peasepud

Definitely not, nobody can force him to sell up and I fear that if we do go up then we (the fans) have little chance of purchasing the club for at least another season, by that time the momentum will have gone from the campaign and the chance will be lost. Thats my personal view obviously but its starting to look bleaker as far as I can see, yes we have a plan which can feasibly raise the cash needed but the longer it takes the lower the chances are. That is assuming we gain promotion, lose this chance and like I said above the future is bleak for the club under Ashley and he would need to realise that the crowds we were getting were based on goodwill of the fans to get us back up there. A lot of that will be gone (as is showing now, attendances are dropping game by game) and turnover will drop even further. Maybe then Ashley will really be desperate to sell up. Trouble is I cant bring myself to hope for that scenario, even if the long term future of the club depends on it, I cant stand there and hope we fuck up promotion I wouldnt be a fan if I could do that. I think we're at a cross roads where we neither win or lose short term. Go up and we get Premiership football back but have another season of the selling/not selling circus married with little investment in the squad and another relegation battle. Stay down and we have the dross of Championship football to look forward to but this time there are at least 3 teams better placed to go up on the flip side we have a much better chance of getting this club out of Ashleys hands. Devil and Deep Blue sea I think.

Does anyone really want that though? As a football fan it should be all about the football, winning things, pride in your club, not merely ensuring the balance sheet works ahead of the team sheet. Manageable debt with a successful team is the only way to get on in this game. No club will ever amount to anything if it doesnt spend money. If we dont go up this season then I honestly believe this football club is destined to sink into obscurity and god knows what after that. Without the big money of the Premiership then we'll not have anything next season. We've had parachute payments and the sale of players this year while still retaining Premiership level attendances. Next Championship season would be a whole different ball game.

The reason you've softened is that there are some signs of green shoots and whatever we think of MA he's one shrewd fuck, he's certainly turned our finances around and next year he'll go into profit. Job done. The thing is though any football club can go into profit, that doesnt mean its a good thing for the club, merely a good one for the owner. Ashley hasnt got us on track through good football business hes done so through tightening the belt, thats not to say it wasnt needed but shaving 200+ members of loyal staff and closing parts of the ground down because you've lost sponsors, corporate customers and on the day fans isnt good business. I'll be impressed when he raises a profit by increasing the turnover to exceed the outgoings not by merely reducing the outgoings to below the turnover.

I dont think the portion of it is pie in the sky, as shown we have raised £50m so far so technicaly we could purchase half the club, whether that would actually work would be a totally different matter. As for backing the manager, yes he did appear to be doing so however he stopped doing that before the protests, that sudden lack of support is what got us to the position we are now. Selling players by lying to the manager and then buying ones KK didnt want was the start of this whole sorry mess.

I have to say Im amazed that more shit isnt sent Llambias's way. Hes the one running the show, hes the one making the decisions and hes the one standing there spouting shit. At the end of the day though Ashley holds ultimate responsibility, hes the one that can get rid of Dekka and hes the one who could make it work. Yes, if he was to make all the right moves and do all the right things including heavy investment then I could live with him, frankly just like I could live with any owner who ensured the right stuff would be done on the pitch. Trouble with Ashley though is the way in which hes done stuff. Thing is though, thats all pie in the sky, you me and everyone else knows he would never do what it takes to make things right. He'd never employ the right manager, invest the right money in the time and say the right things. As it goes, hes not sold anyone of any note in this window and has made some investment, not as much as I personally would have liked but then again I would have liked to make Chelsea, Man U and Man City offers they couldnt afford to turn down for their best players but thats not being realistic. I dont think thats enough to guarantee promotion but hes not done anything to dent our chances, maybe thats down to Taylors injury but even if so, it shows he has at least learnt something (and done one thing better than the Plc did when they sold Ferdinand) from his previous mistakes. Come September though and I reckon we'll be back to square one, no worthwhile purchases and nothing like the squad strengthening we desperately need. I dont see him ever coming close to making it work though. He'll always be on the lookout for the next cheap deal, the next way to shave a tenner off the outlay and the next chance he has to smooth the waters he'll cock it up. I may be able to selectively forget the things hes done but I will never be able to forgive what hes turned our football club into.

Kinnear wont do that, he'll work for tabs and move Hughton back to being a coach.

This. I hadnt thought about it but when you do think back you realise that back in the day, every minute of match day was concentrated on football. Match days for me would consist of: Grabbing a Journal to see the latest team news over breakfast Sticking Football Focus on while getting ready then heading into town Football talk in the pub, nothing else just football, basically you'd be catching up with people who you'd not communicated with for a fortnight. Two weeks worth of football news and rumour were discussed in those 2 or so hours. The game Back to the pub to analyse the match Grab a Pink on the way home to read about how the "experts" had seen it. Nowadays the match is virtually a distraction! I know personal circumstances etc have changed but generally going to the game is just that: park up, walk into the ground, watch the match, go home. Every move, every tackle is analysed on here, via text or on any one of the TV programmes/ channels dedicated to the game. My first realisation that it was going that way was the 98 Cup Final. To us it was special, a memorable weekend which couldnt be beaten yet on the tube there were Arsenal fans sitting reading the paper or nattering about gardening. To them it was nothing, because they lived close these blokes had washed the car in the morning, took the missus shopping and then wandered to the game. They were immune to the magic of the cup and that was a sad thing to see. The whole thing was then repeated a year later. Man U fans wandering out of Wembley not giving a shit that their team had won the game, it didnt matter to them, another day another trophy as such.

