January sales – Newcastle United at knockdown price?

Posted on December 6th, 2009 | 117 Comments |

Decision time?
Decision time?
Despite another three points on the board, with the loudest cries of the day demanding the owner to take leave of his current involvement at Newcastle, the latest article in the News of the World suggests Toon fans might get their wish sooner rather than later. The paper claims that Mike Ashley is ready to reopen talks about selling Newcastle next month.

Despite the no-show of funds from previous prospective buyers, NoTW claims that new parties, including one from America, have made contact. Their inference is that relinquishing control of the club would allow him to concentrate on the forthcoming case with the Serious Fraud investigation over alleged price-fixing. And presumably a selling point would be that new owners would have time to invest and help ensure promotion to the top flight.

Of course, certain tabloids and their stories should be taken with a ridiculous amount of salt and it seems unlikely that Ashley would want to sell now with us on course for promotion. Chris Hughton has been quoted as saying he expects us to encounter periods where we struggle. I’d argue we’ve already done that but hard graft and good fortune seem to have seens us through. Conversely, I fully expect us to actually start performing and kick on from here.

With that in mind, does it seem likely that Ashley would want to try and cash in now, when the price could almost double should we get back up into the Premiership? And there is the alternative, which is that Llambias’ heartfelt plea to the fans is genuine and that Ashley is again enjoying the prospect of owning this great football club for the forseeable? A genuine message from Llambias and the board? Now that is unsubtantiated speculation…

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117 Responses

  2. To pick a point or two about the poll;

    1) Loaded question. Fat Mike is the current owner amd can be blamed for taking us down with his ineptitude. But the fact is, footie fans are fickle and as he is our most recent owner will lead to him “winning” the poll.

    2) Its subjective opinion. Some may say that a relegation and subsequent promotion (if done correctly) including stripping off deadwood  is what we needed. Others will say Ashley should have left well enough alone.

    Keep your eyes peeled for my Barnsley away guide.

  3. The club being for sale is not the question, it`s when.
    There`s just no way any reconciliation between owner and (probably) a majority of  Toon fans  can take place.
    I`m sure Mike Ashley desperately wants out and will have to take a serious loss in order to do so.
    Perhaps he could recoup some of his losses if he were to wait for what looks like  a good run at promotion,   but it does appear and I am sure most feel that it`s a good possibility.
    In which case now would would be the time for any prospective buyer to put in a bid,
    Why ?  would come cheaper than buying a PL team and almost the same thing as promotion seems assured.
    Would also  be able to make any changes needed,   both in the Jan. and summer windows to ensure the  club can compete  in the PL .
    A new owner(s) would be welcome providing he/they have the best interest`s of the club in mind and the necessary funds to field a competitive team,
    It has become obvious Mike Ashley has no intention of any investment and wants out, cant say I blame him, he has taken a financial bath here, and unlike the US owners at L`Pool. and Man. U.who bought as a financial investment  and seldom show at games, think perhaps his was originally a more personal relationship.
    Well we are all aware of how things soured, the bedsheet`s, the economic meltdown, hiring`s, firing`s, buying and selling, demotion , none of which were particularly happy events.
    There`s enough rancor to last for a long time, in which case hopefully the club will find a new owner and begin a new season as a PL member.
    And remembering the not so happy last few seasons, the fans will play their part, not demanding a new manager every five minutes and instead just get behind the team and whoever is at the helm.

  4. Looking at the poll can we have a BOTH box on it. I feel if FFS had been in charge we would have been in a lot worse shape than we are now. Huge fee’s paid for massive flops, Sam A manager that would have took us down. with bigger more damaging wage bills. Ashley game in with out looking at the books and got his pie eating fingers well and truely burned. He has made some catastrophic errors in management and player un/employment. But allow though I really dislike the bloke for what he has done to our club I feel we lasted a year longer in the PL than if Freddie was in charge.

    And Freddie will always be dispised by mysef for the way he and SJH disrespectfuly handled Sir Bobby’s exit, yes I’ve heard that it was not Freddie who sacked the great man but where was his bloody back bone to stand up for the greater benefit of our club?

