peasepud

Yes, but you have to show a plan, an ability and more importantly a desire to get to those places in time otherwise no player with any kind of ambition will touch us with a barge pole. We're not therefore we'll never attract the required talent be it now or in 5 years.

I understand your enthusiasm, but dont say this outside of here. NUFC celebrating a return to the premier league is embarrassing I think its safe to say that every reply to this so far has been accompanied by a great big

laughable tbh, you've dreamt that havent you? Ashley has no intention of spending "big" in fact he has no intentions of spending "medium" or even "sensible". Their model is clear, buy it cheap, pay it peanuts and then when the product shows any kind of profit sell it on only in this case the product isnt shirts or shoes but players. Getting into Europe is not even on the radar because its not part of the plan. Yes, if somehow we make it then he'll be laughing all the way to the bank but its irrelevant to him other than being another income stream. The "mistakes" of the past are just that, mistakes, slip ups. The model was right, the plan (even if LM says there wasnt one ) worked however it fell down by some purchases not living up to their already proven ability. We are no longer a football club, we're a diversification of Sports Direct, another arm of the company, another income for Ashley.

Apologies if this has already been posted, cant be arsed to look http://mydavidcameron.com/

Seriously? It has to be said, that one took me by surprise

As said above, another sterling article from Mr Caulkin, shame he didnt start it with "to my colleagues at the Times..."

Absofuckinglutely not

Colo never went off, we had 3 subs Ameobi for Simpson, Taylor for Kadar and Barton for Nolan.

If at the end of last season we had escaped relegation by that one point and then went on to make the same sales and purchases would you be looking forward to the season? I wouldnt.

Im not going to sniffers for tea

Come on West Brom!!!!

Redknapp for Sunderland!

and so it begins

As a shady West road bookie, Gillespie gets my vote every time.

The bird in the red looks more like him than that baldy bloke does!

I agree totally, there must be a plan, by that LM I dont mean knowing which players you'll buy and which you'll sell in those years but a concrete "in year 1 we will look to spend £xm which should get us to around top ten, 2nd year another £ym which will lift us into a Europa spot. At the same time we will fund this by increasing corporate sponsorship, moving into the Asian market and whatever the fuck else a football club can do to increase revenue". I believe Shepherd had these plans in the earlier years (2000 - 2004) before it all started to go to shit. We were one of the first clubs to link with clubs in Asia and Australasia to tap into their academys. We worked hard at getting these markets interested in both the Premiership and more importantly Newcastle. Get that right and you've got a captive audience lapping up your games and more importantly walking round in your shirts. At the same time, as in any business you need a contingency plan, if your main one starts to fail and instead of getting top ten you're sitting in a relegation threatened position come January then you need to invoke the contingency and be ready to spend. yes but as I said earlier, football is different. In reality, most clubs "fail" in terms of not winning trophies. "Planning" doesn't guarantee anything in football. It is results driven, and reactive. Any "plan" will fail if the team starts to lose games, forcing you to change the manager, with different ideas and different ways of doing things. No other "business" changes personell like football clubs. Agreed however that comes into the contingency planning, if things go wrong and we've given manager A money and hes not getting anywhere then we get rid and turn to manager B, if manager B doesnt want it then manager C etc, a list of potential candidates who you've scouted and already decided you would want to employ. Who are then approached as soon as you know you're sacking a manager. The merry go round we had with Souness and then Roeder was not conducive to a strong team or morale. It also doesnt help you find the right one when you're panicking. me and you basically agree that appointing Souness is when things started to go wrong. That doesn't change the fact that they backed their appointment, which is what a good board does. They also changed him when it was obvious he had to go, too late, but they did. Roeder, like Hughton now, did well and was given the opportunity. Some people agreed, some didn't, just like some people now say Hughton deserves to keep the job and some say he doesn't appear to have enough in him to do well against what is now going to be all the best managers. I think maybe you're mistaking my comments as slating the previous board, thats not what I was meaning. Shepherd was at fault purely because he reacted too soon and didnt have that magical plan in place for replacing managers. Backing them as he did was exactly what should be done although I do criticise him for not kicking Souness squarely in the nuts when he finally did get shot.

Aye, it was in the end. My first iPhone post. You'll now become a bore in all sorts of locations such as restaurants etc. Instead of him just being a bore on here

I was trying to work out how to ask him if he was really him, I did think about quoting a recent Cheryl_Kerl tweet to see if he reacted.....

I agree totally, there must be a plan, by that LM I dont mean knowing which players you'll buy and which you'll sell in those years but a concrete "in year 1 we will look to spend £xm which should get us to around top ten, 2nd year another £ym which will lift us into a Europa spot. At the same time we will fund this by increasing corporate sponsorship, moving into the Asian market and whatever the fuck else a football club can do to increase revenue". I believe Shepherd had these plans in the earlier years (2000 - 2004) before it all started to go to shit. We were one of the first clubs to link with clubs in Asia and Australasia to tap into their academys. We worked hard at getting these markets interested in both the Premiership and more importantly Newcastle. Get that right and you've got a captive audience lapping up your games and more importantly walking round in your shirts. At the same time, as in any business you need a contingency plan, if your main one starts to fail and instead of getting top ten you're sitting in a relegation threatened position come January then you need to invoke the contingency and be ready to spend. yes but as I said earlier, football is different. In reality, most clubs "fail" in terms of not winning trophies. "Planning" doesn't guarantee anything in football. It is results driven, and reactive. Any "plan" will fail if the team starts to lose games, forcing you to change the manager, with different ideas and different ways of doing things. No other "business" changes personell like football clubs. Agreed however that comes into the contingency planning, if things go wrong and we've given manager A money and hes not getting anywhere then we get rid and turn to manager B, if manager B doesnt want it then manager C etc, a list of potential candidates who you've scouted and already decided you would want to employ. Who are then approached as soon as you know you're sacking a manager. The merry go round we had with Souness and then Roeder was not conducive to a strong team or morale. It also doesnt help you find the right one when you're panicking.

I agree totally, there must be a plan, by that LM I dont mean knowing which players you'll buy and which you'll sell in those years but a concrete "in year 1 we will look to spend £xm which should get us to around top ten, 2nd year another £ym which will lift us into a Europa spot. At the same time we will fund this by increasing corporate sponsorship, moving into the Asian market and whatever the fuck else a football club can do to increase revenue". I believe Shepherd had these plans in the earlier years (2000 - 2004) before it all started to go to shit. We were one of the first clubs to link with clubs in Asia and Australasia to tap into their academys. We worked hard at getting these markets interested in both the Premiership and more importantly Newcastle. Get that right and you've got a captive audience lapping up your games and more importantly walking round in your shirts. At the same time, as in any business you need a contingency plan, if your main one starts to fail and instead of getting top ten you're sitting in a relegation threatened position come January then you need to invoke the contingency and be ready to spend.

You were the first thought, then he ordered a coffee and I struck you off the list

sat the table next to me outside Intermezzo yesterday evening.

The important question though is, will any of these roadworks affect my journey from Heathrow to Oxford on Thursday?

Woooah can we just roll this back? You went to watch a horse race while your club needed your support. Get yourself a house in Jarrow lad and hang your head in shame. There must've been 300 people round the telly! Didnt fucking happen in the NE corner thats all I'll say. Although we did have a young couple who wandered in at the 40min point looking for their seats.

pah! what do statisticians know, Im with Tom, Watch out Man U Europe here we come!