Why do Newcastle United managers hate Dwight Gayle so much?

190 Responses

1. Gayle on the bench again except for a few minutes at the end even though it was an FA Cup game and Callum Wilson wasn’t playing. I won’t complain about Carroll because he was actually quite good for once but Gayle still could have played on the flank.

   Chuck, your sweetheart was hammed 3-0 in the FA Cup, by Crawley Town from League Two! I listened to it on the radio. It was even stevens then Bielsa really cocked it up apparently, he put a couple of subs on half time and the whole team went to pot. In the second half, It sounded like it was Leeds who were the League Two team as Crawley banged in two really quick goals, then another one later on, but as I say, I only listened to it on the radio so I couldn’t see anythng. Sometimes your man gets wrongfooted and he can’t adapt. He’s an ideologue.

2. Chuck, OK, after that game against Sheffield, I’m seriously thinking of climbing on board your ‘Bruce out’ bandwagon. I remember when Allardyce was manager and we had that game against the worst Premier League team ever, Derby County, and also lost 1-0 in a similar fashion.

   And once again NO DWIGHT GAYLE!

3. Worky

   It’s simply a case of Gayle (who does well in the second tier) can’t get a spot is the fact they have a great young Brazilian center forward, who is not worth forty cents, never mind forty odd thousand n’ summit that was paid (and the club that sold him are still laughing about it)
   Look their are still those who think he can become a goalscorer, or
   something, whereas I’m sure Bruce has been forced to ink him in, being the alternatives are non existent and may be at the bidding of our illustrate owner, who knows nothing about the game, though he recognizes being below fifteenth place in the league is not a good idea this late in any season, and the club may be on their way to the second tier
   Having hit a winless streak, blamed mostly on who in the PL we play against, which is nonsense being Sheffield has just beaten us for their first win of the season, yeah !
   Things looked good when the Saudi bid was accepted, however
   it turned out to be the biggest disappointment and although they (The Saudi’s) have got over it and actually brought about some sort of reconciliation between themselves and Qatar , this will not increase the chances of any sale, meaning we are stuck seemingly forever with a shit team owned and directed by a shit owner and coached by a useless manager, unbelievably useless, who plays strictly a defensive game, as that’s all he knows, yeah even worse than all of the failures who preceded him , the fans must be going crazy, but what can they do ?
   Well they could force a sale by Boycotting games, being until we get rid of Ashley, thing can only get worse, something he agrees with.
   SoHo’s ! here I am missing a game to-day because there was more interest in seeing Man. U.vs Burnly, ah wel ! better to miss a game against the division’s worst side, who won it by the way.
   Think I gotta forget about Nufc, it’s too depressing especially when you are locked down, with nowhere to get a beer.
   AAAaaaaaaaarrrrghhh !

   i

4. Surely you can get beer in New York, Chuck? or are you wailing because you want one in a bar where you can indulge in your favourite hobby, grouching at people over a glass full of suds? If you think that Bruce’s Newcastle United is depressing, you still have Trump, the aftermath to look forward to. Impeachment may seem like a very bad thing indeed for most Presidents, but the way Trump is, he’ll actually enjoy the continued attention and all the trouble he’s causing though.

5. Worky
   Actually it’s more the exchanges from conversations that I miss, sure I gotta fridge full of bottled Amstel lite, but drinking alone is just not my thing
   I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be in Trump’s shoes following his official exit without an as yet `Official Pardon` (of course issued by himself for himself) and being the present situation is unprecedented, will he have “a Pension” and all the privileges normally issued to ex president’s.
   It seems to be commonly accepted that he is super wealthy, in fact a billionaire, which I doubt !
   In any case rumor has it that he has numerous big time debts who’s owners may as we speak be lining up to hit him with a summons And after the last four years NY wants nothing to do with him,” hey! you can’t

   just upset the whole country by acting in a bizarre manner and expect to get away with it ” though both (Johnson and Theresa) may have had their bizarre moments, at least they followed precedents that are commonly accepted, however I see a similar fate for Johnson, though no where near as severe. Though the real culprit is probably sitting back in his comfortable Bored Room chair after collecting his monthly check or Cheque if you like, talking about ex Prem. Cameron who’s I got a brilliant idea,” how about us dumping the EU, through a referendum.” then we can blame it on someone other than ourselves.
   Well has Ashley panicked yet, about being relegated and is about to sign a young goalscoring center forward, which is a good thing, though didn’t they do that last season ?
   Then there’s the advocation by fans to end all of this ten men behind the ball tactics by getting rid of Bruce and bringing back
   Benitez and by doing so, give him complete charge of everything from transfers, recruiting, training, scouting, et al., it could be the beginning of a complete overhaul of the way things are run, Ashley
   agreeing to reasonable bids on everything, which could result in a well run club, not unlike Southampton. but as long as there’s no official upper management, the nothing will change apart from ugly football and the fear of relegation.

6. The thing is though, Chuck, as I’ve said before several times now, for all his past trophies, Benitez’s method wasn’t so different to Bruce’s method. His CV, and the fact that he is that he is very Spanish tends to make people make assumptions about his style. Mourinho isn’t really one of those Iberian ‘tippy-tappy’ merchants neither. Benitez did really well at Valencia and Liverpool, but some of the football at Newcastle was a tedious grind, just like Bruce.

   So you haven’t been seduced by the charms of so called ‘craft beer’ yet?

7. Craft beer, yeah we got so many including bars that are actually brewery’s, but who has either the time or inclination to taste them all, I know I like Dutch beers and I know I can get Amstel pretty much anywhere, Soh’ !
   No I’m afraid I disagree as far as managers are concerned, believing
   Benitez to be a much better manager than our present Geordie failure, plus I think the Anfield fans would agree.
   Though at times he (Benitez) sometimes played a purely defensive
   side, for him it was as it should be “horses for courses” in other words choose a particular tactical approach for the side we face.
   Look we are all aware that our owner has certain priorities, one being to keep the club in he PL, the other is to take a certain annual profit, all of which keep him as the owner, he appears to trust no-one, therefor making most of the decisions based on money, being he knows shit about the game and from day one has dealt with people much like himself, the only exception was the local Geordie head scout who was responsible for bringing in some decent players from both France and Holland, of course he’s gone now.
   There are a number of fans who don’t get it, but the truth is until we have an owner who cares about the club, nothing is about to change and of course I believe that the Saudi’s could have done a good job and I am still curious about the why’s and wherefors involved.
   However I doubt very much whether an offer of three hundred million will be repeated (the Saudis could) but there are few willing to pay that kinda dough for a club situated almost three hundred miles from London in an ex- industrial area, with nothing
   to offer, other than a full house @ St. James’ Park.
   Ok ! so whats the future for the club, obviously to find an owner with good intentions and deep pockets, but unfortunately that opportunity has come and gone and I doubt very much it will ever return .
   It also dictates that without a free spending owner, nowt will change and we may end up not unlike the other two former North Eastern sides, languishing in the lower leagues.

   ‘easterly premiership clubs, now languishing in the lower divisions.

8. The big conundrum for the beer drinker with discerning tastebuds is that beer doesn’t really travel well, it always tastes best closest to the source, but you can’t always have the best brewery on your doorstep.

   On the football though, leaving Bruce out of things for a moment, Newcastle really need St Maximin back. With St Maximin they are a different team. The difference is stunning, eg without St Maximin we win 12.5% of our games, but with him we win 42%. He is the link between the midfield and the forwards, without him there is a vast chasm between the lines. This is Newcastle were taking about though so theres always the fly in the ointment to spoil things, and this time the fly is that St Maximin either injured or down with CoVid-19 as much as he’s out there playing. If he’d have been as fit as a lop all the time, we’d be doing much better but we can’t be so reliant on one player though.

9. Actually the only thing that has changed is, Ashley wins either way !
   He can continue and do nothing, saving money but gambling.
   He can fire Bruce woulda, coulda, shoulda ( last week.)
   Though we haven’t had a great side, SBR’s teams were highly entertaining and there were those recruited by the Geordie scout
   plus the hits by our DM , keeping the opposition’s heads up, had Ashley kept all of those signed French and Dutch, we may not have ended up as annual suspect for relegation.
   It’s just a fact that the club has fewer quality players and I don’t see
   anyone making any sensible moves, to continue as we are is not the answer but this how things are working out.

10. Nah ! one can notice the downward slide of NUFC within the PL
    certainly a side more associated with relegation than any silverware .We have been relegated twice during the Ashley period and appear to be associated with the also rans, rather than the top sides.
    Ashley knowing little about the game , but was willing to attempting various directions, one of which was spending during the winter window and brought in some decent players, but he still wanted his annual piece of the action, which he got through immediately selling them for a decent profit, only to realize he would have to repeat the
    same selling of any decent players, which resulted in having the same problems each season, instead of attempting to build a competitive side.
    Unfortunately now we have become a club that depends on both mediocrities and free agents, a definite recipe for disaster.
    The problem lies with our owner and fact is we are not a club that
    can expect to go anywhere without spending big and he just refuses
    to invest , so why is he hanging on, it could be a decent buy, being the club infrastructure is that of a modern club, so no investment is necessary apart from a decent manager with a free hand to invest.
    And who else can guarantee some fifty thousand plus every second week, and contrary to opinion, bums in seats (although not the main income for most clubs) remains a nice piece of change for owners.
    However the growth of Ashleys big box stores and the extra earnings from the side playing in the EPL, means it will be invested in real estate as opposed to buying football players as long as he is the owner.
    That is his present policy and not something we can expect to change, which is the main reason for the present crap side with a crap manager who play boring football and in conjunction with the pandemic fail to earn much.
    The rest of the EPL sides have invested big time and have improved their stadiums and brought in new players,
    And looking at the league standings it’s usual to find the bottom sides and newly promoted clubs to be languishing among bottom few.
    Which could result in a league with only eighteen clubs, as there are presently more than ten sides that could win the league, a scenario that few countries can rival .
    But hey ! whadda ya gonna do ?

    ash

11. It hasn’t been a good time for your sweetheart recently, Chuck. He’s lost every game since he beat us. It’s five in a row now, including losing 0-3 to a League One team. If it was Steve Bruce, I’d bet you’d want him crucified.

    Of course, Newcastle United have had better squads in the past, they’ve had worse too.

12. Yes I keep in touch with how Bielsa is doing, which is either a high scoring game pro or con, as of recent it has been mainly con.
    The main difference between both NUFC and Leeds, is that Leeds plays a much more attractive game and I have as yet to see him change his present style to an ugly defensive role, presently being played by by
    Bruce regardless, like his recent game against Sheffield,
    I mean what was the point of playing a defensive game against the bottom side in the league, who apart from this outing had not won a game, Aarrghh !
    I guess Ashley must be contemplating changes, as continuing with this loser nothing is about to vary or
    change,

13. AAAAAaaaaaarrrggghh !
    how can anyone watch Newcastle, this game is not just boring it’s a disgrace and a personal insult to all fans.
    And why are the Geordies still in the PL, it’s certainly not reflected by this crap side .
    And if this is the future of nufc then there is no future
    and I blame it all on our owner who’s only interest is taking his annual cut .
    FFS ! sell the club to someone who cares, however
    that’s no easy task as only those with no respect for
    money could afford to spend the three hundred grand
    presently being asked and where did Ashley come up with his number ?
    Unless the fans can force him into selling by Boycotting the game, leaving him without any bums in seats money.
    I’m afraid this is the WORST Geordie team I have ever watched, which doesn’t say a lot for whoever buys the players and manager and doesn’t deserve to be a PL member and I actually believe they will be playing in the second tier next season and that’s before the season is only halfway through .
    Awful! awful !, auful ! the worst and it’s all the fault of our owner, a money grubbing jerk. who neither cares about the club , that is why he hires the cheapest and worst managers being he wants any manager to
    take the blame for his lack of spending and when he breaks down and needs a goalscorer we end up with a brilliant Brazilian center forward who is good for an amazing amount of goals , that’s all three of them.
    Enough of this crap, get rid of him.

14. That’s three hundred million quid !

15. Calm down, Chuck.

    Worst side ever? In the 1991-92 season we had an Argentinian manager like Bielsa, a World Cup winner called Osvaldo Ardiles. We were almost relegated, from Division Two! Then along came a little man with a big heart, a curly perm and the rest is history, or it would have been but we didn’t win any trophies. Far more recently we had McClaren / Carver and the ‘Keegangate’ season before that, both ending in relegation.

    The problem is easier to express than it is to fix, we’re absolutely shite without St Maximin, he is so crucial to the team in terms of carrying the ball to the front. Without him there might as well be a huge chasm between the lines. As I pointed out above, we win 42% of games with St Maximin, but less than 12.5% without him (I calculated 12.5 before the Arsenal defeat), which is even worse than Carver’s 15%.

16. I love the picture of Bernie Sanders at the Biden inauguration. He looks like he’s just popped in after picking up his pension cheque, then he’s off to the Post Office!

17. I just can’t even mention this club anymore, they are an embarrassment both to fans and the general public, falling into the category of a joke club and heading full bent to-wards the second tier, though I’m sure Ashley will still take his annual % cut, after all it’s
    SD that funded our present plight and has his attention and had he spent a bit more attention on NUFC and perhaps a few more quid and hired a top management group, could possibly become a hero, but that’s obvious looking back that he obviously has no interest in doing anything other than keep the club where the money is. The EPL.
    I wonder how it feels having an entire city and surroundings hating you for destroying a club by using any profit from the club to back up his recent real estate and failed companies buys.
    How nice it would have been had the Saudis took the club out of his hands, in fact anyone with the necessary wealth, not necessarily to buy a winning side, simply one that wouldn’t look out of place in the league, in other words competitive, with a decent upper management and a manager who knows what he’s doing , instead of hiring a local lad. not a bad guy, just not a manager and never will be, but he came cheap and has very little in the way of authority, meaning he is simply the guy who decides how the club will play and who gets to play, so we will not be losing anyone special when he’s eventually fired.

18. Yeah I’m also a bit pissed @ Bernie, however I doubt if he ever intended to run for the Presidency and appeared content to be a king maker, or at least demand certain policies from whichever Dem. made the cut.
    Bernie reminds me of a certain ex shadow PM, though a much more outspoken and someone who
    gave the appearance of a leader, however he’s doing good work in the Senate and can be called upon if needed.
    Now Joe is a different story, someone who can hopefully bring the nation together and spread the billions around instead of directing them to those who have never enough….
    and we can all feel relaxed as I doubt Joe has any
    radical change’s other than to ensure the world returns to some form of normalcy.

19. I’ve stood up for Steve Bruce, now I’m going to for the ultimate ‘Devil’s Advocate’ prize. I’m going to stick up for Donald Trump!!!!!

    Obama – war, Bush – war, Clinton – war, Bush Snr – war, Reagan – war.

    Trump? He’s an odious buffoon but he was a relatively peaceful odious buffoon. As for Biden, he’s just the same old, same old. The term you use for journeyman managers, ‘retread’ would be perfect for him.

    So, you’ve gone off Bernie but you’re still up for the Saudis? Do you not think your moral compass might be getting a bit rusty?

20. As I have never quoted any political line I particularly
    support I don’t understand why you could reach such a conclusion, my son who is a Marxist, often mistakenly calls me an anarchist, which is his understanding of anyone of the left who doesn’t agree
    and support marxist policies.
    Sure the written basis for a strong and equally shared
    party may have been a tempting future to most of the working classes, unfortunately the only remnant of that era is the NHS, with a majority of other nationalized industry’s reverting back to their former owners.
    And it’s obvious that the fact the UK is as much of a
    monarchy as it has always been (I mean they did and to a degree still have an equal amount of say, in most cases) Done quietly and undisclosed to the public.
    They had to get rid of the royal yacht, but is it not time to also eliminate having a whole train to take them on vacation in Scotland, no wonder the Scotts dislike royalty.

    t
    They also have (by their support of the Torys ) a natural ally in the wealthy.
    Which extends from royals to those with other titles
    (offered by the monarch) like certain titles a bit out of date, for example orders of the British Empire, some non existent Empire though Queen Elizabeth made certain that The aging King in waiting was named as head of another non existent organization, which was
    designated as a replacement for the Empire, but was and is still a joke, only remembered as former colonies, which provided the wealth of Empire.
    of course I’m talking about the barely existent Commonwealth of Nations, basically a non starter and
    a bit of a joke. it was originally named the British Commonwealth.
    Yeah the recent (since the end of WW2) fall from grace
    basically a loss of income, due to the loss of empire
    as a wealth generator.
    It’s those changes that are responsible for Brexit, which was a complete balls up and will prove to be
    responsible for a farther reduction of living standards,
    But leaves those involved and everyone else aware of it’s introduction, the fact that most Brits. are racist .
    As for the Saudi’s their history is a hell of a lot better to-wards most others, than that of The British Empire
    and it’s successor The UK
    And tell me which country was forced to join in US invasions of both the Middle East and Afghanistan,
    and are still there, if you are unaware you can ask
    Labours Tony Blair, who was known as Present. Bush’s poodle.
    Nowt wrong with my moral compass, perhaps you should check your own.
    Certainly not gonna happen by asserting that con-man and general buffoon Trump, avoided any involvement with war by going around the world and meeting with such people as the North Korean leader or becoming a good friend of China, where he was
    used by smarter more aware leaders.
    Now Joe Biden, not exactly my choice but possibly a figure who “knows the ropes”and can make any of Trump’s changes brought into line with with the help of a certainly more aware cabinet, not acting and making speeches in an attempt to impress, while
    at the same time being used by them.
    Can you say the same thing about your guy with his
    carefully arranged uncombed look, though of late I have noticed it’s not quite so uncombed, ?

    Bush’s poodle.

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21. Chuck, to be fair I don’t think the monarchy has a great deal of say in things these days.

    Privilege still exists but it’s not aristocratic privilege (mainly). That started to decline with the Reform Acts. Privilege lies in the hands of what would have been the upper middle-class factory owners in the Victorian era. The movers and shakers in big business. The rich industrialists.

    Connections help too of course, but that also comes from money. If you can afford to send your kid to Eton, chances are he or she will make some good connections.

    Sure, there are still stuffy old institutions like hereditary titles, but the richest people in the country are all business owners rather than aristocrats.

    And in terms of institutional power the House of Lords isn’t all that effective against a strong majority Commons. It amends bills from the Commons, but the Commons just amends them back again.

