Kitman

I'm not sure we're on a "sound financial footing" just yet are we? I thought we were in hock to the tune of 150 mill, which includes a sizeable interest free loan from Fat Mike? Also are our operating revenues covering our costs these days or are we relying on player sales and shareholder debt to fund the difference? I haven't seen the financial stats in some time I admit.

Pissed off. Radiohead are playing Auckland - one night only - in November, tickets sold out in 19 minutes whilst I was sitting in a crappy course. Grrrrrrrr.

Shame. RIP.

I work on 23rd floor of an office tower on the Auckland waterfront. My view is Auckland harbour bridge, Waitemata harbour, the harbourfront and marinas and some of the city. Also canny. Well done to everyone with new jobs. I'm also starting a new job in April after 5 years with my current employer. Looking forward to it.

Good stuff CT. I suspect keeping off sweet beer is the key, although where's the fun in that?

To be in the lower bottom half of the table. It just goes to show that a good manager is the most important part of being a well run club. McLeish is dog shit, I don't recall how O'Neill did exactly but I think he was average at best.

Allegedly indulging in homophobic comments (gay bashing, Deaders) on Twitter with two other prof footballers. Thereby bringing the game into disrepute per the FA. Seriously, how stupid is this guy? He's not even on the fringes of the first team and he's regularly involved in criminal and anti-social behaviour. Not worth it imo, get rid asap.

Happy birthday lads

I bet Germany still give it top marks

Baffling decision to give the assistant manager the job. They'd have been better off keeping McCarthy to the end of the season imo. Hopefully this'll be a kick in the guts for the wolves players.

Nice one, I enjoyed it. If anything I thought it was a bit short.....I'd have been interested in seeing what govt thinks about safe standing too. Inertia will win unless enough voters demand the right to stand as it's safest to do nothing

Sorry, even if you were correct, it would never be that simple. People don't spend millions on things purely to spite others. The things Ashley has done/authorised are more down to bad advice, and not keeping his two highest profile businesses - NUFC and Sports DIrect - at arm's length. Hyperbole or not I don't know, but I don't think there's any malicious intent. At worst, he just doesn't care about us all that much. Shepherd is a fan, so yes I agree that he did things for us (or rather, didn't do things to anger us like renaming SJP). That he also did plenty for himself has been covered by others. GTFO if you think Ashley taking bad advice it to why he totally disregards the fans, seriously? The difference is everything Ashley does is totally pre-meditated to fuck off the fans, look at the past few things he's done, all of them have been done when theres a break between home games so it all dies down by the time the next home game comes around. No matter what he does it's to totally go against what the fans believe and want. Yes, Shepherd and Hall did things for themselves too but they didnt throw it in the face of all the fans because the knew we were the heartbeat of the club. CT's stance sums it up perfectly for me, back in the days of Shepherd and the Halls the fans would be up in arms if they done what Ashley's been doing but now theres a feeling between a large section of fans where the things Ashley has done has took the passion out of the fanbase because they think theres nothing we can do, he's drove the passion out of some of the fans and its spreading like wildfire. I can see why you'd think like that and sitting in NZ, I'm not on the receiving end like other poeple. However I think it's more likely that Ashley looks on these things purely as a business proposition rather than delberately aiming to fuck off the fans. I think he's trying to leverage as much value out of his asset as possible and calculates that the fall out from fans, who are essentially a captive audience for now, will be temporary. He obviously doesn't get the link between tradition and loyalty, or gets it and doesn't care.

Haha I'll see if that works. Calling Maradona a bastardo doesn't seem to have went down well like. The Argentine name for the Falklands is Las Malvinas if you're over there making friends......

Quality post btw my feelings summed up exactly The biggest change I feel theres been between the ownership of Shepherd and the ownership of Ashley is the former ran it for the fans and what meant most to us and Ashley is running it to spite us. I think the Shepherd/Halls ran the club for what meant most to them actually. The big difference between them and Ashley imo is the latter doesn't give a toss for our tradition and history, whereas the Shepherds/Halls were careful to acknowledge it in public. Not that it stopped them putting corporates ahead of season ticket holders.

No, 4 x plums and 1 banana during the morning "graze" style. Going to make some sort of sticky pork for lunch. More grazing on stuff this afternoon and then tea after weigh in. (which is fair enough) Eating a "banana" with "plums"? "Sticky pork" at lunchtime? What next, "meat and 2 veg" for tea? Are you working as a RENT BOY ?

Nice one. He who dares wins, Rodney

Ideally delivered in the style of Fraser from Dads Army, with long quotes from obscure passages of the Old Testament......

Could you not just sign up 6 months and if it's too expensive move back in with your mum?

We could solve this quite easily by giving people from NI a straight choice between playing for Scotland or Eire. Then the NI team could be abolished, which will save lot of pointless fixtures.

Purely gut feeling, I think he jumped rather than be pushed. And in the words of an old song ''There may be trouble ahead'' Yes, same here. Pure speculation of course, but it could be a case of Quinn, as a football man who loves the club, locking horns with Yank owner who's fucked off with pouring cash into bottomless pit and has closed his wallet. This leads to Quinn being sidelined to fringe role and then deciding to leg it before it all goes to shit. Or as Chez says it could be that he's been sidelined because Short thinks he's a mug. Time will tell I suppose.

I think we'll win this. Hopefully they'll have Brewcie in charge, which would boost our chances.

They were probably waiting for him to fill out a bit

Not that I can be bothered to join this tedious debate about who's been the best owners, but I reckon it's not all about comparing turnover as a measure of success anyway. The club was floated in the late 90s and a substantial amount of money was put into the club by the folks who bought shares (including me). I'll leave it up to others to debate whether this money was spent wisely.

Quinns always struck me as a decent bloke. He's just gone up in my estimation by leaving SAFC. For me the interesting question is why he's gone. The club is plainly going in the right direction for now on the pitch. O'Neill is making a silk purse out of a sow's ear but it's a moot point how long some of these players will continue to punch above their weight when the honeymoon period's over. Why is Quinn jumping ship when they are, according to some of their more excitable fans, at the start of a new golden age? I also wonder whether Short will bank roll the club as he has done up to now. Brewce pissed up the wall huge amounts of money on overpriced players imo who O'Neill will want to replace (and he has a chequered history in that dept too). Remains to be seen whether Short will support him in the summer, failure to do so may see another flounce from O'Neill. Come what may, I reckon money will be tight (unless they make it to Wemberlee) and Short may find it very difficult to attract/sustain investment in a deeply unfashionable club. He has no affection for the club or the area (just like our own rotund owner) so he's only in it for the money. Wonder what goes through his mind when he looks at row upon row of empty seats despite O'Neill's recent success. I get the feeling there is more turbulence ahead for the Mackems, and I wonder whether Quinn resigning as chairman and then jumping ship is an augur of storm clouds ahead. By contrast. we seem to have stumbled upon stability of some kind, although you never know what Fat Mike is up to next.