peasepud

I cant access the actual stats at the mo but from memory I host 19 sites and the other 18 collectively dont register on the percentage of usage, its well over 99% is Toontastic.

a wrongun if Ive ever seen one

Pretty spot on, all of these questions tbh are ones that the club have already answered in one way or another via the statement and Pardews press conferences. Will be interesting to see if they contradict any of them.

I have a mate who hands out his business card. I only wish I was joking. Id hand mine out if I didnt think it would get me lynched

Bollocks, that time in the Trent, it was every other fucking word, especially when you were on the pull

Why did you not say owt then? strange that isn't it. and that's where leazesmag's whole "i was right, the rest of you were wrong" argument falls apart. the only difference between leazesmag and everyone else is he thought shepherd was doing a great job. i'm sure he'd secretly admit that, just like the rest of us, he was excited at the prospect of a billionaire owner with deep pockets coming in. he didn't know ashley would be shit from the start. no one did. but it was equally obvious to everyone as soon as it started going tits up. it's not like he's some mastermind that called it from the beginning, so why he continues this crusade to persuade to prove to the rest of the board that he was right and everyone else has come around to his way of thinking is beyond me. tbf Leazes did, I vividly remember a warning from LM when Ashley launched the takeover, and subsequent argument from me where he stated "the grass isnt always greener", my reply was along the lines of "yes its a gamble but Id rather take my chance with this new bloke than the current fat bastard".

Would be the best move Ashley could make but it wont happen. The cock ups of the striker situation may force a re-think in transfer negotiation or personnel but I would be surprised if that but Llambias under threat. This is who we should be directing any protest at.

The timing of the first official press conference after the transfer window shut tells a different story. Conspirator or sap, disappearing off the radar for a week and hoping everyone forgets he fed the supporters a load of bullshit again isn’t on. I dont think he's backed away from confronting anything to date. Certainly the way it comes across and the way he's described by Caulkin, Bird and co. Im sure at the next scheduled presser he will rightly say he is disappointed, frustrated etc or words along those lines. Not much else he can say. He's already said he wanted one and we needed one. He's also said he just helps make up the short list and after that its out of his hands. Some seem to be implying he knew that we wouldnt get a striker in this window and just played along. I dont buy that. Me neither, I said it when the statement came out that I feel it was forced by Pardew, whether thats him now burnt his bridges with Dekka we'll have to wait and see.

I cant see HFs diagrams (stupid firewall, upload them via the http://www.toontastic/stokoe link man!) so not sure if what hes drawn relates to totally different stuff so apologies if this isnt relevant however the fanbase is a very important aspect to how healthy a club is. I would argue that in every aspect except payment of interest on bank loans this club is no better off than it was pre-Ashley, I could well easily be wrong on that but feel free to prove it with something.

I'd imagine that there is some rule requiring the crossbar to be completely white? I dont believe there is any rule on the colour of posts and bar but I would have thought that anything which distracted players could be deemed illegal.

The game v QPR is in Shepherd's Bush, Alex. Hes moved the ground to London? is there no end to this mans stupidity? and that was the point I was making, its all well and good to use the last complete season attendances but that one shows it far more than anything.

So you see the one league place as a higher sign of quality than the fact we competed in Europe that season? Using your logic then its clearly not. Premiership position: +1 in 10/11 UEFA position: -2 in 10/11 Overall: -1

To an extent you're right which is backed up by my thread about match by match positions however on attendances I think its fair to say that the averages are ok to use regardless of number of gates. Just to be sure though lets look at the gates for the two games weve played so far: Arsenal 06/07 - 52,293 Arsenal 11/12 - 46,894 Difference - 5399 Fulham 06/07 - 50,365 Fulham 11/12 - 42,684 Difference - 7681 Average loss since 06/07 = 6540 Unfortunately that way is too unreliable and my year average is better. eg in 06/07 Blackburn 51,000 last year Blackburn 41,000 That would imply a 10,000 drop yet the yearly average still worked out at only 3,00. You are correct and also understand how averages work. Hold on, we're not arguing how many per season have buggered off, its how many have gone since Ashley took over full stop. My average is based on the average of the 2 games we've played so far. As for it being too unreliable, bollocks. Its far more reliable to take the actual games weve played so far than the yearly average. If 6,000 less turn up to watch us play Arsenal then thats a better indication of how badly weve dropped. If we'd played Wigan and Stoke so far then compared the average of those 2 against the average of a full season youd not take into account the higer gates against Mackems, Man U, Liverpool etc. Put it this way, last season we had an 8 goal thriller against Arsenal, if anything is a good advert for the first game of the season that would have been it.

