Greg

Pretty good endorsement that they're happy with the Trust tbh. In reality a 25% turnout for something like this is actually pretty good - and remains one of the biggest democratic exercises in English football. It's bollocks to say the Trust is only interested in fan ownership and the pledge - pledge is a long term thing - could tick away building up over 10 years or more - but could be there to save us if the worst happens or once we have a good fund behind us we start having serious conversations with prospective buyers. Or the takeover could go through - it not be needed and we wrap it up and make a big donation to NE charities that are very much in need, especially since the Northern Rock/Virgin Foundation was closed down which provided a lot of funding to local charities.

I've spoken to almost all of them, bar a few there is very little interest in this.

Pretty much at 50k.

I hope so. We're close to 40k - less than 48 hours in. Majority being monthly pledges. A great start, but we've hit a very small percentage of the fan base and need to spread the word. Big challenge is spreading the word outside social media and the online world.

2000 people who say they would be willing to give you £25,000 each is very different to actually having the money in the bank.

That is not true.

Launch event tonight for those that want to know more. Link for YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTk3m75mqr0 Link for Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chroniclenufc

I'm not expecting anything at this stage - I don't have a crystal ball. But none of us are naïve enough to believe it lets you run a football club, but neither would be want that. Fan influence through fan ownership does not mean a fan run football club. Newcastle United should have the best in the business appointed to run it at the highest management levels. We've said 1% is a target. We hope any new owners of the club would want to engage with the Trust. Buying a small part of the club just makes it more likely – but we are up front that it is outside of our control. We feel it’s better to try and influence things like this from the inside and through influence in behaviour and action than to do nothing and forever wonder. The rules and conditions around any investment can be tailored and negotiated as required at that point in time should we ever get there. Beyond this, should the club be relegated (a distinct possibility) then larger shareholdings could be in theory more possible in the years to come if it is required - you could see this as a life insurance policy in the event the club tanks to avoid the vultures that circle those types of clubs for personal gain (see various clubs that have been screwed over). It's worth noting as well that anything that happens in the future would need to be approved by members. As a PL club, committed owners who have a robust relationship with Supporters through the trust should not ever need to procure more funding from the fans. However it’s more likely if the club fell through the leagues this might need to happen. There’s a lot of ‘maybe’ scenario’s that we can’t address until they potentially happen. What we are trying to do is put the Trust and the fans in a position to even be in the position to influence/finance things if it is required. We will say often we can offer few guarantees – only that any money raised can only be used to pay into the club in exchange for shares/influence or go to charity.

It doesn't really - all the governance and structural arrangements of a formally constituted organisation that reports to the Financial Conduct Authority protect you in this area in so far as possible. It's about as safe as it can get in this regard. No individual has any real degree of control.

The Board has no say - no more than any single member - one member one vote. This is why we appointed the four Guardians' in Warren Barton, Ian Mearns, Lee Humble and George Caulkin.

Yep. Working on it - for some reason some non UK bank accounts don't seem to work with the GoCardless platform but we're fixing it.

All this shows is that you haven't even arsed yourself to take a look at the website and what the 1892 Pledge actually is and how it works.

There's pretty clear process attached to it - and any decisions go to vote of Members.

Bit busy in the build up to Thursday but would be happy to chat next week.

Vast majority of feedback we get is positive - which is really heartening. On Twitter I occasionally offer those that bash us regularly a phone call to chat and discuss ideas on how NUST can improve and move forward etc - they very rarely take me up on the offer. I wonder why.

She’s been a life peer in the House of Lords since 2014.

You all know he's posted this sort of thing for quite some time? Since well before he was instructed by Ashley / NUFC.

Well done Greg[/member] - and thanks, it needed saying. What did they say to you in reply? Not a lot. Just an acknowledgment.

Nope. Truly independent, enshrined in law, no blurred lines. The monarch literally has no influence - TCE is not a sovereign wealth fund - it is very different.

Not really - most of the social media stuff has been positive - with the usual bashing from the usual suspects that love a moan on Twitter but have nothing constructive to say or offer. Well there's been enough for the Chronicle's multimedia editor to report on it via twitter which is where I saw it initially. Just seen you've responded to it on twitter too. Surprising you'd do that if it's "not really" happening. As in the majority of tweets have been positive - the reaction from the majority to the nonsense - e.g the Chronciel's multimedia editor's tweet - was positive.

Not really - most of the social media stuff has been positive - with the usual bashing from the usual suspects that love a moan on Twitter but have nothing constructive to say or offer.

Are you on the Board or executive leadership of Man United? Unless you are, then you don't know you didn't bid. Just as nobody on here knows either. And it really doesn't matter - there was clearly interest at the time - be it whipped up by agents or otherwise -and it didn't materialise.