Mike Ashley: Is it all that bad?Over the past few years of the Ashley regime the NUFC faithful have had good reason to become discontented. However after drifting into yet another football based discussion at work, I had to think to myself, IS IT ALL THAT BAD?
Before I even begin I will clarify, this is not a pro-Ashley post, I have little time for him personally. Yet I am still firm in the belief that I would rather have Ashley and his crew in charge than a certain Fat Owner we all seem to remember.
Yes he’s broken up level 7, sacked the king, got us relegated and hired a man who looks like a Badger (Llambias) But he has also set us on a sound financial footing for hopefully many years to come. OK he’s setting us up to sell for a profit as soon as he has the chance, but at least NUFC will still be around in a few years time.
Look at Everton, can you imagine the summer of discontent that they have had, not buying anyone, let alone loaning someone as their wage structure and stadium demands are slowly killing the club? To top all that off they sold their best player on deadline day without time for a replacement (Sounds all too familiar) (more…)
Shoule we cut Pardew some slack?So a few weeks ago i decided that I was going to try and be as positive as possible about Newcastle United and to try and look on the bright side of life with regards to the current manager.
Reading this blog daily, and like most Toon fans, not in the North East, I crave even more than usual my daily fix of NUFC news. What I am noticing is that Alan Pardew is not only disliked, but he is hated by the majority of fans and has some very unrealistic expectations on his shoulders given the current regime hes working under. Every comment Pardew seems to make is scrutinised and analysed by the fans who are coming to the conclusions that he ‘talks far to much’, hes ‘patronising’, that he is an ‘Ashley propaganda machine’ and have already written him off as one of the Southern shandy drinkers ruining the club!
I cant agree, and in my positive frame of mind, as far as I can see he has not done much wrong in his relatively short term here, he was not my first or even fifth choice, but he is here now and I have a theory on why the fans should try to not be so negative about him and maybe lower expectations this season as its the clubs hierarchy, not Pardew, that clearly have the lack of ambition to move NUFC to the next level. (more…)
...and this is the clubs justification.Today we have a rather startling and a little bit of a confusing decision made by the club. In order to go to away games, you must be a club member or a season ticket holder.
The justification for all of this is the events that took place at the Darlington friendly which we can all agree made a mockery of our club and it’s fans. It was quite simply disgraceful to see the events unfold and even worse to see fans saying “they hope it happens again” – if that’s what you go to a football game for, do something else with your time instead of ruining it for the rest of us.
That, of course, is exactly what has happened today. The minority has ruined it for the majority and if you want to go to an away game, you had better fork out £20-£25 a year for membership or upwards of £300 for a season ticket.
A club statement today had this to say:
In order to combat any possible trouble at future away fixtures, a new policy will be implemented by the club which will see ticket sales restricted to Season Ticket Holders and Members only. (more…)
Not only does it save money, but it's also French!Mike Ashley bought Newcastle United to much fanfare in 2007 via St. James Holdings. Opting against doing the sensible thing and lodging a formal bid, he just went out and bought the stocks, forcing the then hospitalised Freddy Shepherd into advising shareholders to sell, sell, sell!
Thus came an end to Shepherd’s reign of terror over our club. He inherited a wonderful thing from Sir John Hall and promptly ran it, head first, into the ground. That was to end with our new chairman. A young man, famed throughout the great maze of Eldon Square for his cheap sportswear and throughout the business world as being reckless in his deals.
It was all roses for a while as Mike Ashley enjoyed a [many] pint [pints] with the fans in the Strawberry and even snubbed the directors box in favour of the Leazes End. Had Freddy Shepherd had done that, he’d have been hog tied, placed on a spit and spun over an open flame in the centre circle with his, rather ample, meat donated to third world areas of our great Earth such as Sunderland and Liverpool. (more…)
Birmingham target, allegedlyBirmingham allegedly want Newcastle’s Leon Best. Dan Gosling and Hatem Ben Arfa gets in some early pre-season training. And Michael Owen seems to have upset a few people.
With all the speculation about who we might be buying, I’d quite forgotten that other teams might want some of our players other than Jose Enrique.
If you believe the Mail (no tittering), freshly relegated Birmingham are after Leon Best to replace Cameron Jerome who Alex McLeish seems resigned to losing. I actually thought Leon Best did a decent job for us last season, getting 6 goals in 12 games, and of all our current strikers he’s the one I’d most like to keep, but I guess it depends on who we bring in over the summer to enhance our goal-scoring capabilities.
How much do you think Best is worth anyway?
Both Dan Gosling and Hatem Ben Arfa have made an early return for pre-season training to ensure that they’re fully fit for next season. (more…)
