Thoughts and reflections of our trials and tribulations

Posted on September 1st, 2011 | 37 Comments |

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I’ve spent much of the morning nursing a hangover after yesterday’s debacle, and trying to organise my thoughts and come to some decision on what on Earth happened in the past few months.

Like all of you, I’m racked with disappointment, anger, frustration but most of all betrayal. We pay our hard earned cash for the privilege of watching those 11 lads play in the black and white stripes, to sing our heart out and ultimately to support the club we have stood by for so many years. There was one time when hell or high water wouldn’t keep me away from the Cathedral on the Hill that so dominates our skyline and now I’m finding it a struggle to check the news of a morning to find out how the board of Newcastle United are going to insult the loyal Geordie nation.

My daily routine is fairly basic. I wake up late morning, make a cup of tea, come back to my computer and check the usual blogs, News Now and then start checking my emails. Depending on the events, I’ll plan out an article for publication around evening time. During the transfer window, my phone becomes my greatest friend and I often don’t even wait to get on the computer to see what’s happening at this wonderful club.

That routine has been disrupted by something I can only describe as borderline apathy – I simply don’t have the strength to check those news outlets and when I finally pull up that strength, it’s done with a lot of anxiety. Kind of like checking your bank balance in the hope that you have won the lottery and it somehow found it’s way into your bank without you claiming it, and those negative digits are all gone – only you recognise it as a fools hope.

The transfer window has left almost every fan drained of energy and, frankly, sick. We have sold Andy Carroll for a British transfer record but Carroll had one thing that money couldn’t, can’t and will never be able to buy – passion. You will never see Carroll busting a gut to get into the 6 yard box in a Liverpool shirt in the same way he did wearing our famous number 9. You won’t see it because he just doesn’t have the same commitment as he had for us – it’s that simple.

There’s also a point that not many people seem to realise: our strike force was weak long before the departure of Carroll.

When we were relegated, the only striker we sold was Obafemi Martins. Owen, Viduka, Lovenkrands all left (and in the case of Lovenkrands, rejoined) on a free as they were all out of contract. In the championship we temporarily bolstered our forward line with Marlon Harewood on a 6 month loan and Leon Best in the January window for a reported £2m. Harewood went back to Aston Villa, the team that confirmed our relegation to the then Coca Cola Championship, and we were still left with a rather thin forward line.

In the Championship this wasn’t a problem thanks to lesser competition. We saw goals from Caroll, Nolan, Lovenkrands, Ameobi, Routledge, Barton, Ryan Taylor, Steven Taylor, Simpson, Jonas, Enrique, Coloccini, Guthrie, Harewood, Geremi, Ranger and Duff. Lesser competition left for goals coming from all over the pitch – although Simpson’s “shot” was misconstrued as a cross by a certain Dutchman.

Last season – our return to the Premier League – saw us dominate headers, with Carroll reaping the benefits of Joey Barton’s right boot, and Nolan collecting Carroll’s knock downs to rise to the club’s top scorer – but we struggled. Once Carroll left, we found it difficult finding the back of the net and even more difficult to adapt to the loss of the Gateshead born striker.

Arise Leon Best! The man who nobly stepped up to the plate and took on the role of our main goal scorer. Unfortunately his fine run of form was halted by an ankle injury that saw him sit out the last few games but Kevin “Funky Chicken” Nolan rallied his troops and we ground out result after result, falling only at the final hurdle to defeat West Brom and instead finished a mere point from our dirty cousins.

So, hopefully you understand my point: Our strike force has been weak for two seasons now, we just didn’t realise it until the sale of Carroll.

Now that trip down memory lane is over, the question we all need to ask is a surprisingly simple one: Why on Earth we’ve had to wait for that £35m sale to begin looking for a new striker?

