Matt

All this uproar over his pension has superbly distracted from the admissions of failure from the FSA- which Gordy B put in place to regulate the banking system. The longer the government spin this story, the less they'll get the blame.

No, it means you can live somewhere you want to live. You can also sack it off after 6 months, but as you're already made for life it's clearly not an issue. For those of us where changes can come about a bit quicker then it's a way of ensuring you don't end up in a bankruptcy court and ensure you'll be renting a dosshole for life. Anyway, my rent is less than a mortgage for the price this property last sold. I'm not sure how that's making my landlord money, but I'm not complaining.

House prices have a bit to go yet IMO. All this 'quick, get yourself on the ladder' shite is what has perpetuated a lot of this nonsense. Buy a good house, not any old house. So many people scrambled to raise as much debt as they could to get the best they could because that is what the popular consensus was. If I tried to do that where I live on my salary I'd be in some bombed out hellhole, rather than a basic but essentially very decent place that I can rent comfortably within my means. Buying a house was never for "anyone, anytime" and it never was. Ask anyone who went onto a right to buy scheme on one of the many council estates where most of the decent folk chose to leave and the authorities shipped in a load of scum (happened all over North Shields). They'll selling off flats in Benwell for 50p like they were 15 years ago before long. I fancy a pop at someting towards the end of the year, hopefully there'll be a lot more clarity in the market and also in job security by then!

Vince Cable is a popularist no-mark, the political equivalent of Jeremy Vine's phone-in.

I'm sure the 20,000 employees who are about to lose their job would have a few choice words for him.

Happy Birthday Cath!

May your birthday come with three stripes.

Hoo, what time are you lot going to be there?

Champion. Will be about before but after I think I'm going to have to head straight for the train. If anyone's out for a couple of saturday night let me know as I'll be picking up my ST in town so should be around.

His accent is superb.

HSBC have kept my interest-free overdraft going, which is handy and I've never had any problems with them.

Full time number-crunching dogsbody.

Think I'm going to sack the whole weekend off tbh.

What's the latest. you lot all still in?

Yep, could well be.

The accounts say that we had no long-term debt to any bank (there is an outstanding overdraft though) as at the accounting year end. The mortgage above may well have been to secure the overdraft if the bank felt like pulling it , or it could have been for a long-term borrowing. We'll only know when the next lot of accounts come out.

Then I take it all back, the mans obviously a saint who bought us purely to ensure that a national institution and household name didnt die. Sorry for calling you a fat twat Ash..... I'm not saying he is- he's a prime grade cock- but that's the reality of the situation.

But they're not mutually exclusive. If Ashley wanted to put more money in the club then he would have done. Let's say there was no change of control clause- Ashley would simply have put in £60m less. I don't think he'd have funded transfers with it. Anyway, raising new finance would have been very difficult. This is not a good business. To revisit the 'debt free' thing- we're free of long-term debt outside the company structure and Ashley. As he owns 100% of the club as long as he is owner (and guaranteeing loans to himself) then we are, in effect, free of long-term debt. There will be shorter-term debts occuring just as in the running of any business. If someone came in and bought the club, paying back SJHL £100m would be part of the deal. Edit: Just thinking about it, had Ashley not provided a personal guarantee in July with his sizeable wealth and decided to just let it drop, EY wouldn't have signed off the accounts, the banks will have withdrawn their facilities and we'd have faced administration in double quick time.

What a load of shite. The debt on the stadium had to be repaid- it had nothing to do with Ashley or any advice he was given. Like the £100m loan Ashley has made to the club, any change of control gives the right for the debt to be called. The investors who had loaned the money took the opportunity to get their cash back now rather than later- so it would have made no difference. The little analogy is similar nonsense. Ashley had a large mound of cash after selling off half of Sports Direct for £800m or so. He put his own cash in to the club because he felt it would be better to do that than invest his £100m elsewhere at 5% and borrow at 7% (borrowings in the club's parlous state would not come cheap). So in fact he was managing his finances sensibly. You're talking rot.....fact.

This doesn't detract from the the shambolic management and pathetic PR spin, but there's a reason we're not out spending fortunes on players- NUFC is still leaking cash at a staggering rate. Big-name wages for small-time players are crippling the club. This doesn't work as a business- the fact EY signed off on the basis of Ashley's guarantee means that they do not see the club as a viable standalone business (nor has it been for some time in all honesty). If Ashley left tomorrow, we would be heading for administration as we would not have sufficient cash to clear the debts. Bit of a poison pill for any buyer that they need to find £100m in cash to repay the loan to SJHL. The inherent value in NUFC is pretty close to zero.

Not applicable to Zinger Burgers then?

You do the math! So now people simply won't bother calling up for tickets and the club loses out on the revenue altogether. Further evidence that they club have severely overestimated how much fans will blindly throw at the club.

Filed at Companies House up to June 2008, but nothing available for download yet. Costs £1 a document for a pdf copy.

I was always planning to renew- up until about now.

Aye