NJS

You seem to have already made your mind up though. Just as leading as some of the other questions.

RM - just going by my experience - what I call proper football fans follow clubs. People who just follow England aren't "proper". It seems unnatural to me to suddenly "appear" in the away end as he did. Even if he'd said "Look, I was a Spurs fan on a casual basis but now I've bought NUFC I'll support them" I'd accept that more readily that what he has or hasn't really said - I'm just suspicious. If his answer to my original question was to provide an explanation which allay my suspicions then surely that;s the point?

If he'd stated he was a business man like Lerner or Glazer I'd have no problem - trying to act like he's one of the lads who stood on terraces is bullshit.

What gives you the right to deduce that he isn't? He might not be a 'genuine' Newcastle fan, but there must be something seriously wrong with the man if he decided to get into the football business if he had no interest in it. He won't say who he supported and according to his statement his first "memory" as a fan was the hand of god at the world cup when he was 23. I don't trust people who don't support clubs.

Why try and kid people that you're a football fan?

It's the first thing I though of and when I logged on to all the forums someone else on TT posted the same - that was before I knew anything about an SSN interview. Of course I completely accept my bias/cynicism.

Because he's the master of PR isn't he? Even if it wasn't deliberate you'd think someone would have said "hang on Mike this may look bad in some quarters" but that would involve either he or any of his lickspittels having the slightest fucking clue what's going on at the club or in the region. To be fair though, the majority of the fans at the game didn't know what was going on yesterday. I am not trying to belittle what was a wonderful idea (poorly executed), but I cannot believe that Mike Ashley thought that the first steps to endear himselves to the fans today was to piss on a parade. I agree with Ozzie on this one. Maybe the publicity was lacking but they'd contacted the club about it so someone there knew. And they had the batphone to Ashley right? RING RING Club lackey - Mike, that group that has criticised you non-stop since September, has made banners calling for your head, made press statements about you not speaking to them and them demanding answers has organised a charity day that hardly anyone knows about. Why not piss on their parade and release a press statement saying that you are going to take the club off the market. That will enrage them even further. You know how they think that you should run every detail about running the club past them first. Mike - http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/cerkir/123-1.jpg No - what I'm getting at is that it highlights how much not hands-on anybody to do with him is. If he didn't know about it then someone at the club should have seen a possible problem - I dunno maybe the club's PR department?

Because he's the master of PR isn't he? Even if it wasn't deliberate you'd think someone would have said "hang on Mike this may look bad in some quarters" but that would involve either he or any of his lickspittels having the slightest fucking clue what's going on at the club or in the region. To be fair though, the majority of the fans at the game didn't know what was going on yesterday. I am not trying to belittle what was a wonderful idea (poorly executed), but I cannot believe that Mike Ashley thought that the first steps to endear himselves to the fans today was to piss on a parade. I agree with Ozzie on this one. Maybe the publicity was lacking but they'd contacted the club about it so someone there knew.

Because he's the master of PR isn't he? Even if it wasn't deliberate you'd think someone would have said "hang on Mike this may look bad in some quarters" but that would involve either he or any of his lickspittels having the slightest fucking clue what's going on at the club or in the region.

Being realistic it was a chance to have a day where he can attend as more of a celebration before its too late - perhaps the fact that people can't face this fact was why it wasn't as well supported as hoped.

So the announcement of the no sale yesterday was just a coincidence was it? I don't believe in coincidences.

No - I looked at the miserable failure to improve the squad to any significant degree in the summer as a failure of the team put in place to do that strengthening and the financial parameters they were working under. I've moved on from Keegan and see the whole of Ashley's tenure as failure.

Not next one but definitely next but one.

I've stuck to my honest opinion and said profit.

You won't let that lie will you I said we'd be 5th or 6th now - I still think we wouldn't have finished there given the lack of depth. I also said that modest year on year improvement would only ever see us at the periphery of where I think we could be if Ashley had followed Lerner's model. How much did Villa spend last season for them to jump from a bottom half team up to 6th? I don't know the whens and the whos but I read Lerner had spent £70m since taking over. As I've said before I support Ashley's "responsible" plan but only if there'd been an initial splurge to kick it off.

Not with Kinnear in charge - imo.

You won't let that lie will you I said we'd be 5th or 6th now - I still think we wouldn't have finished there given the lack of depth. I also said that modest year on year improvement would only ever see us at the periphery of where I think we could be if Ashley had followed Lerner's model.

I agree, but we need to adopt a mentality that we are a top 6 club and anything outside of that is not and never will be acceptable in the same way that finishing second isn't acceptable to Man Utd. I think that isn't too much to ask for. I'm not sure I agree. I might demand we stay in the top flight, but other than that I just follow the team and am grateful for anything I can enjoy. It could be a lot worse, look at Leeds. That's what worries me - people using Leeds as an excuse to never give it a go - why don't you mention Chelsea or Villa who've had a go and seen it pay off to varying extents? I've seen us play at the wrong end of the second division and I'd take that and worse if you could tell me we'd at least have a go anytime soon rather than being happy being comatose in the premiership and bending over for other clubs.

On what basis? According to the supposed prospectus the selling points are the stadium, the squad and the revenue streams. The latter two will certainly not be increasing any time soon, in fact I'd say the revenue streams with a possible smaller TV deal and less ST sales will be reducing. Of course relegation would make a slight difference as well.

Do what thousands if not millions are doing and will do over the next couple of years - accept a market price for their asset and not what it was worth 12 months ago. Clueless mate, the fall in prices is being partly driven by there being no market for anything. Do you really think that means that as a consequence everyone is selling up? So no houses or businesses are being sold are they not? The interest of several parties proves you wrong - the stumbling block was the price. And you think he should sell at a significant loss to keep the likes of yourself happy? Why not - he doesn't give a shit about the club itself and he won't be getting any enjoyment out of it so why keep it? There is absolutely no prospect of him making money on it now so why not quit?

Or Joe Kinnear tbh diffrence is, jk has managed to do it....but dont let the facts get in they way of your agenda. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but didn't we lose 5-1 to Man United at home? MY agenda? Jesus wept. 5-1 at home to Man u? Yeah, you wiped that fact out of your memory? that was SA side, Keegans last game against man u when he chose the players he won 5-0,.. but dont let the facts get in the way of your agenda. This is a Keegan side then, no? Apart from Guthrie, No.

Two periods in the last 15 years - but that was with ambitious owners.

Get used to it - "responsibly" = mediocrity for the forseeable future. Thou shalt not even think of challenging the big four - unless you're Villa of course.

Do what thousands if not millions are doing and will do over the next couple of years - accept a market price for their asset and not what it was worth 12 months ago. Clueless mate, the fall in prices is being partly driven by there being no market for anything. Do you really think that means that as a consequence everyone is selling up? So no houses or businesses are being sold are they not? The interest of several parties proves you wrong - the stumbling block was the price.

So you honestly think if someone came in now with his asking price he'd give a fuck who they were? Un-fucking-beleievable.