ewerk

There was no decision to make though. People seem to be reading that statement as a be all and end all of the matter, its not. Its simply a sticking plaster to try and get us through the rest of the season. Its like saying that you have been diagnosed with a teminal illness and then refusing to take painkillers to allieviate some of the pain until a cure is found. We all want what is best for Newcastle United, it wouldnt matter if the current owner of the club was Ashley, Shepherd, Shearer or Mother Teresa. We would be calling for investment and ensuring that whatever is done is in the best interests of the club. I would rather eat my own shit than personally sit down with Ashley but as I said in another thread, I would do it if needed because this club is dying on its arse and nobody on here has shouted louder than I have on that subject. I do however acknowledge that you physically cannot force someone to sell a football club if there is nobody out there willing to buy it and currently there is nobody, that is partly down to Ashely and partly to the current climate. Dont be fooled by the newspaper stories about two bids etc, they were bullshit nobody is interested in buying the club in its current state. We cannot do anything to change that but we can try and get Ashley to. As far as Im concerned this isnt the end of it, we dont just sit there and think "ok hes here so lets forget about things" we now try and get him to invest, try and get him to sort a proper strucutre out and tell us what the hell is going on. Ultimately though everyone on the NUSC committee believes that he cannot do enough to turn around the way he and the board are perceived and will ultimately have to sell. Until then though lets get this club stable and give ourselves a chance of staying in the Premiership, that in itself will beneift all of us, we will still have a football club and he has a better chance of selling it. If you want my own personal opinion though I dont think he will do anything to work with the fans or turn things round, everything Ive said in the thread I made the other week I believe still stands but I dont want to be right, I want people to laugh at me and say I was a wanker because of how wrong I got it, so until then I'll do whatever small thing I can to help that happen. Again though the overall problem is with the numbers of members, we cannot do credible protesting or for that matter claim to represent the fans properly until we have a good enough membership base and enough of those members willing to carry out organised protesting. The NUSC only has the best interests of the club at its heart, it however cannot make any difference to it until it has a credible support. Until then we can do what we think is right and hope that people see us for what we are, a supporters club that want to get down to doing the supporters club things such as charity events, fans nights, away game meetings etc etc but cant because all this shit is going on. Some good points there and after my initial revulsion and the idea of 'forgiving' Ashley I'm beginning to come round to your way of thinking. My point concern about NUSC is the decision making process and it's also a similar problem we also face with MPs. Are NUSC there to represent our views? Or are they there to make decisions on our behalf? If they're going to represent the fans' views then there are obviously going to be problems with guaging those views and having a 'pure' democracy, similarly, if NUSC try and move away from the popular opinion then they could lose the support and confidence of the fans. It's a tricky situation and one in which there are no clear cut answers.

If you sign up for a 12 month gym membership and cancel 4 months in then can the gym claim the money outstanding? Aye probably, this is the same situation with more money involved. I can't see how you can claim breach of contract because Ashley has turned out to be a bit of a cunt.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/658095.stm Isn't that the other way round? Well kind of but it shows that a club isn't prepared to let a visit to court get in the way of profit.

Tbf it does seem like NUSC have solicitors and other clued up people on the committee who would know a thing or two about this.

Pud, I've asked this before but how did NUSC reach this decision to forgive/tolerate Ashley? I'd just like to know whether NUSC is going to represent the fans or just attempt to get the fans round to their way of thinking.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/658095.stm

Danny clearly wanking himself silly at this thread.

Unless they're just not sending it. Nah I've read that's how they do it. Plus what I bought was 57 quid.

I had the full amount debited from may account and a 50 quid refund put in so it looks like this has worked!

I was taking the piss with that comment.

Dialogue was offered to him a few weeks ago by NUSC and as far as I'm aware he didn't reply to that offer. Talk is getting us nowhere, it's time to go nuclear.

I agree with the sentiment, I just believe that Ashley will either tell them to fuck off or just pay lip service to their requests.