22. Worky

    If what you say about the royals, how do you explain that which has always been there in the north east, right on your doorstep The Duke of Northumberland
    and his wealth that includes over thirty farms, plus most of the real estate of the city of Newcastle .
    Which is the visible wealth, not mentioning the hidden assets, the wealth held by the Duke, we are talking about invested in some remote bank in former specks of land not wealthy enough to become independent and who’s banks were eventually, specially set up to accept funds of the worlds wealthy, who’s laws prevent investigation.
    Surely you are aware of the Panama papers scheme. which garnered such attention a few years back , but subsequently disappeared with time.
    This is not a condemnation of the descendence of Harry Hotspur who by the way own a fair chunk of realty in London also, I mean this is one county in England where royalty still owns and dictates too.
    Are you saying it’s not true of the country as a whole.
    that the rest of those carefully erected stacks of bricks
    are owned by businessmen, and yes I understand many country estates were owned and lost through the imposition of death taxes following ww2, but as you say many were owned by businessmen.
    Other offered their estates to the government and were converted to other uses, and most continue to collect fees from tourists to stroll around their grounds .But the involvement of estate managers who probably informed the owners, the estate cannot support itself through farming ( unless you own the whole county )
    I think you may be mistaken as to where and how the related royals money comes from.
    The UK has purposely established banking and investment centers such as Bermuda, the Virgin islands , The Bahamas and Cayman Islands, The Channel Islands , Turks &.Caicos Isles. places for the most part unknown, apart from the worlds wealthy who use businesses like the one that caused the uproar entitled the Panama papers.
    Leaving their investments unlisted for tax purposes
    and fairly untraceable.
    Not bad work if you can get it, of course !

23. A quick browse through the latest news states we may see our local man Bruce finally realize he is going nowhere with this side and resign, the fact is he has been resigned following being dropped as a player by MU back in the day, being an awful manager, but essentially a decent guy.
    It appears Ashley is about to buy more Big Box space which could cost a lotta dosh, and who knows could be willing to put the Toon up for sale again, though I doubt he can sell the club for three hundred million.
    And speaking of sales it appears my belief that the original sale had more to do than we will ever know, that is the Saudis sale was doomed from the start, it being a hot political situation.
    Look no mid level league representative is going to take it upon himself to aggravate both Saudi-Arabia
    and a billionaire by banning the sale then offering an arbitration that sounded like lets just forget the deal because it’s too sensitive, huh ! what does that mean ?
    Sell the club please, being it’s obvious where your future lies “in the rag trade”
    Yeah ! while the club is sellable, or suffer the fate of Sunderland who may never see the EPL again, being we are going down again, which reduces the price of the club and the funds available.
    And what’s that about ?

    1 the sale to the Saudi’s. I recall mentioning that and the general feedback was, nah !

    then let me ask , doe’s anyone know anymore about the cancellation of the sale, or is a state secret ?

    there’s a lotta people who are fans, but we gotta get this guy to move on and if not now when?

    I believe Ashley will do well financially, but billionaire or not nufc is of little use to him at present, he needs funds, sell !
    Hey! no-body’s gonna pay the kinda money that was offered, but as we realize “that deal’s gone, for whatever reasons.”

    The question that arises is, as always what’s gonna happen, is our future the same as Sunderlands.

24. Chuck, you just can’t stop yourself with the anti-British bile, you just erupt like Krakatoa when you just can’t hold it down any longer. Forget all that rubbish about Harry Hotspur and the Queen, Hugh is closer to the mark, as far he goes. History started in the North of England around 1760-80 depending on which historian you go with. Nearly all the stuff that’s ever been made, and the wealth, has been made since then. That was the rise of the ‘rich industrialists,’ in Britain, and then the rest of the world. You Americans may think the UK is like Downton Abbey, but there aren’t many real aristocrats.

    In the UK the Bourgeoisie, the rich industrialists were making the money, but they were quite lazy about power initially, but that started changing in the Victorian Era when industry and expansion were going at full steam and the Bourgeoisie needed power to feed the voracious monster of Capitalism.

    After WW2, the UK had huge war debts and unlike today, the rich were hit too. Many beautiful stately homes were demolished during that period with death duties and such, though I don’t suppose the people still living in awful housing in a landscape still pockmarked by the Luftwaffe worried about that too much.

25. Hmmm !
    I suppose this is your version of history is it ?
    Yes the industrial revolution did make many UK residents wealthy, however traditional land owned by those who have owned it since the Normans took over remained for the most part.
    But yes there were the so called industrialists who had enough dosh to erect a bunch of bricks on a plot they had also bought to enclose it with carefully designed parklike Capability Brown designed estates.
    And yes some did well many running for political office, then there were the minor industrialists, those who usually bought land in smaller amounts, the inventors Parsons, who invented the steam turbine,
    plus, the manufacturing companies that designed the means to replace workers with machines, etc.,
    Vickers Armstrong is an example ,
    However many were the result of owning land on which coal was located, a robust area during the industrial revolution, with mining, steel making, arms manufacturing, ship building and repair, and other smaller industries dependent on those big industries, which is now dependent on selling stuff
    over a phone line, following de-industrialization brought about by the infamous Maggie Thatcher, who
    believed in a service industry, who knows perhaps she was right, but she certainly did it the hard way , with little thought for those that were deprived of work.
    And interesting enough left most of the city of Newcastle empty, being most buildings apart from
    some classic stores were offices and a few hotels.
    Being the city had few residential buildings, apart from those necessary offices.
    It appears most residents were housed in the nearby suburbs and the city has still to resolve what to do with itself, of course the University has expanded
    and will no doubt continue too.
    However the fact remains that The duke of
    Northumberland has kept all of his realty and will cont
    -tinue too, ever try buying real estate in the UK ?
    And for the most part this is repeated throughout the UK, no !
    What you described that most land was in the hands of wealthy industrialists is nonsense, in fact they are in a minority when comparing the actual measure of land owned by those who were granted it by the Normans.

    As for Nufc. the side is crap and are about to lose their spot in the EPL, though hopefully our dear owner
    who needs a few million to buy big box realty now that it’s cheap, though it seems obvious that outfits like Amazon are replacing them.
    It’s a toss up as to who has done the most damage to the area Maggie or our dear owner for the last few decades or so .
    And the fact is the tech industry has no borders with
    corporations like Apple, Amazon and others forcing
    amazing changes in every walk of life and their profits and ownership, recognizing neither state or country
    or certainly in the case of the gradually reducing itself UK and it’s dumb-ass move out of the EU trading zone.
    Although you may believe your PM and his constantly
    predictions that the UK can be more successful as a separate trading system, which we all are aware of is nonsense, being most believe it to be a a political embarrassment, ah well !

26. Oh ! on the question of land ownership, were there not rescues by major US industrialist’s, who married
    their daughters of to prevent the loss of both titles and their poorly run estates.
    And was it not true that took place in the family of Winston Churchill, his mother being from Brooklyn ,
    why hell he could been a “Dodger”. fan

27. Chuck, nobility and the landed gentry still own a lot of land in the UK, but it doesn’t earn them the money or influence it once did.

    A lot of the nobility’s land was rented out for agriculture and grain prices plummeted at the end of the 19th C, whilst taxes on inherited wealth increased in the 20th C. Many estates were sold or broken up. The money the land was making dropped significantly. This is why tours of stately homes started. The land stopped earning them so much money and they had to show the commoners around their homes for a fee to supplement their income.

    The financial power in this country lies with corporations, oligarchs and industry. That financial power buys influence. And when it comes to influence, I would imagine some social media ‘influencer’ I’ve never heard of has more sway in political and social circles than the Duke of Marlborough these days.

    The new nobility are the likes of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. They’re the people with the connections, the influence and the money. You can be as mad as a box of frogs these days, but if you’ve got a million followers on social media you have influence, and you’ve probably got at least £10 in the bank for every one of those followers (probably more like £100 in some cases).

    Things started changing slowly in the mid 19th C and the pace of change is accelerating. Your view of England is about 150 years out of date. I’m not denying royalty, nobility, the crown estate (or whatever) still own a fair chunk of land. But the biggest chunk of money and influence no longer belongs to them.

    Not, in some ways, that it matters. Whichever way you look at it, you still have a rich, powerful and influential elite. It’s just that far fewer are aristocratic elite and more are industrial elite.

28. Chuck, you just throw stuff together without any coherence at all – a Capability Brown here, some Norman invaders there, throw in Maggie Thatcher and the Percy family. What does it all mean though? Bugger all!

    Newcastle looked like a ghost town after John Hall opened that awful Metro Centre to bring the US style ‘mall experience’ to Geordieland. I suppose that was a part of ‘Thatcher’s Britain’ though.

    On the game, Newcastle were better after St Maximin came on, though we shouldn’t be so reliant on him.

    As for the EU, even the Irish have been condemning them over their recent behaviour in the ‘vaccine war’ and Macron’s stupid, impetuous statement accusing the Astra Zeneca vaccine as being “almost ineffective” on over 65s. That’s the kind of stupid thing that Trump would say. They have retracted their threat now, but it’s caused such a stink it’s even making Boris Johnson look good!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/29/eu-controls-on-vaccine-exports-to-northern-ireland-trigger-diplomatic-row

    Hugh, don’t forget that up to 30% of Twitter followers are fake, redundant, spam or whatever, and followers can also be bought in bulk. Using those figures, my MP, Jeremy Corbyn (2.4 million Twitter followers), would be worth somewhere between £24 million to £240 million. I think that the Daily Mail would love a story like that!

29. Worky,

    Good point about the fake followers. I probably should have added that the social media influencers need celebrity status and a good marketing head to be part of the new nobility. Then they can turn each follower into £10 or £100.

    As to NUFC, we’re in danger of being a one man team, such is the effect St Maximin has on the side. Really we should be buying a clone of him this transfer window if we want to avoid a relegation battle. I like Almiron but I don’t think he has the influence of St Maximin.

30. We looked good before St Maxinin came on today. It was a very different approach, and far more attacking. No problems getting the ball forward and Callum Wilson was all over the place. It was a very good performance from everybody but Lascelles is starting to get rather clumsy.

31. Look you should both both check your references when quoting who owns what.
    Fact is Royals and those included in that category presently own more than 30 % of Englands green and pleasant land.
    with corporations a further 15% Oligarchs and banks 17%
    which in fact leaves Englands residence around 1 %.
    In which it’s you who’s beliefs are way out of date, Hughie !
    And fact is I know what I’m talking about.
    And yes I recall shortly after the end of WW2, that a number of non royals who owned land and coal mines, lost a major earning from
    coal minding due to Appropriation through nationalization.
    Most lost their owning due to heavy taxes applied for that purposes
    though few of those with royalty connections did.
    Soh !

    For Hughie “he just called it off the top of his head” , stating yes those with royal connections no longer exist that the majority of land was under the control of those who had made a fortune in the industrial revolution with others those who invented such things as the steam
    turbine and other aids to that revolution. who bought various smaller estates.
    When those that own thirty percent of the land speak, they can have
    a serious effect, however former industrialists did not and do not own a majority, however those with a serious relationship with the monarchy .
    And what is it about mentioning Harry Hotspur, the Percy family and others that annoys you so much, being it’s all a part of the story.

    Actually I recall mentioning a European Super League previously and how likely it appeared to come to fruition, only to be chastised for even believe of that possibility.
    Well now certain US owners have reached the conclusion there’s money to be made from what’s known here as Soccer, a game played with ones feet, as opposed to a game that for the most part is handled called football, a game that was developed here, it was originally a copy of rugby , however the two original colleges that played eventually added their own rules and voila we had American football.
    There is a league and not to be understated have a Super Bowl. instead of a World Series, as a world leading country we have to explain it with terms like super and world. how ever I digress.

    At present due mainly to the fact the EPL just happens to be the wealthiest league in Europe to the financial dealings with tv.
    A European league could almost put them out of business, like watching the European championship on a weekly basis.

    Of course I believe you stated you were against such a league then and so was I, only mentioning it as something of interest.
    Look it’s only natural that a group of foreign owners may be interested in belonging to such an organization, at present both Liverpool and MU and other foreign owned clubs appear interested
    and I was surprised to see NUFC on a list of EPL clubs (listed by the wealth of their owners) nufc being one of them.
    Though the present side is obviously heading for relegation and unless we make the usual signings may be gone forever having a terrible season under a poor manager, the side has suffered due to Ashleys failure to establish a decent upper management team and having bought a Brazilian striker who’s success rate is three goals in a season and a half accentuates the poor management from top to bottom.

32. Chuck,

    You must have missed the first paragraph of my comment where I said:

    “Chuck, nobility and the landed gentry still own a lot of land in the UK, but it doesn’t earn them the money or influence it once did.”

    I never said the majority of land is under control of the industrialists. I said the majority of money and power lies with the rich industrialists.

    Perhaps try reading the comment you’re replying to next time eh?

33. Chuck, at least some of those ‘facts’ are complete nonsense. The three biggest landowners in the UK in terms of acres or whatever are the Forestry Commission, the National Trust and the Ministry of Defence. The Queen ‘owns’ the Crown estates, but she doesn’t own the Crown Estates. It’s ‘only’ 360,000 acres, that’s slightly smaller than London. She’s not allowed to sell any of it. They are not considered as her property as an individual, they are held by the monarch. It’s our funny olde English ways.

    What did you think of the game the other day?

34. Worky
    “At least some of those facts are complete nonsense,”! how do you change a fact to nonsense?
    I suppose your facts are as claimed by one of Trumps advisors, ” alternate facts”, being you make no claims about the amount of land still in the hands of
    those awarded by “Billy the Conqueror” which I repeat is around thirty percent and that the odd forestry and other numbers have been introduced to confuse the issue and are the real nonsense.
    I don’t watch nufc anymore I’m afraid, “too painful” !
    Yes it must be a break for the fans, being wins are
    like checking oysters for pearls and I’m convinced the club will be relegated, not to mention the ugly style of to-days game where it usually takes one side or the other the same old routine of spending lots of time to get the ball across the halfway line.
    Makes one wish for the return of “high ball , high ball kick the ball and run”!

    and Hugh, yes I did in fact read your carefully worded
    attempt at not being specific, but understood what you were attempting and the fact your original claim
    that special interests (those wealthy untitled businessmen you claim owned a majority of the land).
    Sounded great, but on examination proved to be not even close.
    As for Worky’s claims “ridicules as they are”, I just laugh at how riled up he gets .

    9

35. Chuck, thanks for telling me what I was attempting to write. I was very confused there for a minute. I was sure I wrote what I intended to write.

    I will phone the hospital and get an urgent philological scan to see what’s wrong with me.

36. Hugh
    I know what you attempted to write, a putdown of the yank who has the. audacity to inform Brits. of parts of their history without pre checking to see if you are right or not.
    By hedging what you say, as opposed to Worky who just jumps in certain that his ridicules version like quoting such nonsense as the “Forestry Commission”, “the National Trust”plus the fact The Queen does not own The Crown Estates, though never asked, even quoting the acreage which I had better add in case anyone cares. It’s thirty odd thousand acres and can’t be sold bla bla bla. …………
    and has a giggle to himself by adding proudly, it’s part of our olde English ways
    Ermmmm !
    Enough already !
    And Hugh, yeah you can have all the scans available
    and it wont change the fact that I was right in claiming those titled sub royals do in fact still own the
    majority of Englands green and pleasant lands, though some may be short of a bob or two, but hey, there’s still the possibility they may have marriageable daughters they could marry off who have the necessary few quid, perhaps even a Brit, being there’s plenty of footballers with plenty of dosh, or a singer in a rock and roll band.
    Could be worse I guess, but now that Brexit is done and dusted, will have to live in a country who’s standard of living is about to be reduced, shouldda stayed where you were.

37. Chuck,

    You are prone to building straw men to attack in a way that suits you, which is a fallacy.

    I’ll try one more time, for all the good it’ll do, by repeating a paragraph from my earlier post:

    “I’m not denying royalty, nobility, the crown estate (or whatever) still own a fair chunk of land. But the biggest chunk of money and influence no longer belongs to them.”

    You have to bear in mind that for land to earn money it has to be productive in some way. You need to build on it and collect ground rent, farm it or whatever. Unproductive land can be a bind. A lot of land that was once productive and providing tidy incomes for the lords of the manor stopped being productive in the late 19th C.

    Some noblemen still did okay out of their land, but others struggled.

    But it was part of a process that had been going on since the 1830s or thereabouts and is still going on today. There’s a shift in the power base with a gradual decline in the riches and influence of nobility. Industrialists, oligarchs and others have taken over.

    That’s all there is to it.

    I wrote what I meant to write. If that’s wrong, then argue the point. But if you’re just going to tell me I was attempting to say something other than I did, we’ll get nowhere.

    Having said that, I think in your last post you were attempting to say you’ve always been a massive fan of the Cheeky Girls, which you should be thoroughly embarrassed about.

38. hugh
    Sorry ! but I have no clue as to what you are on about as far as The cheeky Girls are concerned ?
    I’m aware of “The Slits” a decent women’s movement group or the Russian girls political band, but by the sound of it Cheeky Girls are some kind of British phenomena, no ?
    Anyhow, I’m not in the least embarrassed by them, having no clue as to who or what they are.
    What does surprise me is your revival of terms which have been out of date since the end of empire, stuff like Landed Gentry and Nobility, I mean does anyone
    ever use such terms anymore, apart from yourself ?

    And yes , I have no argument about others (non original land owners) owning a certain amount, it’s only expected that some families have had to sell or at least marry a rich industrialist over the last thousand years or so, take Churchill for instant, the result of a wealthy mother from Brooklyn, rescuing
    the family by introducing great wealth into it.
    But by doing so kept the original family name as owners.
    So we have to go to those keeping score and find that Thirty percent of those mentioned in the Domsday-book have in a way, successfully continued as owners.
    Never mind I don’t call them Landed Gentry or Nobility terms no longer acceptable to most, certainly following the end of Empire.

39. Looks like Ashley has seen the writing on the wall, as he attempts as usual to survive in the EPL, by spending a few bob around this time of year, only to sell them off once survival is assured.
    Hell it’s his club , he owns it and can do whatever he decides within he law.
    I have noticed a revival of hope and certain hints by those writers working the local NE papers in regard to the original sale taking place, which Newcastle fans
    grasp at like the proverbial straws.
    I was fortunate enough to watch the original early fifties side where my hero Bobby Mitchell played the left wing, a decent side, and I have to say any blame
    should be placed on Ashley who is in control of every
    part of upper management for selling off such players to the present top sides of the EPL.
    And believe that they were the picks of the Geordie scout subsequently laid off, on his one way ticket through both France and Holland.
    Yes we actually had some competitive sides believe it or not and Ashley ended up with a decent season or two.
    However he has seen the result of his lack of spending and the result is, we have only a couple of goaltenders and the French winger who will no doubt
    bring in a good profit when sold soon in the Market.
    It will be a close call whether we go down or survive.
    Our only hope is to acquire a new owner and the original deal by the Saudis looked so good in retrospect, but nothing comes easy on Tyneside these days, Ah Well !

40. The terms ‘landed gentry’ and ‘nobility’ are quite acceptable this side of the Atlantic, Chuck. Not quite sure how they would be unacceptable to anyone to be honest (or even what you mean by ‘unacceptable’).

    Don’t worry about The Cheeky Girls. The point I was making is that if you’re going to tell me what I was ‘attempting’ to say, I’ll tell you likewise.

    I’m with you on The Slits, though. I remember buying their ‘Cut’ album. I don’t think my parents were too impressed that Ari Up, Tessa Pollitt and the other one (whose name escapes me right now) were topless on the cover.

41. Oh well. We lost, but it was a respectable, attacking performance and Crystal Palace did very well.

    Hugh, the ‘Cheeky Song (Touch my Bum)’ is a classic!