  6. toonsy says:
    December 6, 2009 at 1:11 am

    “To pick a point or two about the poll;”

    Toonsy, there was supposed to be a big ‘blog to go with it to spur the debate. Bowburn Mag QC was going to prosecute Mike Ashley, and Geordie Deb QC was going to prosecute Diabolos himself.  However, despite having many weeks they just couldn’t get it together. Tut.

  7. I don’t like Ashley, I think he is greedy, has no interest in the club and has totally botched 95% of everything he has touched and the fact he has managed to get a section of fans to hate Keegan is probably the worst thing.  HOWEVER – his ruthless penny pinching may well have saved the club.

    I am not talking about the constant sales of good players for lesser replacements, but I mean the way he has, and I don’t know how, got over the odds for every player sold.  Milner, Martins, N’Zogbia – pick one, all left for more than they were worth.  The only sale you can moan about is getting too little for Shay Given but with the profits from the others, that evens out.  The stupidity of letting David Edgar go to Burnley, who don’t even know he is part of their team was also daft.

    The fact is, he managed to get rid of the big money to the extent that the big money still left are able to stay and are ideal players for this league.  That has been a success.

    I can’t comment on whether the “youth” policy is a failure or success though because, honestly, none of the youth have made an impact yet.  Ranger has potential but despite his hero status, is a failure at scoring and while Harewood has 3 goals in 8 games and gets all sorts of abuse.  Carroll is only 20 himself but can’t be counted as he was on the books before this Ashley farce started.

    If we get promoted, stay up and develop some of these youngsters into players who contribute to the first team regularly, then Ashley may well have the back handed honour of doing the dirty work that needed to be done to give the club a long term future.

    Still a tosser though.

  9. Just in from town after the match and have to say this season is gonna be if not a walk in the park then at least a fun ride, I just worry about investment to stay up next year!

  10. Nice to win horribly , sides like manu , arse and chelsea have been doing it like that for years ,
     so WE , all the toon fans should not grumble if we struggled to look good .
    All teams that are successful have troughs and rises and its how that good teams continue to win in bad games , thats the way they win championships …

    KTF ……………Tooooooooooooon!!!

  11. You always have to doubt TNOTW BBM! Even the date on the front is open to conjecture. That being said, the “control” in this story is: we don’t know how much external pressure the SFO is bringing to bear on Ashley.
     
    It may be that events behind the scenes are making it impossible for fat-boy to cling on to control. He may well HAVE to market the club again in January in the hope that the mere prospect of promotion will entice buyers to up the ante. It would make sense, that being the case, Ashley gets to liquidate an asset buyers get a (potential) Premiership club, at a knockdown price, with time to invest in it’s growth before even a pre season can begin. Wishful thinking, maybe, but plausible non the less.
     
    However this could also be the latest in a long line of “Smokescreens”. With Ashley announcing the “sale” to make January spending impossible, only to retract it in February!!! Surely not, not even he could be that much of a doofus!!??
     
    Time, as with all things, will solve this little mystery.

  12. Excelsior, definately another smokescreen due to the opening of the transfer window, it is so predictable that the tight wad would do this, the biggest Grinch to have walked the planet.

  13. whatever happens i will enjoy the day when it comes when mike ashley is out of the toon hope it is soon

  14. I agree with Wickywoowoo, Ashley has seen us through a very difficult patch, where if FFS was in charge we would have been stating with a bankrupt points deduction!!!! Give him a break, stop chanting negativity, back him for as long as he is here!! I would have Fat Mike over Chris No Money Mort!!!!

  15. I am with bigbadbob on this and said we would be up for sale in January along with more assets…not wasting any breath on MA it’s pointless.

  16. Why is this happening again!!!!  The pattern is repeating itself and it goes something like this.  Month before the transfer window opens, reports come out that Ashley will sell the club.  Transfer window opens, and Ashley looks for prospective buyers.  Transfer window closes, and club still owned by Ashley.  Ashley takes club off the market.  It is just a ploy by the Fat One and his diabolical minions to ensure that he doesn’t have to spend any money in the transfer window, with the added bonus that if any of our better paid players get fed up enough, they will leave and reduce the clubs outgoings.  Ashley is conning us all.  But I guess we all knew that anyway

  17. Workyticket 8 – if someone was pointing a gun at my head and saying “Who do you want to run the club, Fat Fred or Mike Ashley?” – I’d say “Go ahead – shoot!”

