Newcastle United - Chaos, Confusion and the Sound of Silence

[Happy Face 29]

This is the one time of the year when all football supporters should be able to dream that this could be their season, however unlikely that dream might be.

 

For Newcastle United fans recent months have been more of a nightmare, minimal net investment in players and key players in a war of words with the club hierarchy. As it stands now, we have lost last season's two top goalscorers and arguably the two most creative players in the current squad are almost certain to follow. Some of you may not be too impressed with Enrique and Barton washing the club's dirty linen in public but there can be no denying that the club have handled the situation badly, while exactly what the new signings make of this is anybody's guess.

It can only be a bad state of affairs when fans rely on this public war of words to gauge what is happening at the club.

 

What are NUST doing? Our recent survey of thousands of Newcastle fans made it quite clear that supporters wanted the club to communicate much better with the fans and it was strongly felt that the Trust should attempt to open lines of communication with the people running Newcastle United. The Trust board had actually already approached the club to try and start talking, despite being rebuffed we redoubled our efforts and pointed to the fact that thousands of the club's own customers (supporters!) were now telling us via the survey, that the best way forward was for the only democratic and organised fans' body (NUST) to talk with the club and try and work together for the benefit of everybody. Needless to say this honest and open approach was again rejected. Fans are in the dark and the lack of communication has created a void which leaves most of us fearing the worst in the coming season, supporters don't expect trophy signings but they do expect those inside the club doing everything they can to work with the people who care about the club and only want a healthy and successful Newcastle United.

 

As well as community initiatives such as 'Local Achievers' and working towards the launch of a Junior Trust, the Trust board continue to work behind the scenes to put plans in place that would give fans the best chance of owning a sizeable stake in Newcastle United if the chance ever presents itself. Many people including numerous highly qualified and experienced people are giving their time for free, if the chance ever presented itself we know it would be a massive undertaking for NUST to help organise the fans to own a stake and so preparations continue to be made.

 

Please take a minute to consider rejoining us, every extra person makes a difference by adding their support to the cause of the fans of Newcastle United. Together we'll all one day help to create the Newcastle United we all dream of, RENEW HERE and help us take another step nearer to that day.

 

"There's fuck all we can do collectively...send us £10 a year though!"

[Guest alex]

Just received that as well.

[Kitman 2207]

Useless fuckers. They'd be sat round a table debating composite 22 regarding the amendment to the trust constitution while Fat Ash dismantled SJP and sold it as pig iron.

[JawD 99]

I got that as well

 

Talk about fucking cheek. They are trying to cash in one clear unrest. Fuckwits. I have ZERO faith on that lot to sign up for info only let along pass any cash for them to waste.

[Tom 14013]

I didn't even read the email.

 

They are useless.

[Guest alex]

Love how they try and make out they've been doing stuff then basically proceed to admit they've been doing absolutely fuck all.

[Gemmill 46127]

"Many people including numerous highly qualified and experienced people..."

 

people people

[Gene_Clark 12]

Far better for 152 orange away shirted self selected ultra uber shoe waving superfan messiahs to do a solo sponsored Poznan while screaming "CONFORM! CONSUME! OBEY!" at half time in the Arse game, in support of a mardy, pampered millionaire ex con who has been committing serious professional misconduct on line, for the purpose of persuading Ashley to do what they tell him........

[StevenL 0]

Far better for 152 orange away shirted self selected ultra uber shoe waving superfan messiahs to do a solo sponsored Poznan while screaming "CONFORM! CONSUME! OBEY!" at half time in the Arse game, in support of a mardy, pampered millionaire ex con who has been committing serious professional misconduct on line, for the purpose of persuading Ashley to do what they tell him........

 

Sure I've seen this post before. Are you just copying and pasting the same post in different topics?

[Guest alex]

Howay man GC, you're better crack on your blog.

[Gene_Clark 12]

Ok, serious response.....

 

As I see it there are 2 possible ways forward for Newcastle fans, neither of which involves a half arsed, pissed bunch of mongs gesticulating at the club offices on saturday week.

 

There needs to be a meeting called of all fan groups; the 3 fanzines, various blogs, messageboards and other groups. representatives from each aren't elected, but show willingness by their passion. get together and thrash out a sort of joint way forward - like the Irish left did in the recent election there.

 

Use the energy & consensus to either set up a loose amalgam of a republic of letters to bring pressure on board with regular, organised, disciplined protests - not pissed shoe waving or crap ideas like the Poznan.

 

If a consensus like this can't be achieved, then en masse, rejoin NUST & take it over, then return it to its campaigning original ideals (not the terrible NU$C idea though).

 

We need to be organised, united & equal - no egos or media darlings wanted.

[JawD 99]

Ok, serious response.....

 

As I see it there are 2 possible ways forward for Newcastle fans, neither of which involves a half arsed, pissed bunch of mongs gesticulating at the club offices on saturday week.

 

There needs to be a meeting called of all fan groups; the 3 fanzines, various blogs, messageboards and other groups. representatives from each aren't elected, but show willingness by their passion. get together and thrash out a sort of joint way forward - like the Irish left did in the recent election there.