Good. Its a Limited (private) company therefore the reporting obligations are different than before. Profit and Loss, Balance sheet and an auditors report is about it i think. The Balance sheet should show all current and future liabilities though. However, since we already have one set of accounts from SJHL then all these should have been answered last time if they were going to be answered by the companies house report. So there ye gan. Aye, this is what we should get.

Power sharing doesn't work when you're dealing with a despot.

I'm not talking about individual transfers, I'm talking about the lack of spending and failure to strengthen a threadbare squad despite the request of the manager. And there is nothing wrong with admitting you've gotten a few things wrong but suddenly welcoming Ashley back without putting up any sort of a fight shows a lack of backbone to me. I really dont get your position here ewerk, you may have clarified before. If you think that Ashley will have a hard task selling then surely this is the right thing to do? If you dont think its hard for Ashley to sell.... well i know that you do realise that. Bit confused here. The supporters put up such a fight that Ashley decided to leave. The supportes continued to put pressure on him to sell the club. (Both those show backbone) The economy and financial environment soured very quickly and our assumptions about the world changed. The NUSC was then criticised by many for not taking account of the wider picture and the feasibility of selling the club. They now have accepted the need to work together (showing backbone, circumspection and pragmatism). Where's the issue in all that? I'd just like to know what NUSC hope to achieve by attempting to work with the club. I believe that at a realistic price Ashley could have sold the club, there did appear to be two genuinely interested parties. To be totally honest with you I don't think NUSC will have any effect by trying to work with Ashley, similarly I don't think they'll have a huge effect by protesting either. Either way I think that NUSC should be representative of their members and I don't see how they've done this so far. Pud, could you shed a bit of light on how the committee reached this decision to reverse their position? From a personal (and possibly irrational) point of view I'd like to see protests or some sort of action to reflect my frustation at Mike Ashley and how he has lied to us and fucked us over. By saying that we've forgiven him it is basically an admission that he can do whatever the fuck he wants and there's nothing we can do about it. While that may very well be the case, it's the decision to give up the fight that disappoints me, I genuinely don't think that offering an olive branch will benefit us, as fans, in any way.

Got my first one on Friday. Black-tie which is a load of shit, blatantly just a tactic to prevent us from going straight to the pub at 3pm and being shit-faced before the dinner. Second one is departmental and much smaller and more informal, a better nights craic.

The effects of nationalisation are slowly becoming more apparent.

How so? Taking the Keegan factor out of it what was Ashley doing for us that isn't being done now?

So what's the job then?

Were we any better off when he did take an interest?

I'm not talking about individual transfers, I'm talking about the lack of spending and failure to strengthen a threadbare squad despite the request of the manager. And there is nothing wrong with admitting you've gotten a few things wrong but suddenly welcoming Ashley back without putting up any sort of a fight shows a lack of backbone to me.

Give them a break man, it appears they're trying to reflect the diversity of opinion across the fan base, not an easy task with our lot. Aye. I thought just about everyone wanted them to moderate their views a bit. Personally it wasn't their views I had a problem with but it was the childish statements they were coming out with. While their most recent statement is much more clear and concise, it's not a view I agree with and would be interested to know if this is representative of the fanbase.

Give them a break man, it appears they're trying to reflect the diversity of opinion across the fan base, not an easy task with our lot. Well that's my main gripe, how do they guage the opinion of the fanbase? Was there a meeting held on the issue? Or is this simply another 'supporters' group' who claim to speak for the fans without consulting them?

I think their approach is just a pragmatic one in terms of what is best for the club. I agree with most of what you say btw. The trouble is, he can't really be forced to sell imo. Not without doing much more damage to NUFC anyway. Agreed alex, no matter what you think of the man personally or as a chairman, whats right for the club in the current circumstances (economic) may not be a continuation of an adversarial relationship between the man with the purse strings and those who desperately want to see the club's current situation improve i.e. fucking everyone else. He wasn't spending money or listening to the fans when everything appeared to be rosey so I don't expect that to change just because NUSC have shown to have no backbone.

Did Malcolm Shiels consult the NUSC membership before making this announcement? Given that Ashley appears to have completely ignored their requests for dialogue and absolutely nothing has changed I find this an astounding statement.