Toonpack

The days of a manager coming in and been allowed to spend millions off their own back, I think are long gone from newcastle and many other clubs. It was fun while it lasted but as Gordon would say, prudence is the buzz word these days. Footballers are now relatively just too expensive and too big a risk to a clubs financial stability. The current player pricing is unsubstainable especially with the goings on at city and I'm not sure what comes next. We have been spoilt over the last 15 years and can't get used to the fact that the partys over and it's tidy up time. Rubbish. How can you think that post was rubbish ??? Absolutely spot on IMO

But Shepherd has left Strange the bloke who's put in hods of his own cash in gets all the crap, yet the ones who fleeced it and walked away get nowt.

You convinced me with brilliant reasons, Shepherd it is Everyone seems to forget the nose-dive the clubs been in for the past 5 years, it's no worse now than it has been for ages. Except of course we upset KK (alledgedly) and no-one ever liked Wise and shock hoprror he's got a job with us. Prejudice is blinding reality IMO As for the debt level, OK lets have tons of debt BUT do you really think that Shepherd could have drummed up any more cash just now for players than the current bunch is doing ??

Ashley without a doubt (lesser of two evils to an extent) Shepherd created this mess and there's no way (IMO) he could have got us out of it in the current financial climate

aye a few times but that was always Hunter killer subs (SSN's) against each other - fighter pilot stuff. SLBM's are supposed to run silent and deep - which it sounds like these two were Nowt serious, it was a NATO excercise where the french sub was honing it's surrendering technique, the Royal Navy were preparing to board then a whale fart caused by Plankton Vindaloo created a ripple which bumped them together.

On of many from his era, "hard" footballers disappeared in the 80's

Halls and Shepherd's "take" Nice loan at 11%

However the "clueless cunts" that you so highly speak of had a selection of questions agreed with the reporter, all of which were with the proviso that if they arent answered then it will be made clear in the article thats what happened. So you'll know if any of those damning ones were refused because it will say "No Comment" or the like. NUSC are money grabbing attention seeking arseholes , the idea is right but it's ran by whinging old cunts who have published nothing but cringeworthy statements through TF. Derg? Pukka? Can't be The Derg, no mention of attendances, could be the midget though

Lloyds are absolute cunts You've gota be a cunt to them for them to be a cunt to you Absolutely not. Exhibit A) Charged my lad £35 for going £2.47 overdrawn, went in to complain on his behalf and ask why they didn't refuse the debit card transaction that put him O/D, at the point of sale, and was basically told nowt they could do. The lad in the branch was canny enough and said he was sorry and said he had a customer in who ended £300 overdrawn because of charges when she went a fiver O/D when away on holiday. Exhibit B - mates business account overdraft facility withdrawn with one weeks notice, was told "Don't worry we're not asking you to pay all of it back immediately, we'll do a loan for you so you've still got those funds available", nice of them eh? OH Aye proferred loan was at 19.8 APR. Fucking Bandits Cant really quote on your mates business but I would imagine that your lad should have made sure he has enough money in his account to purchase stuff on his card. £35 O/D charge applies to everyone so you should be more careful when you are going O/D. Thats exactly why I have took the O/D off my account . But then again it takes a cunt to know a cunt I would have thought the "system" was smart enough to reject a transaction that means you're spending what you haven't got, but then that would kill off a nice little earner wouldn't it.

Lloyds are absolute cunts You've gota be a cunt to them for them to be a cunt to you Absolutely not. Exhibit A) Charged my lad £35 for going £2.47 overdrawn, went in to complain on his behalf and ask why they didn't refuse the debit card transaction that put him O/D, at the point of sale, and was basically told nowt they could do. The lad in the branch was canny enough and said he was sorry and said he had a customer in who ended £300 overdrawn because of charges when she went a fiver O/D when away on holiday. Exhibit B - mates business account overdraft facility withdrawn with one weeks notice, was told "Don't worry we're not asking you to pay all of it back immediately, we'll do a loan for you so you've still got those funds available", nice of them eh? OH Aye proferred loan was at 19.8 APR. Fucking Bandits

Lloyds are absolute cunts

I heard the interview, basically what he's whinging about is having to hand in a transfer request and losing his loyalty bonus. Typical self centred footballer wanker

If Given had been in goal today we'd have lost. Harper showed much better awareness about his box and I doubt Given reached the deflected Cisse shot first half, Harper was damned unlucky for their goal as well, great block.

BBC sports news ticker thingy - fee agreed and he's having a medical as I type

Thinking about it, for a nano-second, is there even eleven decent Geordies playing anywhere that you could fashion a team out of, the only good player I can think of is Carrick (and he was doon sooth so long he probably qualifies as a cockney more than a geordie)

Hope he's closer than 50 yards then, that's an old FN rifle, he'll need that geet big sight just to hit a barn door

All this wailing and moaning, but isn't it Given who started and who's pressing this issue ? The re-investment (or not) will be the key

