Howaythelads

You would have said the same about the SJP expansion 5 years ago And? 5 years ago no one could have predicted that we would be in the freefall that we were at the end of Fred's time. That's stunning, don't you think? 10 years ago I don't think many predicted that we'd be in financial trouble and our future would be looking seemingly bleak. That's the main thing I've been trying to say so far, though god knows I've tried my best to sound as confusing as possible. ??? And in 5 years time Wenger may have let and Arsenal may be struggling to get 8th place in the Premier league. You've said exactly what I was getting at, the Emirates looks sound now, SJP look sound 5 years ago Aye, the MANAGER makes a massive difference, which is where we went wrong with the appointment of Souness, obviously. .....or even the sacking of SBR? No.

the meaning of the post was to explain we bought sub standard ones. I didn't expect you to understand, and I was right. We sold all our players that cost that amount prior to 1992, as that particular figure was of British record transfer proportions. I trust you can now attempt to make some constructive posts yourself, or continue to tell us how you laugh at our own players. Yet another chomp from the boy blunder! All too easy. Anyway, happy christmas ye daft sod. :-) You're dafter than I thought if you don't realise how transparent you are. I'll tell you what's daft. You and your stupid mates thinking that supporting the club = laughing and booing of our own players.

You would have said the same about the SJP expansion 5 years ago And? 5 years ago no one could have predicted that we would be in the freefall that we were at the end of Fred's time. That's stunning, don't you think? 10 years ago I don't think many predicted that we'd be in financial trouble and our future would be looking seemingly bleak. That's the main thing I've been trying to say so far, though god knows I've tried my best to sound as confusing as possible. ??? And in 5 years time Wenger may have let and Arsenal may be struggling to get 8th place in the Premier league. You've said exactly what I was getting at, the Emirates looks sound now, SJP look sound 5 years ago Aye, the MANAGER makes a massive difference, which is where we went wrong with the appointment of Souness, obviously.

I don't see why people blame the manager for what's going on, the Chairman is obviously to blame.

By the time he is 30 he might be able to cross a ball? Excessive optimism, there.

I'm not a fan of Barton. I've never really rated him that highly but the above post shows how little you know about football. To think that in a different thread you told Kev he knows nowt about football!! What a laugh that is coming from you. Barton has joined a new club with a new manager who wants to change things, then he was injured. He's eventually come into a side that is low in confidence and that is being regularly laughed at by a section of the "supporters." Has it not entered your head that his confidence may be low? No doubt you and your know-nowt mates in the Gallowgate had a wonderful time laughing once again at our own players yesterday, eh.

Naive young fool. Do you seriously think a few hundred grand a year is the difference between us challenging Chelsea. Priceless. mackems.gif You have a lot to learn about life lad, if you think people in business don't do this sort of thing everywhere. Fantastically hilarious. Anyway, I'd prefer you not to bother me again. oh dear Another decent post from you. No lies, no misrepresentation. Keep it up.

oh dear. its you again I thought about making a similar post but I frankly couldn't be arsed to respond. There's no point.

