Christmas Tree

Not at all but i do think we will spend about 15-20mil in the summer...we HAVE to and he knows that! Totally spot on. Ashley won't risk relegation again AND has the cash to do what needs to be done. Ok then, money where your mouth is. £14m is the set point, £20 per million either way, winner chooses the charity. If he spends £10m you pay £80, if he spends £20m I pay £120. You never know he might show hes a billionaire and spend £100m then Id be fucked Its a canny idea, the only downside is I think poor Chris's bottle might go having to spend £10 million. And I wouldnt want to take your money off you, what with a little un on the way and all. If he spends less than 15 million I will donate £40 to the charity of your choice.

Like I say, now that you deem us good enough to get your custom back then give it a go, fiver says you dont sit in the same seat twice. NUST?????

Well...and im not supporting him for one second btw, but he spent 5.5mil in january which is typically where u spend less than in the off season, so if that is anything to go by then i expect him to spend a bit more in the summer. They have already identified that we need another striker and midfielder. Money will be spent, how much is anyones guess but it NEEDS to be the bare minimum of 15mil...remember we will be going up with a smaller wage bill, lower running costs and the bonus of higher gates and much more TV revenue. Dont be so pessimistic man. Well said

January?

Not at all but i do think we will spend about 15-20mil in the summer...we HAVE to and he knows that! Totally spot on. Ashley won't risk relegation again AND has the cash to do what needs to be done. Lol, more chance of knitting fog and you know it. You do know all these threads will be getting dragged up again next year when all is going well and I am the new Leazes Mag. (However such will be my victory I will probably get banned and have to spin my lines of woe on Newcastle Online.

You do, I agree however you dont get so used to it that you look forward to the down season in order to experience the rush of promotion. Thats akin to a junkie going cold turkey with the express view that when he does shoot up it'll be so much more exhilerating. No club has a divine right to being in the top flight however some clubs have the necessary levels of support to ensure enough turnover to keep them there. We are one of those clubs. Fuck off man, you know exactly what I was saying about relegation and promotion and the nailbiting "excitement" of both. And with regard to I dont see how we do. We were not self sufficient Under Shepherd last few years and havent been since. We couldnt afford it keep on raking up the debts trying to keep up. Thats why us and so many others are / were really fucked. It amazes me that some seemingly sensible people on this board think that crowd size and tv money is enough to compete with the big boys. It simply is untrue. You need a benefactor these days. Those who simply think we can go back to the spend spend spend days of Shepherd are fucking clueless. A different approach is needed and if and I agree its a fucking huge if, Ashley has learnt his lesson and is interested, then he could be our best long term route back to a serious contender. I dont think there are any quick fixes however if some of you have any you should spell them out, rather than just moaning about Ashley. He is a British Multi million / soon to be billionaire, his empire is growing again, his brand fits in well for world wide promotion. Hopefully he will get it right in the summer. If not the prospect of a sale to a Barry Mort type is truly horrific. Its fucking Moat you spanner Barry Moat and hes got less chance of buying our club that you have of getting "One Mike Ashley" chants started in the Gallowgate. I agree however that should he take over then we truly would be fucked. When promoted the good (majority) will sing to drown out the bad (minority). Rumours have it he wasnt even abused once against scunny

I dont see how we do. We were not self sufficient Under Shepherd last few years and havent been since. We couldnt afford it keep on raking up the debts trying to keep up. Thats why us and so many others are / were really fucked. It amazes me that some seemingly sensible people on this board think that crowd size and tv money is enough to compete with the big boys. It simply is untrue. You need a benefactor these days. Those who simply think we can go back to the spend spend spend days of Shepherd are fucking clueless. A different approach is needed and if and I agree its a fucking huge if, Ashley has learnt his lesson and is interested, then he could be our best long term route back to a serious contender. I dont think there are any quick fixes however if some of you have any you should spell them out, rather than just moaning about Ashley. He is a British Multi million / soon to be billionaire, his empire is growing again, his brand fits in well for world wide promotion. Hopefully he will get it right in the summer. If not the prospect of a sale to a Barry Mort type is truly horrific. Why? who is Man U's benefactor? Liverpools? Arsenals? Spurs? none of those clubs have benefactors, Man U have levels of debt that far surpassed anything raked up by Shepherd (although Ashley is doing his best to get to that level). If you want to go from nothing to world beaters overnight then yes, a multi billionaire who will pump in the cash is needed. If however you dont have that then you need to steadily build up a winning team, going into debt to get it but knowing that the success it brings will more than pay for it. Nobody (or at least not me) has ever said we were self sufficient under the previous regime, what we were though was pushing towards success, our problem is that at the point where we needed that final push, that bit more cash injected we lost our bottle and pulled in the reigns, it was downhill from there. I still argue that Shepherd had passed his time, he'd ran out of ideas and was never going to take us to anything like the heights he and Hall had previously however at this moment I'd crawl over broken glass and shit to carry him to Gallowgate if it meant replacing Ashley. Anyone who thinks Ashley is going to push us forward in any real capacity is simply off their tits. I agree with all of that but Ashley has done us a favour in a sense by the ways of trying to sort our finances out. If we are to get to where we were or even close then money needs to be invested, gambled if you like. FMA is a gambling man but when it comes to us he is a tight fisted cockney fuck. I've said it before and il say it again...i just hope there is a few consortia looking at us and prepairing a bid once we are promoted, consortia with a bit of money to take this club forward AND be ran properly and with respect for the fans. And some hens teeth while your at it

