Greg

Yes. Personal intervention from Ashley after Charnley and Barnes were pissing about fucking it all up and pissing off the players apparently.

Bonus row resolved according to Martin Hardy - £4M squad bonus if we finish 17th and the £20M if we win the FA Cup.

When we drew 3-3 at home to Man Utd under McClaren, there was a large banner going across the middle of the Gallowgate in the first half that read "Sports Direct Shame" on. It was quickly took down by stewards and the people carrying it ejected from the stadium I think. EDIT: Scroll down a tad on this and you'll see it. http://www.nufc.com/html/2015-16html/2016-01-12man-united-h.html http://barnsleycsc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SportsDirectShame.jpg

Yes. A nameless article by a coward at The Journal. Wheys keys, who got a lot right right at time, states in this his claim was £8M. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/sep/15/kevin-keegan-mike-ashley-arbitration-panel

For Rafa Benítez, injury was added to insult. After a loveless end to the transfer window and a summer of festering tension, the Spaniard set off for Newcastle yesterday after minor surgery to clean out an old hernia wound, but discomfort turned him back to his home on Merseyside. Those stitches and staples, that flare up of infection, feel symbolic of a club who are once again ailing. Benítez is stubborn, but his staff are advising him to miss Sunday’s Premier League fixture away to Swansea City. It is an inconvenience, but it may also be what the future looks like, because there is a sickness to Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United, a regime with an allergy to consecutive good decisions. Where their manager is concerned, supporters fear that a long goodbye has already begun. Promoted to the Premier League as champions, powered by momentum, coalescing behind a garlanded coach, Newcastle should, in theory, be in the rudest of good health, a rebirth the city yearned for. They were no longer the dead-eyed works team of Ashley’s Sports Direct, but an energised institution, promising more. Blissfully, briefly, they shimmered with possibility. That moment has shrivelled. Having confounded precedent by appointing a man with a gilded CV and a reputation for pushing clubs — as all good managers must — the sportswear retailer is sowing discord, spreading dismay. Last week, as the deadline approached, Benítez travelled to Switzerland to attend the Uefa elite coaches forum, chaired by Sir Alex Ferguson. Back on Gallowgate, Newcastle were trying and failing to sign Matt Targett, a bit-part left back, on loan from Southampton. It made for a depressing juxtaposition. “What an irony,” nufc.com said, that Benítez should leave such a prestigious gathering, “to try and manage a club with absolutely no ambition and run like a pub side.” It was not a dissenting voice. At True Faith, the Newcastle fanzine, there is “an overwhelming sense of dread”. The Mag, meanwhile, wrote that “the ‘Rafalution’ and Newcastle’s last hope now hang by a thread.” To understand the plunging mood, you must contextualise Ashley’s decade at St James’ Park, the two relegations, the dismissal of cups as not a “priority”. He has twice employed Joe Kinnear and meted out humiliation to Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan. The name of the ground was changed. There is plenty more, but as a banner inside the stadium summarised: “We don’t demand a team that wins, we demand a team that tries”. Alan Pardew, John Carver and Steve McClaren all explained that Newcastle could not compete, which was what made Benítez’s arrival last March all the more extraordinary, both from his and Ashley’s perspective. Benítez spoke about stature and history. He looked at the club and did not simply see the eyesore of countless hoardings for Sports Direct, he saw potential. At a meeting with Ashley at the end of last season, Benítez was given a budget and, like the previous year, encouraged to stay. He set up deals for Tammy Abraham and Willy Caballero but nothing happened. Abraham will face Newcastle for Swansea City on Sunday having joined on loan from Chelsea, while Caballero moved on a free to the league champions. Newcastle were playing catch-up but never caught up and Benítez, who refused to dismantle the Championship team he had assembled before replacements were signed, expressed concern. In public, he implored Ashley to “keep his word.” When all the haggling stopped, Newcastle’s net spend was below Huddersfield Town and Brighton & Hove Albion, both promoted with them. There was no new goalkeeper and no fit left back. “A complete shambles,” nufc.com called it. “These penny-pinchers are gambling with our future yet again.” In January, Benítez wanted two new players, but none came. An absentee landlord, Ashley began attending matches, but avoided his most prominent employee. Dysfunction again, infection spreading. There has been no direct conversation between them since May. When Ashley gave a rare interview to Sky Sports last month, he apologised to Keegan and Shearer, but does not have the wit to see history repeating itself. Not for the first time, Ashley is seeking to sell the club but he has learnt nothing. His drive for self-sufficiency at Newcastle now feels like ideological austerity. Beyond some skin-deep alterations, the training ground is unimproved. Commercial income has fallen. And now the team have been starved of investment and the great risk-taker has rolled the dice on doing just enough. Benítez is not a just-enough manager. He longs to repay fans who have shown him adoration but avoiding relegation is a questionable dream and although he will not resign, it is not unreasonable for him to expect more. When his health allows, he will get on with it, anchored to the club by a contract that stretches for one more full season, by his relationship with supporters and little else. One day, West Ham United, who are long-term suitors, or some other club will stump up Benítez’s £6 million release clause. Ashley believes he has spent too much of his own money, but millions have been wasted chasing his mistakes. He is making another one and the cost will be more than cash. He is not Newcastle’s owner, he is its illness.

