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Shepherd Praises Ashley...McKeag Jr has a pop


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Written prior to last nights game, but still a canny read....

 

UNBEATOON!

 

My title says it all... who would have thought that the Magpies would be flying sky high following an excellent start to the season.

Yes my little FanZone fanatics, the mighty black and white's are the North East's number one and currently "Unbeatoon" in the Premier League. The Geordie's are currently higher than Mike Ashley'sspacer.gif calorie count :lol and long may it continue!

 

As I type on my black and white laptop, the Toon Army are a fantastic fourth in the Premier League and following Chelsea'sspacer.gif hammering at the weekend we could even go into third place if we get points at Stoke this evening. Our existing position is a fantastic one that will surprise many Toon fans and Dazza included!

 

Apart from the recent lunacy of Nile "Power" Ranger being in the news for the wrong reasons, it's extremely refreshing to have Newcastle Unitedspacer.gif in the news for matters on the pitch rather than off it, even though the media still don't seem to be forthcoming in giving Newcastle praise, even when it is due. It is not as if we are a club with a reputation for constantly being in the public eye (cough)

It is great to see us doing so well and see the likes of Man Utd get thumped by their noisy neighbours, Chelsea getting beat by new boys Queens Park Strangers and have to defend their Captain against allegations and Man City involved in legal proceedings with their own players. Being a Newcastle fan is good at the moment, but we have a difficult run of games ahead of us and the next month or so will really determine how strong we really are.

 

Let's face facts, Alan Pardewspacer.gif was not a fans' favourite when he became our new manager, mainly due to the nature of Chris Hughton'sspacer.gif departure, but Pardew has to be treated on his results and who can argue with those? Whilst not liked at the time, the sale of Andy Carroll,spacer.gif Kevin Nolan,spacer.gif Jose Enriquespacer.gif and Joey Bartonspacer.gif are now distant memories and have not affected results, but now appear to have been pushed to the back of many fans minds.

 

So the question I ask, are Mike Ashley and Alan Pardew winning the battle for respect at SJP? Many will say no, never, but I think the majority of fans have to look at what's been done to the club both financially and on the pitch and agree that we are in a much healthier position.

 

Don't get me wrong I am not a deluded fan saying that we have a Premiership winning squad or will be in next year's Champions League as that simply isn't the case, but you have to look at the start we have made with the players that we now have and I am more than confident that we will end the season with a Top 10 finish.

 

Let us not forget that life on the Newcastle United rollercoaster is always eventful and let's hope the highs continue a while longer before the next inevitable stomach churning low.

 

And now for Dazza's regular Fanzone rant....

 

1. Regarding the new Sports Direct signage and renaming at St James Park... get over it, it's a sign for god's sake, Wigan's stadium is named after their owner, so what? Our stadium will always be called SJP regardless, end of.

 

2. Nile Ranger, give your head a shake mate. Stop feeling sorry for yourself with your "Life ain't fare" comment on Twitter. First of all learn to spell properly and more importantly act like the "professional" your paid to be. You're a role model to kids, so please act like one.

 

3. On the subject of Twitter, great to see Joey Barton already pulling his new club apart. I was sorry to see a good player leave us but not his outspoken comments. Barton is paid to be a footballer not a commentator, great player but a total liability, good luck with that one Mr Warnock, I hope you realise what you have taken on.

 

4. Great to hear the reduction in Season Ticket prices for the remainder of the season, a good move to reward fans loyalty, and for families... about blooming time!

 

Let's hope we can continue our good form and maintain ourselves as the North East's number one, whilst our secret weapon "Agent Bruce" continues his ongoing mission to ridicule and bring destruction to Sunderland.

 

As always please send me your views good bad or indifferent on my blog. You can also comment with your thoughts good on Twitter via @Fanzone or follow me via @DazWilliams.

 

Watch out Premier League, the future is bright, the future is Black and White....TOON ARMY!!!

 

http://www.skysports...7284045,00.html

 

:icon_lol:

 

an article written by a 5 year old and his "Beano". Surely.

