Dr Gloom

you. Divvent deny it man, you KNOW it If you said that with even a shred of seriousness though, it just goes to show there's no hope. Do you not think it's far more likely to be your own perception, bearing in mind you evidently don't like solicitors, accountants, teachers etc? I couldn't give a fuck about my profession fwiw. shut up man, you're always harping on about it. so called whizz kid

When Setanta won the rights to the Premiership they had a show on a Friday on for about 90 minutes previewing the next days game, and the star man was Sir Les Ferdinand. There was no massive indication things weren't generally ok at that point other than the Milner rumours, and he said things are about to get cataclysmic at NUFC, without saying he'd spoken to anyone directly, and at the time I thought pipe down a bit Les, he was sadly right. LM is a much better bloke than people give him credit for, and this isn't a dig as he was right all along about Ashley, but I don't want to cause a row, I think his opinion was based on the fact he was fucking devastated FFS was no longer there, Ashley wasn't FFS, and a hunch, nothing else. I don't see how anyone could've known what a cunt Ashley would be in those very early days. No probs Stevie mate. Devastated ? No, not at all. I never thought that Fred was the sharpest tool in the box, but he/they backed their managers and understood how big the club is and how big it could be. McKeag was an intelligent man but was a pygmy in footballing terms. Maybe it depends how you define "intelligence". Solicitors don't necessarily understand fuck all about football....... The thing is, people like me of my age, we spent nearly 30 years supporting this club, run by shit directors who had no ambition but were supposed to be "intelligent people" etc etc.....between the years of 1964 and 1992 I actively supported this club, completely, it all became a sort of underachieving limbo in the end. Then these blokes came along and said it all has to change, everybody has had enough. And after a hesitant start, it came, and Keegan made it happen, he drove the board and they allowed him to manage the club when they realised he was doing it right. We all know what happened, and what nearly happened from there. When the club became a PLC I had massive reservations, not about the board because Keegan had showed them how to make NUFC work and, if they had had any initial reservations, they had been convinced that Keegans way worked [under his management because he bought and spent the money well]. But when they floated, I was bothered that the backing of the club as we had got used to, would stop. I know Shepherd was the front man for the board by the late 1990's and while he wasn't so media friendly as Hall Snr, it didn't bother me so long as the direction and ambitions of the board didn't change. After initial doubts, they naturally subsided when the club continued to bring top players to the club and expanded the stadium. I wasn't bothered in the slightest about this "dogs" business, which I maintain was a deliberate attempt by the ManU supporting press to scupper the main challengers to their darlings and they were quite happy to whip up the frenzy, which succeeded. A relation from Jockland on wifey's side, taken in by this bollocks, asked me on the phone what I thought of it all, I said that I don't give a shite. She didn't understand that given a choice between media friendly or "nice" gentlemen running the club without ambition and a group who showed ambition and wanted success on the pitch, was a complete no brainer. The absolute LAST thing I wanted, at any price, was to have small minded unambitious people running the club again. This is the whole basis of my reservations about anybody taking over from the Halls and Shepherd, in the last few years, when people wanted rid of them. Having supported the club from 1964-1992 I knew exactly what I didn't want, and as the club had been in a position where only 4 clubs had done better [sorry but it's relevant] what were the odds on someone coming in and doing better ? Its simple maths, and betting odds, commons sense, what were the chances of it happening ? The odds were stacked against it. Apply any sort of betting logic and it is obvious. I saw the quotes from Mort, Allardyce, the PR stunts from Ashley and the nagging doubts I had quickly surfaced about him. Everything I saw and heard just added up to someone who wasn't going to attempt to keep the club competing at those levels. Add to that, what I've always said about football, which is that football clubs just don't make profits in the normal business sense, and it stuck out a mile what was going to happen. The club was starting to behave just like it had done during those decades of frustration prior to 1992. I am still amazed that long term supporters like myself, who witnessed these years, took so long to cotton on to Mike Ashley. I posted on NO for all that time, mainly NO, and people accused me of winding people up, I knew I was doing it but I also knew that I believed what I was saying. I wasn't going to say what people wanted to hear. They banned me for going on about it so much, but I just replied to people, and gave them what I thought was the truth, its that simple. I didn't want to sell my shares in the club to Mike Ashley, but I didn't want to sell them to anybody. I quite liked having shares in the club, so when I opposed that forced sale of my shares, it was nothing to do with Mike Ashley and nothing to do with backing the old regime either. I wanted someone to buy the club who would do better than