Tom 13845 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Click here for the True Faith website There have been so many mental episodes in the history of Newcastle United that we could have been forgiven for imagining we’d seen it all before. We hadn’t. Last week NUFC reached a point where it has never been before and from which it might never recover without the departure of the clowns currently calling the shots at NUFC.We’re always optimistic about the future (even though you might think otherwise at times) but not with Ashley, Wise and Llambias running the show. We seriously doubt their motives and their competence. Before we go into exactly where the club has got it so spectacularly wrong and why Ashley, Wise and Llmabias are finished let us deal with the current dissembling the club appears to be engaged in against Kevin Keegan. The nonsensical claims being made from “club insiders” or “sources close to directors” that Kevin Keegan wanted the club to buy Ronaldo, Frank Lampard, Thierry Henry etc are simply laughable but also offensive. Who will put their names to these accusations? Who will stand up and speak the words against Kevin Keegan rather than making sly calls to journalists and anoymously planting stories in a tawdry exercise of black propaganda from the Dr. Goebbels of Barrack Road. It was little surprise that it was Rob Beasley of the News of the World who was leading with this story in the Sunday newspapers. You will remember Beasley was the journalist who sat in the director’s box at SJP last season next to Ashley. You can fill in your own gaps. This is of course all a red herring designed to discredit KK in the wider football community, to attempt to portray him as unrealistic, hysterical etc. Its disgraceful and hateful. It makes a bad situation even worse. Were Ashley to take KK to court then really the mind boggles at how vicious this situation could get. And the black propaganda is transparently garbage. Let’s cut to the chase. Both Xisco and Gonzales were bought to Newcastle United Football Club last Monday without Kevin Keegan, the manager’s approval. How can the club spin against that? There is a widespread understanding in football that the club offered Michael Owen to other PL clubs on transfer deadline day – why on earth was a clumsy offer of a new contract made to Owen publicly (we seem to do evertything via the internet these days – I wonder if Wise will do a HT team talk by video conferencing?) just a day before the transfer window closed? To me this appeared as though NUFC wanted to create the illusion of wanting to keep Owen but at the same time cut the out-goings by selling Owen and put the decision for his departure on the player to protect the board. Keegan has been imploring the board to get an offer of the nature allegedly mate to him since February. This was hinted at by KK after the Arsenal game when he referred to every player “having a price” though he seemed less than happy about the situation. Just a thought but with all the season tickets and corporate packages sold that they are likely to sell, there wouldn’t have been a better time to flog Owen would there? Let’s also talk about the apparent attempts to sell Joey Barton against KK’s wishes. Now whatever you feel about Barton, had he been sold, a wafer thin squad would have become gossamer, regardless about the ban he has picked up for the assault on Dabo. If, as they claim, KK knew about his role as de-facto Head Coach rather than manager (the title which Ashley refers to him in the interview gave to the London-based club magazine) why didn’t Wise simply sack Barton as the club seemed to want to months ago? Why the dithering? There are those (well, me) who look at Wise’s previous and question Ashley’s apparent distaste for what Barton has done and scratch their heads at what seems to me as double standards. In my opinion, Barton’s well-publicised misdeamonours offered the club an opportunity to get rid of a highly paid player. Nothing to do with morality as Wise’s presence in a senior position amply demonstrates. Everything to do with finance. All of this of course serves cleverly to put the Keegan camp on the defensive. But it is a powder puff attack because (a) it is transparently bollocks and ( none of them has the balls to say it publicly or put their name to it. But let’s have a look at the “achievements” of Wise and Co this summer. We like the look of Collocini and Gutierrez – well done. But we won’t be saying they are brilliant signings until they have put it in at Wigan on Boxing Day and the freezing rain is coming at them side ways and we’re 1-0 down. Guthrie is allegedly KK’s man. KK was big enough to acknowledge Collocini and Gutierrez were good players and indeed has been playing up the latter’s credentials since the moment he got a good look at him in training. But let’s get it right – it was Wise who was knocked back by Woodgate, Modric, Aimar and plenty others. It was Wise who was unable to pull off the signing of Schweinstegger the full back wasn’t it? It is Wise who has left us high and dry with barely any defensive cover? It is Keegan, McDermott and Hughton who I spotted on