The only ‘bolstering’ from the Carroll money is a free signing from the relegated West Ham United – Demba Ba. At West Ham he showed he knew where the net was, signing in January and scoring 7 goals in 12 starts; a record to rival Leon Best’s Premer League statistics of 8 goals in 13 appearances. I have confidence in Ba coming good for us as I had with Best and I don’t doubt he’ll get a hat full of goals this season assuming he gets a decent bite of the cherry.

So our current strikeforce is more or less the same as it was in the Championship – Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Best with the addition of Ba. Ranger probably should be included but given his recent actions, I don’t think he’ll see the pitch at SJP for some time. The glimmer of hope comes with Chris Hughton’s most influential signing and that is Hatem Ben Arfa – assuming he can get a good run of games without injury.

It would be foolish, however, to ignore the signings – and they’re good signings. Yohan Cabaye, Silvain Marveaux, Demba Ba, Mehdi Abeid, Gabriel Obertan, Rob Elliot and Davide Santon. Cabaye has proven himself to be a perfect combination of Barton and Nolan – a proverbial bulldog on the pitch, not afraid of a tackle and an argument; Marveaux has the first touch of an innocent lady picking flowers in a lush field; Abeid has pace, trickery and bags of potential; Obertan is fast and loves a good build up play and the rest we will have to reserve judgement on.

Likewise, it would be extraordinarily foolish to ignore the players we bid for with mere hours left in the transfer window. Bryan Ruiz from Cheick Tioté’s former club FC Twente who was on the receiving end of a £10.5m bid from Martin Jol’s Fulham and Liam Ridgewell from former Newcastle boss Chris Hughton’s Birmingham supposedly with Nile Ranger going in the opposite direction.

We supposedly had offered Ruiz more money than was offered by Fulham but if that was the case, why didn’t he sign for us? Reports later came out suggesting the NUFC board scoffed at his wage requests and that was the end of that and who knows what happened with Ridgewell. I’d imagine that, like this transfer request, it was simply rejected – although a tad hazy, I’m certain David Craig said that the offer was accepted. We’ll probably never know the true story.

Today, of course, we get news that Alan Pardew is to be punished by the FA – seemingly for requesting that Howard Webb remains unbiased. (Something that would have no doubt seen him stripped of his UEFA license if we were playing Manchester United.) Pouring yet more salt into our already open and lime drenched wounds, we also find out that Mike Ashley is stripping the iconic “Newcastle United” sign from the East Stand.

That last point is an important one. The East Stand is the oldest standing part of St. James Park since the redevelopment of the Gallowgate end, and for as long as I can remember (specifically since the stadium was rebuilt) that sign has been there. There was opposition to the renaming of the stadium and the fact this came out of the blue after such a disappointing final day of the registration period merely adds insult to injury.

There are talks of protests, boycotts and fan meetings and I honestly can’t see any of this helping. Ashley only put our club up for sale because we were relegated – not because of the lowest attendance in our new stint in the top flight against Tottenham Hotspur. A boycott is tantamount to biting the hand that feeds you and given that we’re being fed mere morsels, I’m sure we can all agree that is not the correct course of action.

Those who attended the Fulham game were greeted with cards on each seat encouraging people not to stand otherwise they would be thrown out of the stadium. A friend of mine who attended the Fulham game, and also a Level 7 expatriate, was thrown out after Best’s first goal because he momentarily stood up. Admittedly he was in the process of getting up as he saw Cabaye’s shot but then instinct took over and he shot to his feet cheering.

No warning.

No “Please sit down.”

Just “Get out.”

And so he was escorted out of the Hallowed ground and instead headed over to the packed Strawberry to drown his sorrows with a pint and watch the match on Sky Sports. Whilst he was there he bumped into fellow Level 7 expatriates who admitted a similar thing happened to them, one of which was told to keep the noise down and were then thrown out after trying to start a chant.

I wonder how long it’s going to be before Ashley takes heed of our slightly southern and smog filled compatriots and hands out letters to season ticket holders requesting they only raise their voice after a goal.