    Of course, the value of land is mostly dependent on its purpose, it could be an acre of land in Mayfair with planning permission for a ***** hotel or whatever, or a acre of grazing land out in the middle of nowhere. You can buy a piece of land for next to nothing, get permission to build stuff on it and all of a sudden it’s worth a fortune. Therefore, you also have to factor that in as well as mere size. Of course, the Grosvenor’s were very lucky in that regard as much of their land happens to be all the best bits of central London, which is better than owning Dartmoor. They’re still poor next to software billionaires, e.commerce pioneers and that Bond villain type who makes the electric cars and the spaceships.

    Chuck, it doesn’t matter what your opinion is when it comes to verifiable facts. The Queen and her scions do not own most of the UK, that would be over 30 million acres. That might be the size of the average ranch over there but things aren’t like that over here.

42. Chuck, the Cheeky Girls (Monica and Gabriela) are from Romania.

    Cheeky Song (Touch my Bum)

43. Ah ! The Cheeky Girls, you say they are Rumanian, that constantly border changing and politically unknown part of the Balkans, home of Vlad the impaler, which has been part of just about every expanding Empire within reach from Rome to the Soviets.
    Remember reading a book named The defense of Plevna, which took place during a war between Russia and The Turkish Empire, in the 1890’s, a report by an Irish- American writer, claimed by some as the first war correspondent and though Plevna was located in southern Bulgaria, the Russians were victorious and had only to march to the capital, but were prevented by the threat of the British and French battle fleets located near Instanbul, which ended up with the Turks awarding Britain ownership of Cyprus, that’s if you ever wondered how it (Cyprus) became a part of the Globe colored pink.
    But how do you reach the conclusion I ever stated the Queen and her scions owned thirty million acres, what I did claim was the written amount of land held by the original owning families was thirty percent, check it out !
    And don’t ask as what I thought of any NUFC game, as I have until our present owner offloads before I intend to watch them play again, too painful.

44. Worky
    Your attempt to confuse the discussion of who owns what, with nonsense such as comparing grazing land with expensive real estate in the choicer regions of London is just going from the sublime to the ridicules, what about the vast amounts of acreage in both England and Scotland designated for grouse shooting, which brings in a decent amount of dosh, the highland clearances was another, get rid of people who had lived there for many generations tossed off the land only to be replaced by sheep.
    And it appears the king in waiting owns a great deal of property in the Duchy of Cornwall, where he practices methods of farming
    in carefully selected little areas, which reminds one of sharecropping as it was practiced and still is too a much smaller degree of course.
    Ever do any Salmon or Trout fishing, if not be prepared to get ripped off big time , as those who own the land on either bank, rent it out (beats). at a ridicules prices.
    How much does a days grouse shooting or fishing a beat cost, don’t ask!
    As ridicules as this sounds, it’s no more confusing as that stated by you, just another straw man argument made to confuse the issue.

45. Interesting article in to-day’s , BBC News.
    Concerning “Pres. Joe’s” policies on the Gulf States, which involves both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both
    not exactly warring but close and each backed by allies, one of which is allied through arms and aircraft sales, the other by investment owning a great deal of the recently constructed Londin realty. to the tune of fifty billion or more. it shouldn’t be difficult to figure out, who is who.
    Which is no doubt the reason for the prevention of the proposed sale of NUFC,
    Why ? no-body’s talking , but it’s certainly not due to some employee. working for the EPL, who has been ordered to leave things as they are for whatever reasons?
    Not that it matters being the Toon are gaining doon and we should be able to watch derby games soon against both Sunderland and Boro, the reason’s are obvious. of course.
    So if anyone is looking for reasons for the cancellation better call your local MP, who no doubt knows, but
    obviously, it has more to do with international politics .
    being both are big earners for the British government.
    And as time passes so does the hurt caused to the fans who have to suffer on with two “Kna nowt jerks”
    Ashley and Bruce .
    Plus I was surprised that they “The Fans ” quietly folded” after the decision, no one wanting to know ?
    at least everything else is cool, but Ashleys regular
    panic buying at this time of year may not work, as the
    side is crap possibly the worst so far and the less said about Bruce and his knowledgable boss the better.

    ‘

46. Oh put a sock in it, Chuck!

    Don’t you have anything to say about the game on Saturday? It had everything, attacking flair and drama for a 3-1 lead in the first half, then a series of mini disasters when they got a second, we had a man sent off, then another injured after we’ve had three subs so we’re down to nine, but we still hold out to the last. It’s all just doom and gloom with you. We might have a hard time in the next three games but I really don’t think we’ll get relegated unless we have one of those crazy ‘only at Newcastle’ type events. Their style has really changed and overall, Bruce has done very well in the last three games.

47. Erm yeah, unfortunately I did watch the game against a side that
    was coming off a game where they shipped nine goals, only a few days before.
    And yes they were very lucky, considering the circumstances, which doesn’t in any way induce me to even consider watching them at any future date, as they are awful.

    Sure there’s a chance that they may squeak bye without taking a fall, but only because of the quality of to-days bottom three.
    Apparently Ashley agree’s, being he hasn’t bought anyone , which
    is his usual means of evading relegation.
    The side are just awful to watch, they can’t put more than two passes to-gather and I’m particularly annoyed with our so called playmaker
    the lazy bald midfielder who’s top speed is no more than a jog.
    We have a decent striker who is injury prone, as a matter of fact we have an entire team of injury prone failures it’s a problem that only money and a decent upper management, including a real manager which certainly excludes Bruce and I am not the only one who thinks so.
    Which leads me to the point, what is it exactly that you dislike or is unfair when discussing nufc and the problems associated, where have I been unfair or spiteful ? I call it like I see it.
    You may disagree with my assumptions but an exclamation like” Put a sock in it” is meaningless without reason.

    I

48. Chuck, Southampton have also beaten Liverpool this season, twice, along with several other good teams. I just go on what I see and try not to be prejudiced, and Newcastle have been like a different team in the last three games. Part of it has been a more attacking formation etc, and St Maximin’s return has provided a lift to the team too.

49. Worky
    How do you reconcile a statement like “played with attacking flair and drama”, in regard to the (orrrible) game that was actually played .Either you know little about the game apart from statistics , mostly
    bull***t numbers, meaning nothing.
    This is undoubtedly the worst side put out by NUFC, since Ashley took over and will be a candidate for relegation, as of right now.
    Though there are already three sides, one of which recently beat Nufc @ St James Park.
    If in fact Nufc are lucky enough to escape the drop, it will be because of how poor the present three bottom sides play and what I see are clubs that are gradually improving.
    I guess Ashley must have a couple of would be buyers, who are not about to spend the kind of dosh offered by the SAK, however his window of opportunity is passing if he is to acquire the bread for expansion through a sale .
    Ah well ! it’s tough being a fan in an area almost three hundred miles from civilization, even when the fill the stadium with well over forty odd thousand locals, for each home game.
    But it appears bums in seats are not quite enough these days as one also has to be politically astute, which unfortunately both Ashley and the Prince are far from.
    I suppose we will hear the official party line (tory) at a later time.
    But you can bet your ass it has more to do with politics than
    the game of football.
    Then again we have our own crap with Trump to consider, soh……..!

50. Appears like relegation is just around the corner, whats our dear owner to do ?
    Not a lotta choices I’m afraid, as we are gradually drawn into the orbit of those desperate to avoid the drop, though it’s too late now to spend (Ashley took a risk that didn’t work)
    I suppose he needs as much dosh as will buy him a few choice stores, the present fact is that corporations that sell through the internet like Amazon, who can deliver the goods within two days or so can be bought with a few strokes of the keyboard, certainly a better deal than having to travel and visit various stores, to find the desired article.
    Too late to buy anyone now, which should keep our dear owner in a state of uncertainty due to the fact few foreigners are about to spring for three hundred million quid for a recently relegated side almost three hundred miles from London and a lousy side to boot.
    Ah well ! had the original offer been acceptable we would still be
    possibly unhappy, each with his own list of star players we should buy, ah well that’s life !

    0.
    I suppose the one time Ashley refused to buy (winter window)
    player/s, guess money is tightest when one really needs it and with the current available big box box retail store @bargain prices it’s now or never.
    However a struggling club recently relegated from the EPL, almost three hundred miles from London, is not exactly a deal most foreign would be owners would consider.
    Soh! I guess it’s playing against the other sides in the same bag, like Boro. and Sunderland, though I doubt if they will generate much enthusiasm.
    Thanks a lot Mike .

51. Chuck, looking at the way we are playing, I don’t think so, though of course, previous experience has taught us that chaos can descend at any time at Newcastle United. There are some things which still annoy me, but our last two games were against top teams who played well. I no longer regard watching the games as a chore, or worry that I’ll fall asleep in the middle and if you still say that the team haven’t changed their approach, that’s wrong.

    Have you had your jab yet?

52. I just read that Lennon , the Celtic manager has resigned.
    Now there’s a lesson for our local geezer to follow , that’s if he has any gumption, which could give us the fans at least some satisfaction that someone cares .
    It’s been obvious that he is pretty dumb when it comes to tactics and doubt that he can be a success,
    at least in the top league, perhaps he should be or could be employed by Gatesheed, though actually I doubt even they want him.
    As for Ashley who has refused to spring for any players this season, resulting in making a survival buy or two out of the question and who wants outta NUFC,

    but needs the sale price as capital to purchase a few prime big box stores, to add to those already in his hands.
    Soh ! where does this leave us ?
    Heading down to meet up with the Mackem’s and Boro., with no easy guarantee of ever returning, that’s what Ashley has given the most loyal of fans , ermmm
    thanks a lot Pal.
    You know I can’t imagine why the man invested in a football club, well actually we all know why, it provided him with free advertising and a few million each season, where he attempted different management systems, (most which lined his pockets)
    but reached the conclusion that it would take more than his one or two billion, to properly finance a football club.
    Most fans detest him and included were most of the managers he hired, apart from Benitez, who IMO, was the only one hired who given the right support could have built a decent and somewhat substantial side, enough to establish a top ten EPL side.
    Yeah ! a lotta fans believed it and why not.
    Unfortunately Ashley refuses to spend the money required and refuses to give anyone the ability to use funds without his say- so.
    Hopefully time being of the essence to make the purchases of property he covets, how much can he get for NUFC as a second tier club, not much more than Boro. or S’Land.
    Serves him right as he has had opportunities to sell on a number of occasions and certainly understands that he is detested by a majority of fans and there is
    little he can do about any of his problems, which most fans understand and don’t care about, what they want is to see him leave and never return.
    With the hope a new group of owners can rebuild the side and they (the new owners) have enough dosh to compete within the worlds richest league.

53. Worky
    Have I had my shot yet ?
    Not yet, as it is turning out to be those that have dosh or a position of power the Mayor and Governor and the Wall St. crowd have all been vaccinated and the way things are working could be weeks before I get
    mine as one has to register and make a appointment.
    which is like a state secret as to where and when.

    Actually both the UK and US are failures when one examines the results of the last year, Trump gave up earlier and had problems with wearing a mask, even suggesting at one period, for people to inject themselves with household cleaners, insanity ruled !
    if you don’t believe it look at the numbers, they explain it all, then we have the Governor “Coumo”
    and the NYC mayor arguing and offering differing
    opinions on what to do and who controls the opening and closing of various opening times for schools, cafe’s bars etc.
    Where no one at present know whats happening ,
    Yes sir the two most populous English speaking countries are leading the leagues in deaths and the number of those like myself un-jabbed as you refer to it, which is being dispersed in the most chaotic manner and like on most occasions without will or wisdom.
    Ah well, suppose I will have to take my own evasive action, rather than accept the guidance of the clowns who spend most of their time mansplaining in their own way via TV.
    God help us ! as our leaders have no clue !

54. I had my first one a few days ago, they gave me the Pfizer vaccine. In the UK they either put their private sector cronies in charge of things and it all goes completely tits up, or they have to put the NHS in charge of it and it goes pretty well. The vaccine part has been the NHS. It’s oldies and people with complicating health factors first.

    As for Gateshead, they have the Baresi of the potteries, Mike Williamson, as their manager, so why would they want anyone else?

55. Worky
    I suppose being a non rated individual, yet in the age range of early qualifying, I don’t really care I have survived the worst hopefully.
    The reason being there’s a controversy in regard to which of the vaccines is the most reliable , considering what appears to be a number of variations of covid 19 # appearing.
    And of course we have basically a ridicules two shots version, which appears to be the result of early introduction of the vaccine.
    Though when one has the ability to introduce an early cure , every
    system should be evaluated and if deemed safe then used even if it requires a booster shot at a later date.
    Choice for latecomer’s using the Johnson &Johnson inoculation would it appears need only one shot, but anyway the wait will still take time and we are unsure whether choice will be available,
    Because let’s face it pretty soon there will emerge a scandal in regard to prices, with each differing manufacturer wanting reimbursement for it’s product, plus a hefty profit.
    In which just be grateful you don’t live in a war torn area or some place in a remote part of the dark continent.
    Hell I live in NYC and still have no clue as to where and when I can
    expect to receive a shot even when paying attention, never mind what the competition level is, ah well !

56. Oh well, a decent performance, but only one point to show for it.

    Chuck, you should be in one of the early groups. I’ve had no problem with mine so far, it’s the flu vaccines which don’t agree with me very much, I’ve been fine with the covid one so far, but I still have another second one to come in the fullness of time.

57. Worky
    Yeah ! thing is I have no objections to going through the process, it’s the obvious lack of planning and wasting time because no one has been given the authority to set up a general system, based roughly on what’s considered to be fairest those workers with the system and the elderly then …………….
    Unfortunately both the Mayor and Governor are squabbling, as usual, Trumps doctor, who I see outlasted Donald, was spending time advising us not to listen to the doctor, but shoot up some good old house hold cleaner , works good at cleaning up just about everything, so why not try iy ?
    That’s why we have such numbers, however a pandemic is not like any other disaster, “one doesn’t get to see the bodies”and it’s not often one enquires about missing acquaintances, what makes me angry is the lack of decent intelligent leadership.

58. Well there’s definitely been an emphasis on getting the oldies done over here, and people who are carrying certain health conditions. It’s a scandal that you haven’t been done yet in a place like New York..

59. Well I suppose i could have had one (a jab) had I got into the race, however there’s a whole massive batch of doses from J&J, ready to be given the go-ahead this coming week, with the advantage of only requiring one jab, so sometimes it could be better to take a wait and see attitude.
    But yeah, some of my friends racing too get as early a jab as possible went to the most unlikely places around the state, some following rumors some discovering by accident, those previously unpublicized events, that I wasn’t about to get involved in, figuring I have been through the worst during the last year or so.
    But I’m not really that concerned, knowing I wasn’t an early bird, as I should be fine with a one jab as apposed to two, by following the by now rules, hand washing, mask etc. but most of all isolation.

60. Appears to be no improvement in the issuing “the covid vaccine”, just got off the phone with two different experts , who profess to know how to establish an appointment , but failed .
    The usual story, either a NO ! or we have none available, or go on line and end up with the same result, no appointment.
    Ah well !
    And I ain’t going to the outer boroughs, but will await the issuing
    of appointments by the so called agency’s that issue them, perhaps by then they will be beating the bushes for customers, considering how poorly they have operated so far,
    I suppose we have to praise the drug manufacturer’s for coming up with the anti-covid drug, but little praise when it comes to their organization in regards to controlling the distribution, a result of
    too many different state and local and federal laws becoming involved.
    And we are all aware of how that adds up to far too many obstacles
    but I guess we see both the best and worst of our elected officials,
    Hopefully they will be remembered by those who are ignored, during the next elections.

61. Chuck, I just got an invite by e.mail with a choice of two local GP surgeries to go to (not my own) and a selection of times throughout the day. After it was done, they gave us a little digital 15 minute alarm thing and told us to stay behind for 15 minutes to check we didn’t die or anyhting like that, so I just read a few more pages of my book on Imperialism. I didn’t have a choice between vaccines, some places had the Astra Zeneca one and where I went it happened to be the Pfizer one. The ‘passport’ was rather disappointing, it was just a business card and a couple of forms and it turned out that I didn’t get the free sticker I was entitled to!

    I’m no pharmacologist, but I heard that the Johnson & Johnson one is only around 70% effective, where two doses of the Pfizer vaccine is over 90%, same with the Astra one as well if it’s given at the right time. It could be that a first jab of the other ones is as effective as the Johnson and Johnson one anyway, but as I said, I’m no pharmacologist.

62. Worky
    Well assuming we survive. will this be the future, “Pandemic’s”
    I guess most believe this previously unknown disease that can kill millions in such a short period of time
    without really making us aware of it as an entity.
    Covid 19 is just not a visibly entity with not many viable signals and the horror is those millions just disappeared from sight.
    If this is to be the future, glad I got bye to this extent.

    3

    3

63. Chuck, you are a drama queen sometimes. Can you imagine what it was like in 1918-20 with a World War going on at the same time? You should get your jab ASAP though, don’t worry about the one jab thing if you get a chance for one of the other ones. You still have to wait weeks for it to kick in fully so the sooner you get it, the better.

    It’s a big test for Bruce and the team now, they don’t have any excuses not to get some points against teams like West Brom and Brighton.

64. WORKY
    Actually there were a half a million deaths alone in NY State, so to survive in NYC, which housed most of those victims, was not through being a drama queen, but taking the appropriate actions required, hell my hands are raw from constant washing alone.
    And to call each day to find an appointment is not much fun, but I shall persevere and at the same time attempt to get the J&J jab, as I can only question whether those vaccinations that arrived earlier are doses of less sufficiency therefor backed up by a second shot or jab, while J&J’s shot aims at the right dosage.

    Hey I may be wrong I may be right or in fact may be crazy, but I intend to see Covid 19# as a memory which I survived.

    As for NUFC, don’t really bother to watch them, being they shouldn’t even be playing in the top league and expect a sale anytime soon, I mean the club is so bad I can’t think of a decent player apart from both goalies.
    And without a doubt heading for a permanent position outside the EPL.
    Well everyone appears to think the recently acquired French winger/forward is worth his fee, but we really need an entire new team.
    As for our General Manager, who moved up when he heard the yell, “next” !, to indicate he was now the voice of Mike Ashley and had moved into a new wage group, probably the lowest paid with less work than any other GM, being Mike himself does the job, afraid that too much of his money may be spent and that’s the reason this club has been so unsuccessful,
    You could sell them all as far as I’m concerned , as there’s hardly a decent player among the lot of them and I don’t want to start raving about Bruce, clearly an attempt to calm the fans attitude, another of Ashleys historical number of mistakes.
    Nah ! this club could still be a top side, it only takes the right top management and the spending of money, really !

65. Chuck, I know. New York has been bad, London has been bad too, that’s why I’m saying stop being a drama queen, get on the phone, or the internet or whatever and get yourself vaccinated if you can instead of hanging around worrying about which vaccine you would prefer or whatever.

    Regarding the football, you can’t criticise what you haven’t seen. I have seen it and there has definitely been a big change in terms of attitude and tactics since the return of ‘the Saint’. Hopefully, they will get the chance to prove that over the next few games after the recent spell of very tough opponents.