the side of the pitch as Newcastle United Reserves with a load of young’uns in the side took on Benfield in the pre-season and were roundly hammered. It was KK and his men who sat in the stand at the International Stadium as Newcastle United Reserves took on Gateshead in the pre-season, again with the yong’uns in the team. No-one has seen Wise at those games – despite, according to Ashley, the poison dwarf has responsibility for the Academy and the first team was KK’s domain. It was Wise who brought in Xisco and Gonzales without KK’s knowledge and it is Wise who has failed to give us a squad fit for purpose. The squad Wise has put together will do well to repeat the position of 12th of last season. And who the fuck is Dennis Wise? What are his credentials to be senior man to Kevin Keegan? Oh, he’s Mike Ashley’s mate. That’ll be it then. Not what you know but who you know. Its fucking rotten. The Ashley set up has achieved the impossible – made Shepherd look competent. If reports in the press are to be believed it will be Richard Money from The Academy who will be in the dug-out this coming Saturday for the Hull game. What does Money have to do with the first team? Surely, Wise is closer to that scene than a man with a brief to develop the Academy? How the fuck does that work then? Perhaps Dennis will be at the theatre IN London with his bairns for the Lion King? Perhaps they would prefer the pantomime their father has helped create at SJP. The simple truth of the matter is Wise in the dug out would likely cause huge disorder at SJP. He is not wanted by supporters. In fact I don’t think that statement does the currentl level of loathing for Wise justice and I’m unable to find the words to illustrate how much that man is detested. By all accounts the players do not want Wise either and it is entirely credible that several respected first teamers will be reviewing their futures with the club, prominent amongst which will be Michael Owen but I’d guess similar thoughts will be passing through the heads of Shay Given, Nicky Butt and others. Those lads deserve a lot better from the club than this farrago. I cannot help but sneer at Ashley’s alleged modus operandi for Newcastle United as being inspired by Arsenal. Dear, dear me. What planet is this man from? On what day of the week would Arsene Wenger tolerate an upstart like Wise operating from the shadows to buy and sell his players? Arsenal? Don’t make me fucking laugh – the man has completely missed the point. The simple truth of the matter is that there is little investment going in on the playing side. We have heard that the budget for players was £12m this close season. Well, we haven’t even spent that pitiful amount have we? That reluctance to invest is attributable to several factors but let’s look at them one at a time. There are those who say the club’s finances are completely fucked up – left by Hall-Shepherd who used our future income to patch up yesterday’s problems and they are right. They reckon Ashley has discovered a black hole in the club’s finances. Well, that’s all probably true but whose fault is it he’s in this mess? Whose fault is it he paid what he did for the club without completing due dilligence in the purchase of the club? Well, its his fault. No-one else’s. He has clearly been burnt by the amount he has paid for the club given its debts and past revenue having been flushed down the shitter. That has resulted in Ashley losing his appetite for the club and becoming resistant to putting any additional money in for players – the people who will take us forward. There are those who say Ashley has cleared the debts. I’m sorry, I don’t believe it any longer. I have seen no evidence of any debts being cleared and a more accurate summary of what has been done with the debts is that Ashley has underwritten more favourable terms to clear those debts. But that’s just my speculation. The club is completely opaque to supporters who want to know what’s going on – its is anoymous, distant and completely uncommunicative. And of course there is the ongoing soap opera of whether Ashley is attempting to sell the club – with an explict story the accounts were opened to a New York company. That’s not speculation, that’s pretty damning and it is have never been adequately explained – even though he gave an interview in the club’s London based magazine which we had to pay £3:50 to read. Anyway, I could go on all day … * What can we do about it? Well, we’ve been contacted by supporters from Benwell to Bahrain who are keen to demonstrate their opposition to these clowns running our club. Contrary to common misconception neither tf or The Mag has a standing army of 10,000 ninjas ready to emerge by popping open man-hole covers in Strawberry Place and begin scaling down the front of the Milburn Stand on Barrack Road. We really are modest operations run by and large by volunteers who have fulltime jobs and families. Some of the things we’ve been asked to do this week would require us to have a thousand good men and women working around the clock and we just don’t have that kind of resource. That’s not to say we can’t do anything but one thing is for