Park Life

Special mention to 'The Changeling'.

tbf I think he's trying to find some positives for the NUFC fans in this episode and, the money aside, there is none. I think his feelings for us as supporters are heartfelt, I don't think he fell out of love with NUFC just the people who bought it. Admittedly, we should have had more for him but then he's not in control of the transfer fee is he? He was clearly getting in a strop that the club hadn't accepted City's bid which led to him throwing a hissy fit and submitting his transfer request, clearly at this stage City hadn't matched the clubs evaluation of him (or ours tbh IE the £12m-£15m that most of us were suggesting) he is trying to justify his fee by comparing it to the fee the club initially paid, £1.5m, this is pathetic, ultimately we've lost a player worth considerably more than the £5m ish that we got, Shay Given may have been a phenomenal player for us, but I think he's a cock. At a guess the market value of this player is about 10m. 3rd best keeper in the PL after Cech and Reina.

Yup and these things have a habit of building very quickly. I said to Pud a few weeks ago that the first target should really be 5000.

tbh I think you'd find better managers in the fucking pub leagues than this self contradicting numpty. Don't give them ideas man!

That's it you're going in the thickest poster thread!!

Zog on JFK: "And he insists the silent treatment Kinnear gives his players is the reason he won't be having many sleepless nights if the Magpies do go down. He said: 'I had to move. I have been there for four years and nothing changed. Every year they would say "we will do this" or "we will do that" but nothing ever happened. 'I don't want to play for to survive relegation, I want to play at a club that is playing at the top of the league. 'It is good to have a manager who cares about you and asks you how you are. Somone who can really help you because you need that to play your best football. 'There was no conversation with Kinnear at all. I maybe spoke to him when there was something bad or if I played okay but he never spoke to me to explain why I was on the bench or something like that. He was the same with everyone."

Passion, fury and ideas: minutes from NUSC's latest meeting George Caulkin They came in their droves and nobody came alone; each person who stepped through the doors of the Tyneside Irish Centre carried with them love and commitment and decency. Some brought fury, some brought optimism and others desperation, some were moved to tears by the raw emotion. But nobody came alone. This was Newcastle, united. How do you collate the views of supporters who can fill a 52,000-seat stadium? How do you represent the generation of fans who have been priced out of football, or the exiles spread around the world? How do you speak for them and decide what your aims should be? Can it even be done? Should a club which has consistently taken its core support for granted be confronted or engaged? These were, and are, some of the difficult (and almost irreconcilable) questions facing the Newcastle United Supporters Club (NUSC), a body established in the wake of Kevin Keegan’s departure as manager this season and still in its formative stages. They were debated at a well-populated, articulate and spirited open meeting on Wednesday night. Here are some random observations. 1. Your club needs you. Grave concern was an obvious, overwhelming theme of the evening; concern that relegation is a real possibility, concern that Newcastle’s ownership has been more interested in asset-stripping than squad-building, concern that after too much grim football and too many broken promises, fellow supporters are on the brink of giving up and walking away. 2. Should I stay or should I go? How to channel that concern is a thorny problem. Boycott home matches? A divisive proposition impossible for most to contemplate – you support the shirt. Cancel season-ticket direct debits? A tactic which would hit Mike Ashley in the pocket, but would also mean sacrifice given that buying individual match tickets is more expensive. 3. Anger is an energy. Should the NUSC stand under a simple banner – Ashley out? Again, this is not a straightforward issue; not for everybody, anyway. On one hand, the evidence of incompetence is everywhere, from the £8 million profit made in the last transfer window, the league position, the baffling lack of communication, the botched appointment of a recruitment department. For some, Ashley, Derek Llambias and Dennis Wise are symbols of a club which is self-destructing; reason enough to protest, demand their removal and call for change. And yet Ashley has already tried and failed to sell the club and that presents a dilemma. There are those who argue that attempting dialogue is the only sensible way forward. Finding consensus here is probably NUSC’s greatest challenge. 4. Where’s Waldo? Needless to say, Ashley did not buy a round of drinks at the Irish Centre; he seems to have stopped doing that. Wise wasn’t there. Neither was Llambias, although the hitherto invisible managing director will be answering questions from readers of two local newspapers on Friday. Some suggestions were made. Most of them were even printable. On a related subject, here’s Joe Kinnear on Thursday morning. “The guys at the top know they need to communicate better, which is why they are speaking to the two local papers. I think they will sit down with supporters’ groups and fans and the people of Newcastle at the end of the season – I know they want to do that.” So why not now, when the loyalty of their supporters is needed more than ever? 5. NUSC 4 NUFC. The people running the supporters club are smart and enthusiastic, motivated by passion not ego. They have a committee, a treasurer, an official website (www.newcastle-united-supporters-club.co.uk) and many have lost money for a cause they believe in. It has taken time. The contributions of influential, independent voices such as true faith, The Mag and nufc.com have been vital. 6. Lights, camera, action. So what happens next? For one thing, visibility is required. The NUSC intends to remind people that it exists, that they have a collective voice. They will step up their media campaign. If invited, they will take their message into local communities, dispatching representatives to pubs and clubs to canvas support, raise awareness and ask for guidance. On February 22, prior to the home game against Everton, there will be a rally (note the choice of word – rally) at the Monument in Newcastle’s city centre. A recommendation put forward at the meeting was that t-shirts promoting the NUSC could be distributed outside St James’ Park, issuing a statement to the Newcastle hierarchy. Look at us; you can’t ignore this. 7. There is power in a union. Why do we love football? Is it the escapism, the drama, the glitz and the talent? Or is it what Sir Bobby Robson has described as “the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city?” Perhaps some of those bonds are being stretched for Newcastle supporters, but there is an alternative to helplessness. It is fragile and these are early days, but it is there. As Neil Mitchell, one of NUSC’s committee members, put it, “We’re tired of the divisions within the fanbase. It feels like divide and rule and these divisions are easily exploited by the club. There’s only one way to bring everyone together and that’s through having a shared voice. We want to find common ground, and move forward. If the Supporters’ Club can achieve that, then brilliant.” There are common misconceptions about all supporters, but Newcastle’s have suffered from repeated, lazy stereotyping, particularly this season. In part, the club are to the blame for that – during Ashley’s tenure they have never attempted to promote a positive image of themselves, to fill the vacuum. But those stereotypes were never in evidence at the Irish Centre. Newcastle, united.

