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You can play us a tune on your tiny violin when you're giving away all of your advertising space at Old Trafford to Ineos for free And your players are cooling down in paddling pools and wheely bins

I feel bad for Willock that his part in that campaign is getting written out of history.

We have to be. How can we not be in the market? There's still a brand there that needs to be protected. Our accounts are public as well. Ratcliffe doesn't need to lie. We can see how bad it is. I know how bad it looks that the community side is going to shit. I truly believe that it's not a permanent solution, but tight measures need put in place right now or we're in big trouble.

If you were truly skint you wouldn’t be in the market in summer. But you will be won’t you?. Because you’re not as strapped for cash as Ratcliffe will have you believe. Cancelling a 50k emergency fund for old players whilst happily paying over the odds on wages and transfer fees ain’t a necessary cut mate. It’s forgetting the community side of a football club.

What do you think is happening with us though? We're being dragged through the media as we're cutting free lunches for staff because there's less than an empty shell. The stadium hasn't been touched and is rotting. We've been bought some time by Ratcliffe, who has already invested a decent amount of his own money, but we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth because we're lucky to have one of the best players in the world who is dragging us to cup wins. Without Ratcliffe's cash injection we were fucked, and I think the Glazers knew it which is why they opened some of the club up for purchase in the first place.

A large part of 22/23 success was the Joe's bombing up and down for 90 minutes.

Not personally. Not that attached to badges so it could be changed if / when PIF sold us on... Personally I think the current one lends itself to a blazer more than a strip / casual wear, some of the designs on here I've quite liked. Also the idea of having a simpler one on the strips and the current as a club badge ala Liverpool seems an ok compromise but like I say no overly bothered either way

Was just looking at his FBRef, and got distracted, this Finn Dahmen at Ausberg looks half decent

You've just come in this thread to start trouble haven't you.

He was our weakest link at LB. He's not looked a weak link at CB at all this season. Everyone down that right side of the pitch has looked a weak link at points this season. Including Schar.

In 22/23 this was true enough, in 23/24 this was extremely false.

I'd happoly see the seahorses gone. We don't need any Magpies either tbh - ateast not 2. I'd go with a bigger black and white badge and castle with a Magpie on the middle. Honestly I wouldn't mind a Juventus style rebrand.

Worked fine for Forest with Selz?

Where do you draw the line for necessary cuts though? As I mentioned above, we're £1b in debt. The debt stands at 1.7x our annual revenue. Maybe a poor comparison, but the average UK wage is £37,500. Imagine someone earning that being £60,000+ in debt. You would be licking the back of cling film to try and save money.

Agree and understood. But how much was your revenue when they bought the club and how much is it now ? What is your net transfer spending during that period? I'm not suggesting the glazer are good owners but please don't compare to Ashley as the only metric which your team wins or loses depending on how you look at it is the debt. As for mike Ashley he gutted the club and left behind nothing but an empty shell.

The Glazers and Ashley are both terrible football owners but in different ways. Ashley treated Newcastle as a subsidiary of Sports Direct and through mismanagement, hiring cronies and a lack of investment, he allowed the club to turn into a lower half PL team that regularly fights relegation and one has commercial revenues that are a fraction of previously comparable rivals. The Glazers took ownership of Man united through a leveraged buyout, putting the club into debt that is effectively secured on their future revenues. As an ownership group they have benefitted significantly (into the billions) from a combination of dividend payments, share sales and management contracts. They have overseen chronic financial mismanagement of the club that is only partly mitigated by their impressive commercial revenues, which are a function of man united's legacy rather than anything the Glazers have proactively done. Of course Man U have won trophies under the Glazer's tenure but their starting point was taking over one of the biggest clubs in the world 20 years ago.

Would people be upset with some Saudi green?

Not sure cutting the ex players relatively small support fund was a necessary cut mate in all honesty. That seemed ridiculously punitive and miserly. Didn’t Neville even have him for that in that interview?

The secret with Dan Burn is that he looks like our weakest player but he is far from it. Eddie Howe knew what he wanted doing when he played him at left back. Opposition managers would target him not realising that he is strong, deceptively quick and with long legs. Wingers could not find a way around him and meanwhile we were scoring at the other end. Unfortunately it’s no longer a secret within the game (see England call up) but seems to be unrecognised by some on here.

We're over £1b in debt due to their buyout. We've spent £1b in interest payments due to their buyout. They've still taken £200m out of the club in dividend payments. You're confusing the financial might of our club with the owners pockets. We can spend a lot every season because of global appeal and revenue allows it, but The Glazers have never put a single penny of their own money into the club, and instead have bled it dry. Mike Ashley never did that. Even when he loaned the club money, it was interest free. The Ashley era and The Glazer era can't be compared finance wise, you're right. Ashley was bad, but The Glazers are infinitely worse.

I was thinking something like that, but in the shape of the shield in our current crest.

All three of which will be totally and utterly dismantled in both their back yards and fortress St. James' when they come up against Newcastle United.

Quite crazy to think that two teams as bad as Tottenham and Man Utd are one win away from playing in the CL and a team as bad as Sunderland are a win away from the PL.

Totally get what you're saying but nothing in my lifetime (37) suggests that they will ever be able to consistently been seen as a decent football club. They've had 3x top10 finishes (in the top flight) since the 50s, I think. All of which have been since the turn of the century. They've changed their approach and are essentially (trying to be) a poundland Brighton, but for me their absolute ceiling over the next decade is a yo-yo club. That's not me being biased either - they're a much bigger club than plenty teams in the Premier League now, but the likes of Wolves/Everton/other teams that generally struggle for large parts of the season will eat them alive. I naturally dislike the people of sunderland and that stain of a city, but I've some very good friends and family members who support them. Can't say I'm happy for them but I feel nothing either way. If they go up, financially it will obviously help them but in the grand scheme of things, they're lightyears away from being an established top-flight club. It says more about the state of football than them in fairness, but a long old season awaits either of the teams in the final. There's also no guarantee whatsoever they'd bounce straight back up. I'd seriously be willing to bet my mortgage on them going back down. Any investor would see it as an opportunity to make a quick buck rather than be in it for the long haul. The best bet would be that the hang onto our coat tails when trying to attract players but they never would because of the animosity - we all know they hate the mags more than they love their own team. What's the way to approach it anyway? From what I gather they're pretty conservative, which will definitely help. Sell your youngsters to get a bit of a kitty? Well their youngsters are their better players, so then they're weaker immediately. Ipswich spent well north of £100m and they haven't laid a glove really. The gap is far too big and the playoff winner generally is at a disadvantage immediately. The club & 'city' (joke in itself btw) will always be known as 'the one that's near Newcastle'.