Big TRon

Keegan had every justification for walking and given what Ashley has done since then no one could blame him. However he should have jsut left it at that, I think going for £10m compensation on top is taking the piss.

Part of the reason Hughton has got such a good team spirit going is that he is happy to work with the squad at his disposal. Good for now, but in the long term you would want a manager with a bit more ambition. That said, there's no guarantees Shearer or O'leary would have got these wins so credit where it's due.

Even Shola would score against Exeter Beckford is ok at League One. Ive seen him play a afew times, he is a shorter version of Ameobi. Lazy and goes down at the slightest touch. Wouldnt cut it in the Championship IMO. Proved against Millwall in the playoffs last season he cant cut it when the going gets tough. Throws his dummy out. The first goal that Beckford scored...never in a month of Sundays would Shola have scored that.

His interview on BBC was a total embarassment IMO. He sounded like he'd won the league by getting a draw at West Brom. What a fucking twat.

Read somewhere that he still needs surgery on his achilles so I don't know how that ties in with him wanting to play another year.

I think we've already seen your efforts on the pitch mate. It''s Stevie Nolan is what my hunch is telling me

Maybe Liverpool will get some new spick fans due to having Rafa Iglesias as manager employing all his Costa da Bomb country mates on mucho grande wages? Food for thought Churchill.

Seems pretty similar to your own site which you plug in your sig. A few fans who think their knowledge might earn them a few quid by clicking on their crappy web page. its a free hosted forum... earn them a few quid how in a word "moron" If I was a moron I'd probably vist your shitty site but as I'm sure you are aware, I don't.

Seems pretty similar to your own site which you plug in your sig. A few fans who think their knowledge might earn them a few quid by clicking on their crappy web page.

Ah, righto. Funny how he's never pursued the casino thing btw. iirc that got planning permission / approval or whatever when FS was chairman. I still think this redevelopment plan thing was Shepherd's cunning plan to finance the club - and I can't understand why it seems to have been dropped so readily by Ashley. Obviously in 2007 it would have been a lot easier to finance. i think the casino plan got dumped when newcastle as a city didnt win the super casino and mini super casino bid. the big one went to manchester - when everyone thought blackpool were nailed on - and boro got one of the smaller one's. this speculative land deal business is very interesting and something worthy of keeping an eye on; transferring club assets to other companies for accounting purposes and which allows you to sell them at a later date, pocket the money yourself and that money never hitting the clubs books. means that you can legitimately say you havent taken anything out of the club when in reality youve pocketed the sale of the land; all hypothetical obviously and nobody is suggesting that anything like that has or will ever take place at NE1. Most major businesses these days are littered with such activity; its become the accepted norm for companies to operate in this way. it keeps the corporate lawyers and accountants in employment. He seems too dumb to really get away with anything dodgy (yes I'm tempting fate). Freddie Shepherd wasn't the brightest spark but he seems to have got away with it.

I've no doubt Bruce would come here given half a chance but I'd be surprised Ashley would want to pay big compensation unless he was landing a dead cert successful manager. Bruce hasn't done badly at Wigan but he isn't that yet.

pack of umbro socks. Shrank after first wash and fluff keeps falling off them. Cheap shite. Typical. Ages ago, I may add. Ashley's m.o seems to be buying up well known brands that aren't as shiny as they used to be, then replacing the content with cheaper, lower-quality goods. Why should his football club be any different? I wonder if next season's first team will be made up of low piad 8 year old piece workers from the third world? When they're not playing football they can sew shirts, now that's value for money Mr Llambias! (They'd still be better than Shola, mind.) Which cheapskate chairman saw us send out the likes of Ramage, Huntington and Pattison during his final seasons as Newcastle Chairman? We must have been flying high in the league on a regular basis with that lot starting.

Football boots and shorts for the young un. Money well spent IMO. JJB also have decent sportswear if you aren't a luvvie who simply must have this season's in-style designs.

I wonder who would do that here?

The problem is Butt can't do neither.

A lot of the shite appears every time he opens his mouth tbf.

Couldn't agree more. A lot of what is happening now is chickens coming home to roost and Shepherd's trying to distance himself from his part in it after the accounts were made public. Still there's no chance of Shepherds family coming on hard times, they all had their fingers deep into the pie

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. Just wanting to play devils advocaat (or whatever) but could it not be more prudent in the football world to continue paying 7% interest on a mortgage and invest the 100million on new players. That investment would in turn, increase revenue in ticket and merchandising, increase the clubs value overall and most importantly get us higher up the table which in turn would automatically generate us additional income in TV revenue and possibly a European place allowing us to finance the interest payments? I think I might have spotted the flaw in your argument...

