peasepud

You been on the sauce again? fuck me kidda it wasnt a go at you, I was merely pointing out that when you listen to what he has to say you'll realise it is very doable.

Didnt we have a DDOS attack yesterday? related?

Everyone.... except Shola

Then lets all go home now then, its a waste of time having the dream. oh hold on though, give it another year or so and we wont be a "big club", what then? Its time you got along to a roadshow and listened to Colin Whittle talking about what he believes and how it can be achieved.

I have made the view totally clear above, they would be a full member of the board, same as all the other members of the board. I really am at a loss to see how any fan can think that would be a bad thing, to know that someone they elected and trusted was there in the boardroom????? And as for the Premiership question, Im not sure if there are any, like I say Im having problems locating a list of the 60 clubs on the SD website but the word Premiership gives it away, we're not a Premiership side. We play in the Championship, none of the big boys have been in the problems we are in and facing. Many of these smaller clubs with fans representation have been and its only when they got to the worst part of the shit that they gained the rep. Heres hoping we never need get to that stage eh?

No doubt it'll be discussed at the Members meeting on Thursday night. Will there be a webcast? I dont think so, being a members meeting it would need to be private which cannot be guaranteed webwise at the mo. Once the full members area is up and running on the site properly then maybe it can be done but for now it would just be those there. Nae bother chief! Gis a ring at 7.30 and I'll put the phone on the table

No doubt it'll be discussed at the Members meeting on Thursday night. Will there be a webcast? I dont think so, being a members meeting it would need to be private which cannot be guaranteed webwise at the mo. Once the full members area is up and running on the site properly then maybe it can be done but for now it would just be those there.

To a degree, that post does inspire me. I guess I'm just bewildered at the true effectiveness of having 'one of us' at the table. Picture this: Board meeting to hire a new manager. Chairman says, "The names we have are w, x, y and z." Now then, does 'our man in Africa' dispute those names? Does he report back to us? That would just be plain daft. This is where I'm confused about it all. How much does he/she become 'one of them' due to all the confidentiality ?? He/she cannot possibly tell the board to hold on whilst he consults the supporters on every nuance of running the club. The principal of having one of our friends as part of the decision making process sounds, of course, brilliant, but I just have my doubts as to real benefit. However, I guess I will support the calls for this plan to have our fellow fans on the board, and remain hopeful that the true worth will be demonstrated, thus making my Doubting Thomas sentiments unfounded. The rep wouldnt be consulting the rest of us though, maybe thats where this isnt clear. They would be a fully eligible member of the board with the same rights as the rest of the board members. The supporters trust members would elect the member to sit on the board and that would be it (until their term was up), they would be responsible for what they do and accountable to the supporters. We (the supporters) would have to trust them to make the right decisions. its the same as electing an MP, they dont consult us as to which way to vote in Parliament, we trust them to make the right decisions. More importantly though, they are the voice of reason in there, the person who, should things be going dodgy will turn round and say "hold on a minute, this is shit". Still think the most workable step would be for a "decent owner" to employ a "Fans Liasson officer" who would chair a monthly fans forum where ALL fans groups (Disabled, Juniors Family etc etc and not just NUSC) would get to provide input. This Fans liassion officer would then be the go between for the fans and the directors. To think an owner is going to allow a non employee to attend full board meetings is pie in the sky IMO How can it be pie in the sky when 60 clubs already do it successfully? Weve had fans liasons they failed, we had the Supporters Panel, it was used to see how tasty the mince pies were and what would make someone buy another shirt....It failed.

To a degree, that post does inspire me. I guess I'm just bewildered at the true effectiveness of having 'one of us' at the table. Picture this: Board meeting to hire a new manager. Chairman says, "The names we have are w, x, y and z." Now then, does 'our man in Africa' dispute those names? Does he report back to us? That would just be plain daft. This is where I'm confused about it all. How much does he/she become 'one of them' due to all the confidentiality ?? He/she cannot possibly tell the board to hold on whilst he consults the supporters on every nuance of running the club. The principal of having one of our friends as part of the decision making process sounds, of course, brilliant, but I just have my doubts as to real benefit. However, I guess I will support the calls for this plan to have our fellow fans on the board, and remain hopeful that the true worth will be demonstrated, thus making my Doubting Thomas sentiments unfounded. The rep wouldnt be consulting the rest of us though, maybe thats where this isnt clear. They would be a fully eligible member of the board with the same rights as the rest of the board members. The supporters trust members would elect the member to sit on the board and that would be it (until their term was up), they would be responsible for what they do and accountable to the supporters. We (the supporters) would have to trust them to make the right decisions. its the same as electing an MP, they dont consult us as to which way to vote in Parliament, we trust them to make the right decisions. More importantly though, they are the voice of reason in there, the person who, should things be going dodgy will turn round and say "hold on a minute, this is shit".

There doesn't seem to be a defitive list, just numbers.

The rep on the board would be accountable as any other board member, commercially sensitive info would be just that, commercially sensitive and bound by the same rules. The fact of the matter is that a huge chunk of the business is tied up in the customers, if they're not happy then they won't spend as much money. So it makes sense to an owner to have their input at the time. Boards are brought in by shareholders, the fans rep is voted on by the fans and would be based on a lot more than wheter they were at scunthorpe in January 76 or could name the fairs cup side. Sensible level headed business type people with a love for the club as a bonus. By default fans would trust the board more knowing they'd elected one of them, that alo e should be enough for any owner that isn't looking to screw the club over and wants it to do well.