 

Use the energy & consensus to either set up a loose amalgam of a republic of letters to bring pressure on board with regular, organised, disciplined protests - not pissed shoe waving or crap ideas like the Poznan.

 

If a consensus like this can't be achieved, then en masse, rejoin NUST & take it over, then return it to its campaigning original ideals (not the terrible NU$C idea though).

 

We need to be organised, united & equal - no egos or media darlings wanted.

 

See, you can do a good post

 

Completely agree. Shoe waving or whatever is cringe worthy and just feeds the sky camera's with no impact. Hastily arranged fan groups fizzle out to two blokes and a dog waving their fist in the concourse. If the various groups could talk to each other and move as one in a logical organised manner then maybe, just maybe it would have something. Typically though there are Ego's involved who maybe dont have the fans/club as their no one priority and that cant work.

[Christmas Tree 4856]

Should av bort the facking pub, innit.

[Guest alex]

Honestly think the only thing he'll listen to is a mass boycott of everything NUFC-related. It's literally the only thing he gives a shit about in relation to the fans. I also don't see this happening any time soon, sadly.

NUST or anything to do with it is a complete non-starter btw. They struggled for members at the height on the emotion resulting from Keegan's departure and they've done nothing but lose credibility since. Getting enough people to part with a tenner to make a change won't happen. You'd need an organisation to organise that in the first place anyway. Apathy is the biggest problem though, as with most things in society I suppose.

I don't think anyone was advocating the protests you're criticising though so I'm not sure how they're relevant.

Edited August 3, 2011 by alex

[Mac-Toon 1]

I assumed the 'Chaos, Confusion and the sound of silence' was their 2011 objectives.

[Gene_Clark 12]

Ok, serious response.....

 

As I see it there are 2 possible ways forward for Newcastle fans, neither of which involves a half arsed, pissed bunch of mongs gesticulating at the club offices on saturday week.

 

There needs to be a meeting called of all fan groups; the 3 fanzines, various blogs, messageboards and other groups. representatives from each aren't elected, but show willingness by their passion. get together and thrash out a sort of joint way forward - like the Irish left did in the recent election there.

 

Use the energy & consensus to either set up a loose amalgam of a republic of letters to bring pressure on board with regular, organised, disciplined protests - not pissed shoe waving or crap ideas like the Poznan.

 

If a consensus like this can't be achieved, then en masse, rejoin NUST & take it over, then return it to its campaigning original ideals (not the terrible NU$C idea though).

 

We need to be organised, united & equal - no egos or media darlings wanted.

 

See, you can do a good post

 

Completely agree. Shoe waving or whatever is cringe worthy and just feeds the sky camera's with no impact. Hastily arranged fan groups fizzle out to two blokes and a dog waving their fist in the concourse. If the various groups could talk to each other and move as one in a logical organised manner then maybe, just maybe it would have something. Typically though there are Ego's involved who maybe dont have the fans/club as their no one priority and that cant work.

 

We've got either the moribund & discredited NUST, which has thje benefit of proper organisation & constitution.

 

Or we have The Mag, Toon Talk, Black & White Forever, Toontastic, Newcastle On Line, various blogs, away travel groups etc etc who can all come together anD see what we can achieve.

 

A meeting on or before Arsenal with the idea of a leaflet, meeting & campaign from Fulham on needs to happen.

 

Protests need to be at EVERY gam,e

[Gene_Clark 12]

Honestly think the only thing he'll listen to is a mass boycott of everything NUFC-related. It's literally the only thing he gives a shit about in relation to the fans. I also don't see this happening any time soon, sadly.

NUST or anything to do with it is a complete non-starter btw. They struggled for members at the height on the emotion resulting from Keegan's departure and they've done nothing but lose credibility since. Getting enough people to part with a tenner to make a change won't happen. You'd need an organisation to organise that in the first place anyway. Apathy is the biggest problem though, as with most things in society I suppose.

I don't think anyone was advocating the protests you're criticising though so I'm not sure how they're relevant.

 

 

boycotts don't hurt Ashley directly - they hurt employees on minimum wage, as if pies, pints & programmes go unsold, they get sacked, not Ashley.

 

The only way is to have a mass non-attendance of, say, a cup game - an empty ground may talk to him.

[Mac-Toon 1]

There needs to be a meeting called of all fan groups; the 3 fanzines, various blogs, messageboards and other groups. representatives from each aren't elected, but show willingness by their passion. get together and thrash out a sort of joint way forward - like the Irish left did in the recent election there.

 

Use the energy & consensus to either set up a loose amalgam of a republic of letters to bring pressure on board with regular, organised, disciplined protests - not pissed shoe waving or crap ideas like the Poznan.

I said that at the first nusc meeting, that without protests and sustained pressure put upon the owner, we had NO supporters club.

 

Then Jensen pushed through the trust status and gave us 'Councillors from Newcastle' etc. The YWC campaign was ridiculous. How they got to that stage, I'll never know.

 

Tbh, I spent enough of my time and energy fucking on with NUSC that if another supporters group was formed I'd struggle to put any faith in them.

