peasepud

It has to be said, they're not exactly starting on a good footing

I've yet to catch this bloke being interviewed, I missed the SSN one, radio Newcastle and now this but from what Im hearing he comes across as a muppet which is a shame because the actual plan they have seems (to my non expert eye) to be quite a good and workable one. Put it this way, no matter how much Ive googled and read up on the method I cant find anything which shouts "dont invest!" Other than Mr Roberts of course, who seems to be doing his best to cock it up and for some reason this is springing to mind. What Id say is, ignore the muppet talking and wait and see what actually happens. It would be a shame if what may turn out to be a workable solution is tainted by the mutterings of the bloke fronting it.

...and I can't tell you how much I need them to win for my bet everyone else 2 goals up. Have you bet on the makems? not a proper fan tbh

cooooooooooooooooooooome on!!!!!!

I didnt know there was an Apple store in Newcastle?

Are you offering us more than a tenner?

Agreed, tbh the best chance we had for this season under the fat man would have been if we'd been bottom of the league after the first three games with 20k turning up. He would have shit bricks and (or at least any sane person would) either brought in players or at least not sold as many. As it is hes sitting there now thinking "this championsip larks a piece of piss, surely we dont need two keepers? and Sholas doing great so Carroll can go"

He needs barclays to agree that the overdraft can still exist under his ownership as currently it's underwritten by Fat Lad

Sweepstake on next weeks Ronnie headline? "Taylors heartbreak" is my guess

Not turned up for training this morning allegedly

Nowhere near happening.

The difference is in the actual cash that comes to Ash, Sideshow Bob could well have a future sale value clause where x% of the profit goes to his former club, theres nothing like that with Taylor, its cold hard cash. Same with Bassong, kid was on peanuts so was costing us bugger all but he went because the offer meant money in the pocket. Cynically, it also says sell off those you know are on Shearers "keep them" list, making it harder to carry out the plans he had, on a brighter note that may mean a sale is imminent and all this is out of spite. *my head hurts

I was thinking this yesterday while staring at the monstrosity that is the Sports Direct sign on the Gallowgate and it was bugging me. Whats to stop Ashley giving a long term contract for advertising to SD for peanuts? Could it be that we'll be saddled with that shit for years to come along with something like 30 or 40% of all the walkway banners while he reaps the benefits of having it seen by all and sundry? or is there something in place to stop that kind of thing?

I dont know, this isnt like any other business, this is emotional. Nobody builds an emotional tie to Marks and Spencers or Fenwicks, if they were dying then nobody would buy it for over the odds. Football is different, if the options were buy the club for £50m over the odds or watch it die then we, as fans would be busting a gut to raise the cash. Nothing, especially not finance, stands in the way of our love for this club. I think Ashley knows that and knows he can make money selling off players, slashing costs and using it as his own personal advertising space while never dropping the price because someone somewhere at some stage will crap themselves enough to pay it. He may drop the price again but only after hes recouped double the difference from the club.

ps please tell me your reasons why not ? Its simple, history tells us. For starters we have 11 days left of the transfer window. If the clubs not sold in the next 3 or 4 days then we will see those 6 players and possibly more leaving. So lets see how well we do without Barton, Smith, Taylor, Jonas, Sideshow Bob, Enrique or any other combination of £2m+ rated players. If we're still doing well come January then he'll sell whats left. So to define storm I mean get promoted by any means.

oh for fucks sake A hundred quid says we will not storm the league this season under Ashley.

And so it may be which is why we wouldnt endorse anything or even for that matter bother putting stuff out ourselves until we'd seen a robust plan. You know my views on those that seek publicity, Ive made it clear on here during the Profitable saga. At the same time though, we have to listen to what they have to say in at least the first instance. Maybe they have the most ground breaking and perfect plan, maybe not but until we've heard that plan and had experts in whatever field advise us then they would remain just another group of people who believe they can take over the football club and nothing to do with the Trust.

Im now in a position to give people more info on this Graham Roberts "bid". Yesterday when he was on SNN I was as much in the dark as everyone else because (quite rightly) we have small numbers of people involved in things rather than a dozen committee members charging round. Last week we were approached by a group asking to meet with us concerning a proposal that would involve some kind of fan ownership. We agreed to meet and two representatives went down to Scotch Corner where they had a conversation with representatives of an organisation calling themselves Fanbase. Very little, if any, detail was passed over concerning their plans although what little information we received was covered by a non disclosure agreement. We listened and we walked away, stating that without knowing the detail we would find it extremely difficult if not impossible to endorse their idea. The following day, Graham Roberts contacted us asking for an endorsement as he was going straight to the press; we declined (because still no detailed analysis had been conducted or instructed) and also suggested that until they had something substantive to show us we would recommended they hold back on press inclusion. We felt that Newcastle is awash with too many rumours and this type of press intrusion from certain quarters would not help. At this time they had not even made contact with either Seymour Pierce, Mike Ashley or Derek Llambias and to date I am not certain that they have. Since then we have had further contact with them but they still have not added a great amount of detail to that above. Yesterdays little statement from us was merely put out to stop the wild speculation and rumour that always follows this kind of thing, we needed to make it clear that this wasnt some "Roberts & NUSC joint bid" as was being mooted by him. The Trust has met and listenened to a number of ideas about how fans can become involved in the ownership of the club. At present we haven't endorsed any ideas but we are willing to talk to people who want to end the current farce at the club. If Fanbase mention the Trust then members should be in no doubt that we are not endorsing any idea at this stage and any decision would have to be ratified by our full membership. I think people should also understand that we arent sitting here saying that "such and such bid is great because it has fans representation included" while slating another which doesnt. Any takeover from people with the best interests of the football club at heart would be embraced by the Trust, its early days, most trusts havent gained any kind of representation while those that have usually take years to achieve or ultimately come about due to financial necessity. We're not in that position and hopefully never will be.

43,904 watch a relegated team without a manager, a hated owner and big names disappearing by the day take on Sheff Wed in the fizzy pop league, 24 hours earlier 41,179 turn up to watch the North Easts only Premiership club take on last seasons FA Cup winners. Not bad going lads, only 2,726 and you might just overtake us, maybe against Liverpool? or how about Man U? tell you what lets see how many turn up in January against Bolton eh? Saying that, we should hopefully have got rid of the fat lad by then all those that are protesting with their feet may be back. Big club? bollocks.

On SSN now saying how well Burnley played, how it was a fantastic goal and how they deserved the win. No biased ref? no cheating diving opponents? wtf??????

I don't trust this 'kingshearer', I've never heard of any Toon fan calling Shearer 'King', it's a title usually associated with Keegan. Plus anyone who signs up to a forum without using caps for the first letter of their name and has bad grammar is suspect... ... call me paranoid Sorry i thought this was a Toon forum not an English lesson It takes a while to understand the sense of humour on here at times, tell him to fuck off and he'll be fine.

Exactly, it'll be "I wonder what the thin Geordie bastard has done today" tbf though CT has hit the nail on the head, whoever takes over isnt going to be loaded, isnt going to throw a hundred million at the team and isnt going to be able to buy us success. Hopefully Moat would be able to stabilise and build on that over a period of time. Its not going to be weeks or months though, more than likely years.