Can't agree with the team being "ok", it should have been OK to get into the competition proper i.e. past Belgrade BUT we should have been building for more than that. That summer was the first evidence we were skint IMO and that made it more than a blip IMO What I meant was, one bad result would never have had the same impact on a club that was run better (or it shouldn't have had). I can't see it having that effect on teams we were competing with at the time, i.e. the likes of Liverpool. The team had just finished 3rd as well, so it was alright. It might have needed freshening up a bit but it's conceivable the board were waiting to make sure we got into the CL proper. A gamble perhaps but a bigger gamble would have been spending before that money was guaranteed as a new signing may well have made no difference against Belgrade. And surely if we were skint, as you assert, spending more money would have been a bad thing (at least until we knew we were in the CL). That's not a defence of the old regime per se but I think it's a fair argument that they were exercising some financial prudence for once at that particular time. I think that is pretty much bang on to be honest. And probably quite right too. Its easy to say we should have gone out and ironically, spent money we didn;t have with the blessing of supporters who later said we shouldn't spend money we didn't have, but quite simply, we were 1-0 up after the away leg and should have beaten Partizan. Or even drew....or won the shoot out, at home. I don't disagree with Alex's point at all (a well made point). BUT at the time we were big time charlies (alledgedly) and we had no real inkling at all we were skint, it was the following circumstances that showed the cracks. The issue is, "all of a sudden we were broke" and that's where this downward spiral started, regretably we don't appear to have bottomed out yet. YES we should have beaten Partizan, but in that summer if there was ever a time to "stretch or gamble on the finances" that was the one - you aren't going far with Aaron Hughes as your centre back (or penalty taker for that matter) !!. The point is spot on regarding the likely lesser effect of missing the CL to other clubs and why's that ??. The decision to excercise of financial prudence because we were skint is a fair one BUT how come we were skint at that time given our relative levels of achievement, that one's down to Leazes' mate BTW Leazes the bold bit - isn't that exactly what Ashleys getting hammered for just now ?????

They're buying Peter Cech now are they

This is my new comfort blanket. I've finally accepting that we are not a decent manager and two good signings away from competing at the top again but that Ashley has created a time machine and shipped us back to the 70's - long term mediocrity, best players want out, bobbong around midtable at best and nothing to look forward to after January. The faint hope is that he stabilises our finances before the shit hits the fan for football He hasn't done that (yet!!) all he's done is maintained the position/trend Shepherd had us in (albeit fiscally better off - sort of) What he hasn't done is moved us forward or arrested the slide, and THAT is his crime. I seriously doubt that the Owen or Given situations would be much different if FFS was still at the helm, we wouldn't be doing a Villa, that's for sure. I am equally sure we wouldn't have any money to spend, the biggest mistake the custodians of the club have made in recent times was not strengthening in the "Bowyer Summer", been downhill since. Its a heart thing rather than a head thing. Over the last few years its always felt like we could pull something out of the hat, some good signings, class manager, long term run of form. Suddenly, for me at least, it doesn't. it feels like the 70s and 80s. Nobody expects anything spectacular anytime soon. Maybe Ashley has got it right, by good luck or by good planning, and we will be fairly secure while the bottom drops out of a few other clubs. Its just not the sort of approach that gets the fans excited Since the Bowyer summer, I've never felt like that tbh I'm far from convinced Ashley has "got it right" BUT I don't honestly think it's any worse than it was, we've flirted with the bottom for years now. In fact IF he can ship out the worthless £60K+ merchants (Duff/Geremi etc) and we do get some tryers in, it can't be much worse. Of course whether he gets anyone in is the question. I don't necesarily have a problem with the financial model he's trying to put in, just a shame we're doing it from a point of extreme weakness. For how many years have we, the fans, been debating, all over the place, the need for full-backs, midfielders etc etc Lately the ONLY way we could attract players was by shelling out a wage way over what anyone else could (or would) and it hasn't got us very far.

Can't agree with the team being "ok", it should have been OK to get into the competition proper i.e. past Belgrade BUT we should have been building for more than that. That summer was the first evidence we were skint IMO and that made it more than a blip IMO

This is my new comfort blanket. I've finally accepting that we are not a decent manager and two good signings away from competing at the top again but that Ashley has created a time machine and shipped us back to the 70's - long term mediocrity, best players want out, bobbong around midtable at best and nothing to look forward to after January. The faint hope is that he stabilises our finances before the shit hits the fan for football He hasn't done that (yet!!) all he's done is maintained the position/trend Shepherd had us in (albeit fiscally better off - sort of) What he hasn't done is moved us forward or arrested the slide, and THAT is his crime. I seriously doubt that the Owen or Given situations would be much different if FFS was still at the helm, we wouldn't be doing a Villa, that's for sure. I am equally sure we wouldn't have any money to spend, the biggest mistake the custodians of the club have made in recent times was not strengthening in the "Bowyer Summer", been downhill since.

We'd have been just as badly off, if not worse off under that useless git. We've been stumbling around the crap zone for the last 5 years or so and he presided over the fall much more than he presided over the ascent, despite what Leazes may say.

Capitalism has survived by continually borrowing from the future. True, but capitalism is trying to recover from a serious kick in the nads just now and borrowing isn't exactly easy at the minute, even banks won't lend each other money. For all there's huge debt in the Prem League and that is apparently seen as OK, that will all be within existing banking arrangements/agreements, it's the renewal of banking facilities that'll be interesting to see.

Not a defence of Ashley per se, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when some of those debt terms run out and they need re-financing. Liverpool have already had to get a 6 month extension as they couldn't sort it out by the original deadline, they're with RBS though so can't see a UK bank pulling the plug on an "institution", but some of the rest, who can say. If major players in finance and insurance can go down (as they have), a foreign bank pulling the plug on a football team is not inconceivable (if it's got assets)