1) And I guess you were sitting on the board were you, with full knowledge of the influece Shepherd had on the running of the club pre 97? A football club is run by a board of directors, with the board being led by a chairman. It could easily be the chairman's strategic plans, controls and actions that ultimately decide how the club is run and what decisions it makes. You have absolutely no proof, nor idea, as to what contribution Shepherd made to the running of the club before becomming chairman. Neither do I. Until then, the only assumption that can be made is that he was merely part of the board that was following the protocols, strategies and visions of John Hall, or that he was part of a board that contributed to all of those aspects of the club's governance, with John Hall as the lead decision maker. I certainly dont think that from 92-96, Shepherd and Douglas Hall were the ones solely running the club and making the decisions, which clearly was the case in the past half decade or so. 2) Weve been down this route before. You specifically highlight the positives of Shepherd's reign as chairman, and completely ignore everything else, particularly the overall picture. The overall picture is simple. Before Shepherd took over as chairman, we were title challengers with strong resources and pulling power. Granted, noone is arguing that we should have maintained that position at the very top, but considering the competition below us were Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, its certainly a damning indication of the incompetency of the previous board that we slipped from 2nd to lower mid table, flirting with relegation dogfights several times, whilst the competition have all maintained or improved their positions, and won several trophies en route. Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool had good sides at the time, and they've maintained that status throughout the past decade (Chelsea never looked like a lower mid table team even before Abramovich's money) - whereas on the pitch we have gone from have a good side to a woeful one, purely because of the decisions made by Shepherd. For you to argue that we havent gone backwards since 95/96/97 is just you talking bollocks, and you'll know it more than others seeing as you go to every home game. Anyone with half a brain who has seen the huge decline in the quality of the team, especially after Bobby Robson's dismissal, can testify to that. Dont get me wrong, im not a Shepherd hater, I still admire him for having the balls and ambition to go for someone like Rooney. However, im not going to ignore the terrible deicision making, idiotic comments in the press, failure to back his managers at the appropriate times, and woeful appointments, made by Shepherd. You have it in your head that we went backwards as part of a natural process of peaks and troughs for a football club, but im telling you we went backwards because of bad decisions by Shepherd, not because of anything else. 3) Erm, yes, they do - its different for every business and a matter of choice for the shareholders. You clearly know f*** all about business from that statement. Many large companies have directors who are accountable to the shareholders (mainly at AGMs or EGMs), directors who tend to have no or insignificant shares in the companies they are running. If they make bad decisions, you can be sure theyll be held accountable and voted off, but they still make decisions in running the business, and obviously for practical reasons wont be getting the shareholders' permission for every decision made, even many major ones. Shareholders appoint these directors in the first place, which is why they tend to appoint people who know what theyre doing, and then you have standards and practices which deal with the relationships between directors and shareholders, fiduciary duties, etc. Anyway, irrespective of the points youve made, you quite clearly arent going to accept that Shepherd's reign as chairman should be seperated from his term as merely a board member. But lets not pretend we know how the board was run, nor try to redefine established business practices just so that we can form an opinion that is pleasant to us. Put simply, youre making huge leaps and jumping to conclusions in a desperate bid to portray Shepherd as a major play behind the successful times from 92 to 96. And at the end of the day, its pretty much a mute point as to what Shepherd did pre 97. The man made a mockery of the club post Sir Bobby by his own idiotic decision making ("lets back Souness!!!", the laughing stock of the nation) and outright lies ("ill appoint a top manager this time!!! I definately wont get it wrong, I cant get it wrong" after the Souness debacle, then appointing the caretaker), on top of leaving the club with massive debts whilst filling his own pockets at the same time. There's that mute point again. Mind you, that was the most interesting bit of your pathetic diatribe. Would you care to expand on the "failure to back the manager at appropriate times" nonsense? Please don't go on about the period when we signed Woodgate, Bowyer and Ambrose, pretending the club didn't make any signings. If you do, you'll just make yourself appear silly when the facts are placed in front of you yet again about the ~£40m spent on players over the previous 3 years. You should especially be careful about this because in this very post you are moaning on about debts. You can't have it both ways, or at least, any person of even a reasonable level of intelligence can see you can't have this both ways.

Goodo. Not that I'm trying to intimidate anybody, though. Shame you can't say the same, given your provocative and sarcastic posts all over this thread. Thanks again.

