peasepud

Lad at work drowned last week we had a whip round and bought a wreath shaped like a lifebelt its what he would have wanted.

Anyone doing the GNR this year? Who gets our cash then? Some of the more recognisable names are: Among the runners will be 2009 X Factor winner Joe McElderry, who will be running for the Teenage Cancer Trust, singer Ellie Goulding and celebrity chefs Gordon and Tana Ramsay. Radio 1 presenters Scott Mills, Greg James and Nick Grimshaw will also be taking part. In addition, three cast members from Coronation Street, including Craig Gazey, who plays Graeme Proctor, Graeme Hawley, also known as John Stape, and Vicky Binns, who plays Molly Dobbs, will be taking part in the event in aid of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Running for Emmerdale will be Tony Audenshaw, known as Bob Hope, Tom Lister who plays Carl King, and Nicola Wheeler, who plays, Nicola De Souza. Jake Wood, who appears on our screens as Max Branning, will be flying the flag for EastEnders. Simon Bird and George Caulkin will be running with RunGeordieRun as well. > http://markallisonjogtole.blogspot.com/ Also the wife of Liverpool keeper Brad Jones raising money for Anthony Nolan Trust > http://www.anthonynolan.org/News/Latest-st...hony-Nolan.aspx

Just bumping this as its time to unsticky it.

So do I mate. This post? Theres two things need to be done to get us operating at a profit: Firstly we need to get the advertisers and corporate sponsors back on board and the only way to do that is to give them a team that their clients will want to come and see. What you have to remember is neither of those entities have any real affiliation to the club, they are using a football team as a means to get their name out to the widest audience and/or entertain potential clients. The day we were relegated a number of corporate sponsors will have moved 10 miles down the road. What sounds better to a potential multi-million pound client "today we're taking you to see the local team play Manchester United" or "today we thought we'd treat you to the wonder of Stockport". Once they've moved and got their box with the scum then its going to be hard to get them back unless the reverse happens or we make them an offer too good to refuse but while theres the threat of relegation then they'll not want the hassle. Secondly is merchandising, sales of the famous black and white stripes across the world, sales in Newcastle would not have dropped by hugely significant numbers if they had given us a shirt of the Adidas quality but as it stands some have been lost through that. Worldwide though and we've been hit heavily by the shite thats gone on. No longer are we everyones second team or the entertainers, we no longer have players the calibre of Shearer that make kids up and down the country want to replicate being them in the playground by pulling on the shirt. Same goes for abroad, its players that sell shirts to the Japanese and Africans not clubs. Man U shirts are embalzoned with Rooney (especially in Thailand ) while numerous kids in Tokyo wear LA Galaxy shirts purely for the word Beckham. Have a successful team and you sell shirts, mugs, calendars, posters, branded bog roll, you name it they'll buy it. You tie up sponsorship deals with Asian network tv to launch your own channel etc etc. Contrary to what you may think Im in no way a Shepherd lover, I danced a fucking jig the day Ashley took over and berated Leazes about it but I can clearly see the gulf between him and the current lot. Shepherd knew how to maximise the assets we had, yes it went to shit but not because of off the field business decisions.

Haven't you seen Peter's yacht? Your loss. The silence speaks volumes tbh Its hardly a yacht............... more a speedboat really. I dont and because each member could vote for upto 10 people it becomes hard to say however Ive just had a look at the results they sent to all candidates and there were a total of 2947 votes cast, 285 of those were for the person who received the most votes. So, the minimum number of people who voted must have been 285 and the maximum 2947 however Id assume most members picked a number of candidates so maybe an average number of 7 votes per voter? so thats what? 842? Dont ask me how many members there are though as Ive not been privvy to any of that info for a good while.

Hes not exactly a great subject to convert tbh

A supporters trusts aim is to get fans representation on the board of the football club or ideally to purchase it all. That is, the nature of a trust. Overall though it should be a lot more than that, it should represent the fans and provide a voice, we all know that the likes of Sky News give airtime to anyone so having a recognised body who give the actual views of the fans is a must. NUST half got there, it established good quality links with the media and provided a sensible voice, trouble is it never consults its members on what that voice should say. What we have to remember here is that we didnt set out to create a trust, we started a Supporters Club, something that was much needed, it was born of frustration (©James 1992) and tried to do too much too quickly but it got there in the end, what it then needed to do was move into the things that Supporters Clubs do, away trips, organising kids days and getting itself aligned to the football club etc. YWC threw all of that and gave some people too much belief in their own self importance.

One or two of us were yes but thats not the problem, it was a fair election and (in my case anyway) my manifesto didnt fit with the way the members wanted, it appears that YWC seduced many members, thats fair enough. Many of the original people are still there, trouble is there now appears to be a bit of a power struggle. Three members of the board basically built themselves an empire which was then added to with the new people who were elected. A couple of the real hard working ones who built it up are now being bullied out in any kind of debate so its now a case of "what the chairman says goes". * The fact that no AGM appears to be on the cards is wrong as far as Im concerned. *Allegedly.

