wolfy

He looks and works like a proper striker. He does not look out of place up front whereas too many of our strikers seem lack confidence to take on any snippet of an opening or chance no matter what. This fella seems to show a confidence and overall ability to create and score. I get a better feeling from this player at the club than I have done for many a forward we've had of his stance. I reckon he could work wonders with Gayle. A bit like a Bellamy and Shearer effort on a diluted scale. Am I being a bit too optimistic? Maybe, but I have a hope about Rafa using a strike pair but I also have a hope that Joselu is given the chance to show what he's all about and not just used as a striker who has to go hunting for scraps. My feel good factor on Joselu is extremely high.

Joselu's far from a squad player. He's capable of being a decent striker for us if Rafa plays him and doesn't starve him of service. I have high hopes for this lad.

He's far from any major improvement on anything we've got. He's also a whining prick.

I watched an oldie. Rita, Sue and Bob, too. I thought it were great. I'm tempted to watch 'Kez' again. Oldish film but well acted. Gee oer Judd. Duth tha want tha fist? I'm tending to cast my mind back to the older films and trying to find them as they come to mind.

The cup hardly merits excitement other than to give me the chance to see the rest of the squad get a run out and hopefully progress to enable them to keep up to speed and ready for first team premier action.

Shelvey's red card cost us any spoils from one game in which we more than matched Tottenham. Rafa's negative tactics cost us any spoils from the Huddersfield game. Raf needs to stop whining and get on with honing the players he bought into a balanced unit that does not go into games handing out too much respect to the opposition.

What exactly should we have in the squad seeing as we are newly promoted and basically more or less starting from scratch? We all know the squad isn't ideal and we all know more quality could be added. However, we also know that we must learn to walk again before we start sprinting. I've heard people say that Huddersfield have spent more than us and Brighton. Take a look at their buys and ask yourself how happy you'd be with their acquisitions. Rafa might get the chance to add one or two more players but he has to shift some dead wood and also get the best out of the players he's bought. He's a quality manager and can do it but he's got to stop being too negative.

Wake up and take notice, you clown.

We were beat by a team who are second top and we were away. Lighten up for crying out loud. Ok on a serious note, we were far too negative and got a bloody nose from a team that will get relegated this season and no, i don't mean us. We will get better but Rafa had better stop playing negative football and handing the impetus to the opposition. Having said all of that, I genuinely think that we will get a lot better as the season progresses. I've seen a proper striker on the pitch in Joselu and he could form a great partnership with Gayle if Rafa would allow it. All in all we got what we deserved but things are not as bad as they appear, but will be if Rafa continues being too negative.

One thing looks pretty blatant. the ref is not on our side, shock horror. We haven't played very well at all. Huddersfield are there for the taking in the second half if we can get some consistency going with our passing. We've shown glimpses of some good play and the players seem to be a lot less edgy. We just need to be a bit more careful and not allow them to build up more corner counts/set pieces, because that's where they could undo us if we're not on our mettle. Ritchie has to be careful because I have a feeling that Pawson won't take much to show him a red and make the game a little bit easier for Huddersfield. If we can up it a gear in the second half and not have Pawson hindering us, I think we can go on and win this.

Fingers crossed we get 3 points and a good all round performance. It'll do wonders for the confidence of the team and especially the newbies gelling in.

Try and let him do his own things. Too many people like yourself tend to run on the nod of others. Man up and argue a point or leave others to do so. Some good advice for you.

Do you know exactly what he's gone back on? Tell me about it.

He hasn't sucked the soul out of the club. that's frenzied fans jumping on a hate bandwagon because he made a right pigs ear of things at certain times. He's done enough good for the club on top of the bad. The club is still here with better facilities and a full house, even for the championship games. I'd say the soul is well and truly affixed. There's a hell of a lot worse owners than Ashley. I don't particularly enjoy what's gone on in many a season under him. I din't enjoy some of it under other owners, as well. Nobody seemed to have much to say about him when we were storming championships and the time we finished 5th a nearly hitting a champions league spot. It was like picking petals from a flower with many a fickle fan. We love him, we love him not - we hate him, we hate him not - we like him, we like him not - he's ok, he's not ok. He hasn't give the fans what they want and he's been greedy and naive and told pork pies, plus empty promises to managers. He's done what all owners do but some owners are ripe for the picking and some clubs with the wrong post code are a media dream to crap on. Careful what you wish for because as bad as you think it is now, the grass is rarely greener on the other side. You can ride over any of that if you want but I'll put this to you and answer it as honestly as you can. You have the choice to get rid of Ashley tomorrow. You can choose any owner you want from what's on offer in every league in the world of football. Tell me which one you would have and explain the reasons for picking that owner.

Who said he's thinks he's got it all figured out? He's said the club is back to square one. He's leaving the running of the football side to the people who know and he's taking a back seat. Believe that or not but it hardly spells dangerous. What was dangerous was the clubs plight before he took over. That was the real definition of dangerous. What happened since was called inept and naive with too many false promises added to the mix. So tell me how it's more dangerous as it stands from this point?