66. worky
    Yeah, I know it’s a drag and I probably should take whats on offer, in regards to a choice of vaccinations, but I believe the J&J shot which has began being dispensed as we speak, if given the opportunity may end up as the most desired of those on offer, being I hear the booster or second shot is quite painful and the fact it only requires one shot, gives it more of an air of responsibility, vs. a double shot pair, which smacks of “whoops, better give those receiving this an extra boost” soh !
    As for football, as long as Ashley is the owner, one who has little interest in the side, other than earning a profit, which he believes
    is the present circumstance and I believe this may be his last year
    in charge, being he needs the selling price to invest in a choice of big box stores, now while they are available.
    However the price would certainly drop when it comes to selling second tier listed prices as opposed to PL sides, while we NUFC
    are slowly but surely edging to-wards relegation.
    Of which there will be no immediate return without a bunch of money being spent, hell we can’t even beat Fulham, who are not exactly Citeh !
    NO ! our owner has finally screwed up and deserves the result, we may in fact be relegated but we all know about the demands of the NUFC fans and with a new owner, someone who cares and can win promotion that will keep this club playing in the worlds toughest and
    wealthiest league.
    Well hopefully !

67. They’re dropping like flies again. Against West Brom there was no Callum Wilson, no Miguel Almiron and no Allan Saint-Maximin. It wasn’t such a terrible game considering it was a 0-0 draw against a Sam Allardyce side, but without those three players, predictably, Newcastle United just coulldn’t stick it in the net, and neither could West Brom. Oh well, Aston Villa next and then a crunch game against Brighton, then we’ll have a better idea about whether we’re in the shit or not.

    Chuck, I know how much you love the royals, so I expect you’ve been watching the big Harry and Meghan interview with Oprah over there? What did you think?

68. Worky

    I have to say, thesis one of the poorest teams fielded by nufc, with the injury prone center forward Wilson just that, an injury prone failure considering the number of games he has been able to play.
    As for Almiron a fast forward with little in the way of goalscoring ability and our Brazilian c/f. possibly the worst buy nufc have ever made.
    And little to feel good about within the rest, that is apart from two decent goalies.
    Our present situation reminds me of the pre relegation period when
    ex goalscoring c/f. now big deal pundit Shearer took over the managers job, which was a day late and a dollar short.
    I’m afraid Ashley has used the club as a meal ticket, spending lavishly on acquiring new real estate and enhancing his real investments, while starving the club of any profit or investments.
    And watching this present side with Bruce in charge is just too painful, but reflects the point that Ashley takes from nufc and invests in SD.

    As for the present storm in a tea cup, “the royals” and the fact they are cut off from any income and have to rely on the generosity of an
    African- American, who has provided a home for them in Cal. and security, is both mean spirited and embarrassing for the royals.
    so what does that indicate, to me it’s a refusal to accept the fact that monarchies throughout the world or at least European royals
    have adjusted and adapted to the role as bicycle monarchies, in other words they don’t require an entire train to travel to travel throughout the UK.
    Bicycle monarchies are acceptable, however the present British Royals had better get the picture they are no longer an Empire there is no actual empire though they still hand out knighthoods and other silly medals indicating an order of the British Empire.
    Of course there’s always the retort to the above, but they actually earn their keep by attracting tourists, which has been debunked any number of times.
    And anyone foolish enough to support these useless individuals are
    as silly as the royals themselves.
    Think of it a royal prince is being put up in an estate and receives protection from the descendent of slaves, who’s ancestors may have been brought to North America aboard a British SlaveShip.

    Ah well stranger things have happened !

    t

    f

    brazilian

69. Chuck, there still a chance of redemption. Brighton will be a ‘six pointer’ as they say. I will not succumb to your relentless pessimism.

    The royal racism thing is a circus and a distraction from real, systematic racism in society. It usually happens, especially nowadays that a debate on a serious issue gets turned into a stupid little soap opera and defused with symbolic gestures like knee bending, statue moving and such, but the real thing just carries on for the most part.

70. Well being “dahn-a pub !” @ the time the game against Aston Villa was being repeated on the dodgy box (which gets most games of soccer as it’s known in the us) I was surprised at the change of tactics employed by the Geordies, they actually looked like a different side, using more attacking pressure than I thought them capable of.
    The tying goal , the result of a terrific center placed perfectly for
    our center-half who did well to score (obvious didn’t
    fit with their previous tactics in the game, never the less a great goal, it’s what you get when the side realize they are heading for the second tier, they start playing.
    Look normally I would shrug it off but this game has brought a different attitude which may just save the side from relegation, but they have to play hard and
    perhaps Ashley can find a buyer being they have survived the EPL and can expect a decent price, only not anywhere near th price quoted for The Saudis.
    too bad really as I was convinced we could spend enough to climb the division ratings and start beating
    some of the top sides, that’s all I ask.
    But with no real belief following this season’s history.
    Ah well !

71. Chuckles, I’ve been saying it for a while now, but you just dismissed it. Bruce has been playing a 4-3-1-2 formation, but we just can’t stick it in enough without Wilson and it was left to a defender to save us at the end against Aston Villa, who are a top ten side at the moment. It will be a disgrace if we lose to Brighton again though, we have to beat them or draw at least like we did against Fulham.

    Be careful down the pub FFS. I haven’t been to a pub at all since this thing started

72. Well just got the first of a double Covid shot, would have been more satisfied with a J&J single shot but it wasn’t available, ah well !
    I noticed both our countries are doing good “finally”.
    in the distribution of shots and hopefully getting back to the world we remember, pre- virus.
    Although it may take time and of course never return to exactly as was.
    Seems most people are already speculating on our future life styles, with a lot of people now working from their homes, who may never return to an office
    being almost everyone has a computer and smart phone and possibly a printer, which makes communicating no different from doing the same thing in an office.

    Just caught “on the dodgy box” a re-run of some of “The Entertainers” and a few SBR coached games
    such a difference from what we have become and believe we could return too,
    But only if we can escape from Ashley’s control and hopefully that may be in the immediate future , as Ashley will have to act soon in order to purchase the big box stores he covets so much, being prices may
    rise again soon .
    It’s going to be close, even with those recently promoted sides below us, but if we can’t beat out the likes of those three bottom sides obviously a lotta dosh will have to be spent in the second tier, but I doubt Ashley is interested anymore being we are only an adjunct to his real business, the rag trade !

73. Well I read that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was just like having one shot of the other ones anyway as it’s only 60-70% effective so it might be for the best. The others are like that with the first, then get boosted up into the 90s with the second.

    Whether it was Robson or Carver managing the team, we still haven’t won a trophy since the 1960s. I think that Tottenham might be turning into the new Newcastle with the big new stadium, the nearly moments, but no trophies to show for it. They were stuffed by the Croats this evening, 2-0 up on aggregate at the start but they end up going out 2-3 after extra time.

74. Worky
    We should be so lucky as to have some of the Spurs players and yes, with a new stadium to pay for, I call that astute management, chosen by good scouts, with both the owner and gen. manager
    possibly the smartest in the league . they are assured of a decent future .
    Unlike NUFC, who lack all of the above, what does one do other than sell, as it’s unlikely to do much better than our north-east rivals Boro. and S’Land. and could become irrelevant as a major club.
    The Newcastle fans, among the best there is, who have may become inured to the problems and think of them as no different than the sides of the years before our present owner arrived, well I became really aware of the differences between both SBR’s sides and of course “The Entertainers” coached by KK , a world of difference , in which case it would be a good time to employ a policy of forcing him out by boycotting home games, that is the only alternative , however being Ashley doesn’t give a rats ass about the club , other than as an earner, soh why care about him and his real love “Sports Direct”

    u

75. Well that was a terrible performance against Brighton. The team is totally lost without Wilson and St Maximin and Brighton completely dominated the game. There were no positives whatsoever for Newcastle to take from that game. They’re getting sucked into the vortex now.

76. Well about time you realized nufc are a hopeless mess and the reason why is, our owner is doubtlessly disinterested in their results other than than those that keep them in the top division.
    Unfortunately he has since his arrival, under financed the side and appears to use it only as an adjunct to his real business SD.
    It also appears we are destined to once again be relegated to a division that has improved over the last few years and any competition for progression back to the EPL is certainly not to be supposed as if it were the preceding seasons, where we made it back within the particular season.
    Which could possibly reduce the Toon to a side not unlike either Sunderland or Boro. who have lost any chance of a return because of the same reasons, a lack of spending on players, of course there are more problems with nufc, whose owner is wealthier than many
    EPlL club owners, but who continues to run the club as a personal toy , but has finally realized he has to sell being he personally has no clue on how to run a club without the usual top level people
    managing things, but is too much of a control freak to venture any of his employee’s any kind of control, hiring a local for reasons we are all aware of as manager and we may as well be without any general manager being his job is to do the paperwork for Ashley and sit next to him at certain games .
    Get him outta here by forcing him, or look forward to second tier
    football, cause that’s where were heading.
    A boycott would certainly help !

    it’s the same

77. Chuck, you just say things are awful all the time, I give credit where credit is due but that was pretty awful on Saturday. We’re just so reliant on two players who have been injured quite a lot this season.

    I think the fact that games are still being played behind closed doors would rather blunt the impact of a boycott right now!

78. Worky
    You mean there are no signs of re-opening the grounds up to an audience, baseball has already began it’s spring training an expect a full season, possibly beginning with reduced amounts of spectators and decide as time goes bye, whether to increase until it’s the full monty,
    Apparently the wealthy owners had something to do with it, as it seems they miss the profit that goes with it.
    As for nufc , obvious a side that though they still receive the tv money, no longer collect any bums in seats money having been more or less forced to return the moneys paid by the fans, who I believe are not that keen to attend games anymore and just want rid of Ashley.
    I expect like other sports there will be some sort of attendance, perhaps beginning with smaller amounts, (which could cause a problem for those left out, certainly not the greatest scenario for the Geordies to face, on the other hand who wants to watch this bunch possibly the worst side in decades ,
    I’m sure Ashley could almost taste that thirty five million from the Saudi’s and if he doesn’t come up with the monies to buy himself a couple of big box stores while the price is right, could be a bad thing for SD.
    Soh ! relax he’s gotta sell soon and may be negotiating as we speak. just don’t expect him to be the not so proud owner by the end of this season .
    Though we do need someone who understands the
    game and is willing to let the professionals run the club, unlike the present (One man band) cheap- ass
    owner we have.
    You say the stadium is empty, keep it that way which is possibly the only way to get rid of this cheap-o.
    a strong boycott.

79. Stand bye for action !!!
    Looks like there may be action on the “selling the club front” as John Lewis has reported there will be a number of their big box stores available , being they will only re-open a number. probably
    selling the less the successful ones, which I’m sure Ashley will make an offer on.
    Point is how many and where will the funding come from, possibly
    partially from the sale of NUFC,
    Of course you will have heard this first from here, but it’s not a sure thing but quite likely, IMO, though I could be wrong, however this opportunity may never be repeated and it comes at an unusual time
    amid the Covid season.
    Which makes it the most likely major transaction, we have all been waiting for and I just hope to hell my reading of the present situation is correct, as one more season of Ashley and his ” on the job training ” would be more than enough for even the most dedicated of fans.

80. Well I just take things as they are, Chuck, you’re obviously still wrapped up in your desert fantasy.

    They used to say that you’re never more than 6 feet away from a rat, in London nowadays you’re never more than 6 feet away from a fast food delivery driver on a bloody scooter! Is it the same in New York? I’m curious. You can’t move for them, they barricade the pavements and if you try to get through them, they ejaculate their saliva all over you as they shout at each other, they’re worse than the rats with all this covid going around. If you go for a walk in my part of London nowadays, it’s also fairly common to meet, and be accompnied by a giant London fox. They just come up and walk alongside you because they have no fear. London is almost literally going to the dogs! Eventually, they’ll probably pick up English with a North London accent and start saying things like ‘got some chicken mate? I’m starvin!’ I think I’m going mad to be honest.

    Don’t you think you’re reaching a bit too far there with your John Lewis speculation?

81. Worky
    Yeah same- same here, where there’s been a surge in the numbers of delivery guys, mostly from Central America, where gangs deported from Cal. have become, next to the police, the people who are now running those countries.
    Of course most crime is committed by similar gangs in various US cities, all down to poverty and any lack of opportunities, I mean how can you have possibly the worlds wealthiest country sitting next to a group of gang dominated areas combined with corrupt officials I mean how does one have any future there?
    Can’t say I blame most of them for heading north, but as you mentioned NY has a screwed up system of bike lanes, which many actually use, then there are those who go the wrong way on both streets and sidewalks and in the bike lanes they are traveling @ over the 30mph. speed limit, but in their case , again it’s a case of time is money and always has been in NYC.
    I assume most bike riders in London still ride with other vehicular traffic on the streets, apparently “The Dutch” always a well regulated population had planned for bikes long before anyone else.
    It’s a case here of most bikes being battery operated and quite expensive, where now there’s numerous cases of bicycle theft.
    Which reminds me of the famous post ww2 movie “Bicycle Thief”
    one of the greatest movies of it’s time, the Post Realism period.
    However regardless, one can rely on an accident created by bicycles as opposed to automobiles, to occur
    Watched a couple of internationals, garbage sides that no one should pay to see, what we need is an European Super
    League, by eliminating all pro sides below the English second tier, no not eliminate them, but let them be non pro-leagues
    As for the recent England game can anyone explain why they played such a hopeless team, theres a certain level of football that
    should be expected from every team invited to the competition and such sides should be eliminated.
    Though I wasn’t
    impressed by the England side, there’s no doubt they have an abundance of good young players and a good time to be the Engerland manager, it appears not much has changed there, they used to be chosen by how good they looked in a blazre with the
    England tie, guys like “Walter Winterbottom” but never the likes of
    the best coach, in fact almost a political appointment.
    Which still appears to be true.
    Hmmm ! no sign of any business taking place by Ashley, though I expect he’s interested in acquiring at least a couple of the John Lewis stores, lets see what happens ?

    r
    ealist era.

    wh

    Dutch are the only folks who have both a system laid out where both regular traffic and bikes
    near the twain shall meet
    Not exactly difficult to figure out where most are heading for.

82. Bicycle thieves. That’s an Italian film I remember from my film studies at Art College, which was many years ago now. We’d write essays on Fellini’s ‘8 1/2’ and stuff like that. I don’t think I’ve watched it though. I might give it a go. I’m starting to get to the stage when I think I haven’t seen things, then I realise that I had seen them after all.

    It’s the way they hang around the pavements, or sidewalks as you would say with things the way they are right now. They’re on dirty japanese scooters mostly but there’s lots just hanging around outside fast food places as if no one else was there with no masks on etc. When they’re on their bikes, they ride across pavements and through the gates of blocks of flats etc

    On the football, it’s good to have a rest from the pain of Newcastle.It’s Spurs next.

83. Worky
    I’m actually surprised you haven’t appeared to have seen those great Post Realism movies made close after WW2, “Bicycle Thief”
    “Open City” “Bitter Rice” “La Strada” and the great documentary style film “The Battle of Algiers”made in the late 50’s and early sixties.
    Also the comedies like “Big Deal on Maddona St.”which was a comedy based on the great “Rififi” and for lite comedy the Anglo- Italian movie “The best of Enemies” about the British Vs the Italians
    a side show to ww2 which took place around that general area close to Ethiopia, and not your average war film, but a comedy
    starring Micheal Wilding, and one of Italy’s mos famous comedians
    whose name I unfortunately forgot

    forgot his name
    I am also a big fan of Ken Loach and his politics, having seen his
    latest film, which describes the struggle of a fifty something worker, in the UK, but could have taken place in many countries .
    However it details this pre retirement worker, unable to operate either a tablet or a computer of any kind and becomes a social pariah because of his inability to comply with the expectations of society and of course his adaptation of “Homage to Barcelona”
    a book off the market for some reason for many years, oh the name of the film was “I Daniel Blake” of course these are not choices that
    many would choose but Id feel better if the did.
    Well just a couple weeks more and it’s shot or jab no2, which one ?
    who remembers or cares as long as it stimulates my body’s anti virus ability though any traveling appears out of the question, being the demands of many governments to perform acts of isolation
    upon landing appear too demanding,
    Ah Well !
    And oh ! if you haven’t seen “I Daniel Blake”and I remember correctly it takes place around the North East, Sunderland or Newcastle and should be available .

    realism

    post Realism films by the great Italian

84. Chuck, I’ve seen some of those. I’ve seen La Strada, I’ve kind of seen the Battle of Algiers but I didn’t really watch it properly. On the Ken Loach, I think you might mean ‘Sorry We Missed You’ about an Amazon style delivery driver? We have a really little cinema here, I saw ‘I Daniel Blake’ there. Land and Freedom is definitely one of his best. I think that Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’ a huge influence on that film, but it wasn’t a straight adaptation. When it comes to brutal British realism, I was always really into Alan Clarke though, a contemporary of Loaches who came up the same way, though the great ‘Play for Today’ stuff on BBC.

    I was listening to a very interesting discussion by pharmacolgists on the merits of the various vaccines and from what they were saying, the Pfizer one seems to be the best one, and possibly the newer Moderna one, though the Astra Zeneca one is OK.

85. Worky
    Yeah it would be nice to receive a friendly greeting and be asked what your preferences were or which jab you prefered, though the reality is, this is whats available you can always wait for your choice, but by doing so, remain among the most vulnerable.
    But it’s again simply word of mouth and rumors that resound, doubtful information is everywhere .
    Well I can’t really complain about the delivery guys and their bikes, they work hard for their money and it has become a very competitive gig.
    As for the World Cup competition, I can do without it
    and have no time for some of the matchups, once the hopeless teams are gone perhaps it could be more entertaining, but right now it only interrupt’s club football.
    Face it any overabundance of poor football becomes boring.

86. Chuck, it’s the same here, I was told I was getting the Pfizer / Biontech concoction when I went in for mine. Everyone who’s knocking out the Pfizer jabs though has to have special super cold fridges to hand. I know that there’s a load of dodgy information around but I mentioned that discussion because it was a panel of top notch, independent pharmacology experts.

    ‘though the reality is, this is whats available you can always wait for your choice, but by doing so, remain among the most vulnerable.’

    Aye Chuck, that’s pretty much what I said to you when it seemed like you were fannying around, though I did the same thing for a few days I must admit.

    ‘Hard work’ is just the start of it for some of these delivery drivers, especially the van drivers where things like simply being ill for a few days can lead to financial catastrophe. The drivers have to find their own replacements, and can get ludicrously unfair financial penalties etc etc… People have been working for ‘Deliveroo’ at well below the minimum wage.There have been reports that 1 in 3 Deliveroo drivers were earning less than the minimum, and some received as little as £2 per hour for shifts.