Thats the thing, the Ultras have the right idea but the implementation is all wrong, there needs to be some older heads in there and some new material. Back in my day "Your Support is fucking shit" was never sung, not even to Wimbledon who brought about 100 or so up, back then we abused that fact by singing songs about mini buses and shouting "Taxi". All a bit more comical than simply informing them how poor their attendance/ singing is. More importantly though we only did that when there was a reason, every single game, no matter how many away fans turn up or how loudly they sing, we still hear it sung.

Football in general has lost its soul frankly, In the past it was almost exclusively a male orientated domain, a place to go, be with your mates have a few beers before and after the game and while there, sing, shout abuse and generally get the entire weeks frustrations out of your system. Now its been gentrified and turned into a family event, that shouldnt be a bad thing but it has taken all the "fun" out of the match. Now we have gangs of 15 year old girls coming along because its a good place to meet lads or scream loudly at a player. Now, 20 minutes into the game we have lads wandering the ground looking for their seat with their girlfriends tottering along behind in high heels . As a kid I felt that I was part of something, a sort of belonging, in with the older lads in the Scoreboard, abusing those daft fuckers in the Corner (snowball fights at half time), singing, chanting and shouting abuse were all the norm. Nobody left early (at least not as far as I can remember) to get the bus or a good seat in the pub. Nobody went for a pint 15 mins before the first half ended (probably because there was no bar like!), we were all there for 90mins each and every game. As I got older and the ground changed I moved around and really saw the difference, I ahd a ST in the Leazes side of the East Stand when the away fans were in that corner and it was a good atmosphere but still nothing like how it used to be. Our success and style of play I think contributed to the way football evolved, suddenly people wanted to watch matches for which they had no loyalty, I honestly think we were there at the forefront of the "neutral revolution". The first time that people in large numbers would happily watch a team that wasnt their own and cheer them on. Sky may have given them the means to do that but I believe it was NUFC which gave them the reason. And so the Armchair fan was born, suddenly you were able to sit at home and watch us take on Man U rather than have a 6 hour round trip and abuse off Mancs/ Cockneys, it wasnt long therefore before people would think "what the fuck" I'll watch the home games on it as well and support started to drop off a little. For those who were growing up at this time, Sky was all they knew, a lot of parents would have thought it was easier and cheaper to get Sky in and test the bairn out on that before diving in with a ST. These kids therefore could pick and choose, could happily watch half a game, get bored and wander out the room. One thing that was missing was definitely the singing and chanting. You didnt do it at home so when the time came to finally go to a match on your own you werent conditioned into that way of thinking. Add in all seaters and all the soul has gone out of the game, now people give you a shitty look if you shout abuse and Im not talking racist or the like but just good old fashioned abusing a player for their lack of talent, skill, big arse, stupid haircut etc..... Its guaranteed that Terry wont get any real hefty abuse tonight from the Hull fans, 20 years ago there'd have been a dozen chants and songs developed overnight ready for him coming to town (I particulary liked the classic "wheres your drunken Centre Half" when Paul McGrath went AWOL before a game against us). Nobody can lead the "orchestra" as they used to, nobody can get a new chant going even though in this day and age it should be simple to come up with it and have a few thousand fans know how it goes within minutes thanks to places such as this. It just doesnt happen and thats the sad fact. EDIT: and that Ive just realised was my 10,000th post, fuck me Im glad I didnt waste it on a LOL

When you compare us to our nearest competitors then it doesnt look too bad Forest bought nobody West Brom took in Marucs Haber from Vancouver Whitecaps, a name I didnt recognise so a quick Wikipedia check tells you he had unsuccessful trials last year at Leeds, Hartlepool and Gillingham so not exactly a big move! Oh and he looks like the love child of Stephen Carr and Parker. So all in all, this window hasnt given us any major worries, we've not been strengthened to the quality I would have liked but then again neither have our competitors.

Surely you have to start wherever you are at the time?

I had made this ready however it isnt needed. To be fair, we've not sold anyone which makes a change, underwhelmed by the signings though, seriously no vision at all.

well that was underwhelming.

Allegedly theyve signed Beattie

I only laugh because their striker is Bent.

There are still 16 hours left in the transfer window, experience tells us that the fat man leaves it until the last minute to sell players. You can crow about how "great" a transfer window it was after it's closed

http://www.insideyoursearch.com/

Ive been desperately hunting out new stuff lately. Finally bothered to take a look at 30 Rock because it was on the BT replay thingy, Im now downloading the next series as its class. Also started to get into Modern Family which seems to be along the lines of Arrested Development which can only be a good thing. Ive also downloaded a couple of single episodes to try. Better off Ted Cougar Town (which I seriously dont hold out much hope for seeing as its got Courtney Cox in it) Nurse Jackie (missed it on TV). Hung And a couple of Dramas, missed the first couple of episodes of Flash Forward so didnt bother with that until now and something called the Forgotten from the makers of CSI. So far the only one Ive watched is the first episode of Better off Ted but it seems canny enough.

its alreet man, we're gonna piss the league ©Acca and then this time next season we'll be able to see us get humped off a ten man Burnley.

Out of interest, why would you want to look at photos while watching a movie and listening to an album all at the same time?

It's about as useful as the "rate this poster" feature I think. for that Ive just rated you as a 1

Oh so it's YOUR turn to want something now, is it? Nah im posting this cos im desperate to get my knob out on chat roulette FYI Although its FYP you muppet

imho touch screens work as a secondary input, give me a keyboard as well as that touch screen and things would be looking rosy. Somethings are made for touch and others for keyboard. I can see touch screen replacing the mouse functions to an extent but even then, how do you right mouse click to access other menus? Nope for me I just cant see touch screen being the future of PCs just the same as eye gestures (something which Ive played around with developing a couple of trial apps with) at first you think "fuck yeah!" after about 10 minutes use it gets irritating and tedious.