Happy Face

Christmas Face

Getting a mention on ESPN and recognising a strip is one thing. Two full page editorials in 2 of the 3 biggest circulating papers in the whole of the US in the space of a week is something out of the ordinary.

I'm not even thinking he'll sell necessarilly, perhaps he's looking for investors to take on some of the risk...and provide capital for that Champions league push. Which would be an excellent move.

Just an inkling...thought I should note it so I can say i called it...or ignore it if nowt happens, CT stylee. Never heard of us getting mentions in the WSJ when we were in the champions league or owt, so don't think it can be attributed just to our great success of winning 7 games.

Esland is a Geordie, no? PR write their output so the mistakes suggest it's not the club. In fact, the simpler explanation is the best one; we are newsworthy because of our success, however short-lived or relative. I'd have thought it would be something Mike and Decka would keep hush about around the club, and get some US business contacts to get a glowing write up in the bigger US papers....hence the woeful standard but arse-licking nature.

Just to pull together a couple of strands from other threads.... New York Times "The St. James’ Park stadium, where Newcastle has remained unbeaten since early March, seats more than 52,000, but the club could sell four times that number of tickets if space allowed it." Wall Street Journal "Newcastle Succeed With 'Cheap' French Imports" "The results aren't the only remarkable thing about this turnaround. In a game where money has long been the most important player, Newcastle's success is turning conventional ideas about teambuilding on their head." The Guardian Newcastle have moved to boost attendances at St James' Park by offering half-price season-tickets for the rest of the season. Everton attendance - 50,671 Michael Owen couldn't write a better dossier than we seem to be compiling here.

...would explain the half price season tickets too btw. potential suitors will want to see a full stadium. but I'm probably being anti-Ashley.

Has anyone stated the obvious that this (NYT article and the only slightly less bad WSJ one) is all PR guff that the club can't get away with over here any more? Fill the stadium 4 times? Happy new year?

I'm saying nowt to diasagree with CT, he's an Oracle, he's been vindicated on his entire outlook. The fact he now has to go negative to get a rise out of people only bodes badly for the future of Newcastle United.

Had that one bookmarked for a while, quality statting. More interesting to me is to order by the gross spend figures, rather than net, which takes away the players that fall into your lap and fetch outrageous prices, and shows what clubs are investing/reinvesting in their squad, whether the money came from players sold, or from their sugar daddy. Chelsea £592 Manchester City £557 Liverpool £392 Manchester United £317 Tottenham £303 Arsenal £199 Aston Villa £190 Sunderland £151 Newcastle £149 Everton £106 Fulham £86 Bolton £81 Wigan £77 Blackburn Rovers £75 West Bromwich Albion £74 Stoke City £72 Wolves £57 QPR £25 Norwich City £16 Swansea £12 So Spurs still spend more than Arsenal, no matter how good Arsene is at recouping outlay. Liverpool have still spent more than Man U even when you disregard the £85m they got back from Ronaldo. For all them money Al Fayed throws at Fulham, comparatively little of it is seen on the field. And Villa fans should be howling at their expensive flops far more than we should.

RIP

Is praise from a complete gump worth anything? Have you seen some of the people Louis Walsh praises? Fucking Jedward.

I still prefer fat Ronaldo but that is unreal. Lucky

Not much I enjoy more than hours spent in front of my Itunes library , headphones on, with a few cans/tabs Heaven.

Not sure if spineless is the word. Don't believe he wants to do anything but keep Israel happy. Many officials in office in America place Israeli interests above those of the US, and say so out loud.

Richard Herring would be impressed

Agreed. I call him 'The cone'

Good debate there. Not the reformation? Or the invention of the printing press. It's hard to argue against the effect WWII had on the world like, population wise, politically and technologically as well as the effect it had on modern morality, not to mention the cold war and the rise of the US. I'm not saying it didn't have a huge effect, absolutley it did. But Nations/empires rise and fall all the time. I know shamefully little about it, but the reformation triggered wars that went on for centuries. There's still some unsavoury fighting amonst Catholics and Protestants today if you want to talk about legacy. There's been plenty of empires that have risen and fallen off the back of many wars in the meantime.

Good debate there. Not the reformation? Or the invention of the printing press.

He arrived a few games into the season though so I left him out

He's right imo. We had MUCH better players then, and we only ended up in 6th anyway. And we pummelled team after team. Keegan never spent a shitload really, he still had most of the squad that got promoted. Beardsley, Albert, Peacock and Fox were the only ones he bought over a million. We topped the league with a better record, we had more points than we do now and we played brilliant football. Pardoo is on a run scraping points against teams that deserve to be getting more for the most part. Brilliant, but can't believe you of all people agree he's improving on keegan's work.

He'd cost 8 figures. Never happen under Ashley. If sunderland can't find a striker I could see them having a gamble on him.

Dunno if it's old or what. Just got an email... http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/32-awesome-explanation-less-photos-from-russia