87. Worky
    Ah ! the bicycle problem has solutions, however the police union-leaders are not Happy Chappy’s, feeling they are blamed for everything that goes wrong in society, which has a certain amount of truth to it.
    The trial of the black man who was suffocated by a cop kneeling on his neck, is now under way and being closely watched, perhaps we may see some changes in the laws regarding their behavior, being
    it’s well known that police just love to riot, which is obvious when watching crowds being kettled in the UK, beating up on people in
    places like France and other EU countries is commonplace.
    However the threat of de-funding keeps them under control.
    The results are some kind of go slow policing, where most refuse to get outta their car, but still better than the stop and search laws that were recently banned.
    It’s about time that the public understood that the basic job they do is to protect wealth. I understood that while barely into my teens
    and resent being asked if I were retired from the police department
    which annoys the hell outta me.
    Though in a sense it’s almost a pleasure to be retired during this
    Pandemic, there are those who can’t pay their mortgage or rent, who have to use food banks and worry about their children’s education, mostly the working poor as always
    Which is why we need a minimum wage of $15 per hour.
    Also the small business person with such places as cleaners and cafe’s, who are restricted in there business practices , where do
    they restart their live
    Yes with the distribution of anti-Covid shots we all feel a sense of
    having avoided the Pandemic, but it appears that any number of variations of the Pandemic are beginning to show up in various
    places around the globe and a more serious attempt must be put into action, though there are a growing number of people who now believe The Covid Pandemic is becoming less of a problem and are more concerned by the state of most countries economies, ain’t greed a steady customer, but we must totally eradicate this awful and scare’y pandemic before we concentrate on improving the economy.
    It’s gonna take leadership in each and every country , a joint effort
    before we can eradicate this the most deadly Pandemic to date.
    Along with any number of presently operated labs throughout the world where such medical experimentation takes place.
    Yeah being in my eighties is not the fun I thought it would be, in which case I’m glad to have gone through so many wars and I recall the earlier diseases like “Infantine Paralysis”, (polio) and other incurables which have become inconsequential to-day, but I don’t see this no see um, no feelim, no symptom disease, the silent killer
    So my question is, will this be the first of such or the result of poor isolation of the virus or simply the first of more to come ?

88. Chuck, that’s one of the best comments you have done on here, have you given up the Amstel or something?

    I have found that an education at posh schools has been very helpful in dealing with the Police, they go from angry and hostile to subservient. Of course, being white helps too, but it isn’t all about that. Black or white, if you look poor and powerless, they’ll take the piss. I know that from a friend, my old squat mate from my first days in London who nearly got years in jail for violent disorder. There were many other occaisions too but that was the one which really impressed on me. The duty solicitor advised him to plead guilty so he phoned me and I got him a really good pro bono lawyer. I was a bit of an activist in those days and we had access to that sort of thing. By it got to court, the Judge slammed his papers on his desk and said he didn’t know why this case had even been brought before him. If it hadn’t been for quality legal representation, he probably would have been persuaded to plead guilty for a lesser sentence. If I had a pound, or even a dollar for every time that’s happened over time, I’d be a rich man.

    As for covid-19, the whole world needs to be vaccinated. The rich people in the US Europe, Japan etc can’t just vaccinate themselves and forget about the rest of the world. I’m not just making a moral point there, it’s a medical one too because it’s impossible for the rich world to be isolated from the poor world nowadays.

89. Worky

    Well thanks !
    But as far as Brexit is concerned, we all know the reason, simply the fact is a “yes vote” was not expected to happen and the reason was the Torys oversold it to an ignorant electorate and continued to do so, I suppose they had to try and make it appear as though they really meant it, plus the ugly side of the older voters, that illusory
    ideal of a white country became their guide.
    It has always been an illusion for the British voter, but not the keltic parts being both Scotland and NI were aware of how it would effect them and their voting only proves that point, though Scotland will no doubt be off , as soon as possible safely tucked back into the EU fold. .
    It appears NI which was given a choice deal, belonging and receiving aid from both the EU and UK but appear to be upset about there separation as a customs unit and the work involved in
    making it work,
    Though they should be concentrating on joining with the ROI in a modern day independent Republic or become the minority within a minority in the north as the trend is producing figures where the once smaller nationalist minority is as we speak now a majority .
    Which doesn’t mean that it will happen but the recent success of
    Sein Fein as the largest party on the island and increasingly so, will have certain implications for the voters, plus the fact that majority appears to hold when one realizes they are also the party of under 35’s, if a poll was taken, there are many complications but the trends are obvious, but the best reason is that the ROI at this time has a slightly higher standard of living.
    Any vote whether as a guide or real, will have to take into consideration, would you give up on the national health system, which is quite a consideration, that and the fact most voters know
    that being a minority entails.
    A simple lesson for the UK is for those in power, that more changes will take place on many trade and political fronts and the breakup of the former British Empire is still taking place, broken down to what may be it’s final combination of Wales and England.
    Even the royals are jumping ship and where’s the glue to hold things to-gether once The Queen goes, though looking at the history of the recent queens they live for a long time .
    We live in interesting times, which are not always expected, but have to be dealt with.
    Although the fact The UK never converted it’s currency was always an indication it may have certain regrets but were more or less forced to become a member , due to trade considerations and the realization it may have a larger voice with EU backing, using the balance of power politics relationship which they had used effectively throughout history.
    And for the Tory’s a free hand, being the opposition is so bad that even the crying and groaning and poor reaction to Brexit has been
    insufficient to prevent them from winning an easy re-election.
    Well on the other hand Joe is spending the treasury here, not a few million but we are now moving into the trillion’s, which will be spent on rebuilding America, doubt it will work, but it can’t be all bad to put a lot of people to work,

90. Chuck, it was decades of neglect certain regions by Conservative and ‘New’ Labour that did it more than anything, especially in the North. As for the ‘Celts’ of Ireland and Scotland, I think that ‘Gaels’ might be a closer description, as in ‘Gaelic.’ Celt is very wide, they came from Spain or something like that. Gaels are a particularly Scottish and Irish branch, and ‘Picts’ in Scotland. Were all mongrels anyway, though these racists who proudly think of themselves as pure Anglo-Saxons or whatever won’t have it. The Scots have the SNP, trouble has started there though with the return of Alex Salmond to put the cat among the pigeons. He is now feuding with Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP and has formed his own indepenence party called ‘Alba’ (Gaelic for Scotland).

    I’m sure that Prince Charles is very conscious of the fact that the Queen has a very hardy constitution, it’s a constant joke over here.

    So Uncle Joe’s going for the big FDR style ‘new deal’ thing? Who is he giving it to though? That is the question.

91. worky
    I go for the second shot next Saturday, I was assigned to take the
    Moderna and took the first shot and assigned to repeat with a second shot next Saturday.
    I really don’t know the difference not being a chemist, so can only regard it as something of a lifesaver, though I would have prefered
    a one shot deal, but hell there are all kinds of rumors in regards to the various inoculations on offer and who can guarantee everything.
    I suppose there are countries that lack any kind of offering and I suppose I’m lucky that so many people have been able to benefit
    by such the number of shots available both here and in the UK , but there is a system in place even though many people manage to beat it.
    Ah well, I suppose it’s important to keep ones-self, healthy
    On the other hand I suspect it will not be easy to travel, which is a problem, not so much about general requirements but the differences in the requirements of each state/country.
    I suppose I should just take a wait and see tude,
    Though being in ons eighties , we tend to take a shorter view on ones projected life .
    Not measuring in decades but individual years, that is.

    I really don’t understand the pro’s and con;s

    i

92. We played really well for 90% of the time against Spurs, it’s a pity that Kane scored two in the other 10%, though we did get a draw in the end. We easily made more chances than they did, and took twice as many shots. Fulham lost too so we’re now 3 points ahead of them with a game in hand.

93. Chuck, your vaccine is very similar to mine. Pfizer and Moderna are the fancy new ‘mRNA’ type vaccines which trigger your own immune cells. They’ll be 95% effective around two weeks after you’ve had your second jab. Currently, the UK is second and the US fourth in the world vaccination race. The EU haven’t been very good at ordering and distributing theirs and are trailing well behind so that has been used as ammunition by the Brexit fans.

    International travel will be a bit of a nightmare for a while with all the different regulations between countries in a situation which is ever changing.

94. I had the AstraZenica jab. Which is the one with the Bill Gates microchip in it? That’s the one I wanted.

95. They all have the Bill Gates microchip to make us obey. Gates and Soros are running the whole show.

96. Hate to disagree on the chip, as I appear to have been gifted with the apple chip , which in turn keeps attempting to write my blogs through early detection of what I intend to say and just takes over, the result is usually some kind of nonsense that even I don’t get.
    My advice to Apple is ,
    ‘

    Hey , lighten up’ !

    gates chip, being I appear to have the Apple version, which appears to concentrate on helping the subject matter by

97. Worky
    Yeah, surprising the introduction of a couple of players can add such an improvement in the use of attacking football, though I just don’t get it why the high priced Brazilian, gets into the side .

    Could it be that the person involved with his purchase is responsible ?
    Simple logic sez get rid of this guy as soon as possible , even if you have to give him away and what do we get,? his inclusion game after game, why ?
    Do “The Power That Be”, insist and who is responsible for the signing of this useless player.
    Sure he scored. which totals something like four or five goals, but there are defenders who have that many goals with a fraction of the opportunities.
    Too late now of course, while we are being threatened by Fulham of all clubs and look likely to go down once more, soh !
    In which case we know who to blame , but all of this may in fact be besides the point as I believe due to the present conditions a sale is essential for our dear owner to buy more real estate and hopefully
    become a richer guy.
    Like most fans, I resent his actions as owner, actually the last decade has been a nightmare due to ignorance that though culpable and understood, mean nothing too this cheapskate and the fans will no doubt celebrate regardless of who buys the club.

98. Chuck, you think you’ve got it bad with predictive text, whenever I tap ‘h-o-r-‘, my sex mad (Android) smartphone keeps turning it into ‘horny’, and I regularly make texts from a place called Hornsey station. ‘I’m at Horny station’ sounds like a terrible sexual euphemism and it’s done that more than once.

    Aye, Joelinton has certainly had time to prove himself, but I don’t think that Ashley has to pawn his Sunday best, or sell Newcastle United to buy a few more shops.

99. It was a great weekend for Newcastle thanks to ‘the Saint,’ and Fulham losing again. We’re now 6 points ahead of them with a game in hand. We should have had a penalty in that game as well, the decision was ridiculous, he kicked someone in the face right in front of the goal FFS! Anyway, we won in the end. I don’t knpw how long St Maximin is going to last on Tyneside though if he keeps giving performances like that.

100. worky

     Yeah, I see how the toon look in regards to relegation, and yes it certainly doesn’t look that bad, however what bothers me are the quality clubs we meet in the run in.
     As for our forwards Wilson (definitely a sick note,) as is, it appears our newest French signing,
     They it appears are our only hope, as far as goal-scoring is concerned and can fairly confident of surviving the race to the bottom.
     However on saying that if we are to survive, will require signing almost an entire new team for the approaching season, as we all understand that Ashley and his cheap-ass policies are responsible for our sorry-ass plight and if one can guarantee a few signings,
     no not top names but some decent EPL quality players and stop
     buying these sub standard lower division players and fire who-ever
     was responsible for bringing in such players as our two South American forwards who are for the most part useless and should never have gotten a game and who will be given away, hopefully.
     Yeah there was hope at certain times, like when we signed Sissoko and the rest, which didn’t take long to re-sell for a profit, but if we sign the right players it can be repeated, just give the old Geordie scout who had a seasonal ticket to France , Holland and Spanish grounds and came up with some decent players, for a decent price.

     Oh bye the way, got my second shot a week ago the Moderna brand named shot. no bad reactions a simple shot and was taken in an hour before scheduled by a bunch of local volunteers, who were
     excellent.
     It appears once there’s enough vaccine available, it goes much faster, which appears to be a problem for those countries who are dependent on receiving it from manufactures outside their country
     as everyone appears to be in some kind of competitive rush to be number one.
     Which is nonsense as the covid pandemic has no respect for borders, meaning it will have to be totally eradicated before we can
     return to a more normal state of affairs.
     One thing I noticed as I go around the city has been the acceptance of outdoor dining, soh! who knows we in New York could become the new city boulevardiers .

     The one and only positive change, but who knows any number of living changes could become possible, given “The Covid” may be responsible for positive changes, we had never considered yet !

     t

     0 as is our new frenchman

     also a

101. It isn’t over yet, Chuck, but we have a decent cushion now. West Brom are back in the mix too though after beating Southampton 3-0 and Man City 5-2. Our last few games are against Sheffield United and Fulham so we don’t have the excuse of having to face big clubs in those. If we play like we did in the second half against Burnley, we could draw, or even beat West Ham in our next game with a bit of luck too, though we don’t get that very often.

     I’m glad you’ve been completely ‘done’ now. As for people who aren’t in the US, Europe etc, the Astra Zeneca ‘Oxford’ vaccine is the cheap, portable one from ‘the west’ that is best for more remote places, the Pfizer and Moderna ones are fancy new type vaccines that are harder to keep and transport in places that are outside the loop. India is a huge, world leading producer of drugs nowadays, they have a potentially huge capacity.

102. worky
     Yeah ! nice to get a win, which only brings to mind, the fact I seem to remember a third place finish, while being coached by the most detested manager Nufc has ever had and to-day we are celebrating a win over a mediocrity of a side, though with good reason.
     Look I like Steve Bruce, he’s a decent guy, unfortunately we need someone who can put to-gether a side that can compete against anyone, which just ain’t gonna happen until we are free and clear from Ashley, who knows nothing about the game and it’s obvious following over a decade in charge, of screwing up a former first and premiership club, by refusing to spend the necessary shackles, and basically using it to support a cheap-ass sporting goods “EL Cheapo” outlet.
     And now needs a few extra bob to take his choice of the Big Box stores now available, which means we are getting closer to ridding ourselves of this clown, as sides in the top leagues have become big earners, but this guy needs the readdies to set himself up and can only do it by selling NUFC, no ?
     Soh for all of the Geordie fans out there, don’t worry we are about to dump this chump and most of us never ever want to see his ugly face again especially @ St James’ Park.
     Look we have to remain in the top division if Ashley wants to sell and the fact is we may never have this opportunity again, with three clubs below us who have been relegation subjects since their arrival
     to go down now would spoil the whole situation.
     I could find the words to describe this guy , but won’t and yes it may be a good time for the fans to take on a certain amount of ownership, in order to have a voice in what takes place in the next

     decade.
     But the main thing is to get rid of this owner who cares less about the club and what it means to the Geordie public, which is obvious
     and is detested for it and hopefully find an owner who cares and is willing to spend enough to reform an obviously failing side due to a lack of spending the nessesary moolah !

103. In regard to the recent interference by the UK government regarding the transfer of ownership of NUFC to Saudi ownership, I mentioned that the reasons would never be disclosed due to it being a sensitive subject that could present the UK in a bad light, in regard
     to it’s dealing’s with a Saudi government presently in the business of bombing Yemen into the stone edge, that being a waste of time and money, being the country as been in a state of war since the British held the port of Aden, with various religious/ political, and tribal groups, all fighting for control.
     Control of what ?
     Exactly ! but the new guy in control in Saudi, had misjudged his ability to get away with whatever he does like former Saudi leaders,
     with their riches,
     So due to any adverse publicity which would effect the present relationship (the UK, is Saudis main supplier of both the bombs and targets, plus identify through a core of ground controlled UK supplied experts)
     Which could further effect the image of the present Saudi leader, who was very recently accused of ordering, former Saudi victim
     Khassogian, to be assassinated in Turkey .
     Well on reading the article, it appears to cover everything without disclosing anything, a typical government statements that would be lauded by Sir Humphry in the serious comedy “Yes Minister”
     I must admit the Uk has been an area that has supplied us (the rest of the world) with entertainment, especially the Royals , then Brexit and NI, also the Scots are once again contemplating going it alone until accepted by the EU, once again.
     And taking al of these matters to-gether, Brexit-Royals-PM and dump a pandemic on top, you certainly find it difficult to believe this is the same bunch of islands off the west coast of Europe, that until
     1945 had ruled a large part of the world, eh ! guess someones gotta be in charge. cause Empires appear to come and go.

104. Bobby Robson? Robson and Kevin Keegan are the only managers who came third in modern times. It was easier to keep pace with the bigger teams back then before it all went crazy with the oligarchs and the Sheikhs from around the world. Remember when I did a blog once pointing out that at one stage, Newcastle United were (according to the Deloitte annual report on football finances) bigger than Barcelona and some other giants too? In the last few years it has been a lower mid table squad, and the performance of the managers should be judged accordingly. Bruce is definitely below where he should be right now and there have been fairly extended periods when performances were shite. Benitez went into relegation danger too at times, but then put together a good run of games to finish respectably in mid table.

     As tight as he is with Newcastle, I don’t think that Ashley is desperate for cash. Premier League or not, NUFC is a relatively small time business compared with all those warehouses full of crap, it’s £300 million or so vs billions

105. Worky
     You may believe Ashley has at hand the resources to buy a couple or more big box store, but it’s obviously not the case,
     Sure over the yers he has been in charge and I mean in charge of every penny, including the work-force that constitute the club, down to the tea ladies.
     However this is a big stakes game he has played, using monies saved by not investing in the club, other than what was necessary.
     He has attempted various courses like spending on players, which was then given short thrift and sold as quickly as they were bought .
     It’s doubtful whether he has ever had enough ready cash to buy the real estate he needs and the Saudi dosh would have done it, in which case we can blame the British Government and make the rest of the world aware the UK is both selling the Saudis the weaponry and guidance systems operated by UK personal.
     Though this will eventually become common knowledge, but old enough to be of little consequence at that time , which could be the reason the deal could eventually be blessed rather than becoming
     old new that is no longer news.
     Don’t forget the taking over of running the Saudi enterprises by the Prince was not met by an immediate acceptance that and the following murder of one of their most prominent opponents in a Saudi operated consulate in Turkey, made things more difficult and to be seen as a close ally of the prince and at the same time give him access to some of the latest weaponry could effect the UK’s future search for markets, no one wanting to see the Saudis dominate the whole southern part of the peninsula.
     Soh !
     There may still remain an opportunity to revive the deal that was on offer, I certainly doubt if there’s any chance of a sale at the price on offer from other buyers, in which case if the Saudi’s continue to show interest, who knows?
     However it will require a few more bob to replace the mediocrities we have on the pitch with the exception of two goalies and the French signing and center forward Wison (a regular scorer, but it looks like both may be sick notes ).
     Well this not being a headline anymore, it appears no one knows what to do with Prince Philip, though the British public got a good
     return on their money for a consort for The Queen, that is as long as they kept a tight rein on him, being he was known to put his foot in his mouth often while in the company of others, usually on a tour of the Empire .
     It might be a good time to convert to a Bicycle Monarchy, saving a few bob and only representing England and Wales as NI has adapted to the fact they will eventually rejoin the ROI and Scotland will be looking for a return to the EU following their independence, which no doubt will be forthcoming ,
     All in all, possibly the quickest from Empire to part of an island off the west coast of Europe.a fast dissolution, but made possible by
     time and circumstance..

106. Yes, Prince Phillip was the nation’s embarrassing Grandpa from a bygone era. He helped found quite a lot of stuff like the World Wildlife Fund and the Duke of Edinburgh’s award though and kept himself busy. We have been relenlessly reminded of all the stuff he’s done on the radio, TV etc over the last few days. He’s certainly worn out a lot of shoe leather over the years. It was the poor tribespeople of Tanna Island I thought of when I heard the news, they worship Philip as a god so they must have been upset. They call him ‘Man blong Missis Qween’ or something like that. Apparently, they’ve had a bit of a conference, and they’re going to worship Prince Charles from now on. It’s a funny old world.