Mike Ashley may be working wonders with our finances but at what cost? It seems fairly clear that the Ruiz and Ridgewell bids was solely to silence fans and hand over justification for them to say “we tried but it just wasn’t to be!”

It’s not difficult to understand if Ashley is putting transfer fees back into the clubs debts and setting aside money for improvements, as seems to be the case, and that is something that I personally support fully – if the running costs need an injection of cash, it’s the obvious source of funding to reach into. Unfortunately, you would also think – and some of you might think I’m talking crazy talk – that it would be the bare minimum removed from the received transfer fee and the rest would go onto incoming players.

Pardew himself has been unusually quiet and who can blame him? Ashley and Llambias are the “dynamic” duo who are at fault here; they hold the cash and therefore they hold the aces. Keep in mind that all Pardew does is tell the board who he wants through the door and then Ashley and Llambias bring them in. Often times the first time Pardew meets his potential players is when the day comes to sign the players.

This is long enough as it is so I’ll leave you with Joey Barton’s parting blow to the owner:

“Nice to see MA [Ashley] and DL [Llambias] come through with their promise to reinvest AC [Andy] money, 59m net profit from transfers in last 5 seasons…..ambition???”

“feel sorry for Geordie nation, them 2 nuggets don’t deserve that club or it’s following. Am sure they think people r stupid.”

“And again it would be left to those magnificent fans to pick up the remnants of their once great football club.”

Well said, Joey.

NUFCBlog Author: Thump Some say his bones are black and white but that is yet to be medically proven. Currently writes for a few different publications and likes to assert his imaginary authority on nobody in particular. Beware: eats children. Thump has written 36 articles on this blog.

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37 Responses

  1. Great article thump, well written and I fully agree.

    I wonder if we end up signing diouf. Blackburn have terminated his contract today so he’s available on a free.

    That said, he’s a total toe rag like so maybe they won’t want the aggravation

  2. He is milking the club for cash to get back his loan and all the money he has lost due to his mistakes. The fat man must go before we can ever be a top team again. Please buy us, someone.

  3. I probably wouldn’t mind Diouf to be honest. If we do sign him I’m fairly certain that we wouldn’t be able to play him until the January window because his contract was terminated outside of the summer registration period.

    …christ that’s an evil move on Blackburn’s part!

    Funnily enough, scott, it was going to be longer but unfortunately it seems either WordPress or the site has a limitation on the size of articles and I was over 2000 words by 73 of them! The removed paragraph was this btw:

    I remember David Ginola on Sky Sport’s “Time Of Their Lives” explaining that when Sir Bobby Robson was the head coach at Barcelona, Ginola received a phone call from Robson telling him that he’d like to make him part of his set up. Understanding that this was likely to be the one and only chance for such an illustrious move, he asked to discuss it with his manager who was, of course, Kevin Keegan. Keegan told him that he would rather he didn’t go as he had big plans for the player. Ginola thanked him and rejected the offer from Robson and then mere weeks later, Keegan had resigned as manager of Newcastle United and Ginola was left to face Liverpool legend and dog walker extraordinaire Kenny Dalglish began asset stripping.

    In hindsight, it’s a damn shame Ashley wasn’t in charge at the time; he and Kenny would have got along like a house on fire.

    It was going to lead into another rant about how our manager can’t manage but god knows how long this would have been!

  4. What a load of ill digested self pitying rubbish. When did we Geordies turn into a bunch of wingers? Oh how I wish for a more space to fully explain my disgust with some of the negative comments I read. Newcastle have always been a disaster to follow. There never was a golden age of ownership from the pirate onwards. Slagging off management is always counter productive in whatever field. Ask Asbo, he looked really happy at QPR!
    Which idiot expects to threaten and insult Ashley and then bemoan the fact that he won’t spend money to make the idiots team successful? Get real.

  5. Probably the best written article I have read concerning NUFC , I sincerely hope Ashley and Llambias get to read this as it truly echoes the sentiments of the faithful fans who turn up week in and out to support our team.
    Keegan was right when he stated we would not see any of Andy Carrols transfer fee spent on players…..