  19. They day will come when we see the back of the Oaf that is MA and seriously push on back in the upper half of the premiership.
    When this will happen who knows…for some billionaire with a passion NUFC could be turned around quite quickly with sensible management and investment in the 1st team.
    I think the Barry Moat thing not happening was a blessing in disguise he would have strangled the club even more.

  20. Toon Loony says:
    December 6, 2009 at 10:29 am
    I agree with Wickywoowoo, Ashley has seen us through a very difficult patch, where if FFS was in charge we would have been stating with a bankrupt points deduction!!!! Give him a break, stop chanting negativity, back him for as long as he is here!! I would have Fat Mike over Chris No Money Mort!!!!<<<<<<< ide like to give him a few breaks starting with his legs and ending wih his neck

  21. Batty can I order a hamper out your catalogue mate?
    Also after a pair of reebok classics if the Kays still do them :)

  24. Ashley has done too much damage to the club, got to go, but he wont in january, just an excuse not to buy players again.

  25. Toon Loony – “I would have Fat Mike over Chris No Money Mort!!!!”
    Hope you mean Barry Moat. Chris Mort was great — an honest, good communicator, and not a football man but a quick learner.
    In fact, he was exactly the opposite of what we have now.

  26. SJT  what size m8 and i hope your a better payer than komfort he still owes me for his longdale tracky and trainers

  32. Spot on batty, chris always wanted to communicate with the supporters so MA would have tried to force him to lie to us, like he did with keegan on the james milner sale. you could see in keegans eyes that it wasn’t his choice, when he sold andy cole he spoke with enthusiasm, milner was different he looked a broken man.

  34. dont forget the wonderful mr mort was at the keegan hearing telling porkies on behalf of porky…he’s a shitbag like the rest of them.

  35. Mort was only ever going to be here for a year as that was how long he could get leave with Freshfields, he still comes up to games now and again to support the team

  38. batty , them trainers i got in june are nipping my pinkies – any chance i send them back m8….

  39. I Batty I will go with the hi tecs in cackie broon if possible to match the snide burbury coat :)
    Anyone connected with Ashley will tell lies to cover their puppet masters tracks.
     

  40. does ashley think were daft like,this is his MO every transfer window he puts the club up for sale,where 10 points clear of third place,but this man will fk it reet up,how anyone could support this man is madness…

  41. Toon Loony, surely you meant Barry Moat rather than Chris Mort? If MA has to stay than I would be much happier with Chris Mort as CEO.

  43. Is anybody shocked by this? Of course its going to happen, its his excuse for no spending in the next window.

    To be fair, I agree with whoever said what they did on Real Radio yesterday. Just go for loans and save the money till we go up and spend it then. The only one I would go out and spend on now is Simpson. He’s under 23 so will have o pay a fee anyway, but with any luck wont be too much. Only problem is, his value will be going up as in a we all hope, a sie that wins promotion. So maybe pay a couple of milion for him and loan the res till the end of the season.

    I’d love to think the story is true though, but I do think is just a no money to be spent excuse

  44. aye sjt , owl heed deserves nothing less than a severe ploating…he’s the most untrustworthy looking bloke i’ve ever laid my eyes on, you know he’s lying when his lips move.

  45. it says alot for stardust/workys judgement of character,they got it massively wrong with this clown,,,wonder if they will admit they got it wrong…..  :lol:

  47. SJT ive orderd them for y 6 p a week for 52 weeks m8 and KOMFORT  if they havent got any holes in them yeah ile send them back for a bigger size so u want size 4

  49. Haha Send me my little payment book Batty…also after a hinari stereo if anyone has one to sell.

  51. Worky after thinking about what I wrote last night I voted for freddie. Ashley may have presided over our demise but I feel the main architect was definetly Shepard, Ashley just added some finishing touches and delayed the inevitable. Although in time we may be in better shape because of his half assed handleing of us.

  52. toonsy says:
    December 6, 2009 at 2:51 pm

    “Worky – Im struggling to uipload an image for the Barnsley thread mate, can you help?”

    Toonsy,

    Top left hand corner of the editing window just above all the buttons (bold, italic, link etc) you will find “Upload/Insert”. click the first icon, a rectangle with another grey rectangle on the inside. When you’ve clicked on this, then click on the “Select File” button and fill in any comments you may have for the image etc, then click “Insert into post”.

