weeks solid. How many days do they actually get on the training field that aren't recovery days just sitting in ice baths?

Went to uni with a staunch Falkirk fan ...so I hate them cunts as much as any other Scotch team.

Bragging about his budgie to everyone down the pub one week, the next he's wrung it's neck because it couldn't pronounce antidisestablishmentarianism correct.

Thought we played the mackems off the park for those 24 minutes we had a first choice 11.

Last season you were saying.... http://www.toontasti...40#entry1004592 I gave the performances as much stick as anyone last year. I got a lot of peoples backs up going on about our easy start and the multitude of sins it would camouflage. But at the end of the season when we were 5th and in Europe, you had to say it proved effective to use what little talent we had the way Pardew did. This season every other club in the league is onto us, and it's going to take some rework and reinvestment to answer the questions other clubs now ask of us.

I think a lot of the injury situation is chicken and egg by the way. All players want to be in a team that is playing well and pushing on. When things aren't quite going as well average players tend to hide. Niggles that they might have played through before are enough for them to want to come off or sit out a game. Especially with the cunty chops we have as a support like CT and LBT who will have a good moan about any deficiency if we aren't in the top 10. Obviously we have some long termers like Raylor an Cabaye who it can't be levelled at.

Reading Substitute Shane Ferguson was played in down the left and whipped in a perfect ball for Demba Ba to seemingly head the ball goalward with McCarthy only able to spoon the ball into his side-netting. TV replays later showed Ba's last contact came off his right arm but his post-match comments suggested that it was an accidental contact 2-2 Mackems 3 mins With home fans still making their way into the ground, a mackem attack floundered down their left flank on halfway. Danny Simpson intercepted a pass and his first-time ball set Hatem Ben Arfa away down the wing, taking a touch to come inside before feeding Demba Ba deep in the box. Despite being shadowed by a defender and with only a narrow sight of goal, United's top scorer was able to get a shot on target that Mignolet blocked with his legs. The ball bounced free in the area and fell nicely for Yohan Cabaye to sweep home a low right footed effort into the opposite side of the goal from around 12 yards 1-0 Liverpool 43 mins Hatem Ben Arfa skipped past Jose Enrique and found Yohan Cabaye lurking beyond the far post. Newcastle's own fab four took a touch before lashing the ball beyond Brad Jones in the Kop end goal. Swansea 93 mins Well into added time, Hatem Ben Arfa took Cheick Tiote's pass down the left flank and sped towards the byline. His pullback fell into the path of Sylvain Marveaux as a result of Gael Bigirimana's instinctive block and when the Frenchman's first-time effort from six yards clattered back off the crossbar, Demba Ba rose highest to head it in 1-2 The fact you won't give credit to Pardew for turning Ben Arfa's lacklustre, selfish performances of early last season into man of the match performances of great flair AND application says how little sensible contribution you have to make. Was he not involved in the transformation of Perchelino into Perchinho either? He must sit in his office all day on the sex lines.

Are you asking people to come up with good goals.....apart from the good goals our good players made? Or the rgument is lost? Some Jedi Shit.

Was gonna go to the dirty 3 but my mate that fancied it would only pay for one so we went to see the northern simphonia in hall one last night instead. They were doing tv and movie themes. Great stuff. Got the crowd involved for Thunderbirds and ghostbusters.

Its going to be shite until after Christmas, but I think without the worst injury trouble in the league Pardew is capable of mid-table.

Ashley would stick with him even if we were relegated. So would I, not because I think he's particularly able, but because I have zero faith in Ashley to bring in anyone better, or equip them with the tools for the job.

got bubbleupnp. Works a treat.