I dont see how we do. We were not self sufficient Under Shepherd last few years and havent been since. We couldnt afford it keep on raking up the debts trying to keep up. Thats why us and so many others are / were really fucked. It amazes me that some seemingly sensible people on this board think that crowd size and tv money is enough to compete with the big boys. It simply is untrue. You need a benefactor these days. Those who simply think we can go back to the spend spend spend days of Shepherd are fucking clueless. A different approach is needed and if and I agree its a fucking huge if, Ashley has learnt his lesson and is interested, then he could be our best long term route back to a serious contender. I dont think there are any quick fixes however if some of you have any you should spell them out, rather than just moaning about Ashley. He is a British Multi million / soon to be billionaire, his empire is growing again, his brand fits in well for world wide promotion. Hopefully he will get it right in the summer. If not the prospect of a sale to a Barry Mort type is truly horrific. Why? who is Man U's benefactor? Liverpools? Arsenals? Spurs? none of those clubs have benefactors, Man U have levels of debt that far surpassed anything raked up by Shepherd (although Ashley is doing his best to get to that level). If you want to go from nothing to world beaters overnight then yes, a multi billionaire who will pump in the cash is needed. If however you dont have that then you need to steadily build up a winning team, going into debt to get it but knowing that the success it brings will more than pay for it. Nobody (or at least not me) has ever said we were self sufficient under the previous regime, what we were though was pushing towards success, our problem is that at the point where we needed that final push, that bit more cash injected we lost our bottle and pulled in the reigns, it was downhill from there. I still argue that Shepherd had passed his time, he'd ran out of ideas and was never going to take us to anything like the heights he and Hall had previously however at this moment I'd crawl over broken glass and shit to carry him to Gallowgate if it meant replacing Ashley. Anyone who thinks Ashley is going to push us forward in any real capacity is simply off their tits. We shall see

Not at all but i do think we will spend about 15-20mil in the summer...we HAVE to and he knows that! Totally spot on. Ashley won't risk relegation again AND has the cash to do what needs to be done.

You do, I agree however you dont get so used to it that you look forward to the down season in order to experience the rush of promotion. Thats akin to a junkie going cold turkey with the express view that when he does shoot up it'll be so much more exhilerating. No club has a divine right to being in the top flight however some clubs have the necessary levels of support to ensure enough turnover to keep them there. We are one of those clubs. Fuck off man, you know exactly what I was saying about relegation and promotion and the nailbiting "excitement" of both. And with regard to I dont see how we do. We were not self sufficient Under Shepherd last few years and havent been since. We couldnt afford it keep on raking up the debts trying to keep up. Thats why us and so many others are / were really fucked. It amazes me that some seemingly sensible people on this board think that crowd size and tv money is enough to compete with the big boys. It simply is untrue. You need a benefactor these days. Those who simply think we can go back to the spend spend spend days of Shepherd are fucking clueless. A different approach is needed and if and I agree its a fucking huge if, Ashley has learnt his lesson and is interested, then he could be our best long term route back to a serious contender. I dont think there are any quick fixes however if some of you have any you should spell them out, rather than just moaning about Ashley. He is a British Multi million / soon to be billionaire, his empire is growing again, his brand fits in well for world wide promotion. Hopefully he will get it right in the summer. If not the prospect of a sale to a Barry Mort type is truly horrific.

Fuck off Craig....In 1982 you were 5 for fucks sake!!!! Hardly a really aware life and death football fan. That makes you about 14 when Keegan took over as manager which just confirms what I was saying. Its not your fault tho.

Says it all. Fuck off, Chris will lead us to glory.