    Keep up the writing mate , hopefully the message will get through.

  6. Its hard not to be just completely disgusted with the utter contempt that Ashley treats us and every else with.

    I prefer not to even discuss our pathetic and amateur attempt to get a striker in over the last 8 MONTHS!

    And just because some of the other signings we’ve made seem actually surprisingly good, albeit not tested in the Prem, does not at all excuse their complete failure as a board to do right by OUR club and secure the one signing we undeniably need to do well this season.

    The taking down of the Newcastle United sign on the stadium? Well that is just another example of the lack of any grace/morals just sheer manners of Mike Ashley.

    Any normal person would consider the timing if nothing else very bad taste to do such a thing after yesterday or at all even but not our pathetic excuse for an owner.

    Disgusting. I hope Ashley rots in hell for what he’s done to our club.

    And his eternal apologists should hang their head in shame as well, did you really expect anything less from this letch?

  7. Frogeordie>

    So we should all just kiss his backside as he laughs at us all making his billions while making a laughing stock of OUR club should we.

    I don’t expect what you, I or anyone else says to effect Ashley in the slightest. He couldn’t give a sh*t.

    You call this whinging? You haven’t got a clue pal.

  8. Frogeordie says:

    “What a load of ill digested self pitying rubbish. When did we Geordies turn into a bunch of wingers? Oh how I wish for a more space to fully explain my disgust with some of the negative comments I read. Newcastle have always been a disaster to follow. There never was a golden age of ownership from the pirate onwards. Slagging off management is always counter productive in whatever field. Ask Asbo, he looked really happy at QPR!
    Which idiot expects to threaten and insult Ashley and then bemoan the fact that he won’t spend money to make the idiots team successful? Get real.”

    The problem, when I read this sort of comment purportedly coming from a Geordie and maybe a fan. is that it smacks of “Meh”, “So what”, “Shlt happens” etc

    Which then takes me on a trail of people claiming to be fans who dont really give a damn which then ultimately gets me to “Fatman spin doctors” :)

    There will be many crawling out of the woodwork in the next few weeks attempting to put an entirely different perspective on this sad and sorry situation.

    Bottom line Frogeordie is these bastards lie to the fans as easily as they breath, eat, fart or spend money at the casino. If you think thats OK then I assume you’re in NE1 4ST typing away feverishly on a dozen web sites all at the same time :)

  9. Please stop whingeing. We already have a striker who has a goals to games ratio (in prem) of over 1:2. If we had just signed a 24 year old International, Premiership experienced, striker with 8 goals in his last 13 EPL starts we would have all been creaming our pants. LEON BEST. Don’t get me wrong I would have loved to have signed a new number 9, but, for what ever reason this has not happened. Get behind the team, who are currently experiencing one of the best starts to the League in years. We have kept Collo and Mr T, Ben Arfa is on his way back, young Sammy is looking hot, never mind how our new signings pan out.

  10. Dan says:

    “Please stop whingeing blah blah blah….”

    Blimey what did I just say ? :)

    “There will be many crawling out of the woodwork in the next few weeks attempting to put an entirely different perspective on this sad and sorry situation.”

    Dont criticise fans for expecting players to arrive at the club when presumably your hero Mr Feckwit Clueless pardwho had clearly stated that there would be

    “Two players in next week”
    “We’ll sign players to get bums off seats”
    “The money from Andy……..”

    I cant be arsed to type all the bullshit that this feckwit has spouted since he arrived. Dont blame the fans for Pardwho raising expectations !

  11. @frogeordie: Then piss off back to Sky Sports. A blog, and specifically this blog, has always been to share opinions of the writers and the community that follows them. If you think I’m reporting news or fact then I don’t think you understand a word I’ve just said.

    I do agree that as a fan it’s a constant battle of trials and tribulations but unfortunately I have neither the time or the energy to write about how each and every chairman we had was the devil incarnate. There’s also an interesting concept that’s often portrayed as “relevance” – talking about Westwood 2nd is a bit ridiculous in 2011, wouldn’t you say?