certain – we can’t do anything without the commitment of supporters. All we can do is to make a list of recommendations and hope you accept them. For now. For my own part I’d like to stress this action will not just start and finish with the game against Hull City next Saturday. Should circumstances demand it, we’re looking to dig in for a much longer campaign. Both true faith and The Mag will be releasing a joint press statement via The Chronicle which we hope they carry on Monday. The press statement captures the consensus between Newcastle United’s two fanzine editors. Once that press statement is out we’ll invite others out there running Newcastle United websites and forums etc to put their names to what we’re doing and we’ll publish that colectively online and via everyone who is ready to put their name to the course of action we’ve outlined in the press statement. The names of those supporting those recommendations will be added to the press release which will be circulated more widely. What we’ll be recommending is what we think is right, what we think will establish a broad consensus across the support and what is achievable in a week. When and if the campaign becomes more intense and organised we’ll come back to you to discuss how a campaign can go forward but we’re both very much aware we have no mandate to lead any campaign and at this time all we are about to do is to make some recommendations to you that we hope you are comfortable with and which you wil take up and encourage others to follow to get us to Saturday. Saturday isn’t the end of the campaign, as I keep repeating, it’s the beginning. What neither anyone from The Mag or true faith will be doing is grandstanding outside SJP for the benefit of national TV etc. Those with the bedsheets and the half-baked quotes simply embrass us all and we want no part in being lumped in with that mob. No-one here or over at The Mag has any wish to become a minor-Z list local celebrity and all communications for Saturday coming and thereafter will be via this site and those who are signed up to support and take action with the campaign. * Ordinarily, the sight of a rich fat middle-aged man making a twat of himself dancing in a night-club spunking his own money up the wall in some sad demonstration of a mid-life crisis would probably have us smirking at the sad prick but, well it just adds to the current disillusion. Ashley in New York acting the cunt in a cheesey night-club is one thing but whilst Tyneside is in ferment and NUFC in meltdown it just adds to the complete sense of complete cluelessness about the man. His £200m investment is about to turn to shit but he’s jumping around in a bad shirt grinning like a twat. Its pathetic. * In the last couple of days both Alan Shearer and Sir Bobby Robson have publicly slaughtered what is going on at the club. SBR in particular has questioned Wise’s credentials. I think all of us incensed by what is going on at our club know we are in good company and we won’t be misled by some nameless bastard at NUFC spreading shite about the one man supporters trusted at the club. * There are rumours doing the rounds that NUFC may be subject to a takeover from a seriously heavy duty Indian businessman. We know little about this fella except he has serious wedge.He can’t be any worse than Ashley can he? Can he? Keep On, Keepin’ On … Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 34442 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Lets just hope that whatever they are planning is something that people can get behind. The article itself is pretty rambling but then we've all got a million things running thru our heads about this so its understandable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakehips 0 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 The Mag and true faith are pretty much the same being iyam. They rarely have a counter argument between themselves. However, someone has to be co-ordinating some sort of concerted action against the powers at SJP, so why not them? They (The Mag and true faith) have repeated what I said yesterday - and I guess what most NUFC supporters with a bit of common sense would say - that the mongs who congregate outside SJP for the tv cameras are not required to represent me; I want someone with a bit of intelligence for that. However, I still can't figure out if I do hate Mike Ashley. I hate Wise and want him away from my club - of that I am sure. The fact remains that Ashley can have been badly informed. At the moment, I feel I am prepared to give him the benifit of the doubt. And what if the players brought in do start playing great football?? You know as well as I do that football fans are fickle fuckers and if the team starts winning, and winning well, then a lot of the anger will subside. If that does happen, we will see a significant change in attitude and all the vitriol spouted will be forgotton about. In that respect, I have no fears. I hate Wise now, I hated him when he was playing. I hated him when he was employed by NUFC and I will hate him regardless of what happens in the future. I will always be consistent in that feeling. Will the rest of the 'Toon Army' feel the same towards Ashley if things come good?? All will be revealed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMoog 0 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Bring it on!