Derek comes out fighting

[Christmas Tree 4831]

Newcastle United will head to Middlesbrough on Saturday aiming to strengthen their leadership of the Championship and Llambias has warned that continued barracking of the sports retail tycoon at the Riverside could undermine the promotion challenge.

"The team enjoys the support of a great and loyal fan-base and we all appreciate that and the positive effect it has on the players," Llambias said.

 

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"That said, the following comments are aimed at a small and very negative group that despite the efforts on and off the pitch, still insist on chanting ugly and abusive comments about the club's owner, Mike Ashley, especially away from home where we need that 12th man most.

"We are doing all we realistically can to get this great football club back up to the Premier League and despite the abuse directed at him by that section of supporters, Mike continues to underline his commitment by pumping in money.

"That negativity doesn't help the atmosphere and certainly doesn't help the players. We are trying to create a positive, family atmosphere inside this great stadium, something we have underlined by extending our family area for next season and beyond."

Llambias, who runs the club for Ashley, defended his paymaster who remains a villain of the peace is some supporters' eyes and is held responsible for the club's relegation from the Premier League last season.

"I have tried hard to ignore this abuse but frankly something needs to be said." Llambias added.

"Let me set the record straight about Mike's commitment to Newcastle United. Since the beginning of the season he has pumped in £25.5 million into this football club and this week a further £5 million was needed.

"In addition to these amounts, Mike, realising the need to bring in new faces and back his manager's request, spent £5.5 million in the January transfer window.

"This cash, as with all the funds that Mike has put in is interest-free. This money in critical and is needed to cover the shortfall between what we bring in as a club income - and what we pay out in costs.

"Not all football clubs have such a benefactor and some are on the verge of bankruptcy or have already gone into administration."

Llambias also took a swipe at the Newcastle United Supporters' Trust which was set up to give fans representation on the club's board.

"The supporters' trust, surely a well intentioned initiative by a group of loyal NUFC supporters is simply not realistic," Llambias said.

"It is time this group also got behind the management so we can all move forward in a positive manner with the same objective -we all want to see our club in the top flight and successful.

"It is time to move on, draw a line under what has gone on in the past, stop the negativity and concentrate on giving the team complete, 100 per cent support."

[peasepud 59]

One day, just once Id like to read a Dekka statement that didnt involve telling us how "fantastic Mike is", live with the abuse you idiot and stop trying to put all the ills of this football club on the heads of the fans. You got us into this mess, you get us out of it but whether you like it or not, you'll not change the way you're viewed by the fans with statements such as this.

 

[Kitman 2207]

This sort of thing just goads the fans more. He should keep his trap shut.

[JawD 99]

What a total fucking prick. Why is it any little comment he makes boils my piss? Doesnt the thick twat not realise that the reason Mike alledgedly has to put money into the club is because we were relegated? Now, does he know why we were relegated and largely who's fault it was?

 

Idiot.

[Monkeys Fist 43075]

I now fully expect our support to realise the error of their ways and pay their money and shut their mouths.

Club sanctioned songsheets will be handed out at the next home game. Anyone caught singing non-sanctioned songs will be asked to sit nicely in the directors box, where they can feel the love of REAL fans.

 

Club Sanctioned Song 1a;

Ee aye ee aye ee aye o

Up the Champeenship we go

If we hear you moaning

This is what we'll sing

"We are grateful

Ever so grateful

Big Mike is our King! ( and a lovely bloke to boot). "

[Christmas Tree 4831]

aNd the Guardians take on it.....

 

 

Mike Ashley is seeking a rapprochement with those Newcastle United fans whose militant demeanour has put an end to his once famous nights out on the Toon. The Newcastle owner's often controversial modus operandi has been staunchly defended by Derek Llambias, the managing director, who revealed that Ashley recently invested a further £25m in a club he now shows no sign of trying to sell.

 

Llambias is saddened that, even though Chris Hughton's team top the Championship, some supporters continue to abuse Ashley throughout matches and seem unable to forgive him for allowing Kevin Keegan to leave St James' Park before presiding over last season's relegation from the Premier League.

 

"That needs to stop," said Llambias, referring to the abuse. "Enough's enough. It frustrates me because we know what we've done behind the scenes and what Mike's committed to financially. We'd like to be able to go out on the town after a win – we always used to – and enjoy the crowd but it's very difficult for us to do that now. We understand we've made mistakes but they happened. Now we need to move forward."

 

Llambias and Ashley – once regulars in Bigg Market watering holes such as Blu Bambu – have been accused, with considerable justification, of a failure to communicate properly with the fans but the former said: "Whenever we've tried to communicate it's always ended up backfiring somewhere along the line. We're quite happy now to sit back and let our team do the talking."

 

How long will it be Ashley's team though? "The club's not for sale," said Llambias. "Mike took it off the market. He's decided that's it, he's going to back it as much as he can. He's committed to getting it up to the Premier League. That's why we spent so much money, why we spent £5.5m on new players in the January transfer window.

