...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…)
Pardew speakethNewcastle United manager Alan Pardew does not expect much in the way of transfer activity while the squad is away in the United States for its pre-season friendlies.
Any transfer expectations we Toon fans have can be put on hold for a few weeks until the squad returns from its US tour and we get into the first week of August. Pardew said:
“I think that a lot of business will happen but not just yet.
“There are a lot of teams away at the moment on tour like ourselves. And I don’t think anything will happen while we are away.
“Like at every club, there are things going on behind the scenes. I think, though, that the first week in August may see a bit of a flurry in transfer activity.
“There are also some players that will be moved on and that will also affect things.” (more…)
C'mon Mike - what's the deal?What is Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley up to and is it time for him to let us in on his plans?
Mike Ashley still divides opinion at Newcastle. Some people like him and think he’s good for the club and others hate him and would have him hogtied, marched to the Bigg Market and placed in the stocks to be pelted with projectiles of choice. Then there are plenty of shades of grey in the middle of that – people who either think some of his ideas are bad and some are okay, or folk that are deferring opinion for now.
One thing Ashley rarely is, though, is predictable. Who, at the beginning of Ashley’s term of office, would have predicted he’d usher in the return of Keegan, precipitate Keegan’s unfair dismissal, put the club up for sale twice, receive accusations of being both cockney and Mafioso, appoint Chris Hughton as manager, sack Chris Hughton for no obvious reason, appoint Alan Shearer as manager, dig up Alan Pardew and make him manager, replace Chris Mort with a man of the owlish persuasion, oversee the team’s relegation, oversee the team’s subsequent promotion, rename St James’ Park to an email address and the plethora of other things he does that keep us guessing?
He’s certainly caused a fair bit of unrest in his time and I understand the sales of bedsheets in Tyneside shops have never been better. (more…)
Newcastle United's transfer warchest yesterday.On looking at Mike Ashley’s transfer spending in the last four seasons, it appears that in total, the club’s overall spending on transfer fees have been by far the lowest in the Premiership, with the club showing a profit of approximately £45,700,000 in the club’s transfer dealings for the 08/09, 09/10, 10/11 and the current 2011/12 seasons (so far).
Just to qualify the above, this figure does not include a series of diasastrous signings made under the previous regime of Freddy Shepherd, Douglas Hall and Sam Allardyce, some of which, though technically finalised shortly after Ashley gained control of the club, but were made under the previous administration. These include players such as Geremi, Alan Smith and Cacapa. However, if all the signings made in that season were included whether they were made under Ashley or the previous owners, spending would still show a deficit of approximately -£41.05 million from the the 07/08 season to the present day, as the clubs spending in that season amounted to approximately £7.65 million. It should also be mentioned that the club’s overall wage costs have also fallen dramatically since Ashley assumed ownership of the club, though in defence of this seeming lack of expenditure on the club’s playing staff, a Mr A.Pardew had this to say on the club’s transfer dealings: (more…)
Exit door loomsWith Enrique looking more and more destined to leave Newcastle United as each day passes and with Neil Taylor signing a new deal at Swansea, the left-back situation is now a priority for the club.
Newcastle are now pretty much resigned to the fact that they’ll have to hunt for a new left-back before the summer’s out. It seems fairly odds-on now that Jose Enrique will leave and last week Alan Pardew said:
“The noises coming out of Jose’s camp are that he wants to get a new club playing Champions League football.
“We cannot offer him that at the moment, so that seems to be his focus. Hopefully that will change. It is a moving feast. We have got to be ready because if he goes, it is going to leave a big hole in the team and we need to fill it quickly. But he does travel to the United States with us.
“It is not ideal for us, as you can imagine. It is difficult. We have offered him a massive contract for this football club and he does not seem to want to sign it, so it is a very difficult position.
“We have had no concrete offers, but we are going to try and have contingency plans in place so that if we do lose X, then Y comes in.
“We are going to have to give ourselves some sort of chance, so that the deadline-day struggle we had after selling Andy Carroll does not happen again. We not want to be in the same position as last time.” (more…)