     I notice you love to have to have a go at our ceremonial Royals, but not the absolute monarchs in KSA who still carry on like Henry VIII, chopping people’s heads off and such

107. Well the outlook for the Toon has certainly got brighter after the last few games, though we have another batch of horrible fixtures to come (Liverpool, Arsenal, Leicester and Manchester City), so things might be tighter again when we go into our last two games against Sheffield United and Fulham.

108. Well whadda-ya- know a big three pointer which I hadn’t counted on , though a bit screwed up as far as the refereeing was concerned, but what the hell, they scored again to ease Geordie minds.
     A decent first half, then a change of strategy, going from a side who looked good on the break, to a one organized to defend the lead in a purely defensive mode , which didn’t last long,
     Of course any use of the ref. viewing a recording of play, is met by anxiety and when those vowing the play voice their opinion, most refs I assume tend to agree, which in the day the ref made the decision and that was that, no interruption of play.
     And I have to admit to reversing my original belief it was the best decision, now believing the ref is sometimes wrong, but that is all a part of the game and I doubt if many refs actually get a lot wrong.
     My latest bitch is the ethos of the game , which has accured
     At one tome fouling was done openly and fewer sent off, to-day the fouling has increased being it has become a serious part of the game , even taught in training.
     A typical example being the foul given to McTominay for a so called slap of his attacker, which was meant as a push away from the attacker who was reaching for him.
     Yes! this is the difference, being there are numerous fouls committed , serious fouls like stamping on a players foot, which has become famous and of course any player running with a defender had better watch out he’s not accused of tripping or such, simply because to-days guys are so clever in the way they claim fouls.
     I have to admit the rules have been messed with so much, it’s difficult to know what is a true foul or not.
     There was a time when everyone could explain how the rule worked, simply if an attacking player had received the ball while
     only the goalkeeper was between him and the goal, it was considered offside.
     Whereas nowadays it’s purely how it’s observed by the ref, with any number of players offside but declared they were not interfering with play, definately a debatable and certainly a call that can be ignored by certain interpretations.
     And the fact in to-days game they have clearly made it even more difficult to interpret with the offside flag not shown for minutes after with the play allowed to contain\ue for minutes, crazy ?
     I wonder sometimes about comparisons between basketball and football, where reach ins and charges, not to mention the rest of the fouls are called constantly and in a more difficult environment .
     where it has been commonplace to use cameras and re runs to determine an entire game.
     Well I’m sure that will all become an aside compared to the latest news of “A SUPER LEAGUE”about to be introduced, possibly to
     increase the wealth of the present owners, which I personally do not agree with, but how does one prevent it ?
     The fools that be, are certainly doing their best.

109. Sure everybody loves our manager , why not he’s a local guy and most people feel sorry for him in the difficult position he finds himself.
     But Saturdays game may make thins a bit clearer.
     How ?
     Well when starting the second half while leading. suddenly he re-introduces his standard game plan, though it didn’t take long to realize it is tactics like this that lose games and when the opposition eventually tied the game , had to re- deploy the breakaway game that had brought about a lead and finally win the game.
     Of course he (Bruce) was a defender and perhaps it’s all he knows.
     The question being the long list of defeats, was due to defending only and sure we were without both our French man and Wilson, our only goalscorers,
     But how do you put out a purely defensive side, when the idea is to put the ball in the go-damn net ?

     o

110. Chuck, I said months that we’re a different team without the Saint, along with statistics etc. I think that Bruce is taking it easy with St Maximin and Wilson until they’re 100%. On Saturday, Maxi didn’t just make a goal, he created a situation where a West Ham player got sent off all at the same time and you can’t do any better than that! We’re not as bad without him now though and we brought on a talented young Arsenal lad who scored an excellent goal to seal the victory.

     No, they don’t ‘love’ Bruce, lots of fans used to call him ‘agent Bruce’ and derided his work for the Mackems, and he played for Manchester United as well. He’s like a Geordie Rodney Dangerfield, he gets no respect at all.

     I knew you’d pick up on the super league thing, I thought that you thought it was the best thing since sliced bread? Pretty much everyone apart from the directors of the teams involved have been revolted by it in England.

111. Worky
     On the contrary, I thought it would eventually happen, but never to my knowledge encouraged it.
     As a matter of fact I am against it, no different from my opinion of
     the owner with the most money, being able to afford the best side.
     And this is about money and greed.
     Of course having so much money circulating around the top clubs, naturally attracts a criminal element, who end up making the rules.
     Well it appears there’s been and will be more fodder for the pundits and reporters who will examine the pros and cons and who has the most money to spend, the promoters !!
     I understand the reasons why US ownership wants a no relegation
     league, not unlike most leagues in all sports.
     There is no history of promotion or relegation here, in fact the two countries have opposites in politics the US represents a more rightist policy whereas in the UK, it’s more of a democratic socialism.
     And leagues like the NBA & NFL, NHL etc have drafts each year where they get to pick the choice players entering the leagues, either from colleges or farm teams, where the teams with the worst records get firs pick, which of course also generates trade offs etc.
     but the idea of not sharing with new franchises and losing clubs is completely foreign . a socialist enterprise in the belly of the beast .
     But those sports franchises are limited, purposely keeping the numbers down and possibly as crooked as Fifa and it’s European
     governing body.
     Well it has yet to emerge as an entity, though no doubt there will be a propaganda war between differing factions and we are all aware
     of how difficult it can be to change any system in the UK .
     Let’s see what happens, but don’t take it for granted I like the idea
     It is/was probably inevitable that football would undergo massive changes once it was established that any new owner of a top side would need to have billions not millions. Iin which case the EPL is owed money by proving a separate league is possible, (to the detriment of the lower leagues )
     Stay tuned there’s a lot more to come !

112. This is the football equivalent of Hitler’s invasion of Poland, but there are no German teams in this superleague, and no PSG neither. I have no interest in a league where no one gets promoted or relegated and it’s just the same old teams playing each other over and over. It just sounds horrible.

113. Yeah this will be a difficult bit of negotiating, which may in fact never get off the ground, though the bank known as “Chase” , has released a mention that they are about to back the move with funding in the region of four big ones (that’s billions) which always helps.
     They (Chase Bank) and at least three of the clubs involved are owned by US interests, whatever that signifies even calling themselves Morgan Chase, nothing like dropping a name signifying wealth.
     And we are already aware that this particular deal has been done before, else how does one describe the Premier League and it’s disassociating itself from the other leagues, yet retaining most association in regards to both European competitions , also promotion and relegation and to a certain degree monies awarded too relegated sides, clearly a much more complicated deal than the establishment of a Super League ?
     It appears there is quite a bit of opposition to any major changes, within the uninvited teams of other top leagues however resistance from the present EPL membership plus countries like German and France who I believe are against it, may be enough not to mention the likes of Portugal and other top leagues in the European circuit .
     However with the present wealth involved (4B) it could work,
     were that to happen , there could be a series of changes with perhaps a rival division emerging to compete with he Super League, I mean who the hell knows, it could end up a total mess with the tv giants fighting for new deals , which could leave the present divisions open to change and most certainly ruin the Epl as we know it.
     We do live in interesting times, as if the Pandemic, Brexit and other crap wasn’t enough,
     Ah well I got my two shots, but understandably somehow still feel a bit vulnerable.

114. Chuck, the whole thing is imploding as I write this. Ed Woodward has resigned, the Glazers are thinking of selling, Levy is “shocked”, Man City are pulling out and Chelsea are on the brink of pulling out. It’s going worse than Hitler’s Stalingrad campaign.

     If you’ve had two jabs, that’s 95% and even if you do get it, it won’t be anywhere near as bad, that’s no excuse to be careless though.

115. All English teams out now so that’s just six teams from two countries. It’s finished. That didn’t last long.

116. A poorly organized coup was defeated by a public, outraged by the secrecy and obvious greed of those rich clubs involved.
     Sure there were those among them who felt both a sense of necessity from the fact they were invited and the obvious target was the EPL, so far the wealthiest league involved and doing nicely thank you.
     I don’t care a damn about those who considered making an even
     wealthier deal work, and will never (forget or forgive) those who were fully involved, despite their offering of a late apologies.
     Of course everyone would enjoy making more dosh every season, but why would six EPL sides, most with either new stadia or improved stadiums, with decent earnings want to jeopardize their positions of belonging to the most successful league in the world.
     It appears that there was quite a bit of secrecy before the announcement was made, with many managers and players taken by surprise, in other words a poorly laid plan, that was doomed from the start, though it may also be a part of perhaps a reviewing process, that could cause changes in the way football runs itself.
     Face it there are far too many games played, friendly Internationals should be eliminated and all stupid cup games, apart from the FA cup should be considered a waste of time and are no more than stupid greed inspired games they have no interest in.
     Yep ! looks to me it’s an idea that was proposed by who else but Madrid and obviously conned the necessary EPL clubs, to which it
     needed in order to have a substantial number which would in fact ruin the EPL allowing the deal to go through.
     As things tuned out it was so secret and although it has been proposed that something similar, the groups of 14 or 18 had previously proposed something similar, caught the public and everyone involved , entirely by surprise.
     And who now may just have been designed to see if it were possible,
     Look it’s obvious the champions league is popular and to a lesser degree the euro cup or whatever it’s called, is only OK !
     But enough of the garbage which includes teams from countries that just don’t belong there, the present danger to football is too many games against unequal teams that no one cares about.
     And of course GREED !

     o

117. Of all the things that have happened over the last few years, all the old people dying in care homes, the blatant corruption etc etc and the nation finally rises up as one… over football.

     I have little doubt that ‘FOMO’ (Fear Of Missing Out) played a huge role in the ESL affair, what if a team said ‘no’ and it really took off? This isn’t the end of it though. The rules for European competition are changing in 2024 anyway and it will be biased in favour of bigger clubs against the underdog. Under the new rules, if a club like Leicester or Everton finish in the top 4 and Manchester United have a mare of a season and finish below the European places, Man United might still take the Champions League place under the new rules with their coefficient score in European competition. Imagine if that happened when Leicester won the League a few years ago and were told that they couldn’t compete in the CL after all. It would be a huge disincentive to the competition which makes football so exciting.

118. I’m glad the ESL fell through, although I’m not a massive fan of the UEFA or FIFA either. Had qualification been based purely on merit (for all the teams), I’d have given more consideration to something that challenges the football establishment. But certainly not something as blatantly elitist as the ESL proposal.

     As was proved to be the case, the ESL was something only the owners of well-financed football clubs wanted, and they’re a very small percentage of the football watching population.

119. Yeah ! easy to blame those prospective clubs willing to belong to a league without fear of relegation, the elite of the present game, with guarantees of both more earnings and the security of top earnings for the foreseeable future.
     Wasn’t that the original idea associated with the Premier League in England ?
     To create a separation between the earnings of the new league but use a more subtle approach, by continuing as if it never happened and to allow promotion and relegation for those who are regular up and down clubs , not unlike NUFC, which since Ashley took over have been relegated and promoted back again and of course the biggest elevator side of all time WBA .
     But it appears more dosh was never a barrier to at least six EPL sides and possibly more clubs had they been invited,
     The history and competition of these clubs would be lost over time , but do we want to see games between the elite of the various leagues, say RM Vs.MU, each week, which would more or less ruin the champions league competition, held once a year, when we see them competing against each other on a weekly basis with no fear of relegation.
     At present the EPL, having the best contracts with the tv giants and the ability to earn more each season, have relegated certain continental clubs to a secondary role in regards to earnings, which has given them an advantage, with more earnings equaling better sides, though it’s not unreasonable for any EPL club to find themselves struggling against relegation.
     An essential part of most countries present system as is promotion.
     A super league would take some of the best sides permanently out of competition with traditional rivals and probably bore everyone to death, watching repetitions of the same old teams, playing one another
     But my point is why would six of the EPL sides want to share with
     others in a permanent role (relegation- less ) when via the present EPL system, they can dominate both in a monetary sense and the fact they dominate the market both in the number of fans attending games and for general marketing.
     I don’t get it ?
     And don’t believe this is the last we will hear about such changes, as long as the continental clubs earn less than their English counterparts there will be the threat of a reorganization of professional football, which has gone through the threat of the groups of 14 and eighteen to the present super leagues.
     And as long as the same old crooks from the International organizations run the game, it will be open to bribery and corruption, as usual.
     And with this comes the thought that each professional club aught to be like things are in Germany , Owned by the fans.

120. Well whaddaya know ? another late goal by Willock.
     I believe we should sign this young fellah, as he appears to be our main hope coming on late and finding the net and according to reports enjoying his stay @ the club, if he is available, that is.
     It’s been mooted he would like to stay and an amount has been mentioned of around twenty grand, not a lot considering to-days prices, though I believe they could come down, being there are plenty of EPL sides who remain deeply in debt, even with the current tv earnings.
     Being nufc needs rebuilding, a good time to do it ? Sure why not !
     Anyone know who was responsible for signing our two goals a season Brazilian center-forward, being whoever vetted his transfer
     (forty million) that’s twenty million a goal, the insanity is he gets pencilled in each week, possibly someone doesn’t have a clue there ?
     Looks like another escape from relegation, though my question is
     who enjoys watching a side that plays defensive football for 90 mins.
     It’s boring, something you will never see @ Leeds, sorry Steve but you have done enough damage and time you moved on, I understand Benitez is once again available, but hopefully he gets a cast iron guarantee here will be funds and a fee hand to make the moves he believes are needed.
     Though I doubt if Ashley, will be co-operative, being such a control freak, ah well no one said it was easy being a nufc fan.
     Though there is a great difference between the two 4-3 games of a few years ago against Liverpool, which have been commonly awarded as the viewers choice’s for EPL’s best and most entertaining.
     Well looks like another season of crap football, hopefully it will improve, yeah looks like were safe, but I would have never bet on it.

121. Handball my arse! We still got a draw against Liverpool though thanks to Willock. I hope we get him signed for £20 million or so when the season is over. Liverpool dominated most of the game but we had them on the ropes at the end.

     Chuck, I don’t want to see the same boring old clubs playing each other over and over again, I want to see little clubs like Ajax, Feyenoord, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest coming out of nowhere and outwitting the big guns of Europe. That’s what Football is all about.

122. Worky
     I’m sure you would like to see one of the above mentioned sides, as you put it outwitting the big guns .
     Which is unlikely, but sure we all, or most of us, have that certain feeling when it comes too rooting for the underdog.
     Though we dislike and resent those running the club and in Ashlley’s case, by allowing the quality of SBR’s sides to diminish
     to the quality of those fighting to avoid relegation instead of competing @ the top level..
     A cheapskate and obviously knows little about the game, but refuses to delegate any authority to those who’s job description
     require, them to @ least voice an opinion.
     Though I have to admit there were times when we bought well, but for what purpose, being they were mostly sold on for a decent profit. Ah well !
     It’s his club ain’t it ?
     So it looks like we are safe, certainly closer than I expected and who is back on top MC & MU, big money clubs again, guess this endorses the expression “money talks and bull–it walks ” seven days a week.
     Well if it means anything to our fans Rafa is again available, so is the former manager at Everton, now the international manager for Belgium,
     And there’s no way we should rehire (uber defensive specialist)
     Bruce again, being it’s goals that count and with our present bunch of forwards, mostly unlikely.

123. What about Leicester City, Chuck?

124. Chuck, on the potential new manager, sadly, the man I would have chosen, Jorge Sampaoli, has recently got a job managing Marseilles and has got off to a flying start. He would definitely have ticked all of your boxes; your sweetheart, Marcelo Bielsa once said of him: “One of a coach’s best virtues is flexibility, not falling in love with their own ideas, I don’t relent with my ideas and that’s not a virtue – it’s a flaw. Sampaoli does compromise because he has the power to adapt, unlike me. That definitely makes him better than me.” I watched quite a few of his games with Chile, the fans would have loved him and his highly attacking style of football, but there you go.

125. Worky
     Sounds like the kinda manager we need
     However I would be satisfied with either the former Everton and presently employed Belgium manager, who I thought was decent or for that matter a return of Benitez, but one has to be reminded that the hiring of Benitez would involve massive changes according to reports, with Benitez replacing our dear owner in regard to the why’s, whats and where-fors, in fact a complete revamp of the club.
     I see one of our former targets presently at Chelsea, is for sale @ around 40m. yes their center forward used last season on loan, couldn’t be any worse than our present high scoring CF with what is it four goals in two seasons. yet pencilled in each week, what is it does Bruce believe in miracles, or is he forced to include him?
     I’m sorry but I just see a once great club visibly being reduced to another Sunderland or Boro, all because of one mans unwillingness
     to put his hand in his pocket or listen to those who give him advice.
     Hey ! he’s a cheapskate and wants nothing but profit and definitely
     a control freak.

126. In the relegation dog fight, it isn’t looking good for Fulham now after another defeat, the most they can get is 12 more points so even if they win all their games, we still only have to get 3 or 4 more points in 5 games. Big Sam’s pretty much out of the game too. Then again, we are discussing the crazy world of Newcastle United

     Chuck, I wouldn’t deny that £40 million for Tammy Abraham would be better than the £40 million for Joelinton but that’s a low benchmark..

127. Worky
     Following to-days performance, I’m not so sure we are as safe as we may believe , a performance that lacked any sense of being aware of the fact we are a crap club and could still go down.
     Absolutely no one had a halfway decent game (oops sorry our goalie had a decent game) however the rest appeared to care less.
     Of course the constant interruption to the game broadcast (an expected event @ M.U./s ground) showed there was now’t to worry about, though those commenting , especially the shrill female commentator, who attempted to equate matters to the recent occupation of The Capital building by dissident Trump and remnants of the Tea Party people.
     Mainly rust belt survivors and red necks .
     The TV Networks appear to have been aware but were not smart enough to know what to do about it, therefor they probably ordered the game cancelled on Saturday/
     Sorry folks but we need a complete makeover to this the worst ever side we have seen @ St.James’,
     Hopefully there is a sale in the clubs future, because we just can’t go on like this , being if we do there could be some serious repercussions, being the combination of
     owners , players , fans , TV Networks , advertisers, EUAFA, FIFA
     must reach a decision on what the future of the game has in store,
     Obvious a fairer system must be called for or the possibility of any numbers of teams and leagues disappearing being the fans cannot
     continue forever to pay exorbitant prices to watch the game being they end up picking up the tab for everything.

128. Not terrible but disappointing. Arsenal dominated the first half, words were probably had at half time, they were better when they came out but the second goal was a kick in the teeth.

     Chuck, you’re going too far again. If you think that’s ‘the worst ever side we have seen @ St.James’’, you obviously didn’t follow the Magpies in the 1980s, or the early 90s before the two Keegan interventions.

     What is Trump up to now, is he still licking his wounds?