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As accurate as the overall premise is, some of the bollocks in that article makes me wince. In addition to the above....

 

Built a line-up around Marveaux, Abeid and Ben Arfa?

 

Ben Arfa provides speed and power on the wing?

 

Obertan provides power?

 

Patrick Kluivert a megabucks signing that became an albatross?

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That article makes it sound as if we're doing something unheard of here at nufc which is patent bollocks. How will our 'plan' look if we finish 12th after selling Tiote and Colo in January? Am not saying its certain to happen, but if recent history is anything to go by there must be a chance that one of them might go if a good offer is made. I hope to be proved wrong like but I remain 'skeptical' about Ashley's long term aims/next guess at good club management/massive and risky gamble. He's tried all 3 during his time here and his latest throw of the dice has come good....for the moment.

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For Leazes :razz:

 

"Mike Ashley would be stupid to try to compete with English football's billionaires' - former Newcastle owner Sir John Hall praises successor's more cautious approach"

 

 

The Geordie businessman who galvanised Newcastle has backed Ashley strategy and expressed admiration for manager Alan Pardew following surprise unbeaten start to season.

 

Former Newcastle United owner Sir John Hall has hailed St James’ Park supremo Mike Ashley’s prudent ways following the Magpies’ storming start to the Premier League season.

 

Sir John, who sold the Tyneside club to the Sports Direct founder four years ago, has voiced his support for Ashley whose decision to keep a tight grip on the pursestrings at St James’ Park has been vindicated with Newcastle surging to third place in the Premier League following an unbeaten start to the league campaign.

 

In an exclusive interview with Goal.com, Sir John, who sanctioned the then world record £15 million signing of Alan Shearer in 1996, has backed Ashley’s strategy of adopting a cautious approach to running the club and signing new players in the face of competing against the likes of Chelsea’s billionaire owner Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City.

 

“The only thing fans wanted is for you to keep throwing your money into a club but you can’t keep doing that when you are competing with the likes of Chelsea because it is a recipe for bankruptcy unless you have a bottomless pit of money,” Sir John told Goal.com.

 

“Ashley runs his business by keeping a very tight rein on things and he is doing very, very well. Sports Direct has done exceptionally well since he founded the company and he has brought his business principles to St James’ Park.

 

“I don’t have as much money as Mike but I would probably be doing the same as him. In my day we were local millionaires such as Jack Walker at Blackburn, Dave Whelan at Wigan and Bill Kenwright at Everton and we put our money into our clubs because we were fans.

 

“But now the game is being run by billionaires and for me it is wrong and stupid if any English businessman tries to compete with these billionaires who are coming in and I don’t think are coming in for the right reasons. But is an open marketplace and a global business and it is going to grow bigger. But Ashley has a formula that is working and long may it continue.

 

“In my view when Roman Abramovich came in, the game in England changed forever and basically people threw money at it for reasons other than football. It is a global business but I don’t think the right thing is happening for the fans.”

 

Until this season, Ashley has been the subject of intense criticism from many Newcastle supporters - including Sir John himself - especially when the club was relegated from the Premier League and he has twice tried and failed to sell the club.

 

However, Sir John now believes he deserves praise from his former detractors.

 

“Mike Ashley has had a lot of unjustifiable criticism,” Sir John added. “With some of the headlines he has got in the local press, I would have walked away if I had got them. But probably he came in not knowing football.

 

“He took a lot of advice from friends of his in the south of England which wasn’t the sort of advice that Newcastle United needed and he suffered the consequences of it. He came in to the club to use Newcastle United as a brand to bolster his Sports Direct business and I still think that will happen.

 

“But he has got to be applauded for the position of the club at the moment. He spent money and he has bought players but he has bought the players he wants to buy and he is running the club in a manner which he wants to run it. He is a very astute businessman and he has got the team playing well and the club functioning well as a whole. He deserves credit and we should all be saying well done and carry on.”

 

Sir John, who revolutionised Newcastle when he appointed Kevin Keegan as manager, expressed admiration for the work of current boss Alan Pardew.

