Kitman

He's hardly played for us

agreed, bit rough round the edges, but a wonderfully instinctive keeper. better than harper in my opinion.... And Harper's getting on. Would you be tempted to flog Harper and promote Krul to No 1?

This, for me, is becoming an increasingly moot point. I can't believe anyone that is/was a self made billionaire is that inept, I wouldn't be surprised if he's doing this intentionally. I don't believe he would intentionally depreciate his assets. I think there has been pride and pig headedness in his decisions, particularly in relation to Keegan, I also think he's been badly advised by his "mates". But I don't think he's set out to fuck us over just to get back at us, if anything I think he's reluctant to let us go because he wants to prove he can make it work for him. At the bottom of this, I don't think he gives a fuck about us, it's all about his pocket and his ego in that order. I have no evidence whatsoever to base my opinions on obviously.

And watch Malbranque flourish with a decent DM next to him. It's not rocket science. Unless you're a 62 year old bullshitting lickspittle with a dodgy ticker who doesn't bother turning up to training? I'm not thinking of anyone in particular.......

Stands to reason there'll be someone in for Jonas and Sideshow Berb, on the basis it's a distressed sale so they'll cost next to nowt. Stumbling block will be wages but you'd think they'd want to get away.

Sigining anyone seems a waste of money when we have so many excellent kids on low wages.

that smiley

You'd hope this is just brinkmanship and bluff tactics to force a sale through. Unfortunately the indications are that the club will be off the market around the time the transfer window shuts. It's hard not be to be cynical about all of this. He can certainly expect a hot reception if he dares to show his fat face and I hope the bar staff piss in his beer for good measure.

Out of the gloom, a voice said unto me "Smile and be happy, things could be worse" So I smiled and was happy and lo Things did get worse.

Not a bad theory. Nothing else about the transfer makes sense.

He's been offered peanuts because that's what the club's now worth after his 'stewardship'. I'm amazed that Seymour Pierce want to be associated with Ashley, I'd be concerned about my reputation.

Can't say I'm surprised. The longer this rumbled on, the more it seemed like we'd end up back at square one: Ashley in charge, a paper thin squad, a cretinous managerial appointment. In fact no matter how much I hate David O'Leary, the thought remains that we could do much much worse.

This. I'm genuinely surprised anyone in the toon recognised him. It was probably mackems in the pub telling him he was gash.....

I know this isn't the main point of your post but personally I don't subscribe to this statement. The main reason we went down was our esteemed owner gambled on the existing squad and temporary management being good enough throughout the majoirty of the season, and he only tried to do something about it when it was way way too late. It's true we were only one point short, but I don't think a general lack of support was the reason we didn't get that extra point. I would put the owner, club/team management and players well ahead of the supporters in that sense. We still would have been shit, that's for sure. But would we have lost at home to a pathetic Hull side? (just to name one match that was VASTLY influenced by the turmoil and unrest at the club). I know it's pointless to speculate but I truly think that if there wasn't so much hatred, blame and finger pointing then the general improved atmosphere at the club would have translated to better performances on the field. Granted but the turmoil and unrest was really down to Ashley & co. The situation could have been managed so much better, they did absolutely nothing to placate the fans and there was no communication with anybody. Let's face it, if they'd appointed a decent successor to KK and promised some limited investment in January the grumbling would have died down pretty quickly. Instead they chose to stick up 2 fingers to everyone with their 'IT IS A FACT' statement, left Hughton in charge and the rest is history. The fan reaction was utterly predictable, hwo they reacted to it was unforgivable imo.

It's interesting that the initial reaction of a lot of folk to NUSC on the internet was one of distrust and antipathy. "They don't speak for me etc". I'm not sure how representative they were of the rank and file, certainly there was no support for Ashley's behaviour from Keegan onwards amongst the matchgoing support according to the matchgoers in my family. I'm not going to criticise people for reacting passionately. A football club is deeply personal and if Ashley didn't appreciate what he was doing would get a big rise, he's a total idiot and we shouldn't make excuses for him imo. Personally I think the history of our club has shown that if you don't protest against something you'll just get walked over. I think the NUSC is a great idea and I can't imagine why anybody would rather not have a supporters interest group. If people don't like the way they go about things they should get involved. I'm not a member.

I know this isn't the main point of your post but personally I don't subscribe to this statement. The main reason we went down was our esteemed owner gambled on the existing squad and temporary management being good enough throughout the majoirty of the season, and he only tried to do something about it when it was way way too late. It's true we were only one point short, but I don't think a general lack of support was the reason we didn't get that extra point. I would put the owner, club/team management and players well ahead of the supporters in that sense.

If a Shepherd falls out there'll be an earthquake with the tree as its epicentre.

I guess the problem we have with some of the first team squad is that they don't want to be with us. They can't all leave but the bigger earners will be shifted on if we get a decent offer. I suspect no-one's that interested in Jonas and Colo on current form and given the price demanded and their wages so we end up with players who don't want to be with us and we don't want. It's a nightmare really. I think your point about replacements is spot on. The club's been like a car where the driver's taken their feet off the pedals and hands off the wheel. God knows if we can get anybody decent in now and whether they even want to. We might be stuck with the kids as back up.

Thanks, that fills in some gaps for me. I suppose the key thing is that you need a board that actually cares about what their fans think. My sense is most owners would look to have some kind of fan consultation without going as far as representation on the board. Especially at really big clubs.....are any of the 60 clubs in the premier league?

Hmmm, I'm not sure I agree. Fans and directors have completely different agendas. The directors are there because the shareholder(s) have chosen them to run the club. The fan representative is there to represent fans. Could easily end in a shit fight where money's involved. Ideally everyone would row in the same direction. But often owners and directors are twats, and often fans are unrealistic in expectation. Plus there must be stuff that's highly commercially sensitive, do they ask the fan representative to put their hands over their ears and go la la la? I'm not saying it's a bad idea by the way. I just don't see what's in it for a 100% shareholder. Why make yourself accountable when you don't have to? Why give away any part of your control?

Can't see why any owner would want to do it though. What's in it for them? All I could see if I was an owner would be disruption, arguments and loss of secrecy. Why would they be interested in being accountable and justifying their decisions to a fan representative?

I have to agree, it's plainly been dashed off over in the ad break of his favourite telly programme. He should hang his head in shame over the phrase "belligerent lack of communication" in particular, that's terrible.

It's always someone else's fault these days. You could always have walked on your hands, you know.

I'm gloomy about a deal happening now. Presumably anybody who was genuinely interested has been messed around too much by now and time has run out with the season under way. Shearer, Moat, Shepherd, the Yanks, the Arabs, the South Africans, the Borg, and everyone else who's been linked with us will just tell Ashley to do one and we'll be stuck with the club murderer to do more damage. Hey ho. The best we can hope for is a Robert Maxwell type swimming incident in Hawaii.

I believe there was an attempt on his life by a gunman at Washington Services. At least that's what he told Chris Hughton......