129. Well even you can’t complain about the Leicester game, Chuck. We played some excellent football, scored 4 goals against a team who are third, we’ve gone up from 17th to 13th and any thoughts of relegation can now be banished.

130. Worky
     Yeah ! certainly this league can have folks puzzled as to which teams they are watching, on a week to week basis ?
     Went dahn a’pub as it opened @ 3pm. +5, who have “The Box”, looking for a poor game and a step closer to relegation, even wore my nufc cap.
     To my surprise I saw a side that tactically outplayed the team currently in third place in the EPL, actually embarrassed them.
     And have to say it’s been a standard expression,” hey ! it’s the EPL and can, on any day, provide the most unlikely scores ”
     Well there might be a lotta truth in that , however quality + lots a dosh usually comes out on top.
     I see that Ashley is seeing everyone it appears, certainly the EPL,
     I don’t get it, is the sale to the Saudi’s being held up by HMG or the
     EPL, and for what reason, not only that , it’s interference in trade @ a time when the UK needs trade more than anything, especially the
     supplying of modern arms vehicles and personnel .
     In the meantime @ NUFC we will struggle on with a bunch of journeymen players scraped to-gether by free agency and club rejects, with a star center forward who wouldn’t look out of place playing for Whitley Bay, though he only cost (forty thousand) that’s Sterling not Yen.
     I also seem to remember the club being rated as around twentieth.
     in the world earning the monicker “The Entertainers”, so what happened Mike ?

131. Well, Chuck, my interprettion of it is that the takeover is supposed to be dead, but Ashley is crying foul through the courts in a bid to resurrect it. It also keeps the fans off his back because for once, he is actually on the same side as most of them!

     20th? I did a blog on here once about how Newcastle were once the 5th biggest team in the Deloitte ‘football money league,’ above teams like Barcelona, Chelsea and Liverpool, but the Halls and the Shepherds made a hash of that well before Ashley took over.

132. In general I would wish Scott Parker the best of luck. I always rated him when he played for us. But at least Fulham’s relegation means we’re safe for another season. It was looking dodgy for a while when we had our attack force sidelined with injury.

     Going forward, our first 11 is probably capable of finishing mid-table or thereabouts (maybe 9th to 13th or so), but we lack for any decent backup if we lose them to injury. The summer will be tricky: we’ve got to try and hang on to our better players, improve where we can and get some decent backup to the first 11, all on a limited budget. It would be nice to go through a season without having to worry about relegation for once.

133. Aye, Hugh, he was consistent and kept things together in the middle. He never did quite as well as his fellow cockney central midfielder, Frank Lampard, though and it’s carried over into management as well. Lampard got a crack at managing Chelsea and poor Scott Parker got Fulham next door.

     Apart from the Longstaffs, there hasn’t been any young blades breaking through from the juniors and sadly (writing from deepest Arsenal territory), the Gooners seem to be appreciating Willock far more since he’s had a free scoring run as a Magpie. He would be a very easy decision if the price was right but of course, Ashley’s as tight as a gnat’s chuff when it comes to that sort of thing. Willock’s performances have either a) put his price up to a level that would give Ashley the vapours or b) they’re going to take him back and keep him for themselves.

134. Soh !

     No prospects in the youth system eh ?
     And I got new for you, there are few prospects in the squad in general and might add stay away from what you don’t know, meaning South Americans (apart from those who grow up around the Rio Plata basin).
     Unfortunately our center forward is a bit of a sick note, though if fit could possibly score a few.
     The rest apart from goalies are bog standard players, making nufc a bog standard club.
     Now if you like to observe the intricate moves of the Catenaccio
     you got the right club, it appears Bruce only plays this style under pressure , which is used in every game and one can learn a lot about defensive football, ( No Thanks )
     My point is, we have a poor bunch of technical players, also lacking in any known tactical attacking plan, other than here’s a high ball , go chase it, or comes from a quick break-out, which Almiron chases being he has a bit of pace, but that’s it .
     Face it it takes money to have a decent side, not a cheapskate owner who makes all the decisions being both a control freak and expecting an annual profit.
     Ah well nothing lasts forever and who knows perhaps Ashley can win in the courts and get to sell the side to the original buyer.
     Or the club may just end up as another Sunderland or Boro, languishing in the lower divisions.
     But as entertainment no one wants to have to watch ten men behind the ball for ninety minutes.
     Actually I would like to see someone like a Bielsa, who’s teams are a pleasure to watch continuous action, not the usual taking five minutes to bring the ball across the center line, and you gotta say how fit they must be, a side that doesn’t rest constant action, I could certainly support a side like that.

135. Chuckles, how any times have we been through this? ‘Catenaccio’ is a very specific system which happens to be rather defensive in its nature. That doesn’t mean that all teams who play dour, defensive football are playing catenaccio.

     I must admit that I was disappointed when I found out that Jorge Sampaoli had been snapped up by Marseilles. I know it has nothing to do with football but Bielsa always looks like he’s sitting on the lavatory trying to force one out during games and that really puts me off!

136. Watched the Citeh game , actually it was Nufc vs. City’s reserves, as I guess Pep wanted a look at some of his younger players, not a great side , but certainly good enough to beat the best of Nufc.
     I suppose now that City are champions of the EPL, he can afford to play whoever he wants.
     When looking at the league standings it appears from recent history ,that out of the three clubs promoted to the PL, only one has any kind of success and no doubt Leeds is that side this season, who play a very entertaining style for a full ninety minutes.
     Yes throughout the era of the EPL, there have been few clubs apart from Leicester who have both won the EPL Championship and maintained a top four position, which no doubt was backed by a wealthy owner, but it all results mainly to the scouting and amount of money spent on top players .
     Which is not about to happen @ Nufc unless they find an owner who is willing to spend a similar amount and at least hire someone who knows something about the professional game in an upper management role , however knowing Ashley as a control freak, it’s unlikely to happen, the chances of buying someone like our three goal a season center forward for another forty million is more likely
     I’m afraid……………
     Ah well !

137. worry

     Yes I in fact understand the tactical side of “The Catenaccio”, which is still in effect in football , but due to the fact it was never a fan favorite, is seldom mentioned, it’s plainly a tactical plan to get an early goal/s and defend the score until the final whistle and possibly
     even get another due to the oppositions desperation and possible
     inattention to defense.
     Soh ! enough of the criticism in regards to that, as for tactics , listen I have been playing and watching this sport for longer than you have been alive, so enough of the lectures and criticism.
     And yes our present manager is a decent guy, but ranks very low in the order of things required by a decent football club,
     The present situation is one that requires an owner with enough money to finance a top ten EPL football club, not one that is only an adjunct to his real business and which he demands any profit from to support, and right now needs that profit to purchase the prime stock of big box stores readily available.
     When we manage to rid the club of this owner who has converted the club from a top side to a continual series of struggling to avoid
     relegation seasons and one that has paid two visits to the second tier where the crowds continued to show up paying their way, while a greedy owner refuses to bring in the necessary reinforcements.
     And I sincerely hope he wins his case and manages to sell the club to someone who is interested in owning a successful club and has the pocket book to afford it.
     I suppose this last decade can and will be recorded as a total failure
     as far as most fans are concerned, either that or we could just as easy become another Sunderland or Boro.

138. Chuck, De Bruyne was injured and maybe he was giving Mahrez a rest but not really. Manchester City have enough for two first teams. Bernardo Silva, Gundogan, Rodri, Torres, Jesus, Sterling etc are all regulars. Aguero is on his way out and the new players / young players like Torres and Phil Foden are coming to the fore. That was still one of the best teams in the Premier League, a parade of £50 million+ players. It makes you sick really.

139. Oh well, that’s another season over. For all the ups and downs we’re actually very consistent whether it’s Bruce or Benitez in charge. 10th, 13th, 13th and now 12th. I doubt that we’ll see Willock again. He was cast aside like an old dish rag, now they’re gagging for him to come back to North London.

140. Another season over, which resulted in another struggle to survive within the EPL, a club playing awful football, mostly in the form of defending, with little in the way of attacking, being we have no idea what to do after crossing the half way line, or how to do it.
     Doesn’t now look good for Ashleys case and very doubtful whether any buyers are willing to take the chance of investing, certainly investing in the present group of losers we have on the books.
     Oh yeah ! ” Willock “who lucky for him, scored winning goals
     to=wards the end of games who will probably sign a deal, being the two brothers have not turned out to be all that, guess we shoulda sold him to MU when offered thirty five million, for the younger bro,
     I mean what were they thinking ?
     Nah, until this cheap=ass owner begins to concentrate fully on his real business and sells up and disappears there will be little to hope for knowing all Ashley wants is to either sell for a decent profit (which he almost did) and increase his investment in “SD”.
     which will provide the city with an owner wealthy enough to afford a
     top ten spot and who can face any side that comes to play @ St.
     James’ Park, without any fear of losing.

141. Same old same old Chuck, I know you’re still pining for the Saudis. I remember the £35 million bid for Sean Longstaff from Manchester United, that wouldn’t have been as bad for them as £40 million for Joelinton was for us though. Sadly, the chances of getting Willock are almost nothing now if that. Arteta’s said he’s keeping him and I can’t really blame him as he’s been better than the midfielders he didn’t send out on loan.

142. I’m listening to the Championship play offs as I write this. Ivan Toney, rejected as a no hoper at Newcastle and sold to Peterbrough for peanuts, becomes League One player of the year, moves to Brentford in the Championship for £5 million, scores 33 goals and gets Brentford into the Premier League play offs, winning the Championship ‘golden boot’ in the process. Now he’s just scored again in the play off final.

143. Worky
     Yeah read that, did the guy ever get an opportunity to show his stuff
     before he was declared useless, I certainly don’t recall seeing him inked in to play .
     An example of the way the club has been run by our dear owner, who’s knowledge of the game remains a mystery, especially the purchase for forty million on a no.9# who couldn’t score a goal to save his life, especially when the guy was offered to us for a paltry twenty million prior to the forty million eventually agreed upon.
     Does this make any sense ?
     Or do the fans believe the club is doing the best they can, or do they understand that Ashley is first and foremost interested only in becoming both one of the richest and most powerful businessmen
     in the UK.
     Well we do know he would like to milk the club and add to his already enormous rag trade outfit.
     However one has to spend a certain amount or risk being demoted to a lower league which pays a lot less, a special deal was done which not unlike the latest attempt to create a super league, the English clubs of the old first division created there own version and named it “The Premiership”, meaning they did exactly what the Super League now intends to do, well not exactly as we still don’t understand exactly the why’s and wherefores of what was on offer.
     from the super league.
     But for EPL sides to then complain that an international or European League would damage football and cause others to go broke or disappear is the exact criticism that others claimed the EPL would cause for the lower division’ s of English football.
     Theres that and the fact that in the US there are numerous owners of various professional sports clubs, all money makers operating under a no relegation type system, which enables each to make a certain profit, in fact a comfortable profit is guaranteed in what could be contrary to the national attitude of competition, too a comfortable little socialist organization, where everyone makes a profit and face it most of the EPL sides, chosen by god knows who have either a US or other foreign ownership involved.
     And while on the subject I have yet to hear read or be informed as to why the Saudi deal was not allowed to go through, afraid we the proles are not considered or taken in too account when it’s not in our interest to know, you know statehood and all that ………….

144. Well we’ll see how well Toney does in the Premier League with Brentford next season. Chelsea are good at that, they’ve binned lots of players who went on to become top stars elsewhere, including Mohammed Salah, who they never gave a chance to.

     Chuck, calm down, we finished mid table! The way you write you’d think we’d been relegated to the Vanarama National League. You weren’t like this when Benitez flirted with the relegation zone several times, then had a run of results at the end of the season to find redemption. As for the Premier League, that was totally different, it actually enhanced competition, it didn’t destroy it. It’s like the American dream, ‘ordinary Joe’ teams like Blackpool, Bounemouth and most of all, Leicester getting their chance to shine on the world stage. Isn’t it ironic that your American style system is the exact opposite? It’s an entrenched aristocracy.

145. Worky
     I take it that you are , according to your statements, either a fan of Bruce or actually believe we have a decent side, both of which are
     ridicules statements .
     In fact what we have is a poor side with an even worse manager.
     That and the fact you while running a NUFC biog, can’t appear to be a serious critic of either the manager or the side. for reasons we both understand.
     And a sympathetic approach to the wonders of relegation and it’s effect, which has been the promotion of mostly South Cost sides .
     I here very little about our old time neighbors, Sunderland and Boro,
     who have had a rough time since being relegated and appears to be exactly where we are heading, yet you continue to believe our owner and manager are attempting to improve the side,
     Which we all know is bullshit, and next relegation may in fact be our last one.
     And yes there is no relegation in the US, at least in any sport I am aware of in the US, but there is a system where top players from the college games are offered to the bottom rated teams , who then make their deal with the club involved, no transfer fees only wages, with tv contracts and bums in seats money going to the club.
     with this system no one is hurt and the news clubs are protected by acquiring the best talent at no extra cost .
     I may not explain the system correctly but I imagine many soccer/footballing fans in the UK, don’t really get it.
     And it’s obvious you yourself have no clue , only guessing as to what it’s all about .
     Fact is you mention Blackpool and Bournemouth, while I remember Preston, Derby, and Swansea et al. who played in the top league
     the former first division which NUFC was a regular side not some teen number in the standings as we are to-day
     Yes NUFC were always a decent first division side before big money
     effected the game and if things don’t change in the near future , we may end up like the other two NE clubs in the lower leagues.
     that’s where this programme could end , because of a disengagement by the fans who are tired of poor teams who cannot compete or one where we have a manager who has no clue how to compete either tactically or otherwise.
     We shall see what happens following the present situation brought about by our dear owner in regard to the Saudi case, which we have not yet heard the end of .
     Who knows we may be the richest club in football in the near future

146. Oh FFS Chuck, we were mid table, stop mithering Mister Doom and Gloom! I know that Mike Ashley’s a twat and Steve Bruce isn’t the greatest coach in human history but you’re scenarios are ridiculous. I expect you’ve been scouring the WWW excidetly looking for updates on the potential resurrection of the Saudi deal, along with the ongoing demonisation of the evil ‘Rich Masters?’ Ashley’s no angel but it makes me feel bilious thinking about the Saudis taking over.

     The Toon have been mostly 1st Division, but we spent a fair amount of time in the 2nd one too, I remember 80s hell.

147. workyticket: “I remember 80s hell”

     I always thought 80s hell was Kajagoogoo.

148. I know it isn’t a great anecdote but I once urinated with the bass player from Kajagoogoo, hence, I feel I must defend him. He was a very good bass player. I think my idea of 80s hell was Howard Jones and that fucking mime artist!

149. I like anecdotes like that. I have an equally trivial one: I once said “what floor?” to Graham Gooch (not randomly, I was sharing a lift with him).

     Yeah, Howard Jones was pretty bad, and mime artistry should be punishable by death anyway.

150. A Gooch quiz question, Hugh (no cheating on Google). What is the name of that hair clinic that always has ‘Goochie’ and ‘Warnie’ in their adverts?

     I’ve urinated with quite a few famous musicians in my time. Nigel Kennedy was another. Me and ‘Nige’ were tripping at the time. It was when that big eclipse was on in Cornwall in 1999 and we were at a festival down there. I was bad but he was completely off his tits on acid. We were both talking complete and utter shite.

     That awful mime artist was was called ‘Jed.’ He was so bad, he even made Howard Jones seem like the lesser of two evils, maybe that was the point of him?

151. Hugh, I don’t think we’ve really scraped the depths of the 80s yet so how about this?

152. Worky, I don’t pay attention to hair products on account of having no hair, so I’ve no idea about that one. I have a vague memory of Warne getting a hair transplant or something like that, though, so I can’t say I’m surprised he endorsed some coiffure-enhancing product.

     Good bowler, like.

     I think Joe Dolce is getting very near to scraping the bottom to be honest. So-called novelty songs aren’t very high on anyone’s list. Having said that, I did play Kojak in a rendition of Billy Howard’s ‘King of the Cops’ that Bannister house performed in assembly at my school in the mid-70s.

     I’ve always felt destined for the stage since that.

153. It was ‘Advanced Hair Studios’ The adverts used to be on all the time and they were so awful they became a comedy legend, a bit like the old ‘Ferrero Rocher‘ adverts at the Ambassador’s reception if you remember those? Here’s one, and this one’s even worse! It even has a joke referring to Warnie’s infamous sex text antics.

154. Whatever most of the fans say, I really hope we don’t get taken over by this lot.

     https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-planning-mass-execution/a-57857488

155. Hmmmm ! scraping the bottom of the eightie’s. is it ?
     I was laboring under the impression that nothing actually happened
     then, that the eighties were a no-where decade that dedicated itself to-wards a certain recovery period from the much more adventurous sixties and seventies, however each of us has obviously undergone differing trips, a kinda “woah dude ” decade that indicated the need for some time -out.
     As for music, I can’t even remember anything I would want repeated from the era, mostly garbage.
     And only because ‘we’ or I should say ‘this’ a footballing blog was originally by and for the interests of NUFC fans whose minds have been shattered by the miss-management of the club and I suppose
     a decade of crap football, apart from the time Ashley spent a bundle on those French-men , who were quickly sold for big bucks .
     Apparently Ashley was curious about the difference of running his club as a moneymaker for himself or operating on a “low as you can go” system.
     His claims of being too poor as an owner with just a couple of billion
     to employ was of course nonsense , being there were a number of clubs operating under more duress. with a lot less money available and had through time as owner, taken a position of betting on evading relegation by not buying the necessary reinforcements, like this year and how we eventually finished twelfth , all about luck of course though he did screw up on a couple of occasions .
     Well we will see if there’s any justice in the footballing world by the start of the 21-22 season, it could be the same old crap again but
     if we are owned by the Saudis, things could look a lot brighter.
     Though you profess to be unhappy for some political reason,
     the rest of the fans will no doubt enjoy the fact we are a wealthy side ad will no longer have to watch the deplorable defensive
     games with ten men behind the ball for ninety minutes .
     Whatever the fans like you think, I believe the majority of fans would be delighted with being the poor stepchild of the Saudis wealth.

     scraped the

156. Chuck, I think you’re being a bit harsh by singling the 80s out. All decades have had their share of dreadful music.

     As to the Saudi takeover stuff, you have to figure out where the line is. You have to balance securing untold riches for your football club against helping a nation state (and its de facto leader) scrub over its human rights abuses. If the line isn’t there, where is it?

     Ashley is pretty bad, but, as far as I know, he hasn’t ordered the murder of a journalist in a foreign embassy or applied the death sentence to kids. Neither has he jailed, tortured and executed dissidents nor has he told women they’re guilty if they’re raped.

     It isn’t as simple as saying any objection is merely for a ‘political reason’. A political reason would be falling out with a country over the price of fish or voting them down in the Eurovision Song Contest. This is about real harm done to people.

     I’d like to see Ashley gone, but there have to be better options than this.

