Leon

It. Could. Happen. (Please don't take away my last glimmer of hope)

I'm still holding onto the hope that the takeover will go through and they announce Benitez as their first recruitment. It could happen.

They only have the parachute payments as long as Short receives his payments otherwise they default to him if I recall correctly.

Debenhams will either make him invest as a reliable revenue source to ensure we remain a premiership team or sell us as soon as he can so he can cash out and invest in his high street empire. It has to be better than the limbo he has us in.

Promotion? They're going to win the Checkatrade trophy which will have us seething so much we'll all be throwing ourselves from the Tyne Bridge.

While I'd delight in them having another season in League One I don't think it'll happen, unfortunately. They'll miss out on the automatic promotion and then get lucky in the playoffs which will send RTG into overdrive of how much better it is that way and they wouldn't have wanted to finish in the top two because that would have been predicable.

Have they found a striker yet?

That 40,000 target included a huge push of free tickets to the local schools.

Is he still injured? After their goal he started limping in the box but I was sure if that was to cover his mistake or if he's not yet fit.

You owe me a new keyboard. This one is now covered in a tea / spit cocktail!

Hey, I just provided the keyboard shortcut to your solution; your solution being the right one!

If you're changing an existing formula, click on the cell reference in the formula bar and press F4. This will add the "$" for you.

Maybe but... Forget it's Newcastle for one moment.. Any new super league would need to be generating at least the £150m TV monies which is what the Premiership winner received last season for the lowest positioned team in that new competition otherwise any of the current top six clubs could stay and potentially dominate the Premiership with lower costs in a similar way Celtic has in the Scottish leagues; they become the big fish in a smaller pond. If you could invest to get into that league as one of the 16 with a no relation clause, which is what the proposal is, you could make a push for that membership then sit back with minimal investment from that point forward since it doesn't matter if you come bottom as you can't be kicked out. In theory if he stuck 150m* into the club he would see a bigger return in three seasons than what he has today with much less risk. That isn't investing in a football club, it's solely a business opportunity. Ashley has a history of doing this; investing large sums for a long term windfall (HoF, Debenhams, Evans etc.) - this wouldn't be any different and I really do think he'll have looked at it the moment it was mentioned in the press. (*That isn't what I think we need, just an example number for the purpose of the return on investment.) For this January he'll invest only enough to avoid relegation because he doesn't want to lose money in the Championship. What I think he'll do is bring in a big name just to say "we now have X playing for the club, I've listened and look at how I've brought in for us." This is the same power tactic he's done before when he brought in Shearer and Benítez as we struggled with relegation in the vain hope he'd be seen as a the hero.

I agree which is why I think he'll have looked at it when it was announced. If the expected minimum return for a team in that league is greater than what he expects to receive in the Premiership then I could see him spending enough to get into the league and given they've said those first eleven teams would be automatically excluded from any relegation, he'd see it as profit since he'd have a team which was always there regardless of how little he then invested.

I think he see's it as a cup run with the potential of a poor return (about 4.3 million I believe) if you don't do well on top of the investment to get a Champion League position. He doesn't give a crap about the clubs success and looks at the ROI before anything else taking a steady 100m for 17th with little or no investment rather than gambling x millions for a higher position with the risk of not making it back. Would a £20m striker got us the extra 30 points we would have needed to get to a Champions League spot? If we failed then the TV money wouldn't have covered that investment. He only cares about the money he can take out of the club and he doesn't get that spending it.

Not a makem lol. The past eleven years haven't past me by and the thing I've seen from Ashley is his greed. He doesn't care if we're 10th or 17th because the TV money that comes in is still profit in his eyes and the 15 million difference last season between those positions would have been at the front of his mind when he looked at how much we had to spend this season. The proposed super league will be even money and he's greedy little palms will be already sweaty as he thinks about how he can get some of that pie and whether it will be worth the expense. He will spunk up cash in January because he knows how much we lost last time round in the Championship and because I genuinely think he believes making a grand gesture will appease people. "Look at what I'm doing for the club!"

Ashley will dip in his pocket in January but not because of any protests. (a) As he did when he appointed Benítez, Shearer and Keegan, he loves playing the benefactor with some grand gesture thinking it will win people over. (b) He wants us in the Premier league because of the money. (c) With the recent talk of a European super league, he'll want to be part of that because more money. I fully expect that he's asked how it gets to be a founder and will have started pricing it out.

I thought it would be a feeling of joy rather one of relief.

What has happened to our midfield and defensive? Last season we couldn't score but at least the midfield was tight-ish and the back four were pretty solid. We're now playing like we need fixing everywhere with stupid mistakes all over the field.

While I don't trust your sentiment, Burton is a 6,900 stadium and they only received and allocation of around 1700 tickets. I bet the people of Burton are positively giddy that 3,300 Sunderland fans are going to wandering the streets for two hours.

It's just a waiting game till we get to see the NUFC press statement thanking him for all his hard work and success during his tenure and wishing him all the best for the future. Expect it 13th May 2019.

Basically management speak 101 to blame subordinates for failure because they didn't step-up to the challenge set out without getting anyone to agree to it before hand. If they don't hit the 20k they aren't true supporters and if they do then they are, although it has no impact to what the actual result will be. Idiots will lap this shit up. source - I've used this and seen it used as a motivational tool to make people work harder because it makes the individual feel as if they've let others down if they don't without any risk to me. It's pretty much a dick move.

The argument that he'll be far from his family is a weak one. Without even looking at long term charters, putting on a private helicopter from Liverpool to London is only 10k a week return and less than two hours. The figures he'd move for would make this peanuts if it was a game changer.

And a 'massive lads fan', totally loyal to them, who would love to leave a premiership team and move to a league one side who couldn't be sold and had to be given away in the end.

RTG getting all worked up that West Ham need a manager and Spurs are potentially in the market for a new one so the job offers for Benitez will be plentiful for him to dump us with ease and ignoring that they are currently without any owner, transfer budget or a manager to spend whatever that would be when then window opens in two days. Idiots.