  53. worky – I have the bold, italic etc i dont have the upload/insert option. above the buttons it just goes straight to the permalink

  54. Toonsy,

    If you still have problems,  you can just finish the text and leave the image part to me if you want? Just contact me via the contact page if you want to send me the image by e.mail, and I will tell you where you can send it.

  55. toonsy says:
    December 6, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    “worky – I have the bold, italic etc i dont have the upload/insert option. above the buttons it just goes straight to the permalink”

    Hmmm, I’ll investigate that later toonsy. As I wrote above, send me a message via the ‘contact’ page and I will send you one of my e.mail addresses to send the image to. I don’t like to put them on here because e.mails are harvested by spam robots when you leave ’em on a website.

  57. We all want Cashley to sell,but who would buy us what people dont understand is that yeah you can buy the club for 80-100 million and that will get you the club but then the club still owes Cashley another 100-150 million that he loaned the club to pay off the dept left by sheppard and the halls.The true cost of buying the club and getting rid of cashley is around 200-250 million puts a different slant on things and that is why no one has bought cashley out.

  58. barton12 says:
    December 6, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    “what people dont understand is that yeah you can buy the club for 80-100 million and that will get you the club but then the club still owes Cashley another 100-150 million that he loaned the club to pay off the dept left by sheppard and the halls.”

    barton12, where did you get that piece of information?

  59. Would it surprise you?  He always does this during the transfer period.  It’s his way of saying “I’m not giving you any more money than I absolutely have to”.
     
    @worky: Isn’t that fairly common knowledge?  He paid off the debt but I don’t think he ever said “directly out of my own pocket” and if he did, he’d be saying that to get our attention and make us think he mightn’t be a bad guy after all.  He might be stupid, but he’s a businessman and owners loaning the club money isn’t uncommon.

  60. Toon Loony – Message 14:

    You seem to have mistaken my message.  I was in no way defending Ashley or saying I want him to stay or that I even support him – I was just looking at the situation objectively and fairly and, we have to give him credit, his cost cutting HAS saved the club a far worse fate after the relegation.

    He is still ruining the club with no investment, etc. but it COULD have been worse had his summer sale not taken place.

  62. Trust me the true cost of buying out Cashley is 200-250 million not the so called 80+million believe me we are stuck with this man that is why whenever an intrested party got a look at the books they ran a mile and think of this what if we were in a westham or a man utd,liverpool position with massive borrowing on the club THERE WOULD BE NO CLUB NOW cashley would have ran away 6 months ago putting the in admin.

  63. barton12, with all due respect that doesn’t answer the question. What is your source for this information?

    Was it Mike Ashley? Keith Harris and Seymour Pierce? Derek Llambias? Who?

  64. the source ? its all out there mate go back look at everything over the last 3 years publiced accounts, statements ect. in the financial sector it is well Known the state of nufc and it all started with freddy the halls and a certain mr applegarth the former ceo at northern rock

  65. I can’t find the links (I’m in a bit of a rush) but if you read up on his statement after Keegan left I think he said it in there, but I’m going from memory here so I may be wrong.
     
    Like barton12 said, look through the statements.

  67. Just dont get it,   had the Halls and Freddy hung onto the club we would probably be bankrupt or at least be more over leveraged than L`Pool. or Man U. and quite possibly as we are now,   in the fizzy league.
    As things stand we are looking like a promotion bound team with a manageable payroll, the debt ?  one can only guess.
    All due to the so called parsimony of Mike Ashley.
    Why a talented side such as we had last season managed to get itself relegated is still a mystery to most,  possibly  more due to the chaos and lack of unity, managerial changes, etc.
    With many of the squad wanting to get out of a team in meltdown,  an uncertain future and little in the way of stability, seems most just gave up.
    But although there`s enough blame to go around, very little is directed at the teflon Halls or Freddy,    the real financial rogues,  responsible for the huge debt inherited by a naive Ashley ( buyer beware) they used the club as a personal cash cow and that`s documented.
    One has only to read some of the above comments in regards to Ashley to realize how selective fans can be when allocating blame, with little or no mention of the reported one hundred million no interest loan granted to the club by Ashley, only moaning about how he has ruined “their”club.
    Sure he has had a public relation`s nightmare and yes he has made major mistakes, with little in the way of understanding of the game.
    However i dont believe any of it was a deliberate attempt directed at NUFC fans as some seem to feel.
    Bout time to lighten up and get behind a promotion bound side, we have no control over what may take place (unless you are one of the romantics who believe they can buy the club) and it`s getting a bit old hearing the repetitious anti Ashley rants, get over it !