The only time an owner would want secrecy is if they're being underhand, any true well meaning owner would see the benefits of working with the fans alongside you. Plus it takes some of the shit away , fans would have been represented in the decisions that go wrong as well as the good stuff. I don't see why there would be any more arguments or disruption, there's no reason why in almost all decisions the fans rep shouldn't be agreeing with the proposals any more than any other member of the board. Like isaid earlier 60 owners seem to see it as a good thing so far

Sure I got slaughtered for this last week Not off me you didn't though, I agreed with you on SP no longer being involved or at least close to binning us.

Or SP have told him to go fuck himself and Assley being the fat cocky bastard that he is thinks he can shift the blame to them by putting stuff like that out. Next thing we know we'll be getting sued by them for slander

Simple benefit is you know that at least one person on the board loves the club and wants what is best for it regardless of monetary gain, share price or how they look to the chairman over the road. This person can't be bought because they report to the fans and would have to justify what was done. I have to admit to being totally confused how anyone can't see the benefits of that especially after the shit we've gone through the last two seasons

I've never really understood this desire for fans on the board. What could they possibly bring to the table? I'm not saying it's wrong, I just don't understand it. I think a fan elected representative or two should be on the board of every football club, for accountability more than anything. I still don't get it. I just don't think any board of any football club takes a blind bit of notice what the fans think - other than lack of paper in the bogs, or the temperature of the meat pies at half time. And thats where you're missing the most important point. The call for fans representation at board level isnt one where we get a chance to tell them what we think once every six months. Not a case of being able to tell them about the state of the beer or give us a chance to talk about the new yellow strip. Its a seat on the board, its to be there as part of the decision making process, its a chance to say what the fans feel and think and do at every meeting, with every decision, every step of every board meeting would involve the fans. No, you dont have enough power to force things through, after all it would only be one or two voices but at the end of the day, that board would involve fans. If the board never listens to the fans then its the fans not listening to the fans, if things (as now) are permanently being done which frustrate and mystify the fans then they can ask what the hell is going in because they will always have somewhere to go to find out and those people would be obliged by their position to tell it like it is, no bullshit, no ignoring the questions they'd have to tell us fans what was what. Because of that, the football club would not and could not make decisions that it knows are not for the best of the club, yes they can and will at times make wrong decisions but thats life but they couldnt do things that are clearly not in the best interests of the club. This football club would not be in anything like the position it is now if we'd already had fans representation. Yes, we may have been relegated, yes, we may still be losing money hand over fist but we wouldnt have the misinformation, lies and downright incompetence that we have now. If the board were making decisions that the fans representatives werent happy with then they'd make it clear to the rest of the board, more importantly, if they werent listened to then they'd tell the rest of us. No more would the board be able to use ignorance as their excuse, not realising the strength of feeling for a particular decision as at least one of them would be one of us, would be used to sitting on a coach for 6 hours to get to Birmingham. Would know what its like to sit in the pissing rain in January and watch your dreams evaporate as another FA Cup fizzles out before its even started. People who can clearly see that two shades of yellow do not make a winning strip, that refusing to sell your players until the last minute while the rest of football knows how skint you are is not good business sense. More importantly than all that though, never again would this football club be able to treat its fans as pieces of meat that turn up blindly week after week, ignored, laughed at and abused until the next time the club needs something only to then be treat like some clueless idiot who will pay up, shut up and take it on the chin. If that continued to happen then we'd only have ourselves to blame. If you still dont believe that having fans representation makes a difference to how you feel as a fan then ask any fan of any of these teams whether they are happy with what they see coming out of the boardroom. Yes they may not be the most successful clubs in the world but they should all tell you that they are happy their boards are working for the best for the football club. Carlisle, Dumbarton, Brentford, Lincoln (fully owned by the supporters), Bristol City, Halifax, Northampton Town, Dundee, Morton, Exeter, AFC Wimbledon (fully owned by the supporters), Telford, Enfield, Sheffield Wednesday or any of the other 46 clubs that either have representation or are fully owned by the fans. You may not think these are big clubs but so what? they are clubs with a strong history and chances are you'll see that most of the Supporters Trusts and fans representation came about because of a problem the club were having. Many of those that have been bailed out by the fans were once big name clubs. The trouble is that people only look to start this when things go tits up, just as we have done. Liverpool, Man United, Arsenal, Villa, all have strong Supporters Trusts, all are looking to become part of the boardroom and all are sitting there waiting to help the club out when the shit hits the fan. Manchester City did have a strong Supporters Trust which has now been disbanded following the sale of the club, that to me is a bad move, if things go wrong for them then they will need to start again from scratch. No matter how big, how successful or how rich your football club is, Supporters Representation on the board can only be a good thing.

Its got to be said, Id be up for all out "get out here and give us your reasons" ultimatum. Would be funny to see Llardarse try and make out it was down to Shearers unreasonable demands such as wanting to buy a player and such like. You coming to the meeting Thursday?

Id love to see llambsarse stand up and tell us why shearer isno longer "the best decision made" and 110% right for the job.

Every week you've been optimistic that it was the week. When will you learn?

he probably put it wide anyway

The NUSC is prepared to do whatever its members feel is correct and there's a members meeting on Thursday where Im sure this will be a big topic. What we have to remember though is the long term aims of the trust and the supporters representation being the most important. Its a difficult one to balance, the need to show our (the fans) feelings against whats best for the club long term. I know how I personally feel, in that Id love to do whatever we can to ruin this bastard once and for all for what hes doing to our football club but Im well aware that theres more at stake than just the next couple of weeks etc. Oh and living outside the country is no barrier to membership, we have members in 31 countries now, including many Americans

You're not a member are you? cool, so thats "as long as someone else sorts it out, I'll be happy".

shurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrup man mooth!

Ive got nae idea who you're lot are going to attract but as for us, well its looking likely to be anyone but Shearer.

3 years on the scrapheap tells you all you need to know.