To an extent you're right which is backed up by my thread about match by match positions however on attendances I think its fair to say that the averages are ok to use regardless of number of gates. Just to be sure though lets look at the gates for the two games weve played so far: Arsenal 06/07 - 52,293 Arsenal 11/12 - 46,894 Difference - 5399 Fulham 06/07 - 50,365 Fulham 11/12 - 42,684 Difference - 7681 Average loss since 06/07 = 6540

If half those worshipping Beardsley had seen Milburn play then theyd understand the word legend.

In 07/08 we finished 12th. In 10/11 we finished 12th. So that’s debts up, attendances down and no progress at all on the pitch. So, based on facts not soothsaying.... no. Hold on cowboy, iirc, when he bought the club we had just finished 13th. The question was compared to when he bought it, not compared to his first full year in charge. (if I am wrong I will humbly apologise). It’s a fair cop but makes little difference. Thinking about it another way – are supporters happier today than they were the day before FMA took over? It’s safe to assume the lost 10,000 aren’t and probably not the 3000 who got kicked out the LC. Sorry to be a stickler, but the average crowd the season before he took over was 50,000.....last year it was 47,000 so thats 3,000 I think the happier points a no brainer because of all thats happened. sorry to be a stickler but you said "are they happier today?" so its about 6k.

you fucking mentalist

wanker

Doing a quick straw poll of attendances over the last 4 complete years and most clubs have lost a negligable amount apart from us (-7.02) and Villa (-7.09). Interestingly Bolton have bucked the trend seeing 10/11 attendances over 9% higher than those in 07/08, coincidence that they were in the FA Cup semi last year? I think not.

In 07/08 we finished 12th. In 10/11 we finished 12th. So that’s debts up, attendances down and no progress at all on the pitch. So, based on facts not soothsaying.... no. Hold on cowboy, iirc, when he bought the club we had just finished 13th. The question was compared to when he bought it, not compared to his first full year in charge. (if I am wrong I will humbly apologise). We had attendances over 50k Our squad included Owen, Duff, Emre, Martins, Butt, Dyer, N'Zog, Parker, Solano, Given & Milner among others. We had won the Intertoto Regardless of how well/shite we did, we had been in Europe. We were the 14th highest earning club in the world so ermmm no

