Christmas Tree

??? I did work for Durham Pine for 3 months on a consultancy basis and eventually they did go bust, however I really dont think my 3 months sunk them

Can I change your name to Comical Dekka? It sounds stupid but we actually are. Do you think Shepherd would of been able to pay off our debts? Ashley had to pay off a large part of the debt (57m - from the stadium rebuild) because the financial agreement Shepard had in place was non-transferable. So under Shepard the debt was not an imediate issue. The debt was not an immediate issue? I'd much rather we are how we are now, than keeping debt that should be paid off. Hopefully someone comes and buys the club in the summer and we can start afresh so to speak. No debt = more money to spend I hope Ashley stays. As we come out of recession his empire will probably rocket again leaving him with wads of lolly to splash around. Hopefully he will stay the course and turn us into a top half prem team. I have a feeling he will want to prove a point to a lot of people.

He certainly does and yes the players got us relegated. Even upping one of their piss poor performances would have kept us up. However in the fullness of time we may be viewed as lucky to have gone down. (as long as we get back up)

:)

Little evidence of either imo. The window was only better than expected because we expected nothing. Don't think they signed a single player with proven PL quality either. A year ago we were in the PL with a fighting chance of staying up. The current team is far worse than that and we're a division lower. Ridiculous how easily pleased some people are though. Lower expectations these days tbf No expectations these days tbf Its all about getting ready for the new footballing world thats coming. Lean and mean baby

Let go and move on mate.

Spot on. And the extra wages from still having the high wage bill

Aye, not wanting to jump threads, but it's clear to me we'd be terminally fucked if Freddy was still here.

You've also got to consider the circumstances under which he's worked as well.

The outlook is far rosier than a year ago and all the time Derek and Mike will be learning from their mistakes, hence the past decent window that surpassed most peoples expectations. Hopefully the fans will get off his back and let him continue to rebuild our club on a much more leaner and business like basis and without all the emotional decision making of the past.

And throw into the mix what if Arry had said yes.........

What an awful list of shite when you see it like that.

Mike Ashley's biggest call yet: should he give Chris Hughton a shot at the Premier League or bring in a big name boss for next season? Simon Bird ---- The Mirror Careful what you wish for

I think deep down most of us think its going to be Roeder all over again and a sacking some point through the season or just a very poor season. Now it won't all be his fault as with Ashley in charge he isn't going to get the money he needs to make the squad what it should be, but he will i fear be found way out of his depth. It would be great if he proved us wrong though, because he will be here under Ashley as he's cheap. I'd much rather be wrong and have us doing well though! Personally I think he's nothing like Roeder and I do think he's growing in the job. I also think he times substitutions well. Im quite happy to stick with him.

no, shepherd just kept on borrowing and spending and getting us further into debt. The halls probably saw were all this was heading hence their sharpe exit. I would also love to think there is a third type of owner out their who had the full package and is just waiting to buy us. Events that are unfolding be it at Pompey, qpr or anfield will only deter future investment. The best we can hope for is that Ashley can see the sense in getting a good football man in to replace llambias and slowly rebuild from the ashes The Halls between them owned more of the club than Shepherd so it seems a bit wrong to blame Shepherd when everything the club did would have required the tacit agreement of the Halls. bingo. Another point I've made on countless occasions. Even coming from me, it would be nice if this sort of thing could now be put behind us, and people accepted that they were in fact good owners. I'm pissed off with football just now to be honest, generally, and because of the demise of NUFC The years you refer to are clearly the best we’ve ever had, but good owners full stop? You have to admit that they spent/blew/invested all the future earnings they possibly could and took a huge chunks of it out of the club and in the process into their own pockets. There was no more money that could be ticked, no more money to bled out of the club, no way of servicing the debt they’d accrued — so they cut and run. I reckon that when Ashley took over, all earnings that could of been made over his first 5 years had already been ticked and spent, or as ever, siphoned out of the club. As it turns out it’s difficult to sympathise with Ashley — but worship the Shepherds and Halls, hmmmm, it’s not as clear cut as you are stating. In a nutshell. Good post