Sell them outside the ground before matches and from the website?? Get free ads on TF and .coma

Probably win this easy knowing our penchant for freakery.

By Simon Bird, the Daily Mirror's man in the North-East 5/02/2009 I wonder what Mike Ashley, Derek Llambias, Dennis Wise and Joe Kinnear were doing last night? I know where the four men pulling the strings at Newcastle United should have been. Listening. Learning. Getting connected with some of the club's most passionate, intelligent, concerned fans. No-one from Newcastle United attended the latest Newcastle United Supporters Club meeting at the Tyneside Irish Centre. Typical of the club's current distain for knowing how their "customers" really feel. (However a club employee did have the cheek to hand the organisers a bundle of ads promoting corporate hospitality at St James' Park!) Yet 250 Newcastle fans did turn up at the latest meeting of this fledgling organisation (membership 800, with 6,000 emails of supoort to work through). It is ironic that these fans were communicating with each other during a period when, disgracefully, precious little communication is coming from the men in charge of the club.. The misconception about Newcastle fans is that they are a bunch of impatient fools who drive manager after manager out in their desperation for success, always jumping around in tracksuits in front of Sky cameras, and crying on television when it doesn't go their way. Wrong. Forty years without a trophy, and they still get 50,000 at matches. Not challenged for the league for a decade, and still the Geordies turn up. Supporting United is a way of life up here, not a fleeting glory-seeking diversion on a Saturday afternoon. In reality all Newcastle fans want is a well-run club. Where they are being listened to. Where they feel the hierarchy are regularly communicating with them. They want to have their grievances (and there are many) heard, and acted on. They want the men in charge to outline their vision. Explain what the grand plan is. And to be respected by owner, chairman, manager for their loyalty and the hard earned cash they spend at St James's Park. No surprise then that there was discontent and frustration expressed as the microphone was passed around the room on Wednesday night. Hard questions were asked by the men and women who want some "positive change" at St James's Park. Why does Mike Ashley not show leadership and speak to the fans? Why is an official well organised supporters club not being embraced by the man in charge? (emails and letters sent to the owner have been ignored, with no replies). These disenfranchised people are the foundations of the club.

Doublespeak.

"He wants to see how things work..."

I am certain of one thing as I told Chez last year one day the people will own this club. It will happen.

The team we put out deserves full support. So imo it's counterproductive at this point to mess with the games. T-shirts is highly visible thing and will spread and be a source of income. No pies etc is also good. The next thing is NUSC must find a consistent line and broadly agreed platform.

"The regime". He's got that right.

Sat recon and all that. Sounds very interesting. I studied that for a bit and found the concept interesting but the actually practical work was incredibly dull. For the record I'm doing a geography degree, so yeah I guess I'm not a true "academic", but I will hopefully have some kind of job upon graduation. I see that as a sensible aim personally. I'd hope I don't come out of uni having learned all about the credit crunch then not get a job because of it. Not getting a job straight away can often be a good thing. Try blagging your way into careers totally unsuited but wildly overpaid first. I'd love to try that It's the norm in London. When I worked there everyone was in the wrong job, but with dizzying remuneration. Wink wink.

"Iv got love for you if you were born in the 80's....the 80's" Thats probably why i think your a cockend then.... No animosity here. I just think you're a bit thick. The thick or summink will inherit the world apparently.

Agree. Like those rumours about players asking for meetings with Wise a few months ago. I believe Shay was the spokesperson.

Anybody got a link to this?

I forgot you were the modern day Aristotle, i bow infront of the, the whom is holder of great wisdom. Alex have an opnion mate and smile, you mite like it! Stop posting drivel man. Well stop then... That doesn't even make sense you half wit. If only I could figure out how to do a poll on the thicko thread.

It's like the Manhattan project all over again.

The Keegler