We are in 3 times as much debt as we were when Ashley bought the club (the source cant get much better, its the club itself), our turnover is probably half of what it was when Ashley bought the club, our standing in world football is probably a tenth of what it was when Ashley bought the club an d Id agree before you shout, that it was on the decline before Ashley but hes accelerated that decline. I must be as thick as you say Leazes is because I cant for the life of me understand how its better to be £180m in debt than it is to be £60m. You keep talking about it being better to owe £60 and operate at a £10p/w profit than owe £20 and run at a loss. That would be all well and good if we were operating at a profit but we're not we haemorrage money. The only way to start operating at a profit is to make our incomings greater than our outgoings. Now that hes slashed the wage bill, sacked loads of hard working loyal staff and cut costs left right and centre then whats next? We're still running at a loss, we dont even have a Matchday sponsor and half the billboards around the ground are advertising Sports Direct so we're not bringing in revenue from those.

My whole argument in all this though is that we are now hideously in debt by 3 times as much as before but without those signings, surely you would have rather we got to this position debt wise through the purchase of world class players and been pushing for Europe with the additional income success brings than hanging on the brink of relegation relying on Shola to get us the goals? Hindsight. If we'd seen into the future and predicted relegation then yes, otherwise it was the far riskier strategy I and a good couple of thousand predicted it and Im no nostradamus.

Their customer service is shite it has to be said. I am unable to purchase anything at the moment, the first time I hit the problem was the Hanahana deal. Basically, it lets me go through to the payment stage, put my card details in but then gives an error (and I quote) "there has been a technical error, please contact your System Administrator". Its not my card as Ive tried 3 different ones, its not the PC as Ive used both 3 different ones including the works PC, strange thing is Ellies account has the same problem. At the same time people using my referral are hitting the same problem and the only way round it is to go to groupon directly and then sign up which measn I dont get my referral. This has now been the case for two weeks. I sent my first email a week past Sunday, nothing to date, second mail on the Tuesday, no reply and another last Monday. Still nowt. I called them last Friday to be told that the helpline "werent technical and to send an email in". Whats the fucking use in that?

My whole argument in all this though is that we are now hideously in debt by 3 times as much as before but without those signings, surely you would have rather we got to this position debt wise through the purchase of world class players and been pushing for Europe with the additional income success brings than hanging on the brink of relegation relying on Shola to get us the goals?

I don't really know what the aims are any more which is why I'm not sure about renewing. Perhaps they need to tell us exactly what they are. I know a tenner isn't much in the grand scheme of things but I still want to know where it's going before handing it over. tbh I think people need to be telling them stuff like this because at the moment theres a blinkered view from a section of the board (unfortunately, the section that has the power) who think that everything they do is fantastic and the members love it all. These people have predicted they'll get nigh on full renewals and additional new members of around 300 this year, something which personally I think is absoulte shite. I would strongly urge any member who isnt sure about renewing to let them know their concerns otherwise its just going to continue going downhill which would be a shame. Theres a forum on the site, get on there and post the reasons, use the new "Ask the Board" facility or simply make it clear on places such as this which will get fedback.

And the whole thing only took 6 days. Ah but, not only did God create the Heavens and the Earth, he created light afterwards meaning he created the former in the dark! How cool is that? Evidence of this can be seen with the mess he made of the midlands And Hull, Hull was that bit, you know when you've been working in the dark for ages and then you flick the light on...when it all goes white and takes your eyes time to adjust. Thats the moment he created Hull.

I can see what you're saying with that but it all comes down to hindsight, its easy now to slag off the past quoting the likes of Owen as big price failures but we werent exactly moaning about it the day he signed. Was Shearer a flop? should we have not taken a gamble on him? Under your logic you would never buy any established big name players because they could fail miserably. At the same time though they could have the best years of their careers here and pay back their transfer fees ten times over. Its all a gamble but its better to take that punt than to sit with the likes of Leon Best on the teamsheet hoping that some miracle happens and he becomes a world beater.