  68. Oh wait, I think I’ve got the wrong end of the stick.  I was defending the loaning of the money to the club.
     
    That wouldn’t increase the price, barton12.  Loans are made to be repayable in instalments and if Ashley is asking for it to be paid outright, it’s completely ridiculous.  He stands to gain more by being repaid in instalments (as interest rates rise etc.).
     
    …there again, that could be a possible explanation as to why no sod has bought the club.

  69. It depends on how Ashley wanted the money paid back? Did he want it as a lump sum, all in one? Does he want it back in installments? Does he want to keep some of the assets like the club shop?

    Bottom line is we wouldn’t be in this mess had FFS not screwed the club over. Dont get me wrong, Ashley isn’t innocent in us getting relegated. Im just saying that as a club, Freddy had us living beyond our means aby outlaying cash on a load of marquee signings that have flopped over the years.

  70. toonsy says:
    December 6, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    “It depends on how Ashley wanted the money paid back? Did he want it as a lump sum, all in one? Does he want it back in installments? Does he want to keep some of the assets like the club shop? ”

    At the risk of repeating myself, where is the information that Ashley is demanding repayment of the money he has ploughed into the club?

  71. be serious would you buy something for 100million and then still owe the sod another 100-150 million it does not matter how he wanted the loan payed back 100-150 mill is a lot of coin even for a club in prem-a club in champions league come to that that money would be needed by the club it does not matter if he wants it all straight back or over 20 years its a MASSIVE DEPT to start with for any new owner on day 1

  73. look workyticket the footballing world is all about speculating and if i did not know what i was talking about i would not be on here making a t**t of myself open your  eyes investigate properly and all the information is out there look!

  74. worky – there is no evidence as such as we dont have internal information of any prospective deals. Its just kind of a gut feeling. If i lent my mates £100, at some point i’d want it back.

  75. toonsy says:
    December 6, 2009 at 4:38 pm
    It depends on how Ashley wanted the money paid back? Did he want it as a lump sum, all in one? Does he want it back in installments? Does he want to keep some of the assets like the club shop?
    Bottom line is we wouldn’t be in this mess had FFS not screwed the club over. Dont get me wrong, Ashley isn’t innocent in us getting relegated. Im just saying that as a club, Freddy had us living beyond our means aby outlaying cash on a load of marquee signings that have flopped over the years.<<<<< aye toonsy but them are the sort of signings what us fans wanted m8 

  76. batty – Your right, there was clamour from the fans for these marquee names. I do feel though that it was a sense of unfinished business going back to when we should won the league whilst 12 points clear under Keegan.

  79. its not all freddy fault, Applegarth when he was ceo of northern rock garanteed every check freddy wrote payed sponsor monies 5 years early instead of telling freddy to get house in order and live within our means and we all know what then happend to the rock once that happend freddy was in a hole , halls new this seen what was coming and ran down to berkshire to sell club to cashley while freddy left twiddling thumbs

  81. i also recall reading that when MA bought teh place, he didnt do due diligence and later found the extent of the debt. as far as my memroy recalls, he did “loan” NUFC the cash and it was in the region of 100mil
     
    appreciate you want solid proof of this worky. understand, btu i’m pretty sure thats the case and a fair enough reason why so called interested parties soon turned tail.
     
    READ
     
    http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/articles/mike-ashley-official-statement-20080914_2240137_1392670

  84. “Ashley appointed Chris Mort as Deputy Chairman to work under Shepherd who was in hospital suffering from pneumonia. Shepherd was later relieved of his duties and Mort took over as Chairman on a years secondment from law firm Freshfields. Mort had been brought in to look at all levels of the club and soon had a surprise when he found out that the club had a loan agreement which carried a clause which forced the repayment after the club was sold. Ashley had no other option but to dig deep and pay off £44 million within weeks of buying the club. Other loans of around £30 million were paid off by Ashley who loaned the money to the club. To this day he doesn’t appear to have taken a penny out of the club in interest for these loans.”
     