 

"We are going to carry on, put the club back to where it needs to be and move it along on our original business plan. With promotion we'll be able to grow and, two years down the line, we'll have a much better pot for buying players."

 

While the original Ashley plan featured a continental-style director of football, namely Dennis Wise, it is thought this aspect of the owner's blueprint has been scrapped. However, Newcastle now refuse to buy players over the age of 26 as they want every signing to have re-sale value and impose a strict wage ceiling on new recruits.

 

Not that Llambias wants to give the impression Ashley is cheapskating. "Mike put £25m into the club in December to keep it going," he said. "We needed to support our manager in January and we spent £5.5m on the team. We are fully committed."

 

Unfortunately an element of Newcastle fans still cannot wait to see the back of Llambias and Ashley. "It's just a very small minority," said Llambias. "There's no reality about them."

 

In his view, such dissenters cannot see that, in attempting to cut costs, Ashley has been a prophet in the footballing wilderness. "Slowly reality is coming into football - look at Portsmouth and West Ham," said Llambias. "The reality is football is not what it was."

[Christmas Tree 4831]

A cracking article here from the northern echo that really tells it as it is.

 

AS part of his ongoing charm offensive, Derek Llambias used last weekend’s programme notes to issue the following missive to Newcastle United supporters: “If it wasn’t for Mike’s (Ashley) continued input, I genuinely think we would be in a similar position to the one Portsmouth find themselves them in at this moment.”

 

At which point, it’s easy to call his bluff and reply: “What? You mean still in the Premier League and looking forward to an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley?”

 

After months of media silence, Llambias has put his head above the parapet repeatedly in the last few weeks in an attempt to recast the Ashley regime as saviours rather than scoundrels, victims instead of perpetrators.

 

“A small and very negative group...still insist on chanting ugly and abusive comments about the club’s owner Mike Ashley,” he went on. “I have tried to ignore this abuse but frankly something needs to be said.”

 

Like a stern schoolmaster ticking off an errant pupil, Llambias has just about had enough of it. Much more of the negativity, and he’s going to take away his ball.

 

The initial response, in the face of such misplaced piety, is to trot out the list of lies, mistakes and crises that have discredited the Ashley regime.

 

But is there a kernel of truth to some of Llambias’ comments? Had Ashley not bought out Freddy Shepherd, might Newcastle have been in a far worse state than they are now?

 

Even his most hardened critic would have to concede the possibility of such a scenario.

 

Newcastle were in a financial mess when Ashley arrived on the scene, with a catalogue of ill-advised signings, unaffordable wage packages and badlystructured commercial deals contributing to a balance sheet that was rapidly spiralling out of control.

 

The sportswear magnate has pumped in £280m of his own money to reduce the debt to a manageable level, and unlike the scenario currently playing out at Manchester United and Liverpool, his investment has been in the form of interest-free loans rather than packages that have saddled the club with even more debt.

 

He has come up with more than £30m this season just to keep Newcastle afloat, and provided £5m of transfer fees during the January window to increase the likelihood of an immediate return to the Premier League in May.

 

While high-earning players left last summer, he resisted the temptation to sell all and sundry, preferring instead to retain the highest wage bill in the Championship in the hope that it would result in promotion.

 

Financially, it is hard to pick holes in much of what he has done, but the question Llambias should be asking himself, rather than simply lauding Ashley’s supposed largesse, is why his boss has been forced to act in such a manner.

 

Ultimately, the answer is twofold. One, because he inexplicably failed to complete a full process of due diligence and therefore did not appreciate the full extent of what he was getting himself into when he bought out Shepherd.

 

And two, because a series of disastrous policies – the appointment of Kevin Keegan, the promotion of Dennis Wise, the purchase of Xisco and Ignacio Gonzalez, the dismissal of Keegan, the appointment of Joe Kinnear, the list is just about endless – led to Newcastle’s relegation to the Championship.

 

If Ashley hadn’t messed up so disastrously last season, Newcastle wouldn’t have been relegated. And if Newcastle hadn’t been relegated, Ashley wouldn’t have had to dig into his pockets to bail the club out.

 

Make no mistake about it, the millionaire businessman hasn’t splashed out £30m since last summer because he’s desperate for his club’s supporters to enjoy a promotion party. This isn’t some sort of altruistic crusade to improve Tyneside’s collective mood.

 

If Ashley had been able to sell the club last summer, he would have been counting his pennies in the sunset by now.

 

Because he was unable to find a buyer, though, he finds himself stuck with a diminishing asset.

 

Any businessman in that position has two choices.

 

They either cut their losses and get out as quickly as they can, or they speculate to accumulate in the hope that things will eventually get better.

 

Option one was never really available. Had Ashley not found the money to keep Newcastle going this season, the club would have gone into administration and as by far the biggest creditor, he would have walked away with next to nothing.

 

So instead, he invested the minimum required to keep things ticking over.

 

Stumble through to the end of the season, win promotion to the Premier League, and suddenly a club worth less than £100m is back on the market for double that price.