 

“I am very surprised by how well Alan Pardew is doing but I am also very pleased,” Sir John said.

 

“He left Southampton in difficult circumstances and there were a lot of dissenting voices because Chris Hughton was sacked to make way for him. Again you have to take your hat off to Pardew as well as to Ashley because of the influence that he has clearly had on the team.

 

“He is doing a great job. They attack with plenty of pace and guile and they are defensively sound which has not always been the case with Newcastle sides down the years.

 

“There have been some very good buys so Graham Carr who is doing the scouting for the club has done some great work. Cheik Tiote has been a tremendous buy and it is looking as though Yohan Cabaye and Demba Ba will prove to be the same. Plus they are playing as a team which is great because the importance of playing for each other can not be over-stated."

 

Sir John is hoping that the club that has not won a major domestic honour since 1955 can win a trophy during Ashley’s watch.

 

“Everyone wants a winning team but we have always been the bridesmaid rather than the bride at Newcastle which is unfortunate,” Sir John said.

 

“We are a big club in the sense of the amount of supporters that we have got but we are not big in terms of winning things.

 

“With the amount of money that is being spent in the game it is getting harder and harder and harder to win things. It can be done but it will be tough. I just hope that we can finish in sixth place and get into Europe again and continue to build again - that would be great.”

 

Rob Stewart / Goal.com

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As accurate as the overall premise is, some of the bollocks in that article makes me wince. In addition to the above....

 

Built a line-up around Marveaux, Abeid and Ben Arfa?

 

Ben Arfa provides speed and power on the wing?

 

Obertan provides power?

 

Patrick Kluivert a megabucks signing that became an albatross?

It's ridiculous but the detail isn't important, it's the fact that's it's in the WSJ rather than what they actually say which was worth noting.

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As accurate as the overall premise is, some of the bollocks in that article makes me wince. In addition to the above....

 

Built a line-up around Marveaux, Abeid and Ben Arfa?

 

Ben Arfa provides speed and power on the wing?

 

Obertan provides power?

 

Patrick Kluivert a megabucks signing that became an albatross?

It's ridiculous but the detail isn't important, it's the fact that's it's in the WSJ rather than what they actually say which was worth noting.

Aye, it's good to see us getting the headlines for the right reasons, especially in somewhere like that, i.e. the last place you'd expect to see a pro-NUFC article (or anything related to us for that matter).

Terrible piece mind :lol:

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Sir John Hall has some fucking front like :lol:

I think the magnitude of difference between a million and a billion gives him some justification for saying what he does.

What I took issue with was:

He says he put his money in. Did he fuck. He took much more out than he ever put in even before he sold it. You can argue about whether that is fair enough but that doesn't alter the fact he's lying.

He says he'd be doing it like Ashley, despite the fact he did it in completely the opposite way, using credit to gamble on success. He also couldn't have paid off the loans because he didn't have anything approaching the necessary capital.

The suggestion he's 'intensely' criticised Ashley in the past is also a fabrication I think.

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Just waiting for the cutting analysis from the M&S instore mag.

And Yachting Monthly ;)

 

I'd write that one so it would be pukka. :)

Why do you think I put that? Wake up! ;)

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Sir John Hall has some fucking front like :lol:

I think the magnitude of difference between a million and a billion gives him some justification for saying what he does.

What I took issue with was:

He says he put his money in. Did he fuck. He took much more out than he ever put in even before he sold it. You can argue about whether that is fair enough but that doesn't alter the fact he's lying.

He says he'd be doing it like Ashley, despite the fact he did it in completely the opposite way, using credit to gamble on success. He also couldn't have paid off the loans because he didn't have anything approaching the necessary capital.

The suggestion he's 'intensely' criticised Ashley in the past is also a fabrication I think.

Got you. He probably did initially have a net personal investment in the club but that amount would have been nothing compared to what he eventually left with.

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It's in Hall's interest to talk up Ashley. He's the one who approved the sale. He's made out from the start that he saw Ashley as being in the best interests of the club. Obviously he's keen to be vindicated.

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