Nae offense mate but an audited account by Enrst and Young doesnt lie and thats clearly shown as utter bollocks by these accounts. As for his profit motive, i'm fucking delighted that he is driven by making money, i'd hate us to be the only football club in the world without a chairman that is and therefore being run by someone potentially clinically insane. An audited account by Enrst and Young might not lie, but it also doesnt tell anything like the full story. As mentioned before it takes no account of the money from next two years season ticket sales, or am I expected to believe that has been put into a bank account untouched until the relevant season. At the very least it must have some effect on cash flow. I dont get how the accounts disprove my assertion anyway, bought the company, paid off the debt flog off as many players and bring in cheap replacements, if it wasnt for the credit crunch I would imagine he could have turned himself a very tidy quick profit. He hasnt sold it, plainly thinks we arent going to get relegated, and that the fans will turn up regdless and the years to come will see media money increasing as the wage bill tumbles. Flog off a couple of his mate Wisey's imports at a healthy profit every year, jobs a gudun Your last comment is frankly bizzarre, Its nice your happy about his motives though. Me, I prefer someone whose ambitions stretched to having a succesful club So do I, where can I get me one of those and are they cheaper in January?

A lot of people expressed concern at the time that Ashley and Mort weren't football men so wouldn't know how the transfer market works. In fact one of those people was Allardyce With the team he has working for him now though, no such problems Ashley clearly doesn't want to spend any more money so whatever team he has it makes no difference. What we need is a new owner with lots of money which I don't see on the horizon. I disagree, although the damage is done. The team he brought in clearly has been detrimental to the club. Even if it has (I certainly wouldn't argue about Llambias) it's his money so he is going to go with his men. The only way out of this is a for someone to buy him out. I doubt very much he's going to be brow beaten into changing his team if he thinks they are doing the job he wants them to.

A lot of people expressed concern at the time that Ashley and Mort weren't football men so wouldn't know how the transfer market works. In fact one of those people was Allardyce With the team he has working for him now though, no such problems Ashley clearly doesn't want to spend any more money so whatever team he has it makes no difference. What we need is a new owner with lots of money which I don't see on the horizon.

A lot of people expressed concern at the time that Ashley and Mort weren't football men so wouldn't know how the transfer market works. In fact one of those people was Allardyce

Allardyce has a lot to answer for too. Wouldn't have been involved in contract negotiations though, would he? No but no matter what we paid these players they would have been poor value. That's by the by. The current regime seem intent on trimming the wage bill but they have to carry some of the can for giving these people the large wages in the first place. That's not a defence of Allardyce's pretty ordinary record in the transfer market. I can sort of understand Viduka because he was a free so you have to balance his high wage against savings on the lack of a fee. I think that when you look at it overall, including the above, it smacks of a pretty shambolic plan from Ashley and co, which may go some way to explaining the constant contradictions that come out of the club. I understand that the 'global financial meltdown' has perhaps played its part but I think the investment in the team was inadequate prior to that in the 3 transfer windows beforehand. There may be reasons for that that are not the fault of the board. Maybe we really did try for Modric and Woodgate etc. Although I have reason to be believe at least one of those approaches were lukewarm. You have to wonder what Ashley is playing at. He sacked Allardyce and brought in KK. But he also approached Redknapp. He's brought in a chairman who never speaks to the fans and a DoF (for want of a better word) who seems to have a massive influence on 1st team affairs despite having a managerial track record that is nothing special and certainly vastly inferior to those who have had (of would have had to) work under him. Ashley was pushed pretty hard to get those players by Allardyce and at the time I don't think there were enough football people on board to run judgement over whether they were good value or not. SBR even tried to warn the club that Geremi was shot but no one listened. A lot of the damage was done by the decision to appoint Allardyce and we are still paying for it if these accounts are anything to go by. So he backed Allardyce and not Keegan? Aye, fair play to him there like He definitely backed the wrong man with his cash if that was all he was going to make available.

Allardyce has a lot to answer for too. Wouldn't have been involved in contract negotiations though, would he? No but no matter what we paid these players they would have been poor value. That's by the by. The current regime seem intent on trimming the wage bill but they have to carry some of the can for giving these people the large wages in the first place. That's not a defence of Allardyce's pretty ordinary record in the transfer market. I can sort of understand Viduka because he was a free so you have to balance his high wage against savings on the lack of a fee. I think that when you look at it overall, including the above, it smacks of a pretty shambolic plan from Ashley and co, which may go some way to explaining the constant contradictions that come out of the club. I understand that the 'global financial meltdown' has perhaps played its part but I think the investment in the team was inadequate prior to that in the 3 transfer windows beforehand. There may be reasons for that that are not the fault of the board. Maybe we really did try for Modric and Woodgate etc. Although I have reason to be believe at least one of those approaches were lukewarm. You have to wonder what Ashley is playing at. He sacked Allardyce and brought in KK. But he also approached Redknapp. He's brought in a chairman who never speaks to the fans and a DoF (for want of a better word) who seems to have a massive influence on 1st team affairs despite having a managerial track record that is nothing special and certainly vastly inferior to those who have had (of would have had to) work under him. Ashley was pushed pretty hard to get those players by Allardyce and at the time I don't think there were enough football people on board to run judgement over whether they were good value or not. SBR even tried to warn the club that Geremi was shot but no one listened. A lot of the damage was done by the decision to appoint Allardyce and we are still paying for it if these accounts are anything to go by.

Tell me you are kidding Hughes hasn't really done a lot wrong yet has he? Unless you are looking at a few recent bad results in isolation.