157. Hugh
     when you run a blog, do you really believe you will only receive acceptable opinions, if so I got news for you .
     Fact is it’s a combination of British built aircraft plus the usual munitions and a ground targeting UK citizens that this particular mayhem requires to actually move one sandhill to another and as an aside manage to kill large numbers of their fellow Arabs to the south .All stemming from who should be the successor to The Profit.
     And it continues to-day in the form of mainly Shia, and Sunni.
     Of course not unlike Christianity it has its number of smaller apostates, who usually keep a low profile .
     And like to-days football, all have a certain attitude in regard to how things should operate.
     Personally I believe that the suppliers of those aircraft and their munitions, being supplied to the Saudi’s, not to mention the targeting specialist (uk personnel) is a well know fact, something
     much more important than any squabble between Qatar and S.A.
     Look you can’t sell and deliver both personal and the arms to any country to destroy a neighbor, without becoming part of the war.
     What I am saying is there is no political agreement here only the UK
     earning dirty money by supplying the Saudis and others with Arms.
     As for the six sides presently topping the EPL, who it’s believed backed the “no sale”, one can clearly see their objections have a lot to do with being outspent , as money is the lifeblood of to-days
     Football World.
     So please don’t tell me I’m being harsh, as it’s a case of we are living in a corrupt world with the leadership of most countries, only interested in whatever they can get, regardless of loyalties.
     Being harsh is to present one side of an argument only.

158. After the advances in computing in the 70s, the 80s was the decade which saw the explosion of digital music which,for better or worse, had a HUGE effect on the sound of music. The Fairlight CMI in particular had a huge effect in shaping the sound of 80s pop music, then there was the similarly ubiquitous Linn Drum machine, which turned drummers all over the world into instant Luddites. The Fairlight they are looking at in the video used to cost more than a house back in the 80s, but a smartphone would outperform it nowadays.

     Chuck, when it comes to a takeover, is there anyone at all who you would you draw the line at?

159. Chuck, the ‘being harsh’ comment was about your 80s music criticisms, not the Saudi stuff.

     I’m quite aware there are a variety of opinions on blogs and I welcome the resulting discourse. One of the benefits of living in relatively free country is that we can all have vastly different opinions on subjects without breaking any laws.

     You draw the line on who owns our football club in a different place to me. I am however curious as to the kind of country or owner that would cross your line.

160. Spooky!

161. Here’s a woman being beheaded in the street in KSA. I’ve seen the whole thing, it’s a messy business. People are going to associate stuff like that with Newcastle United. When the deal was still on, some of the fans were so fucking stupid, they didn’t just turn a blind eye but allowed themselves to be conned by Saudi astroturfers into defending stuff like that online. They were trolling the fiance of Jamal Khashoggi in the nastiest possible ways, they had been turned into monsters.

162. Yes that was a bit spooky, Hugh. Great minds think alike though.

163. I remember the Fairlight CMI in relation to Babooshka. Many moons ago I saw a documentary where it was mentioned in relation to that song. Can’t remember what the documentary was about now. Possibly just about Kate Bush, but it might have been more general.

164. Aye, Kate Bush had one, they were all at it if they were rich enough to afford one and as I said, they were more than a house. They used 8″ floppies and even though they were so expensive, they were only 8 bit sampling so they sounded pretty shite really. You couldn’t get away from that Fairlight sound in Thatcher’s Britain though.

165. How Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird Suite’ came to define the sound of the 80s via the Fairlight ‘orch2’ sample.

166. Interesting how Stravinsky has propagated through so much music all these years later.

167. There are so many strange connections in the world of sampled music, Jay-Z, Eminem and Wu Tang Clan have all sampled Chas n Dave. I met Chas once, he was doing Chas without Dave at a local pub, he was a diamond geezer and an absolutely brilliant musician too, so’s Dave. They played on many great records, this Labi Siffre number is the Eminem one, the sample starts at 2:10. The first bit of ‘my name is’ is Chas on guitar, Dave on bass and Labi Siffre on the Rhodes piano. The original track is top notch music, well, it is until it goes a little crazy and speeded up at the end, any way, it’s miles better than the Eminem version.

168. Good luck with your new music blog, that is of a kind of music that few are interested in , sort of like football in a way, that is the football you both mention, of course it ends up with an accusatory question asking which country or owner I would find as acceptable based on the fact the present ruler of SA is considered by both of you as being responsible for that assassination .
     Well it would certainly not be the UK, which as a nation are responsible
     for the deaths of millions , even as late as in ww2 where they were responsible for the deaths of approx three million Indians in eastern India who died of starvation, yes due to the necessity of war was how it was referred to by Churchill. I realize that Qatar is a more human place than Saudi, even watched Al Jazeera programs which I found both interesting and informative, of course neither of you mentioned the fact that the recent bombing of
     SA neighbors to the south , was brought about by the fact the UK has been responsible for supplying both arms, aircraft and those UK citizens who operate their targeting and tactics, actually I would demand a refund being it’s mostly wasted money as the only thing accomplished is the moving of sand dunes and a few unlucky families.
     And yes would it be that you have no knowledge of the number of people killed by the UK plus three hundred years of the middle passage which also garnered them untold riches , hey! the fact is following the deaths of thousands of Kenyans in the 60’s who recently brought charges against the UK for damages were fought tooth and nail in the courts and although winning most every case , it ended as a pittance.
     And the same British ex-pats. still own most of what was once referred to as Happy Valley, I’m sure you are aware of it.
     So please don’t insinuate I support a killer when your country is responsible, in many well known instances but were just accidentally left out of the pages of history.

     Soh ! at half time being the score is three million to one who in fact would you chose or refuse as a future owner ?

169. Chuck, as far as I’m aware, Churchill isn’t in the running to buy NUFC. Not sure how we got on to another one of your treatises on history, and I’m not sure how what Churchill did 20 years before I was born has any bearing on who I may or may not support as an owner of NUFC.

     I wouldn’t refuse someone with £millions to lavish on our club as long as it wouldn’t leave us in the lurch if he got bored and left. But I’d prefer someone who doesn’t hand down the death penalty to kids just because they took part in anti-government protests, or orders the assassination of reporters just because they wrote something bad about him.

     Call me fussy if you like, but I can’t sweep that sort of thing out of the way just to see my football club jump up half a division.

170. Chuck, you are missing the blindingly obvious that this isn’t just someone happens to be Saudi wanting to buy the club, it’s a body right at the heart of the Saudi state run by the de facto head of that state. I just knew that if there was a big money takeover bid that there would be some horrible sting in the tail though because that ‘s Newcastle United. If it wasn’t Mohammed bin Salman it would have been Kim Jong Un, Bashar al Assad or someone like that who wanted to buy it.

171. Yes of course you come to the defense of the UK government in such matters, but measure the deaths through-out the world and definitely those who came under the British Empire’s rule.
     Uncountable millions, in comparison with one victim, and you call that an argument ?
     Fact is I understand your twisted idea of world politics, with the UK, then the British Empire at a time in history where the expansion of the Empire by force, having access to the most modern weaponry and wealth, resulting in the deaths of millions.
     Something mostly unrecorded or excused and passed off as a necessity .
     Fact is you are both aware of the number of small wars that took place and the indiscriminate killing of those involved who were merely attempting to eject foreign hegemony and end the country’s
     wealth being a large part of this conquest.
     Of course it took both time time and effort but eventually most have been successful, the remaining vestiges of this problem are now being worked out in Northern Ireland where a statelet was carved out for British immigrants brought to the country from south eastern
     Scotland and the Border Area s of England as long ago as the mid sixteen hundreds, to replace (which took place) the local landowners.
     if you are to take on the defense of the UK and dispute my claims I suggest you read “Queen Victoria’s little wars” which lists most of those wars against people with swords and spears against artillery.
     and machine guns.
     Which brings me to the point, the history of the acquirements of Empire were bought at a heavy cost to those being conquered and was certainly at a higher cost and doubtfully of little good.
     So before you continue to condemn, the Saudi move and it’s leader
     Why not start a campaign to stop your government from selling arms to them, which are killing Yemeni neighbors for no apparent reason and having the audacity to claim it is in retaliation for rocket attacks and siding with Iran, which is not a crime, or a reasonable excuse.

172. The mid-1600s? FFS.

     You always rant on about the British Empire at length. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, the British Empire is somehow the source of the problem as far as you’re concerned.

     Sure, the British Empire did bad things. Civilisations across the world have been propagating evils since the beginning of time. Most countries have slaughtered people at some point.

     But what’s the relevance to the current topic? Are you suggesting that because I happened to be born in a country that once had an empire I have no right to comment on anything bad done by anyone else, ever? Or that I’m not entitled to have morals because of something my country did 300 years before I was born?

     We’re discussing the recent proposed takeover of NUFC and whether or not we think Salman (and therefore Saudi) is a suitable owner.

     And that’s happening in the 21st Century, not the 17th, and you have to remember I was only born in the UK because I wanted to be close to my mother for the birth.

173. It’s defintitely Chuck’s lot who have done the most damage since WW2 anyway, so I don’t know why he’s so obsessed with Happy Valley and the Mau Mau. Most people had a pretty awful life in the old days, all for the benefit of a very small group.

     Inspired by our recent nostalgia, I’ve been on an 80s ‘bingewatch’, I watched the ‘Hitman and Her’ live from the Hacienda in 1989, ‘Chas n Dave’s Christmas Knees Up’ with Jimmy Cricket, Albert Lee and Eric Clapton’ and last but not least, ‘Prisoner Cell Block H.’ It was mega!

174. The thing I remember most about The Hitman and Her is Michaela Strachan.

175. Look, I seem to recall Worky’s objection to the takeover was for the most part the assassination of the Saudi citizen in Turkey, no ?
     One death, (though reportedly a bit gruesome) as opposed to the fact there are British aircraft loaded with British arms and who’s flight patterns and targets are given by UK personnel on a daily basis
     Of which I never hear about, “selectivity” ?
     Soh !
     But in fact Worky appears to also insinuate their would be problems once the Saudi’s gain control.
     The only problem with NUFC at present is a definite lack of funding
     Which any Saudi takeover could never be as bad as that experienced during the last decade or it’s continuity by a similar owner.
     As it appears any confrontation between the UK and SA would possibly prevent the Saudis from acquiring those expensive euro-fighters seemingly poorly used by bombing an already wasteland.
     But to object to a business take-over, I see no problems arising , so far it appears only the big six, yes those who were set on joining the super league involved themselves in the objection.
     And I’m still chuckling over a re-read where you questioned whether “(WE ?) think ‘Salman’ and therefor SA is a suitable owner” .
     ERM ! who is the ‘WE’.
     That still remains the the only unanswered question.
     political ?, Most likely. though Tory screwups appear to be increasing Post Brexit, which may have been the biggest blunder, of all, still sorting things out I see, ah well there are treaties to be made
     and markets to conquer and who knows what .

176. Aye, I know what you’re saying, Hugh. I think the Hitman and Her was like a farewell to the old nightclubbing ways before the House music and the Es kicked in. That one I watched from the Hacienda was extremely odd and very different to all the others, that was the new way of clubbing. Pete Waterman was kept well away from the decks. It was like two eras colliding. I went to the ‘Haci’ a few times when I had a friend who lived in Manchester.

177. ‘Look, I seem to recall Worky’s objection to the takeover was for the most part the assassination of the Saudi citizen in Turkey, no ?’

     That’s just a small part of it, I have already explained some of other reasons, eg some of the fans were getting riled up by mysterious Saudis on Twitter, they were being radicalised and turned into astroturfers for beastliness, they were trolling opponents of the Saudi regime in really nasty ways. Toon fans were being turned into a political force, they were even getting really nasty with fellow Toon fans, and that was before they even took over.

178. Worky, I went to the Hacienda in Manchester too. It would be about 84 or 85 when a friend of mine was at the university. He lived in an appalling shared house in Moss Side. There were three doors to the house. One led to the rooms they’d rented and then you went down a rat-infested alleyway to find a door to the kitchen and a door to the bathroom. It wasn’t joined up inside. Most odd.

     The best nights out I’ve had in clubs were at The Place in Stoke and Dingwalls in Camden. The local ones in Bristol weren’t all that great, although I went to one called Roxy’s quite a lot. Biker’s joint, really. I had a friend in Weston and whenever I was there we used to go to the Hobbitt’s Hole, which was okay. This friend knew people so we could skip the queue to get in.

     I accidentally visited a club in about 2005, but otherwise I don’t think I’ve been in one since the 80s.

179. Chuck, by ‘we’ I meant NUFC supporters.

180. Hugh, I had another friend who lived in the infamous ‘C’ blocks in Hulme, which is the same as Moss Side. There ws no problem finding his door as outside there was a huge, primitive drawing of a penis with ‘Dong Horn’ in huge letters. One of the flats close by was a 24 hour drug emporium which was set up like a normal shop. The ‘local radio’ had no tramsmitter, it was just a huge sound system perched on one of the balconies and because of the C shape of the blocks, the sound carried like an amphithetre. It wasn’t a very good place for peace and quiet!

     I lived in Camden for a while, the young students who used to go and see all the bands there couldn’t hold their beer so you had to be careful not to step in a pool of student vomit if you went for a walk in the middle of Camden on a Sunday morning. My friends had a club in Dingwalls for a while.

181. Hugh,
     Really ! must have missed that referenda that made you the spokesperson for the Toon fans. but it’s my belief that in fact the average fan was and remains as a fan of the Saudi take-over, being
     money talks and bullshit walks, that’s seven days a week.
     And fact is, sure there are others who may be interested in the deal,
     but none are the heavy hitters capable of outspending The Saudis or even matching the purchase price, face it no one is gonna pay more than say 250m quid.
     Plus the fact Uncle Joes six trillion bucks, about to be spent on the
     infrastructural renewal project. some may find it’s way to the UK.
     A similar amount (in the trillions) is about to be spent in SA, bringing
     them into this the twenty first century, when the significance of oil
     may not be quite worth, as much as of late.
     And I believe it’s possible the UK, could certainly benefit from any trade agreements with both, in which case it wouldn’t be particularly
     clever to annoy either of the two.
     Which is a serious matter, following the Torys massive screwup
     “The infamous Brexit.”
     Ah well !

     oe’s

182. Chuck, you can hardly blame me if you missed the vote that made me spokesperson for Toon fans. Notices were posted on the inside of one of my kitchen cupboards. If you couldn’t be bothered to read them that’s your fault.

     We do agree on something, though. The average Toon fan probably was in favour of the Saudi takeover, or at least that’s my perception. I’m under no obligation to agree with them, though.

183. Chuck, bollocks to the Saudis, bollocks to Biden, I don’t see what his US infrastructre project has to do with this anyway? Is there any such thing as ‘the average Toon fan?’ I’m not the average Toon fan, Hugh isn’t and you certainly aren’t neither, Chuck! I would certainly say that most of the loudest, most opinionated windbags online were for the deal at least, they already had their fantasy teams lined up and everything, but that can be deceptive.

184. Yeah ! yeah ! yeah!, sometimes bullshit baffles brains !
     but the conversations on here between you two is something that
     is so boring it’s not surprising you no longer have anyone visiting the site..
     Neither one of you it appears has any real interest in football or for that matter Newcastle United, being if you did it would be obvious,
     the very fact that Worky has some kinda prejudice to-wards SA,
     And makes no apologies nor reasons as to why, other than the fact
     he didn’t particularly care for the present ruler, that he claims was responsible for the murder of “One”of it’s citizens, meanwhile they continue to pound their neighbors to the south, with British supplied weaponry directed by uk citizens , which is a far more serious than the offing of one ex Saudi resident. but no word on that, which makes me wonder exactly what causes you to regard them as a danger to the EPL and Newcastle United club.
     I would certainly accept them and their petro-dollars, as opposed to landing where our neighbors are @ present, talking bout Boro. and S’land., which is the next step for our cheap-ass owner.
     And you can be re-assured that he needs the funding from a sale of the club in order to purchase more big box stores to expand his holdings and be the cheapo owner or the king of tat.

185. Chuck, why don’t you just admit you don’t care who owns NUFC as long as they’re prepared to spend huge wads of money on the club? There appears to be nobody you wouldn’t accept as long as they’ll take us to the higher echelons of the PL.

186. Worky
     Do I have to be more explicit, for you to understand that a six trillion $ budget may in fact benefit the UK and others plus the re-invention of Saudi Arabia will no doubt also garner a few petro- dollars, being the UK is presently (ex Brexit) desperately searching for business and trade deals from wherever.
     Unfortunately with little success, not surprising really as the negotiations have gone slowly with the UK constantly failing to reach the required agreed upon rules in the allotted time periods and as of yet have not met standards they have agreed too, apparently the plan was to meet certain standards for food exports to NI, which they were aware of that could be met but required a process of checking, to which the answer would be “too much trouble ” or something that they had agreed too would now be argued as something to be ignored, (a wriggle out of situation).
     Not a very smart policy being the country is looking to increase it’s
     trade, which may be difficult as it portrays the country as unreliable
     while negotiating.
     And yes I see nothing wrong with having NUFC as a fully owned
     Saudi club, I mean could they be any worse than our present owner,
     hoping they will or would spend huge wads of money as you put it.
     but I have my reservations concerning certain individuals, like the Ashley’s of this world, ready to get rid of the club and re-invest in cheap sports rubbish, by letting an old and venerable organization
     wither on the vine not unlike Sunderland and Boro. our neighbors.
     Perhaps you should try a blog on weird music as you don’t appear to have anyone who gives a damn about football “here” .

187. Of course our present owner is looking to sell NUFC as the opportunity of getting a real deal is slowly closing and it would behove him to grab a deal while the offer is still available.
     Meaning he will do whats necessary though it may be the powers that be are against it in general, we are certainly aware that the same six sides volunteering to join a super league were among those in the EPL who were against the Sale and objected.
     Plus to be insulted by the blogs owner insinuating I would accept
     anyone who was willing to invest in the club, sure I would that’s the difference between you and i, being I have been a supporter from the early post war years and would like to see the club do anything but fight a constant battle against relegation, whereas I could imagine being a supporter of the wealthiest club in the world, but have no desire to end up in the second or third leagues of the UK.
     And face it you are getting few if any hits here, try and evaluate your blog with a second or third league club.

188. I just read where nufc and Sunderland are competing for a supposed one point five million defender , actually I was unaware of such transfers being made in the PL, expecting few to be priced that cheap., but it’s a typical nufc deal cheap and nasty .
     As for your personal insults, please use a bit of common sense, but if that’s beyond you expect a return in kind.

189. Chuck, in one clause you say:

     “Plus to be insulted by the blogs owner insinuating I would accept
     anyone who was willing to invest in the club,”

     And in the next you say:

     “sure I would that’s the difference between you and i”

     Anyway I’m done with this argument. It’s not getting anywhere. We’ll just have to accept we have different opinions on the matter.

190. Chuck, I don’t know about Hugh but here in London we aren’t at the stage where we’re having to eat our own pets to survive yet. Last time I looked the UK had done 75 trade deals, though there is much concern about dealing with countries like the US, who have much lower food standards than Europe. I must admit to a weird kind of admiration at your persistent attempts to defend the indefensible, though you are no Carman QC, George Carman was an (in)famous former Barrister who, unlike yourself, really could defend the indefensible.

     Could we please go to the most recent blog to make further comments please? I’m going to shut down the comments on this one as we can’t stay here forever!