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 70 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Full on, on mass the crack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 70 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 "And who the fuck is Dennis Wise? What are his credentials to be senior man to Kevin Keegan? Oh, he’s Mike Ashley’s mate. That’ll be it then. Not what you know but who you know. Its fucking rotten. The Ashley set up has achieved the impossible – made Shepherd look competent." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetleftpeg 0 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 The Mag was started as a protest publication against the board so if anyone can try and give a direction to achieve change, they should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig 6302 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Remains to be seen what goes in this statement, but reading between the lines of what they've already said, I'm quite happy for Toontastic.net's name to go on the list as full support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 70 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Remains to be seen what goes in this statement, but reading between the lines of what they've already said, I'm quite happy for Toontastic.net's name to go on the list as full support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckyluke 1 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 It sounds like they're bottling the responsibility of leading the charge tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey the eagle 0 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Well done tf and the mag. I can't help thinking any campaign is for all football fans in the premiership against big business taking over and taking the piss out of us. To my mind this is not just making a stand for Keegan but its about the future of football, we've taken some shite over the past 10/15 years (bonds, £40 shirts, 1.30 & 5.30pm kick offs, 39th games, Marcelino, re-arranged games at 2 weeks notice etc etc) right lets see who really has the power? the billionairres jumping on the bandwagon or the punters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 70 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Well done tf and the mag. I can't help thinking any campaign is for all football fans in the premiership against big business taking over and taking the piss out of us. To my mind this is not just making a stand for Keegan but its about the future of football, we've taken some shite over the past 10/15 years (bonds, £40 shirts, 1.30 & 5.30pm kick offs, 39th games, Marcelino, re-arranged games at 2 weeks notice etc etc) right lets see who really has the power? the billionairres jumping on the bandwagon or the punters. I said somewhere recently that the final stand for the real game would happen at SJP....Didn't expect events to turn this quickly mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckyluke 1 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Well done tf and the mag. I can't help thinking any campaign is for all football fans in the premiership against big business taking over and taking the piss out of us. To my mind this is not just making a stand for Keegan but its about the future of football, we've taken some shite over the past 10/15 years (bonds, £40 shirts, 1.30 & 5.30pm kick offs, 39th games, Marcelino, re-arranged games at 2 weeks notice etc etc) right lets see who really has the power? the billionairres jumping on the bandwagon or the punters. I don't think you can pin that one on big business taking over football tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spongebob toonpants 3603 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Im not interested in fighting for the future of football I just want Ashley and Wise to fuck off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbyshinton 59 Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 Just another chapter. When you get to my age you realise we can only watch and suffer. The fans have never changed anything. I fucking hate NUFC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stevie Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 GEORDIE AGGRO, GEORDIE AGGRO HELLO HELLO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbyshinton 59 Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 GEORDIE AGGRO, GEORDIE AGGRO HELLO HELLO! On the pitch on the pitch we want a riot, we want a riot you're going to your fucking head kicked in just sharpening up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 GEORDIE AGGRO, GEORDIE AGGRO HELLO HELLO! Haven't heard that for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spongebob toonpants 3603 Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 A G AGR AGRO AGRO!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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