the old regime just like everybody else, I only realised the odds were stacked against it. They are also stacked against whoever buying from Ashley doing it too. It's obvious when there are only 4 other clubs to beat so to speak. Now, only getting someone who restores ambition and direction to the club will be progress, such is the level this club has dropped to. I am now convinced Mike Ashley wants his money back, and he is selling players to do that. He might sell the club when he has done this, or he might keep the club and run it at low operating levels and make a small profit, whichever he chooses, he will NEVER get anywhere near the old regime now, because he doesn't have the will to do what is needed, and realises selling a player to make a profit is easier than speculating on reaching the Champions League places. Which is the only way he is going to make a profit from the football "as a business", and is the only ways any club can make a worthwhile profit "as a business". I'm afraid we face years of mediocrity with him as owner, the likes of which people never dreamed of when they were dishing out flak to the old regime for not qualifying for europe or the Champions League. It could be decades before anybody matches them, people may realise by then that they were a lot better than they thought at the time. See for me, LM can be a good poster when he puts his thoughts in to it like this one. More of this LM and less of the bollocks I dont see that there has to be a right/wrong stance from the start. Plus I dont see that under FS we had to be 100% behind him at the end. Fact is, no matter what club you are, you want to improve. You think Arsenal are happy right now? Or should they be content they are not going to languish in 15th? No, they want to improve so we hear some wanting rid of Wenger etc. Under FS we had reach some heady heights and it's stupid to even suggest everyone here didnt enjoy it. But the wheels started to come off in my opinion with some knee jerk reactions and managerial appointments. Souness to be exact. So, are fans, including myself, wrong to want the club where it was there an then to improve? Course not, We were neck and neck with chelsea and they were bought. We had seen what was possible, so was it wrong to want the same thing for us? Or should we have just settled for finished lower mid table as we'd tasted the top 4 and should be content with that? When MA came along, SJH stuck his neck out and said it was a good move for the club. That MA would take us forward. It even started with promise when the likes of Colo came in. At the time, I had said the grass isnt always greener but I was excited at the prospect of change. Who wouldnt be? You yourself said it was possible we could see the top 5 again (or CL at least). So where did it go wrong? I think MA has changed him plans as time went on. More an more I think he slowly slipped into where he is now. I think with the stick we give him and the fuck ups he has made (under bad advice or not) he is at the "fuck it" stage. He wont put a penny in, wants the club to support itself and I think he'll sell it at the first opportunity. Now, I really dont understand why MA bought the club. Any club. I'm not sure what else he expected. I dont see what is a bitter relationship changing. No matter what all the fans groups try and do to build bridged of communication. My biggest gripe with you on here is that you seem to need to pigeon hole people into either Pro Ashley, or not. Fact is everyone enjoyed time under FS, everyone wanted us to get back where we had been with him. Everyone was excited at the prospect of a new owner and most are now fucked off with it. When you sit and construct a post with thought, you can be one of the best posters on here with the club knowledge you have. But it seems to be 1 in 10 or 1 in 15 as the rest are just bickering and point scoring. absolutely. for once i'm glad the ignore function doesn't block quotes. i agree with almost everything leazesmag has said in that. i guess my only difference is i was more hopeful that a new owner might come in and do a better job. we had good times under THE HALLS AND SHEPHERD but post the sbr sacking, things had got a bit shit. the ambition in terms of money spent on players was there but the decision making was poor - that's plain for all to see. the decision makling by the olds board contributed to our pre-ashley decline from top 5 to also ran. i guess i was optimistic (naively in hindsight) that ashley with his billions might combine financial backing with better judgement. it didn't take long mind to see him for what he was. the keegan debacle was the turning point for all of us.

you will be disagreeing with me for the next 4 year again, until someone else says exactly the same thing and you pretend you have always thought this. You're an utter idiot. I agree with all of the stuff you put in that big post. All of it. I have to say though a lot of the time mancmag isn't disagreeing with you, and shares similar views it just gets lost in translation somewhere. it doesn't get lost in translation; it gets lost in leazesmag's weird mind. the irony is leazes agrees with me, manc mag and the majority of the posters on here but it always breaks down into the same argument because he can't see beyond having to prove to everyone he was right about the old board and somehow the rest of us were wrong. that's why i have him on ignore. it's impossible to engage with him; every thread he posts in reverts back to the same argument and he constantly makes stuff up about what you said over and over again.