More dangerous as in, how?

You need to read and absorb what I said.

All this war stuff is old men and pen pushers sending kids to war over their petty disagreements. The reasons for those wars will be what you are told they are. The real reasons for the massacre of young people is sick and twisted minds creating a hatred of one man/woman against a similar man/woman from a different team/country/city/race...etc. Kill or be killed is the order of the day. When you go on holiday to any country and walk past people who are out for a leisurely walk in their own countries you both do it because you can. The sorry part of that is, both of those leisurely people can be programmed to kill each other by merely changing their garments and issuing a protocol. The world is a great place to live. Those who play the games behind the scenes are the real mind programmers who can make people hate each other, both foreign and domestic and can do it as and when required. We have natural disasters happening that we have little control over but apart from that, nothing else is done by accident. It is done by design and most people follow it for no other reason than mass programming.

The club was truly in that much trouble. Hall and Shepherd had burned it out with borrowing. Buying marquee players for another stint at winning something as well as bumping up merchandise revenue to sustain it. It fell apart for them, but in a way you could argue two points. One for and one against them. The for was simple. They wanted what the fans desired. They tried their utmost to keep delivering that variety of names that excited the fans and also themselves. To us outside trying to look in, it all looked rosy at first but it also appeared like we could just carry on repairing the cracks whilst not realising that they were merely papering over the cracks each time one appeared. Eventually the inevitable happened and they could not sanction any more deals or run the club, because the banks wanted nothing more to do with dishing the cash out. Did any of those people have any cash on their own hips? Personal wealth they could have put in to steady the ship? They probably did but that would have been peanuts and a total killer to them. Their way was to simply sell the club to the highest bidder and hope they could do it whilst disguising the entire debt the club was in. They apparently had some consortium waiting in the wings to buy the club, except this apparent consortium were in the middle of doing due diligence which would take a certain amount of time. Whether this was a genuine consortium or one made up by Hall and co to effect a fast sale to Ashley, remains to be seen. But whatever, Ashley was coaxed into buying the club on a whim in order to beat the so called consortium. Ashley bought a club in dire trouble and would have likely backed out had he had time to do the due diligence, just like the consortium (assuming legitimate) would have backed out, most likely. Does that make Ashley a MUG? Yes and no ,depending on who you could've asked at that time. Hall and co would have sat back and shouted, " anyone want to buy some rocking horse shit." The Newcastle fans would have seen him as the saviour of the club and the potential owner to take us to the real dizzy heights and stay there. I bet Ashley thought that as well. Imagine buying the sweet shop ready to move into for business, only to find that the jars are mouldy and the chocolate bars are past their sell by date and the stock cupboard is bare, only to then find the man in the suit at the door telling you to cough up what's owed or your club goes into admin. Ashley was a mug, no two ways about it. He bought into a club where the ex personnel were writing cheques it's entire structure couldn't cash. ( I took that from top gun with Maverick and Goose being reprimanded, but changed it up a little bit). There's a hell of a lot to thank the man for in one respect but also there's a hell of a lot to have a dig at him for in many other, latter respects. One thing is for certain. He did come in for a fight. He came in and made a fist of it due to the market being easier to navigate. He rid Allardyce and brought in Keegan. He did this most probably due to his extreme naive mind believing that Keegan would re-ignite the passion in the fans and also magically produce a new team of successful entertainers. We all know what happened from this point and most of it has been depressing and dire...but amid all of that we still have a stable club to enable us to fight another fight. The issue right now is whether Ashley stays to allow Rafa to effect this with a reasonably happy medium being struck as time goes on, or a buyer comes in that is willing and able to promise a further build. Whatever happens, we know two things. 1. With Ashley we have a club that runs from within and owes nothing to nobody except to those within. (Where we end up as a team is all down to a hope that his naivety is replaced with football foresight, rather than head scratching wishes for hindsight) 2. If Ashley sells up, we know that the buyer can do due diligence and see a sound structure. (All we have to hope for from this is that a new owner keeps the club as we know it and also operates it with as much transparency for the fans to feel a part of, whilst also ensuring that the club isn't mortgaged on any more footballing chance that could potentially kill it.

Will the future genderfluid be allowed into this group or will they have to form their own group? I wonder.

Any mince and onion left from a dinner or a cottage pie, use it as filling for your toasties. Whilst waiting for them to cook you can neck a milky way because it's a snack you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite.

Benitez could arguably be the best manager in the world and he could rubberstamp that thought by actually doing something at this club that's never been done for a long long time. Win us something and put the club into the dogfight at the top by using his management skills and ability to hone identified players at realistic prices to do the job for him. This is the Newcastle United I would dearly wish for. Let's make our own superstars and play with the hand we make for ourselves. If Rafa is as meticulous as it appears then he has a better than average chance of being an absolute legend at this club and in a way that most money bag managers would fail to do. Fingers crossed he doesn't walk away from the challenge.

