peasepud

So true yet so, so sad.

Mug I said.

Surely, a recent armed robbery is the last thing you want when selling a Post Office? For Sale District Post Office in a beautiful sedate country village, turnover circa £100k, freehold. Recently seen on BBC Crimewatch under headline of "Vicious armed raid, have you seen these men?".

Is that Old Tom Morris? The Old Tom Morris? Its a shitetip, as I said in a previous post, remnants of a burnt out Ford Fiesta on one of the fairways! Hopefully GL can sort it out though. Well done Geordie Lad.

I hadnt bothered putting the news on this morning. Arrived at 5.45 for my 6.45 Heathrow flight, walked through the door to a scene of chaos, hundreds of lost looking people just staring at the Departures board. My easy day in Oxfords gone out the window, now Im sat back in the office

I'll put that in pride of place alongside the Relegation 2009 plate.

Unfortunately though we have that in the Beefy bloke, a man whos not been seen all season in the seat he was in on Saturday. Saturday comes and hes there right next to the cameras looking for his chance to get his top off and be front page. The likes of him courting the camera does us no good.

you make me smile on a dreary day So do you, you lambast everyone who has an opinion on what they think may happen in the coming seasons and then you write as if you are privy to the inner workings of the Sports Direct Empire I dont lambast anyone for having an opinion, what I have a problem with is people ignoring the facts that have come out of the club and somehow magically believing that Ashley has suddenly seen the light and will spend what is needed to ensure we at least do what we would all expect and thats to get as high up the league as possible. The facts are that the club has set a low wage structure and constraints on purchases. Players under 26 costing less than a million was one quote while the wages has been clearly said a number of times to be under £15k p/w. More worrying though was the statement of "with a resale value", yes it makes sense to not spend £10m on a player who in two years wont recoup that but to turn us into a selling club is not football. Add in the mix that we have shite players here currently who are on double that and you've got a problem. Which self respecting 25 year old who wants to win things is going to come to a club who clearly show no ambition, a club whos stated aim is to survive? Which Premiership quality players are going to move to a club and play regular first team football while Alan Smith warms the bench on 30k? For that matter, do you think that the likes of Routledge, Guthrie, Lovenkrands etc are happy to put in their shifts while that goes on? Do you think we have any chance of holding onto those players when they can move to the likes of Stoke, Birmingham, Makems etc and earn more than they do here, stand a chance of playing in Europe and play alongside some better quality experienced players, players who can help their career flourish? I dont think so. You seem to think that there are only two options here, spend bugger all and do nothing or spend a fortune on "trophy players". None of us (or at least not me) think that we are in any position to go out and buy Ronaldo, Rooney or anyone else costing anything like £15m nor am I saying we do that. What you need to do though is get a sensible balance of experience, quality and youth to allow you to do more than survive. Doing that requires spending 4,5,6m on a player and paying them what they would get down the road. As HF is saying, aim for 17th and the slightest problem you're goosed. Aim for 10th and you've got 7 places you can fall and still be safe. All we ever talk about with NUFC these days is profit margins and balance sheets, all thats ever discussed with those is cutting back on player wages and purchase costs. There are two ways to make a healthier balance sheet. One is to raise the income the other is to reduce the costs. Both work but one is more successful than the other. Which do you think we're going for here? What happened to the days of increasing the revenue? raising the bar by promoting better football and potential success then using that to attract further investment? Nothing ever appears to be done at this club for that, getting a better balance sheet is all one sided and thats the Sports Direct way. Employ staff on minimum wage, pile it high, sell it cheap. So the products crap? so what? these people will buy it because its cheaper than the shop down the road. It works for a shop selling cheap tat, we're not that, we're a football club and a football clubs only priority should be to be as successful as they can. Cups, Europe, the League, it all generates income, it all gets people buying the shirts and attending the games. It gets you sponsorship deals of £15m not 6, it fills your corporate areas where companies pay tens of thousands to have a box. Do you think these companies with offices in the North East have any affinity with the club? No. They purchase a box because its a good way to entertain potentail clients, they get a good day out, good atmosphere and some exciting football, give the client a day to remember and you've got a chance of that multi million pound contract. If they cant get that here then they'll buy a box 8 miles down the road where they'll see a club who are pushing towards the top ten and looking like they'll try for something. That is why our football club is flawed.

you make me smile on a dreary day

I'd agree with that. So far the ambition has not been shown. Certainly not prior to the relegation. Whether any is shown in this off-season remains to be seen. I think we'll see a moderate amount in the interest of Ashley protecting his financial interests in the club. Further than that is impossible to predict but based on what we've seen it's unlikely that we'll ever see true ambition from Ashley. I think the words coming directly out of Hughtons mouth show that, he knows hes got little to no money to spend, either that or he actually is deluded in believing this squad is capable of standing its own in the big boys league. For all our sakes I hope its the latter because its a lot easier to replace a deluded manager than a clueless board.

Yes, but you have to show a plan, an ability and more importantly a desire to get to those places in time otherwise no player with any kind of ambition will touch us with a barge pole. We're not therefore we'll never attract the required talent be it now or in 5 years.

I understand your enthusiasm, but dont say this outside of here. NUFC celebrating a return to the premier league is embarrassing I think its safe to say that every reply to this so far has been accompanied by a great big

laughable tbh, you've dreamt that havent you? Ashley has no intention of spending "big" in fact he has no intentions of spending "medium" or even "sensible". Their model is clear, buy it cheap, pay it peanuts and then when the product shows any kind of profit sell it on only in this case the product isnt shirts or shoes but players. Getting into Europe is not even on the radar because its not part of the plan. Yes, if somehow we make it then he'll be laughing all the way to the bank but its irrelevant to him other than being another income stream. The "mistakes" of the past are just that, mistakes, slip ups. The model was right, the plan (even if LM says there wasnt one ) worked however it fell down by some purchases not living up to their already proven ability. We are no longer a football club, we're a diversification of Sports Direct, another arm of the company, another income for Ashley.

Apologies if this has already been posted, cant be arsed to look http://mydavidcameron.com/

Seriously? It has to be said, that one took me by surprise

As said above, another sterling article from Mr Caulkin, shame he didnt start it with "to my colleagues at the Times..."

Absofuckinglutely not

Colo never went off, we had 3 subs Ameobi for Simpson, Taylor for Kadar and Barton for Nolan.

If at the end of last season we had escaped relegation by that one point and then went on to make the same sales and purchases would you be looking forward to the season? I wouldnt.

Im not going to sniffers for tea

Come on West Brom!!!!

Redknapp for Sunderland!

and so it begins

As a shady West road bookie, Gillespie gets my vote every time.

The bird in the red looks more like him than that baldy bloke does!