You've got to keep Leazes in check tbf. One minute you can say Ashley deserved a chance upon arrival and the next he'll tell everyone you said "Anyone but Shepherd, I hated the 90's at NUFC". This is the crux of it for me. His recent digging up of old threads (in response to your posting that one where he predicts that Ashley will probably now go on to better Shepherd/Hall’s Champions League achievements) is a typical obsessive overreaction too. Digging them up to try and re-assert when he ‘first called Ashley’ or whatever misses the point spectacularly; he’s shown later to be saying he thinks we’ll be back on for Champs League under Ashley. Now only the other day he was agreeing with OBG that it was a Sports Direct model and this was all obvious to him from the start of his reign-well no it clearly wasn’t as he changed his prediction about Ashley’s ambitions when Keegan was appointed. There’s nothing wrong with this per se (a shifting narrative where you constantly re-evaluate based on current information), in fact Chez does this and it stimulates good debate on here imho, but on the other hand if you’re Leazes and what you’re essentially doing is trying to claim some sort of clairvoyance it makes you look a tit- because what you claim you’ve always had some sort of intractable belief about is shown to be something that in reality you’ve also argued the complete opposite of at intervals. “Oh yes, I’ve always claimed he was doing this the Sports Direct way, and before anyone else might I add.....apart from the time when I thought he was going to beat our Champions League achievements to date. Can you just all ignore that bit please? Ta.” Classic cake-and-eat-it. Going back to what you said above, that’s the essence of his “I was right you were wrong” nightmare patter. It involves re-inventions of the past both in terms of what he’s said himself and what other people have said about a subject. What’s even more tragic is that nobody else is arsed, and yet he’s been genuinely obsessed with it for 4 or 5 years now. all this from a so-called intelligent solicitor. cue misuse of square brackets and this smilie

joe kinnear's out of work at the minute isn't he?

why do you reckon he sold hughton? my guess is he told him carroll was going to be sold and it was the first time hughton kicked off about anything. until then, he'd gone about things quietly but maybe thougth winning promotion and doing well in his first season int he premiership had bought him some bargaining power. ashley thought not so he sacks him and replaces him with a yes man. all speculation like, but it can't have been because of results on the pitch, which had been excellent and way better than we were expecting.

Again, phrases like "vast majority" are where you over egg the pudding. The vast majority did indeed want Fred out, me included. If anyone said it, it must have been a tiny minority who said they "didn't really care who replaced "him"" though. It's getting on for a majority of fans wanting Arsene Wenger out at Arsenal these days.....I'm sure most of them wouldn't be happier with Joe Kinnear, and they aren't saying Wenger hasn't had an overall positive effect on the club. fucking hell. just reading what you've quoted there supports everything i said in my last post. he's such a bizarre character.

In that case, give him the keys to the city! Just saying, that's all. He was about the only one saying it the summer KK left too (the only one I remember anyway). really? i seem to remember this place kicking off the summer keegan walked. that seemed to be when the penny dropped for most of us. people were furious with ashley after milner was sold and replaced with xisco and gonzales. I meant prior to KK walking, obviously. Fucking hell ah, fair enough. i don't remember that. people were probably still prepared to give him a go during the window because he was a billionaire and we hoped we might spend the cash. it became pretty obvious what his intentions were though by the end of the summer. the mad thing with leazes is i think he actually agrees with us all really about ashley. he probably had the same hopes the rest of us did when he took over. it seemed on paper that we were about to get a guy with deeper pockets than the previous owners - his post quoted earlier about being excited when they appointed keegan backs that up. the main difference between leazesmag and the consensus is his views on the old board. he was right about them being better than the current lot but i don't get why he makes stuff up to make his point. he constantly accuses me getting what i wanted in ashley (obviously wrong), taking four years to come around to his way of thinking (wrong as proved in this thread) and saying anyone was better than fred (obviously wrong. i thought a better owner might be out there but i wasn't naive enough to think we definitely would get one and a new owner would definitely be better than the old board. i don't know where he gets that from tbh)

In that case, give him the keys to the city! Just saying, that's all. He was about the only one saying it the summer KK left too (the only one I remember anyway). really? i seem to remember this place kicking off the summer keegan walked. that seemed to be when the penny dropped for most of us. people were furious with ashley after milner was sold against keegan's wishes and replaced with xisco and gonzales. that's what basically led to his departure isn't it? being undermined by the board. did leazes really see that before the rest of us?