A simple question to all of you. If Ashley walks away from the club what type of owner do you want to replace him. It's clear many fans want rid of him. That's fair enough and their choice. So what kind of owner are people hoping for or will accept instead of Ashley. I'll put some up to choose from or come up with your own. 1. A money no object owner like a Sheikh in the Man City type mould. 2. Russian oil Billionaires like Abramovich or similar. 3. Chinese billionaire. 4. A consortium consisting of any or all of the above. 5. Someone like Steve Gibson from Middlesbrough who appears up front and honest with the fans and will spend available money? Add any more this if you have something better. I just want to get a mindset of fans as to how they hope or expect the club to be run from their choice of type of owner. I have mixed feelings about it all. On the one hand I'd love Ashley to be totally upfront with managers and give them what is initially promised... but assuming that this isn't entirely the case as it stands as far as Rafa is concerned then assuming Rafa walks and Ashley decides enough is enough and sells off, then my next best bet in terms of keeping the club as a real club, would be a Steve Gibson type, who would appear to be an owner who the fans would see as being a bit more straight to any manager and basically give what is promised, but without the billionaire stigma attached to him. If the billionaire stigma is removed, then the fans would simply know what the club is working from, which would be from within and have an owner that they can trust...right? Other than that I would have to ask myself how badly do I want my club to win trophies, no matter what the cost. Assuming I'm desperate to win trophies, as in the higher bracket trophies, as in the premier league or champions league and sustain that, then I'd have no option but to say bye bye to Newcastle United as the football club I love and to say hello to the club that is in the 1 2 3 4 bracket, because that's the only way we compete against the blank cheque brigade. That option could be exciting for the fans, especially the new breed of fan...ermmm watching group, because it would at least give them a sense of belonging to the elite band of clubs who can challenge on a whim and not worry about immediate restructuring should they fail to hit expected heights. I often wonder what it would be like to sample this kind of owner. I remember what it felt like when I thought Sir John Hall and co were the blank cheque crew at the time. Keegan in with a (what appeared) blank cheque and a sense of pride at being able to compete and even better the so called massive clubs in bringing top talent to the club. The entertainers. Everyone's favourite club outside of their own club, it appeared. Home grown owners who put us on the map and made us all happy and proud. Up front owners who had a vision of Newcastle United being on top of the world. A group of people who had Newcastle United in their hearts and made this club a family club. Unfortunately they did it on a gamble. A massive gamble that backfired in many ways. Then Shepherd tried to wear his heart on his sleeve and dig the hole a bit deeper in the hope that it would miraculously fill up and all will be well. Their intentions were good and their hearts were in the club as owners and fans. Every panic button was pressed in order to restore the good time for this club, even to the point of trying to get any manager with a name onboard. The owners tried. They tried because they ran the club like fans. They ran the club like we all wanted it to be run. Basically we wanted the best and we didn't give a tuppeny crap how we did it. We didn't argue about what was going on behind the scenes and we didn't spend too long arguing about the owners slagging the fans off paying fortunes for penny made football shirts in the sweat shops or that the implication that Newcastle fans are thick or the lasses being slags, etc. A fickle bunch of fans that doesn't just extend to Newcastle fans. As long as an owner provides what fans want, then all of the badness can be put on the back burner. Ashley was just a passing thought when we were in the championship after spending plenty of money and doing exceptionally well. He didn't merit much of a mention because he was providing what the fans wanted. A way back out of the championship at the first attempt. Now we are back in the premier league and not spending the desired money on players that fans THINK we should be able to entice just because we are Newcastle United with Rafa as manager... then Ashley goes back to being a total bell end and all the rest of the bile. The issue as it stands is, does the club take a massive risk by handing out money for transfers that is hasn't got, in terms of big stakes, or do we do what we are doing right now, even if Rafa isn't entirely happy with the overall set up? Rafa's a top manager and his attention to detail (as has been said) is almost detective like. The squad is very close to being his making whether it's short of high profile signings or not. He either works with the funds he has or he walks away. If he walks away, most fans will not blame him and the obvious blame will go directly onto Ashley and Charnley...and... Although they may be partially guilty of not catering to everything, it still would not give Rafa an easy route out in terms of excuses, because for him to walk out after buying in players HE wanted, regardless of where they were in terms of pecking order, then that would make him a managerial coward. That's not to say he would do this. I would hope not, anyway. He took the club on and he wasn't promised the Earth, because he knew who was at the helm and he also knew he was in the north east of England at a club that has spent a few decades just dawdling along. As fans we have to be careful what we wish for, because we have to remember the obstacles we are up against whoever runs this club. The obstacles Are SOUTH from Newcastle. Those obstacles require us to have an owner(s) with deep pockets and long arms and the ability to never come up empty whenever those pockets are delved into...but once this happens, this is when we lose the football club as a beating heart of the city. Ity becomes an arena of spectacles for casual enjoyment that quickly loses it's soul and takes away the true reason for the love of the club as a family club, which would be nothing more than a crowd filled shell of empty feeling.

Keep begging.