    taken from
     
    http://www.nufcmismanagement.info/

  86. “Matching up with this is the net debt figure. This is all the total of all the borrowings the club has. The bigger the debt figure the worse things are. The graph again highlights how the debt took off in 2006. In 1998 the club had £24m in the bank, in 2007 the club owed £70m. (The results in 2008 suggest the debt was actually £124m in 2007).
    All these debts needed to be paid off when Ashley bought the club. The graph below looks different from the one from the 2007 results (shown lower down). The difference comes from that change in the view of what Ashley did when he bought the club. What seems to have not been clear was that when he bought the club he would immediately have to pay off the mortgage on the stadium, as it wasn’t listed in the previous accounts as being anything more than a long term loan.
    This meant that in 2007 it looked as the the debt was £71m. When they realised that they had to pay off the mortgage they needed to add that extra amount in. It was also necessary to put money in to cover the £34m loss for that year.
    The further leap in debt in 2008 comes from the financial loss for the year having to be paid for from somewhere, and this has been from Ashley pumping more money in as a loan.
    Of the £149m debt roughly£100m is owed to Mike Ashley. He has said that this is a loan that isn’t expected to have to be paid back before July 2009 at the earliest, unless the club is bought from him.
    That Ashley had to put in so much money during the year again shows how precarious a state the club was in when he took over. The club had borrowed up to the hilt on the ground, the training academy, the future sponsorship deals, and the Sky TV money. It is unclear if anyone would have taken lent the club more money without any assets left to guarantee against. The last loan that Shepherd managed to get was at a rate of 11.7% interest. The high rate was due to the risk the lenders felt there was in lending to a company losing so much money.”

  88. cashley has made a right balls up with our club how ever you have got to admit he has put a lot of coin in to clear the freddy/halls mess up

  89. EASTEND TOON, I know all about that, thankyou. I also know the reasons why Ashley payed off debts of the club as a “soft” loan, there were solid financial reasons for this and it is standard practice in most similar situations, even when the person making the loan doesn’t expect it to be returned.

    Ashley had already written off those loans the first time he attempted to sell the club, and I have seen no evidence that this has changed yet.

  90. workyticket you are WRONG CASHLEY has not wrote a penny of those loans off  thats why the true price is 200-250 mill and why any one who looks at the books run a bloody mile

  91. Didnt Ashley have to pay off the money still owed for the stadium once he took over in one go. Not sure on this 1 but something in my memory says in the loan for the rebuilding of SJP that if a new owner took over the loan would have to be immediatly repaid and that is the sum that Ashley has loaned the club . I would think though if he sells then that loan could maybe repaid in instalments . On another subject Scunny have beaten Coventry today . coventry are now 5th bottom , surly another 3 points for us this week .

  95. Interestingly, West Broms next 2 games are home against Cardiff and QPR. 2 tough games. Points dropped by West Brom would benefit us, points dropped by the other teams would be helpful with regards to staying in the top 2.

  97. Eastend  for what its worth I dont think Ma has wrote off the loan. and did you see my post the other day about a half decent digi slr

  98. perosnally i can see us winning every game till the new year atleast… boro will be our toughest test till 2010
     
    although, i probably just jinxed it to hell!

  100. barton 12
    It seems if you are presenting an argument it should be supported by the relevant  facts,   it`s ridicules to  expect the person to whom you are making the argument to have to do an investigation to find the facts of your argument , that simply does`nt make sense.
    You obviously can`t name any sources  when repeatedly asked,  so therefore don`t have a valid argument , simple as that .

  101. toonsy i would rather WBA beat both those teams if we also win the next 2 ,  the gap over the chasing pack will become massive .

  103. i am not the one having an arument chuck the facts http://www.nufc-finances.org.uk/ is a good start and all i am pointing out is a fact the true asking price is 200-250 mill and while cashley has made a total balls up the fact is he has pumped a lot of money in to the club to rescue the freddy/halls mess!

