soupdragon

So Ashley is 'totally committed'to Newcastle United,smacks of Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage,'totally commited to the fifty bucks'.

Many people see him as a comedy figure,a Dutch version of Boris Johnson,but if the polls are right he's going to be leader of the biggest party in parliament after the next elections.He can be very intelligent and persuasive but then comes out with loony policies such as a tax on headscarves.Don't give the guy the publicity and he'll fade away.

Try to get Youssef El-Akchoui from NEC Nijmegen on the cheap,he wants to take a step up to a bigger club and Feyenoord can't afford him.A decent left-back,useful in going forward,28 years old and probably going for under 4mil.

Me and a mate who was over from Newcastle went to see Feyenoord v NUFC in a pre-season friendly in De Kuip. I'd got tickets from a guy I know who must have thought "what a great joke to stick two Englishmen amongst 3000 Rotterdam hardmen".We were found out by being the only two who didn't jump when they scored the first goal.We had bottles,mobiles,sandwiches and even a boot thrown at us with uncanny precision.At half-time we had a visit from the local tribal chief who told us leave Rotterdam.After listening to my speech about it just being a friendly and brotherly love between two working class clubs,he gave us that great line from Escape from New York,you go now or you die,I see you in the away end you die,I see you after the match you die,you have 10 seconds.We of course did the manly thing and legged it.My shirt was wringing wet with spit,phlegm and probably piss as well before we made the exit.I took my revenge by having a shit in their carpark before heading back down south.

Maybe it's because i'm living abroad that i've missed a lot of the the local feeling,but I must say that I haven't that that much of a problem with Ashley.He came in ,got rid of Shepherd,balanced the books,took the great step of installing Chris Mort as chairman,got rid of Alladyce,re-installed Keegan and had the vision to concentrate on youth develpment instead of quick-fix trophy signings.Sure he made the mistake of getting Wise and his cronies in,but who doesn't get bad advice every now and again.I blame the press and Keegan (yes ) for pushing him into a corner that no businessman would ever accept,he's the owner for God's sake.I think if Mort had still been here then reason would have prevailed and Wise et al were long gone.Please don't blame him for mixing with the fans,because if I owned a football club I'm f***ing sure I'd do the same.Sorry for you if you're reading Mike,but you are a victim of crap advisors.

George Bush Senior,he's 83 and wants to get the sympathy vote for the next Presidential election.