ToonTastic

I know we can refer back to Ashley's plans forever but is it not a case of Hughton was pushing for too big changes to quickly for Mike so he was replaced with another low cost solution to match the plan of hitting 10th for the next few years . If we get a few years in Europe his new plan might be to spend more on a manager paid with through the profits Newcastle generate.

What was our debt to the banks before Ashley took over ?

I assume the mirror got this story http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Newcastle-owner-Mike-Ashley-has-succeeded-in-slashing-the-club-s-wage-bill-by-21m-article717494.html from the same document and the accounts aren't actually available yet?

You know my real name, and I'm sure you're bright enough to type my name and Twitter into Google. By the way, Colocho means curly haired in Central/South America. I might be bright enough but I'm definitely not sad enough Yeah, I'm sure you just stumbled across my account amongst the thousands of Newcastle supporters on Twitter. I typed in www.twitter.com search "nufc"; the post I quoted was the first one that hinted at anyone trying to have 'insider knowledge' (as per TT's post, which sparked the initial peek) Sorry didn't mean to start anything off

To be fair it'll all be repaid at some point.

Thou protest too much. I didn't mean you lol it's spread all over the nufc side of twitter with people coming up with weird and wonderful predictions already

Loving the people on twitter now claiming ITK on this after reading this thread

You want Harper to teach other goalkeepers how to kick by coaching them, oh dear

Dont agree, no sense having him hanging round Newcastle where he knows nobody getting himself depressed that he can't play football and then seeing him push too hard to get back playing quick. Let him stop at home with his friends and family, pop over every now and again to feel involved still and learn the language back in France. Come back fully fit and able to train with the rest of the team in full training sessions towards the end of the season

Did this not happen when Keegan left? Lots of threats but little substance alot of it was down to people knowing knowing if the club would chase up the missing payments. The club however has come out and said in the website that they won't do this.

I may be a bit slow here in noticing but it appears if you pay monthly you can cancel your season ticket at any point during the season and they won't chase you for the rest of the payment you just won't get in the stadium. Doesn't seem a very secure way to run the finances of the club. If he pisses people off to much I guess there could be a mass cancellation of direct debits and the club would suffer a huge loss of cash.

Some call it being a knob... one other person would calling it: Winning!™ Nah not once you delete it when you scare yourself with what you've written

Pardew is benefitting from the team Hughton has put together. Personally think Hughton is a mediocre manager at best with his overly cautious approach, and that he sort of stumbled into a good thing with the midfield of Jonas/Nolan/Tiote/Barton somehow gelling into a quality unit for a newly promoted side, but even so we shouldn't overlook how fortunate we've been to again start the season on paper looking like we'd struggle immensely for goals/creativity/etc with limited transfers in, but finding things to be alot better than anticipated - all thanks to Hughton. He also had the balls to stick with something that worked after temporarily stumbling upon it, which in the past previous managers have failed to do. E.g. one time when we had Zog, Emre and Solano playing directly behind a lone striker (Martins?) with two midfielders in behind holding, we looked a pretty slick team because they kept the ball well and the team was forced to pass it on the deck - it only lasted 2 games because whoever our manager was at the time (Roeder?) decided to change things as soon as a second striker was fit again and we went back to pumping long balls and bypassing the midfield. Similarly, don't think Kinnear ever tried the system that Keegan found some joy with (Owen in midifled). At least with Hughton this didn't seem to be a problem, and once he did make a change for the better he usually stuck with it. Would Pardew have put this team together if it wasn't already in place? Would he have thought about trying Barton out wide, or stuck with him there if he hadn't already established himself as an excellent deep-winger of sorts? Would he have signed Tiote, or would he have gone for a reject from his West Ham days? What will Pardew do if we have to sell a few players and he has to rebuild the team? On the one hand, I don't think there's much to criticise about Pardew at present, given our lack of squad depth. On the other, I don't think there's much to praise him for either as he's just putting a team that Hughton built/discovered out on the pitch. But given his track record, I'm certainly a bit worried that when he starts shaping this team into his own we're going to be worse off for it. Agree with everything you've written

And if we're not paying, which I think we aren't, then what's the harm? We send him back in the Summer anyway. People just like to whinge. Think alot of the concern comes from Pardew who seems to be popping up places suggesting a deal will be done for Ireland in the summer regardless of his current fitness.

Current form guide has us 15th http://www.premierleague.com/page/FormGuide

I'm sorry didn't Villa just spend a small fortune on Bent ? Doesn't seem like a club which is to worried about their financial perfomance, more like a club where the owner is happy to help out.

Still don't understand what difference the few people who think AP is doing a good job compared to CH are seeing ? Is much really changed ? I can't see CH would have got many different results to what AP has. I even read some nonsense somewhere that AP was employed to improve the home form, that's the home form where we were unbeaten at home last year and although wasn't great this year was good enough for our first year back in the PL.

even if Guthrie, smith and Barton left?

Seems a damn good wage to me most top refs which is what this will refer to do at least 1 match a week so that's like £52k a year which is pretty good really for someone that creates no revenue. Can't they also be sponsored now which generates them more cash.

He was as bad as the other two morons except he could talk a good talk. Didn't he cost somewhere close to £4.5m for a years work ? And followed the company line at all times.

Not that old guff again. Keegan Transfers Feb 92 - Dec 96 Expenditure : £59,955,000 Income: £21,510,000 Diff: -£16,935,000 Jan 2008 - Sept 08 Expenditure: £24,800,000 Income: £17,150,000 Diff: -£7,650,000 TOTAL Expenditure: £84,755,000 TOTAL Income: £38,660,000 TOTAl Difference: £46,095,000 I looked at this just the other day, until I think his last two seasons of his first time here he was pretty much breaking even was he not ? It was only the dealings with the likes of Tino, Shearer and Ferdinand which pushed this up towards -16m. The club was always in Europe and bringing in more than enough money to cover these losses. As for the second period it is over such a short period it's pretty difficult to judge what his purchases and sales would be and how this would effect results. The club did need a full overhaul after Fat Sam remember.

Looking back this makes depressing reading http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,40533.0.html

I do agree with this, however this will be more down to UEFA than anything else by changing the rules on entry to Europe.

I'd met and worked with the man, directly in some cases and knew how his business mind worked. I couldn't see that changing with him taking over the club. I hated freddy as much as the next man but as has been said before he would get the cash and spend it when we needed it. He often went to far like he did with Owen and using all the sponsorship cash to pay for him. We're kinda looking for someone in the middle really. Someone who will run with what Ashley has now started but is happy to spread payments on players so we can invest in quality players to improve the team who are known quality when we buy them.

I have no doubts the club are doing well getting decent young players in on the cheap and well done to our scouting network for that cause nothing is changing in the youth setup to show that it's our setup suppplying these talented players it appears to come from the scouts. As for the long term deals great we are signing people on long term contracts. The problem is we are now a selling club and this is the reason for the long contracts. Long contracts mean bigger transfer deals. I have never liked Ashley and didn't ever want him to run the club even when he was getting on with the fans you can check my previous comments for that. He is running it how I imagined which is as a selling club trying to progress each year but in the long run wanting to make the business man at the top cash. He will be happy for this club to break even each year as it means he's not having to inject cash but welcome to the Ellis Villa model cause that's how it will be.