But coming up with a formula that works is not so simple because you shouldn't be able to increase your ranking by playing and winning a load of friendlies, so it kind of makes sense. Just need to get rid of friendlies or remove them altogether from ranking calculations.

But even if you win it hurts your ranking.... We failed to beat Scotland at Wembley, which would have had a negative impact on our ranking. We shouldn't be able to make up those points by arranging a friendly with San Marino. But that's part of the point of the article. Winning friendlies doesn't make up points - it leaves you worse off. Isn't that his point? If you do shit in games that matter you shouldn't be able to artificially inflate your ranking by beating shit teams in friendlies - which you can't. It's a complex situation, only fixed by doing away with friendlies altogether tbh.

The box office in the club shop will be open right now, you'll need to send someone down there to sort it out.

Ring NUFC box office and they will arrange for a duplicate to be collected at the Swansea box office.

Man City 2-1 Liverpool Arsenal 2-0 Bournemouth Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 West Bromwich Albion Everton 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur Leicester City 0-2 Chelsea Southampton 2-0 Watford Stoke City 0-3 Manchester United Burnley 2-1 Crystal Palace Swansea City 0-1 Newcastle United West Ham United 2 v 0 Huddersfield Town

I could well be wrong but, they definitely have a sports range: http://www.mrfsports.com/ Always presumed they manufactured them. Either way, they're a big cricket name in India. When they first got involved with cricket they got a slap off the ICC and BCCI for just putting a load of adverts on a blank cricket bat so to get around the advertising rules they had to come up with a range of gear to sell to the public but all their stuff if bought in with their logo put on it. Quite clever really.

MRF don't make cricket bats! They have their branding on them but I can assure you MRF do not make cricket bats. They made a range that they sell to the public to get around ICC advertising rules but it's other peoples gear with their logo on.

Bony has taken 2 as his squad number.

Very good, but as usual some of his figures are a little off.

For the record, admins are not immune from the warning function.

Just make it up as they go along. This bit here shows how he's stealing probably in the region of £20 million a year from the club, and it's only one of many ways: To put things in perspective briefly, according to Newcastle United’s last set of published accounts (for the 2011-12 season), Newcastle United received slightly less in commercial revenue (£13.8million) than Norwich City (£14m). As for the Premier League ‘big six’ above Newcastle, Tottenham received £41.5m over the same period, Arsenal £52.5m, Liverpool £63.9m, Chelsea £67m, Manchester United £117.6m and, finally, Manchester City received a whopping £121.1m according to the estimable football finance website, the Swiss Ramble. With Ashley’s insistence that the club must stand on its own two feet, despite serving as a huge free billboard for his more important business interest, this shortfall could make it very difficult for the club to move forward both financially and on the pitch. The club has managed to improve on this front mind, which shows the potential is there for even more growth in this area. At last set of accounts ours was £25.1M and for example Everton was £9.3M - yet we are being told we can't compete financially.

Ignore me, looks like I can just buy them online on their website.

Anyone got an idea how I would go about getting a couple of tickets for Roma v Udinese on 23rd September?

Agreed. Takes some effort to be on the wind up for such a prolonged period.

Where's Mick?

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He'd turned them down less than 12 months previous. Without the SackPardew lot and they pressure they put on him he wouldn't have walked away.