    I am interested in knowing where I slagged off management, though. I’m almost positive I actually supported the manager. (Please note the singular.)

    @Dan: I was actually going to write up a bit about the youth system that we’ve finally got set up but I ran out of ideas. I’ll save that for a future article though ;)

  12. If you unhappy ones would go out & find a copy of “Soccernomics” and read the chapter about Olympic Lyon, you would have a good idea of what is happening to this club. And it ain’t bad.

    I’d have enjoyed a new striker on board, but after watching Obertan, Ba & Best put together the second goal v Fulham, I’m sure we will get bye.

    With the speed and ball movement from the new guys and Jonas, NUFC does not need some striker that can knock down long kicks from Krul. Ba is crafty (you just watch how far ahead of the game he is) & Best (if he can respect the work of his mates & stay onside) has a knack of cashing in on garbage. And ‘ve not given up on Ranger, as he is the only one that seems to stay healthy (provided he is not in jail).

    If I’m disappointed at all, it is that additional defense was not acquired. And it was Liam I was hoping for much more than Ruiz.

    Keep your seat & shut your trap reminds me of the proper crowds at Cricket matches. I respect the keeping your seat business. It takes the piss out of me when my view is blocked and the offender won’t sit down. Perhaps there should be a standing section under the stands where they could have a big TV screen? Maybe the fans should request the slope of the stands be increased so one can stand up & not block someone’s view? I don’t know, but someone & it may not even be MA or DL, who find the worst louts worthy of being exiled.

  13. @BeeGuy: Ridgewell would have been a preferred body, I admit. Supposedly we were prepared to sell Danny Simpson to Villa which would have left us right up the creek. I think it was Keegan who said that Ashley knows nothing about football and Llambias knows even less – completely correct in my opinion, especially if they were planning to shorten our already thin defensive line! Sure, Raylor can play there, but what if Raylor gets injured? Having a four man defensive line with 1 CB being injured does not bode well. Well, unless you count Perch…

    To be honest, I’m reasonably happy with the transfer window. I’d have probably preferred Smudger going out the door admittedly. I’m just very disappointed with how things took place.

  14. Thump. I don’t think MA or DL have anything to do with buying, MA likely sets the money cap & DL helps in the signings & sales. I’d say they leave finding talent to Carr & Co.

    You gotts respect MA for foregoing any money from dumping Barton. Shows the old phrase “Money talks, BS walks”. MA has the money to say “So what, just get him out of here.” I enjoy Joey’s play, but he will not fit in a fast and short passing team. If he was disruptive to the AP coaching & strategy plan then all the more reason he should go.

    Keeping my fingers crossed that the Physio room stays empty.

  15. im bored of all this negativity to be honest, are we geordies a bunch of moaners or what!
    the mans a business man you and I may not like that but what that means is profit, balance sheets balancing, future planning etc etc. unfortunately we have been a bit spoilt for years. we were crap in the 70s and 80s and if it wasnt for our support would probably never have been bought by john hall. we then had him and sheppard. two geordies who wanted success but at a cost. the debts left by them were distugsting and if we had hit the recession with them we may have gone bust. Do you really want masive debts and overpaid, overage players like owen, viduka etc and a team going nowhere being paid wages way above what a club our size should be paying – something like 80% of turnover? the team that went down was a hangover from sheppard and his over ambition as are todays debts.
    ashley has done alot wrong yes but the signings and outgoing have made perfect sense. gettng players in on frees and low prices from leagues like france when normally these players would cost alot more. ok we didnt get the striker but santon, cabaye etc are excellent signings and we now have a balanced team. losing smith, lovenkrds and guthrie will allow us to bring in more like this. bartons behaviour was distusting if he was at your work he would be sacked – we all agree on this. nolan wanted a bigger pay day than his physique suggests is owing and the actual team and youngsters we have at development level is very good.
    GET OVER IT! stop moaning and support the team. we want a club long term for our kids to enjoy – the financial planning and the youth development hint this will be the case. it has been proven over the years ashley doesnt care about communication or the press but he has never been unsuccessful with anything he has done and in 5 years this club wil have no debts and a youthful team full of talent, unfortunatley yes it will take a fair bit of pain before we get their. football fans will always want now he will be looking every night at his long term plan

