Greg

"Newcastle don't want to waste time. Emissaries of the English club, owned by the royal family of Saudi Arabia since 2021, have traveled to Madrid this week to hold meetings with player representatives and, above all, with various LaLiga clubs with an eye on the next summer market. The leaders of the magpies have stayed at the luxurious Rosewood Villa Magna hotel (in the heart of Paseo de la Castellana) and have explored options to reinforce their squad. João Félix is one of them, but there is more. Since it changed hands, the growth of the whole of the north of England has been unstoppable. Right now they occupy fourth place in the Premier, with three more points and one game less than Tottenham, and their medium-term objective is none other than to build a team capable of being league champions. To do this, they are looking for a star up front, but also a solid base from which to build. And that starts at the rear. The British have been behind a central defender for some time, a footballer who leads the defense and who prints character. In this search (and in all the others), the English play with a great advantage: their solvency. They don't mind signing a well-paid defender and investing heavily to strengthen that area. At this moment they are one of the few clubs in the world that can afford a salary of eight million net for a center-back, which is why they intend to fish in the strong clubs of LaLiga, knowing their economic power to face a transfer high and convince the player with a high salary. Last season they already surprised by paying 70+5 million for Alexander Isak, Real Sociedad striker. In total, almost 200 kilos have been spent this course and it does not seem that the trend is going to go down. Laporte, destined to leave City, is another of the footballers that interest. In addition to a defender, Newcastle also wants to add a carat player for their attack and wants João Félix, a striker who, they understand, would give another leap in quality to the squad. The Portuguese player's loan to Chelsea ends on June 30 and there is still no decision made about his continuity or not in the blues. The Portuguese prefers to stay in the Premier and all parties are looking for a solution, at least for next season, but if they manage to agree, final. Another of the attackers that the English club likes a lot is Samu Chukwueze, Villarreal striker. The Nigerian's name is underlined on the agenda of several Premier clubs. In fact, in the past summer market he was about to leave for Everton. Even on the last day of the window, he did not even train as a precaution against a possible transfer. An exit that, finally, did not take place. The great season that he is having (13 goals and 11 assists) and, above all, his thunderous double at the Bernabéu has revalued him. Villarreal would not object to his departure because he needs to sell. Last summer they valued the player between 20 and 25 million euros. The good year of him will increase the demand. In short, the magpies have set their sights on Spain in their process of building a team capable of fighting for the titles and have chosen LaLiga as their fishing ground. They have ambition, money and goals to spend it on. These days of meetings in Madrid can bear fruit in summer."

Kuol wanted to go to Hearts, the deal wasn't lined up by Shola. Kuol wanted it as he thought being with the three other Australian's in the Hearts squad would help him settle in the UK etc. Hasn't worked out footballing wise for sure.

Not had a Saturday 3pm at home yet in 2023.

That's already happened tbh.

Nowt to do with me.

Definitely a player in there, holds onto the ball too long mind. A few times in the first half he dribbled inside then lost the ball or played an overly safe pass when he had easier options to pass to Willock or Bruno before the dribble.

Mental. Involve in a lot of those film tax scheme apparently. So will be big tax bills.

It means very little at this stage other than they've done what they have to do (publish this document and commit to some proper structured supporter engagement) under new Premier League fan engagement standard.

Think they went straight after the Forest game, but with Bruno and Joelinton given time off to go on a short break.

https://nufctrust.co.uk/news/ticketing-survey-results/ Ticket Pulse Survey - The Results The Trust continues to engage with Newcastle United on key issues that affect our members and the wider fanbase. With this in mind, last week we ran a short pulse survey to gather member feedback on a number of specific questions in relation to ticketing. Thank you to all 2,699 members that completed our pulse survey. The results show the majority of Trust members were broadly satisfied with how the club set the distribution for tickets for the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley, but with 22.9% unhappy it is clear there is some frustration at the process the club adopted. Please click here to find the results of the survey. Member feedback is important to us and the Trust Board will use it as we continue to engage with the club on this issue. At the end of the season, we will also run our annual survey to gain member feedback on a far wider range of issues.

Miggy out for three weeks apparently.

Also worth noting in that case as well, those that decided to do the co-opt were also elected and therefore can be removed. There are multiple layers of democratic process in play, but use of the co-opt process should always be kept to a minimum. I can't speak for the Board on here, only for myself. My view is the Trust was not functioning brilliantly for most of 2022, but since the AGM it has improved significantly, with far better member output and the new website is a huge improvement - see www.nufctrust.co.uk - but in terms of the Board - we need an election asap to get fresh new faces involved but we also need to attract the right type of people to stand for election. Being on the Trust board you are a director of a limited company and it needs to be taken seriously and you need to have the right skill set to really have an impact and to be useful to the Trust and its member. We'll run the election when we can once agreed by the Board and in-line with the Trust's rule and the election policy. The last election was a failure for the Trust as you know, I think in large parts that was down to how it was promoted, the lack of information, husting etc. It's imperative that it isn't ran like that again.

Everyone single member currently on the Trust Board has been appointed through a democratic process - elected / or put up for election. The co-option you referred to (which is within the rules but I don’t think should be used widely) was only to serve for the same period of time as that person was originally elected for (following a member election) and he was then made to be stand in the next available election. Not ideal - but certainly not self appointed and was twice subject to a democratic exercise.

From my perspective no issues with supporters clubs, in fact I am a member of one as well as the Trust. But they are very different things, a supported club is about building a community, and having events and other community benefits such as The Green Man event and the boat trips (which I’ve been on before and I’m booked on another for later this season). However, in my view any organisation that seeks to influence the club in how it is ran and operated, which is what a supporters Trust does as opposed to a supporters club, needs to have a formal constitution / set of transparent governing rules and all those running the organisation should be elected by the organisation’s members and not self appointed.

In public they've tried to hide everything. There's been an ongoing investigation by the local council that is responsible for the safety certificate at the stadium - as part of that process the Trust provided evidence of eye witness accounts - and during that process SWFC decided to reduce the capacity before any formal decision or imposition was made - effectively agreeing the stadium as was for our game was unsafe. They will now go through a process to try and put place relevant measures to ensure it is safe, and once they are in place will seek agreement from the council to go back to full capacity.

Not really, quite a normal reaction if you've messed up to seek to immediately volunteer a remedy before something is imposed and before you can put any measures in place to counter what might be coming. They will now be trying to do the latter before trying to seek agreement from the Council SAG to go back to full capacity. Reaction from Sheff Weds fans has been insane, can't go into detail but some of the first hand accounts that were sent in were harrowing, and all of these were sent onto the club and SWFC etc. SWFC didn't really want to know and have tried to do and say as little as possible throughout this process. It's an old ground, I'm sure with better crown management it could be okay, other grounds are like this, Elland Road and Turf Moor in particular.

Drop me a line and we can look into this.

No idea - would have to go back and have a look. Membership numbers remain very healthy - one of the biggest in the UK for a supporters Trust.

This is a short pulse survey to assist in ongoing engagement with the club but we’ll still run the much more detailed annual survey at the end of the season. We have ran member and non member surveys before on topical issues - so I wouldn’t rule out doing it again.