Pretty much agree with that. Yes, SJH done wonders for this club. As LM points out, we were sinking fast before SJH took over. But, its also correct that we were again sinking at the end of Shepherds reign. Each year it felt we were slowly dropping to hit relegation. I doubt Ashley will ever hit the heights that the previous bunch did, but then the league is a very different place now. when we were promoted with KK at the helm, the league was nowhere near the quality it is now. I dont think Ashley is a patch on SJH, but lets not think SJH done it for the love either. He could see what Ashley cannot. that by making a successful club he could get back his investment several fold. It is a gamble though as you are not the only club trying that. I think our gamble failed when we were put out of the Champions League by Partizan. I don't think it's a case of that mind, it's more of a case that it'd have took a hell of a lot more to get us back to europe when Ashley took over than what it cost Hall to do it. Remember there wasn't competition for the top 4 spots back then because the whole top 4 champions league incentive was introduced whilst we were already up there. complete myth. Clubs have ALWAYS wanted to finish as high as possible, play in europe, etc etc....and players gave it 100% just like any other time in the history of the game. Nah I disagree to an extent. Players dont always give 100%. You need the right manager, club atmosphere and so on for that. Plus, lets say we were just promoted like back then with SJH. We couldnt compete. SJH has even said so himself that he could see where the game was going. Spending £15M on Shearer was big time back then, now its buttons to most clubs. SJH was a bit like a Jack Walker, but these are not a patch on what Chelsea and City have. Plus as has been pointed out, the Premiership wasnt the attraction then as it is now. At the same time though the money to be reaped from that investment was nowt compared to now.

I think I get it

I have to admt that I dont understand why we need to spend hundreds of billions on defence these days. For what reason do we need aircraft carriers and nuclear subs? The only reason they ever get used is to police and protect other countries, why? are we the worlds coppers? What makes us so special that we have to look after the rest of the world. Frankly, we're a little island on the edge of Europe, nobody is going to invade us, if they did the Yanks would step in. I believe we could cut the armed forces down by 75%, give a further 25% in money and manpower to an International defence force and be 50% better off.

Well this is a strange one, for two years Ive banged the NUST drum and shouted that it needs to be backed and thats something I still passionately believe in however at the same time I think the inevitable huge drop in membership thats being predicted by the sensible side of the board will hopefully be the wake up call thats needed for one or two of the others. So yes, I'll be renewing but I have to admit that its currently on the principle of "if you dont register then you cant vote".

What fucking money are we earning? we're losing money hand over fist, we're in 3 times as much as debt as we were in those days of "unsustainable debt" as you like to put it. Thank you, no greater an endorsement could have been given. The 90s, the decade when we were one of the worlds richest clubs.

Which part is difficult for you sunshine? We were paying less than £5m per year in repayments on a debt of £60m when we were at least attempting (unsuccessfully I admit) to compete. We now have debts of £180m+ and, if we hit our target will lose about £15m this season. Our idea of success is finishing 17th. Our perceived direct competion is Blackpool and Wolves. Clubs such as Stoke laugh at us. Any part of that strike you as progress? To take your analogy, you borrow a ton off your old man to save £44 but instead of paying him back you keep borrowing and borrowing, another ton here, 50quid there, £200 for that sparkly dress. Are you better off than you would have been if you'd just paid the £44quid?

At least we'd have acted like a football club and not a market stall. Its a million more than we're paying out now and it couldnt be that expensive seeing as how Shepherd was doing it. Under your logic we might as well get rid of all the players we have and replace them with Bedlington Terriors. We'd save a fortune on wages and transfer fees, make a healthy profit in the window and be laughing all the way to the bank. Even if the £60m didnt get us into Europe it would have got us further up the league than we were and the extra revenue would have covered the interest payments. Rocket science it is not.

Those figures are me wracking my brain to remember the actual ones, Ive posted them somewhere on the board before though, at the time of the YWC campaign. Im fairly sure that the 8% and 15% are conservative estimates. EDIT: MY bad, overdraft payments are 12% so we were paying (under Ashley) £4.8m on our £40m overdraft, that was used to replace some of the £60m we had at a much lower interest rate under Shepherd.

Well I would have purchased high quality players with the £60m and stormed into Europe thereby increasing the turnover of the club by way more than the interest payments. Then with some of the extra income from Sky and European qualification I would have repaid the debt in the manageable timescales that it was already down to be paid in. I would have ploughed the additional profit from shirt sales generated from a top 6 Premiership campaign into the academy, ensuring that the cream of European (and more importantly local) young talent were seduced into joining us. The increased sponsorship income that would come with the successful football team would have been spent on improving the facilities within the ground, better in-house catering, plusher private boxes etc that would have ensured many happy customers leave with empty wallets at the end of the day. A small amount (a million or so) would have been invested in pushing the NUFC brand into the far east and USA. Getting the club known and admired in the way that Man United are, admiration abroad means merchandising sales go through the roof. Season on season Id then make funds available to the manager, trusting him and not some dwarf cunt with no respect for the club to purchase players that he felt would improve the team. These improvements would increase the clubs league position and get us into the Champions League where finally, Id look to use some of the tens of millions made from that to pay some of the loans off. The last half a million or so Id blow on getting the word Peasepud written in big letters across the top of the Gallowgate before paying some consultancy a small fortune to rename the ground Peasepudisfuckinglush@SJP.arse