The reason you're in the pro-Ashley camp suddenly becomes clearer.... Relegation and promotion have been part of this club long before and will be long after Ashley. This is the world of football. Surely your not one of the god complex fans who think we have a divine right to be in the prem and challenging for Europe every season? We dont, as nice as it would be, we dont. God complex?? No. But I sure as hell do not 'enjoy' relegation. I enjoy this club being successful. But the point your missing Craig is that for most fans, at most clubs, most of the time, us included......You are not going to be succesful. There is a big problem with a lot of our support who arrived just before or during the Keegan years. You / They had it so good you were not used to being crap. A level of expectation has been created by our brief flirtation with title chasing and the champions league. And make no mistake it was a brief flirtation. Over the last 30 years we have usually been shite. So when you say you "enjoy the club being succesful", get it in perspective. We would all love the Keegan days to have continued and be up there winning titles, cups and playing in Europe but that doesnt mean you cant get enjoyment / excitement in the majority of years when we are not succesful. And you're missing my very clear point that I (and I'm guessing the majority of people on here) don't 'enjoy' relegation. The enjoy relegation context is taken out of context and you know it. I was referring to the excitement of football and that trying to win the league, win a cup, get into Europe etc are all exciting, but also in a nailbiting way, trying to avoid relegation and get promoted are also exciting. Football in this country is all about promotion and relegation from the prem down to the grass roots. You cant just have the glory. Expectation rarely falls in line with desire - that's the way of the world that we're all acutely aware of so there's no need to become patronising about perspective. It sounds very much to me that you get enjoyment out of the results rather than necessarily the performance which, I'm sorry, I just don't get. We'd likely get the results if we were playing in the Conference - would you still enjoy it? Yes I would still enjoy it because that would be our level of competition. However if it got to that stage then im sure a lot of glory fans would have fucked off. If you can ONLY enjoy games in the prem challenging for Europe then you are a pretty sad cookie in my book. Sure this season has been 'successful' in terms of the results. But it's been akin to playing FIFA 10 on the piss easy level and even then, we've made hard work of it at times. Comparing it to the last time we were in this position 17 years ago it's worlds apart - the performances were on another level to those of today. Maybe thats the problem, too many of you are used to winning on the piss easy level of FIFA 10 . Im guessing you wernt really into football last time we were really shit and that must be hard for those of you who arrived with Keegan. But we were really shit before Keegan and really succesful in the 50's. As a fan and while i appreciate it may not be nice, you have to get used to enjoying football whatever league you are in. And its also worth noting a hell of lot of fans will have enjoyed this season a lot more than they have others for a good while.

Leazes, not every remark is made with the Halls and Shepherds in mind. Putting them to one side ( go on, you can do it) surely being an old git 80% of your time as a Newcastle supporter has been watching an unsuccesful team. Infact our fathers would laugh at what we consider succesful. Winning cups in the 50's and Europe in the 60's. Football is about peaks and troughs for virtually every club.

The reason you're in the pro-Ashley camp suddenly becomes clearer.... Relegation and promotion have been part of this club long before and will be long after Ashley. This is the world of football. Surely your not one of the god complex fans who think we have a divine right to be in the prem and challenging for Europe every season? We dont, as nice as it would be, we dont. God complex?? No. But I sure as hell do not 'enjoy' relegation. I enjoy this club being successful. But the point your missing Craig is that for most fans, at most clubs, most of the time, us included......You are not going to be succesful. There is a big problem with a lot of our support who arrived just before or during the Keegan years. You / They had it so good you were not used to being crap. A level of expectation has been created by our brief flirtation with title chasing and the champions league. And make no mistake it was a brief flirtation. Over the last 30 years we have usually been shite. So when you say you "enjoy the club being succesful", get it in perspective. We would all love the Keegan days to have continued and be up there winning titles, cups and playing in Europe but that doesnt mean you cant get enjoyment / excitement in the majority of years when we are not succesful.

There new manager has them fired up and challenging for everything.

Because he cant get back on Newcastle Online and "win" his argument. Its a sad situation and he needs to move on.

The reason you're in the pro-Ashley camp suddenly becomes clearer.... Relegation and promotion have been part of this club long before and will be long after Ashley. This is the world of football. Surely your not one of the god complex fans who think we have a divine right to be in the prem and challenging for Europe every season? We dont, as nice as it would be, we dont.

If your only excitement as a newcastle fan is challenging for Europe then you are going to have an awful lot of wasted seasons.

In honour of the kings first game i'll go for 3-1

You can't tell me that the rollercoaster of the last 18 months hasn't been exciting!!!! This is football you know not chess or tiddlywinks. Relegation is just as much part of football as anything else. Or did you all prefer those dreary non entity seasons we've experienced over the years. Gut wrenching to get relegated, exciting heading for promotion. If you don't enjoy relegation and promotion you should find a new hobby.

You are aware that this sterling job Ashley has done, is put us into our lowest league position for nearly 20 years ? And one of the most exciting periods of the last several years but hey ho.

In seriousness Leazes, I'm not sure what you mean by accept lower standards. I wasn't sure we had a choice on the matter or could effect it. Even for those of us who have so far boycotted by our wallets, it's still your team, good or bad

They said they've made mistakes and want to put them right. Its not confession, they are not going to go through each mistake by name and apologise for it to tot up the number of hail marys.. Be gracious enough to accept the apology. All owners / boards are here to make a profit, however Ashleys probably the only owner who so far hasnt. Appointing Shearer would have been a disaster imo With regard to the rest of your post I agree with Oz and find it very emotional and invalid. Appointing Hughton has created stability. His mission was promotion and he has bought / loaned the right players to achieve it You have no idea what will happen come June.