  16. I really hope fans will organise for the mass boycott idea because it is the most powerful statement but another Idea if people are not going to do that could be to take JJB bags to games especially live televised matches and hold them up. If fatso wants to use St James’ Park as a source for his free advertising he won’t be happy to see 52,000 people advertising his most hated rival, just a thought.

  17. I’m probably going to sound as diluded as I did when I told my doctor I thought I was Batman. But am I the only one who thinks in the long term we might be onto a winner. Fat mans one true love is sports direct and secondly spurs. But our one true love has unsuitably been sewn together with his, so one way or the other he has a duty to help our true love in order to make sure his continues to prosper. The way I see it, sir john sold the club to mike so he could market his sports direct business in Asia and the middle east. So the more I see sports direct plastered along st.James like a junkies spray can graphitying along the metro, I can’t help think its a good thing, after all if he was to bail his plan for a new world sports order would fail. Ashley has invested too much is sports direct to pull out of his marketing plan that is Newcastle united. So I genuinely believe he will do his best for sports direct and there for take Newcastle united kicking and screaming with it. I do genuinely hope I’m wrong but I also hope in the long term I’m right. But don’t get me wrong I think ashley is lying to us and treating us like mugs. But I think he is in too deep to walk away and will eventualy have no choice but to make Newcastle united a success once more. He already looks a fool. But more to the point lamearse looks more incompitant than him. And if he wants to impress Asia he has to do more than just stick his graphiti on the side of our club. He has to change opinions, change his profile. Otherwise the people in the middle east and Asia won’t want his budget goods of poor quality. They will probably just stick to the snidey gear being pumped out of China. Which incedently I have contacts in.

  18. I wish we had signed a striker, but in all honesty I had never heard of most we were linked with. On other blogs I had seen “in Carr we trust”. But really, what do we know of his scouting? Tiote, and 4 games of Ben Arfa and the jury is still out on the rest. I am still keeping my fingers crossed and trying to stay positive.

    Ruiz has a decent reputation but I don’t think we knew he was available (bad scouting).

    Cisse is probably good as he scored a lot in Germany.

    What I am saying is that if we had signed any of these, should we have been happy as I don’t think we would have known what we got.

    In addition, there were a lot of moves on the last day of the transfer window for overpriced, marginally talented players: Jenas, Crouch, Bentner (his wages are supposedly around 60-70k), Dann etc.

    I am glad we didn’t go down that road.

  19. Yeh, but you have to feel sorry for Pards! he has Fatash as a boss, he has just been charged by the FA and I have just heard that there is another mule kicking in his stall.
    and no! it’s not Beardsley, well not this time.

  20. Another thing. Recently when we have signed players with reputations they have not played that well for us. I am thinking of the likes of Duff, Butt and Parker.

    All heralded when they signed, but we were happy to get shot of them.

    It seems this transfer business is harder than it looks.

  21. I go along with Stephen C @ 19. Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias have one thing in common, not shared by the Toon Army: no genuine, sincere LOVE for Newcastle United Football Club.It is strictly a business venture.

    We, as fans, have to understand and get used to that, like being in a loveless marriage. They are paying the bills, we must continue to support what we reluctantly share – our club, and hope that things will improve. But shouting at Mike and Derek, or expecting them to change, is futile. We’re stuck with it so the less we antagonise them the better. This way, they may just begin to understand what we are all about:PASSION and LOVE for this glorious institution, and possibly even be a little bit won over by it.