Almost choked on my coffee there fist

You'd think I even mention it the way he goes on though. I never do because I couldn't give the first fuck about being a solicitor, anyone who's met me would tell you that. It's a job like any other. Gemmill gets the same stick for being an accountant and I know for a fact it's the last thing Scott's arsed about. He doesn't like teachers either like so we could be here all night with this list. Don't forget about the fancy dan lecturers. And don't get him started on bleeding heart liberal pc brigade do gooders.

Hmm leazesmag proved to be talking shite and contradicting himself yet again. I'm surprised manc mag and others still engage with him. There really is no point in biting. It's all lies, contradictions and putting words in others' mouths to support his tired old crusade. This place is way more fun with him on ignore. Annoyingly, I still can't help but get drawn into it from time to time as ignore doesn't hide quotes.

i think he ignores everyone except for the voices in his head tbh

Why did you not say owt then? strange that isn't it. and that's where leazesmag's whole "i was right, the rest of you were wrong" argument falls apart. the only difference between leazesmag and everyone else is he thought shepherd was doing a great job. i'm sure he'd secretly admit that, just like the rest of us, he was excited at the prospect of a billionaire owner with deep pockets coming in. he didn't know ashley would be shit from the start. no one did. but it was equally obvious to everyone as soon as it started going tits up. it's not like he's some mastermind that called it from the beginning, so why he continues this crusade to persuade to prove to the rest of the board that he was right and everyone else has come around to his way of thinking is beyond me. the only thing i agree with leazesmag about is that shepherd was a better chairman than ashley. but with ashley, you're talking about one of the worst owners out there. that doesn't mean that shepherd was the greatest either. as supporters, we were all entitled to hope someone with more of a clue might take over and do a better job after shepherd's decisions to sack SBR then hire souness, roder and allardyce effectively turned a top 5 side into also rans.

well, we use it in the geordie boot boys song so it must be right

that's actually less watered down than i imagined. still don't expect anything other than stonewall question deflection from lamb's arse

Surely not? What about if you cross your legs or something? Reminds me of an episode of Friends i'm talking knee length shorts, not those skin tight 80s footballer efforts. no chance of anything popping out in those puppies. well, not with a todger as small as mine anyway

thread hijack alert....going commando in shorts is fine but suit trousers are not advised. i forgot to pack a spair pair of boxers after a session spinning at the gym once and was soaked through with sweat so had to go commando on the train home. the wool trousers on your bare arse does not make for comfortable sitting, nto to mention the chafing from the zip!

These are the games Bafra could be winning single handed. he needs to play a few games without picking up an injury first! when his return date btw? anyone know?

Fucking gash mood. Just back at work after a 5 week sabbatical and a week holiday in Ibiza. Weather shite and my boss, who is new, is cracking the whip. Haven't even had chance to catch up on my emails yet. Tosser.

Exactly the kind of game we normally lose. It'd be nice to see us bucking the trend and carrying on the recent form.

They like to be quirky so James Blake will probably get it

there's be a lot of fuss made about this lad, i think largely because he's potentially the most exciting player we signed this summer, but you'll have to excuse me if i don't start beating one off over him just yet. early days obviously but i don't think he's looked that amazing so far. still, he shold improve with ben arfa in front of him. a new striker for him to thread balls through would have been nice too. i wonder what he makes of having to provide service for best, ba, shol and lovenkrands.

We didn't even ket a kuqi like panic buy this time. Not that that's a bad thing

Dont quite understand what "read" means. But crowds have taken a 3,000 hit I meant for a reason...stupid iPad. The reason being people are sick of the direction the club had taken under ashley