peasepud

I fully expect the London press to blame it all on JB, we'll no doubt have accusations of racist abuse etc

I'll save Skiddy the hassle of replying. Fuck off Id rather be getting tonked 4 nowt at half time to Arsenal with a good balance sheet than being in debt and beating Barcelona.

Its alreet, 2nd half we'll be solid in defence.

and thats you being optimistic

that must have been a pretty accurate knee, keyhole surgery would have problems finding it.

Not an Ashley defence but...... Last I remember seeing was that his "worth" was £850 million. The majority of this is made up by shares in sports direct that account for £700 million. That leaves £150 million of which Im sure a good chunk is tied up in other shares etc. Understandable then why he cant keep on subsidising the losses at Newcastle and why he cant compete with Arabs and Ambramovich. Could be Im wrong, but thats my understanding. That reminds me, who was it that said "SD has just had a fantastically profitable year and I reckon its going to show in the transfer window" ?

that would Dennis Wise then

Sir Bobbys got a charity? I assume its for lung cancer, the number he used to smoke on stage.

hmmm this is what I was worried you'd say. This will probably mean that next season is the last one where clubs are buying big, one of Ashleys stipulations on player purchases was they had to have a good resale value. We've just seen Carroll go for a massive profit, if the bottoms going to fall out of the market as such then I worry Cashley will cash in on anyone who can get big money next season on the logic their values will drop after. This even matches in with Pardews comments about Tiote and 18 months. The likes of Tiote, Ben Arfa, Enrique could possibly represent a massive increase on their purchase costs if we sell them before the rules kick in. Even if players dont represent a massive profit they could go then to reduce the potential loss and equally importantly reduce the wage bill. I worry that the new rules which many are understandably seeing as a good thing for us could actually be the opposite.

so from the start of 2012/13 season we should expect to see the prices paid for players drop considerably as clubs are less willing/unable to spend silly money?

The sad thing is that some fucker actually thought that making this up would get people on side. didn't the women form the airport recently take the PR Job, bet she's made up right now. yeah, Id love to have seen how they sold it to her!

The sad thing is that some fucker actually thought that making this up would get people on side.

can someone post something that explains them in laymans terms and when they come into force?

So Carroll was on less than £20k pw while Smith was on £60k? And people think he was wrong to expect to be paid more to stay with us rather than become a massive signing? The bit in bold to me is him acknowledging that he doesnt trust those above him to do the right thing. Its like his little secret get out clause. The last sentence though is the worrying one. Backs up what I reported the other day, surely there was nothing to sort. JB was willing to take a pay cut and the club wanted him. Whats the issue? Barton wants to see whats what just as Jose does now. Roll up, Roll up, come and get ya Toite here. One top player, hardly used, yours for a song. He might as well stick an ad in Football Trader

tbf to Skiddy I think his view may be the same as yours since Monday.

Currently my house is the 11th best but everyone else in the street have just returned from B&Q with carloads of paint, wallpaper and general DIY equipment. Ive checked the garage and it turns out wor lass has just sold off the only tin of that nice cream paint we had to the bloke next door leaving us with a couple of rolls of 1970s flock wallpaper and half an old tin of custard yellow paint.

group hug?

I can only assume you've never been to Stoke.

Im not interested in getting into the whole Shepherd/Ashely argument because Shepherd had his problems/ issues/ whatever we want to call them and I agree with Mancy that he had ran his course. What Shepherd did bring to the table that Ashley has no concept of is the view that Debt can be reduced/ profits increased not just through cost cutting but increasing the turnover. Nothing Ashley has done since coming here could be argued as increasing the revenue of the club. All the thoughts on debt reduction etc are made by cutting corners which unlike a market stall often results in much bigger losses through the likes of relegation.

Same difference Doubt they'd announce something like this though other than 'negotiations ongoing'. Not surprised one bit btw. Exactly, the fact he hasnt signed a week after he was "in the bag" and quoted as being happy to take a pay cut should be enough to say that all is not well. The source is a valid, trustworthy one who never gives out info unless hes 100% sure of it. He will have got it directly from a player (more than likely Barton himself).

Reasons? dunno. just can't see myself getting that involved. i care about the club and what happens to it dearly but my involvement over the years has rarely stretched to more than attending a handful of games a season and posting on this forum. it's partially because i've lived down in london for about 10 years now. if i still lived back home i might be more engaged but i think it's mainly because i'm lazy. it's way easier to keep in touch with football matters by chatting on a forum than it is attending supporters' clubs meetings etc. arguably less productive too but i can't see myself changing, soz. Thats understandable, I wasnt meaning my question as a "why the hell not like?" but just so we can gauge if it needed to be something else to what was envisaged. What I would say though is that being OOT and part of these things can often give a closer feeling of being involved in the club. A large proportion of NUST members are not in North East. Off the top of my head though I wouldnt see any reason for the subs to be the tenner that NUST charge. One of the reasons I argued for a proper fee for NUST was because it had "politcial" aspirations and therefore could be influenced wrongly by makems etc if there wasnt a membership fee. At the same time you need some sort of fee to allow you to negotiate discounts with travel firms etc and organise events. Anyone know if theres any pubs for sale?

Reasons?

Good point which I agree with. Yes, I would join, but I would want it to start with a clean sheet, so not constantly complaining about yesterday, but hoping about tomorrow. Thats what I was meaning when I said I think that should it take off and become a large organisation then the last point becomes very difficult to avoid but it would be something that is tackled at the time (with the inclusion of the members). If it got to that stage then I would hope it doesnt comment on anything minor but only the big things, Carroll sale an example. To facilitate this though I would love to see what I (unsuccessfully) tried to implement with NUST, a part of the members website that has simple polls like we do in threads here which is then used to gauge the general feel of the membership before making comment. Rather than a chairman being called at 5pm on Monday night and asked what the SCs view is on the Carroll sale and him having to guess the general view he/she would be able to take a look at the current poll and say "well at this point in time it appears that our members arent happy about it". No definitive statement just a current view. Id also hope that it could build links with the club, having the chance to talk to them about problems, what I mean by that is if fans have problems with facilities at SJP etc then the SC should be the place to collate them and raise through dealings with the club. Again something that appears to have been lost on NUST and is probably long gone now with the loss of Bill who had a good relationship with Simon Esland at the club.

Stoke

I'd heard rumblings of this but dismissed it. Got no issues with Ashley doing the scousers over for an additional £10m but if its true then it clearly shows we had no intention of buying a replacement and yet again the clubs version of events would be shown to be lies.