Happy Face

He's said he follows the example of Bobby Robson and that shines through. A refreshing contrast to the majority of arseholes plying their trade these days. The worst examples being the likes of Paul Ince, rightfully sacked and moaning about racism.... or Sam Allardyce, rightfully sacked and reveling in the pay-off while imagining Real Madrid would be failing their fans not to give him that job.

I'm not resigned to anything, but it would be naive in the utmost to think details like the July 31st deadline originate anywhere but with the players reprasentatives. It wouldn't benefit the club to reveal that in any way.

It's from the mirror story.

You think that wasn't contributed by his people? Reads like Michael Owen's brochure....with the common sense not to actually put it in a brochure.

Your insurer probably.

Aww, you started a new page so no-one else gets to enjoy his accurate and arousing arguments.

You're right He's tied in to low prices for the majority for the next 10 years, so outside of increasing the amount of cup football there's not much more to be done to increase gate receipts. It would be a public relations boon to admit that there's very little money available in branding an existing stadium and remove the vast majority of the ugliest Sports Direct branding. It would be a big story in itself, the return of St James Park, so I wouldn't be amazed to see him do it simply for that exposure. There's a huge number that still won't spend in the clubshops, on programs or anything else, even outside of matchday tickets. Given our position, it's just the principle keeping them from contributing while Ashley is about, so that problem would be lessened and you'd see a good increase in merchandising imo. I'm not saying I'm expecting it, because I've always voiced concern that the Sports Direct exposure is his primary motivation, and it would be a short term gain in terms of brand exposure to be in the news. But if the club came first, he'd do it in an instant. Other than that, it's just a case of backing the team to succeed, which in itself reaps the rewards you mention of greater sponsorship longer cup runs, European qualification etc. We're on the first step to that, We'll have got back to Shepherd levels when we break £100m. I don't see any reason to pay off the debt as long as he's sitting on it interest free and isn't growing it further. The question of amortisation I think I covered in that it's something every owner has suffered from to some extent and Ashley has contributed to our poor record there himself with buys such as Xisco, Smith, Barton and Colocinni.

Difference between saying he can't do it and saying it's not catering to his strengths though. ...then again, playing Downing doesn't cater to his strengths either.

My response was to Deaders who seems to think he's got us from being in debt to "clean" and "turned us round". It was strictly this financial point (which I think a lot of fans share) that I was opposing. In addition to the 3 points of mine you quote above, I’d examine closer the 2 financial arguments you make to say he has turned us around: *Close to break even from a £33 million loss (not including Carroll money) This goes hand in hand with a 90% increase in TV money. £33m loss without the £26m TV money in '07 would have been a £59m loss. £4m loss last year without £49m TV money in '11 would have been a £53m loss. Not something Ashley has to work for, something any owner would have benefited from similarly. If Shepherd was still here, he'd be able to claim he turned it around off the back of a very similar figures. He did exactly that in 2003, 2004 and 2005 where we broke even (give or take) following £40m losses in the 3 seasons prior. *Reduced the wage bill by £9 million I think I've gone into some detail on this as to why Ashley has been just as culpable as anyone else in our worsening wage bill. You can see he's only been able to reduce wages one year, and that was following relegation. He can rightly claim to have slowed the growth in 08/09...but was it worth the cost if we got relegated? Wages are growing again now though, just as fast as they were before relegation. The nature of wages is that they will increase year on year, so to only be paying out now what we were in 2006 and finishing 2 places higher is impressive, even if it did cost us our premier league place and a good deal of income in the interim. The trick is to keep turnover growing faster than wages though, always striving to pay more for better quality players, while keeping it within the bounds of a growing turnover. You can see that wages as a percentage of turnover was never above the 70% mark until well into his ownership...and this value shoots up as he dragged us down. He's managed to get us back to the level we were prior to his take over. Does that warrant the claim of turning around Shepherd’s mismanagement? This return to the low 60s in terms of percentage of turnover is great news, but how much was down to pro-active revenue generation? Again, the reduction goes hand in hand with a 90% increase in TV money. Look at the wages as a proportion of income WITHOUT the tv money and it tells a story of it’s own. Still in a much worse position than it was, our reliance on top flight survival is as great as ever, and the loss of that TV money would harm the club now more than it would when Shepherd was here, because media income makes up so much more of the revenue we're depending on.

Am I the only one who thinks Dexter is utter gash? I watched almost all of the first series but had to stop. It's like CSI mixed with Saw.

GG has made my point with much more words... http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/

He needs to give a soundbite tbf, he can't go through the specifics at each club. He's right that every club reducing their wage bill by 1% will add £22m profit to the league as a whole, but there's no reason for the likes of us to worry about it because we're much better off than the 70% target. We can extend our bill by 10%+ without breaching guidelines, but like Gemmils post above suggests Man City should cut theirs by 44%. He's basically saying it needs sorted without pickig on anyone in particular, like when you shared a room with your messy brother and your dad would berate you both and tell you to get it tidied, even though your books are lined up and your beds made already.

That's it. The Premier league earned £2.27bn, so 1% of that is £22.7m. He's just saying every percent of income used on wages is one percent that moves from the profit column.

Harper's been here just shy of 20 years, Shola 10. Combine a testimonial for them two with Nobby's little idea and you might get a reasonable crowd.

Thanked him for the spirit built in the squad he inherited iirc.

It would be a lot to pay, luckily the average season ticket in SJP was only £507 according to the latest accounts. That includes boxes, corporate and that. Prices have come way down since FS. I pay the same to sit behind the goal as i used to pay for sitting in the corner furthest from the pitch. That's ALL family enclosure now, so half the price it was 6 years back. Half price season tickets for friends too. Free tickets with shirts as well. Taking that into account our attendances are probably overinflated compared to what they'd be if prices had remained static.

Superhero films are the new westerns. Chris Nolan is the new John Ford. http://www.mastersofcinema.net/2012/05/christopher-nolan-an-icon-the-rise-of-a-craftsman/

On the BBC website he's already calling this appointment a risk. How can he do that in the same breath as the above. Cockerface.

Carroll must have been holding out hope for someone who would set Liverpool up to make the most of his strengths, couldn't be more delighted they've gone with Rodgers who will do the exact opposite.

Is that where the Gypsies drive their horse and traps up the motorway to so they can get pissed and stab each other?

Don't apologise. Beats the hell out of page after page of "7.5/10"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/may/30/prometheus-review

Think the biggest gun was the avengers. Can't see either of these beating it's box office.

This note explains what happens next now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the Arrest Warrant is valid and that Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden. The note explains what will happen to Julian once he is taken to Sweden, the bail system there, possible pre-trial restrictions that he could endure, and whether he is able to review his detention conditions. http://www.fairtrials.net/publications/article/julian-assange-and-detention-before-trial-in-sweden

'Allo Darlin - Europe Some of the wettest music I've had the displeasure to suffer. If you like the worst of Belle and Sebastian you might be able to stomach it. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes - Up from Below Waiting for the rave reviewed new album to pop on Spotify I'm giving their 2009 debut a go for now and it's frigging champion. If you like the upbeat and euphoric stylings of The Polyphonic Spree, have a go, not as big, but every bit as jolly.