not on an iPhone inbetween fares!!! But how do you think fred would have coped. We were already declining and fred would have just kept throwing good money after bad without any personal wealth to inject working capital. If we'd managed to stay up the wage bill would be even higher. Truly fucked IMO Are you just going to keep changing the subject now you've tucked yourself in? I haven't even mentioned Shepherd. All you seem to be saying though is Ashley is good because there's an alternative scenario whereby Shepherd and the Halls could have gotten us into a worse state. I don't know how they'd have coped but they wouldn't have made a profit last January had we been we in a similar position with the old board in charge. Also, the noises coming out the club when they appointed Allardyce seemed to suggest they'd realised we were going to have to hold off on the spending a bit in any case. Most people were reasonably pleased with Allardyce only because it seemed he was an appropriate choice to work with a smaller budget (in the short to medium term anyway). Accurate. These blind anti-Halls and Shepherd comments will never cease.....shame because sometimes people make good posts until they start this sort of thing. You confuse some realism on their era with being anti..... They have given be by best times supporting Newcastle however the rot / slide had already started well before Ashley arrived. All too often when a business goes bust, there is a recent history of the owner throwing money down the drain trying to re-capture the good times. This is what I think Freddy would have done ON TOP of the 130 million or so black hole that was there when Ashley arrived. More depressingly is where football is at the moment. Its like an out of control train that no one can get off. I would love to be able to imagine a swift return to challenging for Europe but there are just so many obstacles and so much money needed these days. Look at Sunderland. A good chairman, a wealthy owner, a manager who should have been a vast improvement for them and better players than they have had for years. Yet its still turned to shit. Sad days in Football.

Everythings Fine 4/10 Robert De Niro Drew Barrymore Kate Beckinsale http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780511/ Gets 7.4 out of 10 on IMDB so you think this may be good. Its pants. Its one of those self searching pieces of shit that americans do so badly. Avoid like the plague.

no, shepherd just kept on borrowing and spending and getting us further into debt. The halls probably saw were all this was heading hence their sharpe exit. I would also love to think there is a third type of owner out their who had the full package and is just waiting to buy us. Events that are unfolding be it at Pompey, qpr or anfield will only deter future investment. The best we can hope for is that Ashley can see the sense in getting a good football man in to replace llambias and slowly rebuild from the ashes

I truly believe he did come into this for "a bit of fun" and that his intentions and initial actions were good. He is the typical rich boy buying a good boozer and fucking it up. None of this takes away from the fact that had fat fred still been in charge during this further decline and financial crisis I think we would be royally fucked. Which initial actions were good? appointing mort, listenting to vans views and re-acting as in family section and singing sections. Trying to put some structure into the club....

not on an iPhone inbetween fares!!! But how do you think fred would have coped. We were already declining and fred would have just kept throwing good money after bad without any personal wealth to inject working capital. If we'd managed to stay up the wage bill would be even higher. Truly fucked IMO

I truly believe he did come into this for "a bit of fun" and that his intentions and initial actions were good. He is the typical rich boy buying a good boozer and fucking it up. None of this takes away from the fact that had fat fred still been in charge during this further decline and financial crisis I think we would be royally fucked.

I only made the points about big wages because you were making a point about Ashley being the owner we needed, i.e. from a financial viewpoint, insinuating (it would seem) he was putting the club right even though all the big wage earners are on contracts he approved. Again, I'm sure you got all that but pretended otherwise. I see the point your making.

as evident by his results?...no by the way he got us playing?...no so what then? As evident by a chain of events that have lead to today.

I think it's a tad unfair to lay all the blame at Ashleys door. My original point was had fred remained we could still be in the prem but in a much worse position (financially) or even worse, relegated and still financially fucked ( no interest free loans from freddy). I think the points you make about big wages, bonus payments etc only show an owner who at that time was prepared to sanction big deals. I think it went tits up with the KK appointment (which seemed rediculously rushed through). Had a proper appointment being made at this point in time then I think we would be in a much better situation today. As much as I love KK he was definately the wrong man.

The word your struggling for is interesting. Stevies threads, rants, drunken rants and football stories were interesting and usually fun, two key reasons why the majority on here come here and liked Stevies posts. This place will hopefully pick up again sometime soon when Stevie returns or a poster of his ilk joins. Stevie at times could be interesting in a "laugh at the silly man" kind of way. Normally it was just though and his "act" was pretty repetitive. I hardly know what to say. I must agree. Ive never really noticed this poster but his last three posts say a lot about him.