  22. Has anyone given any consideration to the fact that it should have been possible to buy a very good striker just using the interest from ACs tansfer. there must be shitloads of interest accrued on 35 million over a 9 month period. just a thought. Keep the faith lads.

  23. To put it into context, yes we were let down by broken promises – but it’s nowhere are bad as been stood up at Marlbourgh Crescent one cold foggy night in 1968 – now that was a heart-breaker!
    I got over that, I got over loosing the title under KK, and 4 cup finals – its all part of life’s rich tragedy as a NUFC supporter

  24. Between now & 1st October we have 4 away games out of 5 – QPR (asbo who?) Villa, Forrest (cup) & wolves, with only Blackburn at home
    I’d settle for 6 points from that lot with a cup win as the cherry on top
    why not? Any of the better than us?
    HWTL

  25. supermac,
    they’re all winnable games mate, but this is Newcastle!
    We can hold arsenal, beat the mackems away, cull fulham…but…

    ;)

  26. Thump, see you do make sense when you set your mind to it. Especially the part about being weak upfont for a while – the January gone, people forget but we were desperate for back up – and promised it – before Carroll even went.

    Ashley decided ‘to hell with you’ – around the time of his infamous ‘death threats’ statement in 2008. From his point of view it’s no longer about fun, love, passion or any such thing.. it’s about revenue streams and slashing the outgoings.. I knaa we all know this.

    It’s his prerogative in a way, the fans turned against him,, and he found himself in the middle of a shit storm. I thought the ice may have melted by now, but obviously not. I also thought he may recognise the correlation between fan disgruntlement and relegation from 2009.. again, it seems not.

    Silencing the singing section is the behaviour of a very insecure man. He should either say ‘I don’t care’ and keep on towards reouping his losses or just selling altogether.

  27. According to the Srar “ALAN PARDEW has been left fuming after Newcastle came up short in the ­transfer window. Alan Pardew has been looking to splash out on a proven striker since Andy Carroll joined Liverpool in January for a British record £35m. But he feels badly let down by owner Mike Ashley and managing director Derek Llambias after drawing a blank, despite raking in £45m in transfer fees since the turn of the year”.

    Is he one of us or one of them?
    If he’s one of us he needs our support!

    HWTL

  28. Had someone pressed Partridge’s Mute Button?
    Keep it pressed please I am enjoying the silence.

    Funny hearing no bullshit from him today…problems with the Teleprompter?
    Or a sore ass from a night of manlove?

    Who cares.
    Yawn…Stretch…Sleep.

  29. supermac says:
    September 2, 2011 at 1:00 am

    “Is he one of us or one of them?
    If he’s one of us he needs our support!”

    He’s a manager supermac, he’s always beholden to his employer, otherwise he’d have to walk like Keegan.

  30. stephen c says:
    September 1, 2011 at 9:37 pm

    “Fat mans one true love is sports direct and secondly spurs.”

    He claimed to be a Chelsea supporter Stephen. The whole Spurs thing was because of his friendship with ex Spurs vice chaiman, Paul Kelmsley. When he bought the club, someone put it about that he was a ‘Spurs supporter because of this and it stuck. Or something like that anyway.

  31. Yes history does tell us that the owners of Newcastle over the years have left a lot to be desired. But as supporters we are entitled to make our feelings heard. Ashley is and will continue to suck the blood out of Newcastle. He is first and foremost a business man and his main objective is to make a profit. He has proved by his actions that he has no love for Newcastle, and the only way that we can move forward is for him to go. I stated this a long time ago but others continue to give him the benefit of the doubt. Of course everybody is entitled to his or her opinion, but I think his court case with Keegan proved what he is a liar. Get behind the lads they represent the club which belongs to us butlook at all the evidence you pro Ashley brigade it is overwhelming he is a cancer in this club.

  32. @Supermac

    Ha. Funny. Getting stood up at Marlborough Crescent. Many of the youngins won’t know where that is.
    They’ll be checking their monopoly boards!