  104. EASTEND TOON basically im after a half decent slr between 300 – 450ish lol and wondered if you had any advise on make ? or anything

  106. really depends big dave, i stick with nikon because its what i know and to change make also means you have to replace lens’ and they aint cheap for high quality.
     
    if your just after a camera for hols etc, the best value for money i think is sony, they bought out monolta a couple of year sago and are tyring to make a name for themselves with professional DSLR’s and for that reason your getting a bit more for you money because sony need to increase their market share,
    however, should you want to invest in the future, i would rec only canon or nikon because you wioll only have to replace the body of the camera when you choose to upgrade.
     
    good canon entry level is the 450D i think, nikon has one called the D50 i think. but if you want to go a little better, nikon do the D300 which isa nice bit of kit, i’m sure canon do a similar model
     
    anyway, to champion nikon, their ease of use and ergonomics are much more user friendly and i think better made than canon… canon feel quite light and cheap, whereas nikon feel substantial in yoru hands.. if that makes sense!

  108. EASTENDTOON
    Yes two very interesting reads ;  both links from 81#  &  84#, giving two very opposing view points, with the truth probably somewhere  in- between.
    Suggest everyone check them out.
    Considering the amount of arguments presented on both sides, have to admit  I`m no closer to understanding exactly what the asking price is for the club.
     
     

  109. EASTEND TOON cheers for that its mainly for taking pictures of tattoos, I liked the Canon and Nikon’s  I was looking at the 450d. and funny you mention Sony I seen some of the Sony’s they looked real good but I dismissed them as i thought they wouldnt be as good as the Canon or Nikon but I was going by the name.

  111. Chuck I think that was why we never seen any new owners for the club at a cool 100 mill. and like you I`m no closer to understanding exactly what the asking price is for the club.

  112. none taking chuck the mess we are in makes it emotional for all of us we all want the same thing and thats promotion

  113. It seems to me, & i stress, it’s only my opinion, that the best thing we can do as fans is: Just get on with doing what we do best, supporting this great club out of this league asap, with all our might(which is considerable).
    & just forget, yes forget, who owns/runs this club & help them & it get back into the black. It’s the most important time in this clubs history, bar none.
    It is the life blood of the city & general area. We NEED it to be successful & profitable for the good of all concerned.
    We need to forget the fools that put it into this seriously pathetic postion, forget ashley’s dumb mistakes, forget the idiotic turnover of managers, the ridiculously overpaid prima donnas that have sucked it dry.
    & by force of will & overwhelming SUPPORT get it to where it belongs.
    A force in football & a point of pride, real pride, not the overinflated, superannuated  stuff that comes before a fall.
    Howay the lads!

  114. wickywoowoo @ 60.

    Like Ashley or not, there’s no doubt that the club’s in a stronger financial position now than it was before he arrived.  By the sound of it, the club was heavilly leveraged and potentially on the way to meltdown!

    Ok, we got relegated but on the upside, we had a few players on massive wages who just did not perform and they were the ones to jump ship when it sank. 

    Ashley’s problem is not totally about what he’s done (although some of his actions do appear incredulous) his main problem is his lack of communication – whether to players, staff or the customers. 

    I’ll say it again, I am certainly NOT an apologist for Ashley but if he were to take a serious interest in the football club and showed some emotional commitment to it along with a stated desire and ambition for success, I wouldn’t have a problem with his continued ownership.

    As it is, we’re in limbo again and let’s hope that things are resolved quietly and as quickly yet sensibly as possible.

  115. Barton12 @103….. ‘and while cashley has made a total balls up the fact is he has pumped a lot of money in to the club to rescue the freddy/halls mess!’

    A point well made Barton and there’s no doubt, we were in free-fall pre Ashley and we may in time, come to thank him for his sometimes cack-handed methods!

  116. Yeah we are all inclined to rush to judgement in certain circumstances, as mentioned,   it`s an emotional subject and  most of us have played our parts, in various ways.
    It`s difficult to envision how this will  all end up, as I dont ever recall such bitterness and division.
    At least there`s some light at the end of the tunnell, the side is doing well in the promotion stakes and from a financial point of view we are a long way from being Leeds.
    So hopefully we may be under new ownership and competing in the top tier next season, not too much to ask for !  

    Is it?

       

  117. Yeah, an emotional circumstance, with  lots of division and ill feeling.
    Hard to imagine how it will all end.
    But, there`s light at the end of the tunnell, doing well in the run to-wards promotion, we have`nt yet become Leeds and could very well be playing under new management  and in the top tier by this time next year.
    We live in hope and die in despair, nah !