 

Especially one driven by 'United for Fucking Newcastle'. Steve Wraith's harmless enough but if they want to be taken seriously I'd say calling Ashley 'fatty' every 5 minutes on twitter isn't the answer.

[Guest alex]

Honestly think the only thing he'll listen to is a mass boycott of everything NUFC-related. It's literally the only thing he gives a shit about in relation to the fans. I also don't see this happening any time soon, sadly.

NUST or anything to do with it is a complete non-starter btw. They struggled for members at the height on the emotion resulting from Keegan's departure and they've done nothing but lose credibility since. Getting enough people to part with a tenner to make a change won't happen. You'd need an organisation to organise that in the first place anyway. Apathy is the biggest problem though, as with most things in society I suppose.

I don't think anyone was advocating the protests you're criticising though so I'm not sure how they're relevant.

 

 

boycotts don't hurt Ashley directly - they hurt employees on minimum wage, as if pies, pints & programmes go unsold, they get sacked, not Ashley.

 

The only way is to have a mass non-attendance of, say, a cup game - an empty ground may talk to him.

Well, you could argue that those people not buying pints there might go to a pub instead (likely one without such a shit employer). Likewise I bet JD Sports employ more staff than Sports Direct*. I'd be in favour of people not going to games at all anyway. That might work. It might not. Protesting and going to the game though? How does that work? Tbh, I don't think anything bar a new, better owner will solve anything. That's dependent on stuff beyond our control anyway.

*edit: per store.

Edited August 3, 2011 by alex

[Gene_Clark 12]

if we all stopped drinking and started thinking, things might improve!

 

protesting & going to game is fine - even if it might result in a few people thrown out i guess.

 

as for owners, we the fans morally own the clubs.

 

fuck the idea of a benevolent despot geordie billionaire doing what the fans want - that was the idiotic NU$C leaflet v Blackburn in Sept 08 position - impossible & ridiculous, as well as putting up the idea, from a certain scurrilous publication, that a vanguard of Nietzschean special ones could come forward to tell the owner what the fans want.

 

pie in the sky or not, Newcastle United should be owned 100% by fans.

[Tom 14013]

Protests need to be organised and calculated rather than the chaos at Hull that handed the PR war to Ashley.

[Christmas Tree 4856]

Honestly think the only thing he'll listen to is a mass boycott of everything NUFC-related. It's literally the only thing he gives a shit about in relation to the fans. I also don't see this happening any time soon, sadly.

NUST or anything to do with it is a complete non-starter btw. They struggled for members at the height on the emotion resulting from Keegan's departure and they've done nothing but lose credibility since. Getting enough people to part with a tenner to make a change won't happen. You'd need an organisation to organise that in the first place anyway. Apathy is the biggest problem though, as with most things in society I suppose.

I don't think anyone was advocating the protests you're criticising though so I'm not sure how they're relevant.

 

Bottom line.

 

Loads have lived through shit at the club since the 70's and just see this as another low spot....that will eventually pass.

 

Others like Happy Face, quite rightly, wont let the goings on spoil their match day out.

 

Others are a lot less anti ashley and even pro ashley

 

Ones like me just think everything will turn out nice.

 

 

Dont waste time on this. Do spend time on supporters club.

[McFaul 35]

Not going to games will be fuck all difference. Get Happy Face out with his geps and calculator, he'll tell you. The fact is our wage bill is plummeting it'll be about £40-£45m the way things are going, whereas the turnover this season will EASILY reach £95m-£100m. The club on these levels SHOULD make £15m-£35m profit every year. That's all he wants the club to do make a profit, forget about all his pish about where the money is going, he's a wanker, transfer budgets should have fuck all to do with the annual value of say Tiote's contract in 2014, that's factored in to the fucking wage budget for that year, it's so fucking frustrating and Pardew comes out with "don't try and work out where the money is going", why the fuck not?? You should be you serial bigamist! My point is anyway that boycotting the games will have no significant impact on anything, it's about 20% of the income maximum now, and if no one at all went the way it's all strcutured now they'd likely still make a profit, people need to wake up to the fact in 2011 lack of bums on seats is far less important than it was even 10 years ago, the Premiership TV money and corporate pish now is more important, so it will make fuck all difference if 15000 decided to boycott.

Edited August 3, 2011 by McFaul

[Guest alex]

if we all stopped drinking and started thinking, things might improve!

 

protesting & going to game is fine - even if it might result in a few people thrown out i guess.

 

as for owners, we the fans morally own the clubs.

 

fuck the idea of a benevolent despot geordie billionaire doing what the fans want - that was the idiotic NU$C leaflet v Blackburn in Sept 08 position - impossible & ridiculous, as well as putting up the idea, from a certain scurrilous publication, that a vanguard of Nietzschean special ones could come forward to tell the owner what the fans want.

 

pie in the sky or not, Newcastle United should be owned 100% by fans.

It would be nice but the possibility of it happening not even a matter for debate, unfortunately.

[Gene_Clark 12]

In arranging any meeting or protests, we need to remember it is Ramadan & so should avoid anything to do with alcohol, or meeting after sunset in order to keep the campaign open to the sizeable number of Muslim Newcastle fans there are.