 

It’s the reality of the business world, and while Ashley can hardly be blamed for protecting his asset, so he should not be praised for looking after number one either.

 

Not when it is little more than a year-and-a-half since Wise was allowed to sign a player he had only seen on You Tube as a ‘favour’ to two South American agents.

 

Not when it is only six months since the Keegan tribunal ruled that Newcastle officials had systematically misled the club’s supporters.

 

And not when it is only four months since the controversial decision to sell the naming rights to St James’ Park and sweep away more than a century of history in the process.

 

As Newcastle supporters watch events unfold at Portsmouth, they will begrudgingly accept that things could be worse.

 

But as they glance towards the directors box at St James’, they will also conclude that they could be an awful lot better. And for all of Llambias’ protestations, it will be a long time before that situation changes.

 

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[Gejon 2]

How did these people ever manage to get where they are

[Monkeys Fist 43075]

: "Whenever we've tried to communicate it's always ended up backfiring somewhere along the line. We're quite happy now to sit back and let our team do the talking."

 

 

D'you think he means being proved as liars?

Take your own advice Dekka- stfu and watch the match.

[Gejon 2]

: "Whenever we've tried to communicate it's always ended up backfiring somewhere along the line. We're quite happy now to sit back and let our team do the talking."

 

 

D'you think he means being proved as liars?

Take your own advice Dekka- stfu and watch the match.

 

So what was the message the team put across last season?

[Sonatine 11545]

He says every time they try to communicate it backfires, maybe that's because he comes out with antagonistic bollocks?

[Gejon 2]

He says every time they try to communicate it backfires, maybe that's because he comes out with antagonistic bollocks?

 

"We got your relegated? So Mike has put plenty of money into the club so stop fucking moaning you bunch of ugly pricks!"

 

"Doesn't matter what we say, it always backfires "

[snakehips 0]

Two things.

 

Firstly, this appears like an attempt at the classic divide and conquer i.e. get the fans [who 'support' MA and Dekka] to shout down the 'not reasonable' ones.

 

Secondly, if it is just a tiny minority, why the need to go overboard about them so much Dewick ??????

[Monkeys Fist 43075]

: "Whenever we've tried to communicate it's always ended up backfiring somewhere along the line. We're quite happy now to sit back and let our team do the talking."

 

 

D'you think he means being proved as liars?

Take your own advice Dekka- stfu and watch the match.

 

So what was the message the team put across last season?

Pipe down, you're being unreasonable.

[ewerk 31209]

AS part of his ongoing charm offensive, Derek Llambias used last weekend’s programme notes to issue the following missive to Newcastle United supporters

 

I can't think of a more charmless man tbh.

[Gejon 2]

AS part of his ongoing charm offensive, Derek Llambias used last weekend’s programme notes to issue the following missive to Newcastle United supporters

 

I can't think of a more charmless man tbh.

 

I find his charm quite offensive tbf.

[Howmanheyman 33850]

What can you say about dekka? He's almost becoming a parody of himself now.

 

One thing thing to bear in mind though. It's obviously pissing him and his master off. You can be sure of that. Rule one in the school yard/workplace/bar, don't bite. Looks like we've reeled a couple of whoppers in here, like. I expect the away support to respond to someone who's 'bit' by cranking it up some more. The blokes a classic bulls knacker.

[JawD 99]

Oh and another thing [/columbo]

 

He reminds me of a shite sales person. I've seen them come and go over the years. They look at the worst performer and say "hey, at least I'm not that bad - things could be worse" rather than looking at the better performers and saying "thats what I/we aspire to".

 

Did I mention the bit about him being a twat?

[Ayatollah Hermione 14053]

You'd think that they would take the time to read forums such at this one to see the opinions of fans and then adjust these statements because of it. Of course, that would require a bit of intelligence and effort so I can see why they stick their head in the sand and deny it's all their fault.

[TheMoog 0]

The really sad thing is they've never been able to come out and openly admit they lied to the fans, rather they'd like to continue lying and hope nobody notices.

[Monkeys Fist 43075]

What's staggering is that the Chairman of a business feels it's ok to express such barely concealed contempt for arguably his most loyal customers.

Unless of course the one man above fully agrees with this contempt.

[Sonatine 11545]

He comes from a Casino background where PR works a little differently i think. You suck up to the rich customers and send Rocko and Moose round to kneecap the non-paying ones

[JonGoodwyn 1]

Does the part where he mentions Ashley's cash input being 'interest free' mean he's expecting it back at some point?

[Happy Face 29]

Didn't they get new public relations people in?

 

"The fans have been incredible. It's understandable how they feel at the moment and everyone at the club is doing everything they can to repay the continued outstanding support."

 

Repeat to fade.

 

It couldn't be more simple.

[acrossthepond 878]

Scum.

 

Ashley is feeding our club poison and every so often Dekka comes along to tell us what idiots we are, it's actually Turkish delight and we should be asking for more.