I pay just by being on here mothafuka! Theres no winners there

And these are the hard cold facts of football today. Speculate to accumulate is fine if you have a individual prepared to gamble a very large ammount of money. Is speculating to accumulate working for Ellis Short? The best way IMO to come to the business model for today, is to assume you have just taken control and your off to see the bank manager. But it will always come bact to the fact that in the whole wages are strangling the game. But its not and you dont see that because all you associate the word "competing" with is the top 4. You talk about being debt free like its something we are, yet we're in way more debt now than we ever were pre-Ashley. You talk about buying players like its a dirty statement yet its the be all and end all of football, its how football clubs progress, dont do that and you stand still. Every time wages are mentioned people bring into the equation the percentages, if its too high a percentage of turnover then you need to reduce wages. Theres always another way to reduce the percentage but Ashley, you and many many more dont ever see it as an option yet its how business is done in every other industry. You increase the turnover, its not a difficult concept to grasp. Man United have it sussed yet they have one of the highest debts going, pay some of the highest wages and yet still manage to turn a £110m profit. When the next accounts are released we will see another drop in turnover which in turn will see the wage bill highlighted as concern. Cue stage 2 of the sales process. What will that do? reduce turnover even more. Gate receipts these days are not that important in the great scheme of things but theyre a oood indication of how a club is doing. We're down 6.14% How?? Revenue's which are non-TV have all but plateau'd throughout football. Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham make up almost 60% of the Prem League revenues. In 2009/10, the revenue for those clubs grew by 5%, which looks canny, but more than two-thirds of that increase (£56 million) came from Man City, with their “friendly” Middle East deals and there was almost no growth from Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool. Overall Prem League revenue has risen by 77% (about £500 million) since 2004 but that's nearly all TV money and very little of that growth has come in the last three years and match day revenue growth has effectively stalled, it actually decreaased 5% in 2009/10, while commercial revenue barely grew at all (3%). You can't just take turnover in isolation and using Man U as an example is extremely flawed, they are the richest club on the planet and just about the most succesfull. I would also suspect that we'll actually see a record revenue for NUFC in the next accounts. Our historical high revenues were in our Champions League years, the CL money these days has grown out of all proportion from then, as has the TV deal, the clubs that have stayed in the CL are the one's who have benefitted, the money is such, that it's almost a self fullfilling prohecy. You're missing the simple revenue, only looking at the one massive hit, a massive hit that all Premiership clubs have. Take this plan of Ashleys and present it to Warner Brothers, will they take is as the way to make movies? will they shite Its entertainment, entertain people and they'll want to watch you again and again, they'll want to buy the shirts, mugs, bags and novely Y-Fronts. Get into other markets, Asia, Autralia, North America etc, all big potential fanbases and all with money to burn. Its no secret that all of our past turnover etc is off the back of when we were "the entertainers". A good investment sensibly spent, be that from Ashley or the banks, in the team will lead to better performance on the pitch which in turn leads to higher gates, higher gates lead to more pies, pints and shirt sales. Better performance leads to more corporate boxes etc. Better performance on the pitch ultimately leads to higher advertising revenue. This concept of "you cant touch the top 4 so lets not bother attempting to" is a disgraceful way to look at things. Aim for top 4 and get 6th is way preferable to aim to survive and rejoice at 16th.

Good idea... I’ve talked a bit (OK, ranted a lot) about fighting back and see this as a small opportunity to do just that. Not by asking searching questions but by asking 12 questions as banal as Tecato’s pizza topping. It’s not like any searching questions are going to get anything other than the usual spin cycle, might as well take the piss out of the latest PR stunt organised by the EC. Show them were not quite the thickos they take us for. Even though I'm not Twittered up, I like this idea. Are you thinking banal, as in pizza topping, or tangential, like his view on how the Libya situation will impact the Serie A? Although Im in the "show it to be the farce it is" camp that YNH talks about, I think getting a hugely asked "what colour pants do you wear" would mean that Ryder didnt include it for that very reason, ie we want serious questions. One question, RT'd to include @lee_ryder and @MSIDouglas in it that is a serious hard hitting one. Maybe, just "how much money is set aside for a striker in January?"

And these are the hard cold facts of football today. Speculate to accumulate is fine if you have a individual prepared to gamble a very large ammount of money. Is speculating to accumulate working for Ellis Short? The best way IMO to come to the business model for today, is to assume you have just taken control and your off to see the bank manager. But it will always come bact to the fact that in the whole wages are strangling the game. But its not and you dont see that because all you associate the word "competing" with is the top 4. You talk about being debt free like its something we are, yet we're in way more debt now than we ever were pre-Ashley. You talk about buying players like its a dirty statement yet its the be all and end all of football, its how football clubs progress, dont do that and you stand still. Every time wages are mentioned people bring into the equation the percentages, if its too high a percentage of turnover then you need to reduce wages. Theres always another way to reduce the percentage but Ashley, you and many many more dont ever see it as an option yet its how business is done in every other industry. You increase the turnover, its not a difficult concept to grasp. Man United have it sussed yet they have one of the highest debts going, pay some of the highest wages and yet still manage to turn a £110m profit. When the next accounts are released we will see another drop in turnover which in turn will see the wage bill highlighted as concern. Cue stage 2 of the sales process. What will that do? reduce turnover even more. Gate receipts these days are not that important in the great scheme of things but theyre a oood indication of how a club is doing. We're down 6.14%