It would great if you limited yourself to this type of post more often.... I'm off for a pie now. Is that ok with you even though I'm obviously a useless b****** 'cos I'm fat? Cheers haha, why? because i disagree with you? so what? you do what you want mate, enjoy that pie, i've never mentioned weight, although you keep trying to suggest i have. by the way, interesting isnt it that i wrongly assumed you were taking a particular line of thinking earlier in the thread, and when you pulled me up on it i apologised straight away, and yet when i did the same to you regarding the fat comments, you pathetically tried to worm out of it without showing an ounce of humility..... its obviously not just the younguns who've got something to learn Not at all, anybody can disagree with me all they like, it's a forum and I'm always up for a debate but I don't think you're capable of it, hence my last comment to you. BTW When I made the earlier post in response to your comment about weight I wasn't trying to worm out of anything. You can swear at me now. Cheers again

Being critical of someone else is a bit rich coming from someone who is proud of sitting in the Gallowgate end laughing at and booing our own players..... You dont have a bloody clue do you? ;D Well I don't have a clue why whingers like you go to the match, if that's what you mean. I think laughing at our own players and booing them is a huge clue that you're not a genuine supporter of Newcastle United. Thats quite enough silliness for one night. I'm off for a few jars and to shoot some fish in a barrell. I'd like to say something like, "well deflected" but in fact I can't. It was a mistake on your part when you posted how great you think it is that you boo and laugh at our own players from your seat in the Gallowgate. Despite "forum personalities" and how things blow hot and cold on here between some people, that was one of the most amazing admissions I've ever read on this forum and definitely does not show you up in a good light. Things are posted during "debates" on here that I often think people don't really mean, I think many people arguing on here would get on over a pint or two. In your case though, I really believe you shouldn't bother going to matches. The club doesn't need people like you. You should take your heckling, booing and laughing to a kids pantomine, or something.

It would great if you limited yourself to this type of post more often.... I'm off for a pie now. Is that ok with you even though I'm obviously a useless bastard 'cos I'm fat? Cheers

How old are you? Cheers How old are you? Cheers I'm 27. Ta That was going to be my guess when he said he got his first season ticket aged 12 which was apparently 15 years ago. Mate, had I seen that post from him before I made my own I obviously wouldn't have asked him. Get it? You're clutching at straws in an attempt to appear smart, problem is, you aren't at all smart. That's fair enough, couldn't let the opportunity pass. Sorry mate FWIW I also agree with what you said here You're welcome.

How old are you? Cheers How old are you? Cheers I'm 27. Ta That was going to be my guess when he said he got his first season ticket aged 12 which was apparently 15 years ago. Mate, had I seen that post from him before I made my own I obviously wouldn't have asked him. Get it? You're clutching at straws in an attempt to appear smart, problem is, you aren't at all smart. Eh? Is that aimed at me? Errr obviously not. Just follow the quote messed up earlier by someone. I can't be arsed to fix it.

Being critical of someone else is a bit rich coming from someone who is proud of sitting in the Gallowgate end laughing at and booing our own players..... You dont have a bloody clue do you? ;D Well I don't have a clue why whingers like you go to the match, if that's what you mean. I think laughing at our own players and booing them is a huge clue that you're not a genuine supporter of Newcastle United.

How old are you? Cheers How old are you? Cheers I'm 27. Ta That was going to be my guess when he said he got his first season ticket aged 12 which was apparently 15 years ago. Mate, had I seen that post from him before I made my own I obviously wouldn't have asked him. Get it? You're clutching at straws in an attempt to appear smart, problem is, you aren't at all smart.

Decent post. Just wanted to be clear that nobody has said Fred ever used his own money to back any of the managers of the club. Of course the money spent on players was the club's money. Spending this money had to be sanctioned by the board and that is what is meant by people when they say, "the board backed the manager in the transfer market." This takes ambition that is not automatic. For decades, previous Board's of Newcastle United did not have the ambition to sanction such a challenge, hence we were often relegated, usually finished mid table to bottom half when we were in the top flight and regularly sold our best players to more ambitious clubs like West Ham and the nappy rippers, for example.

Had to laugh at the bit in bold.

Very childish. Why did the ex board attract you to the club BTW ? Much as I said I wouldn't bother replying to you again, I have to ask this, as I think its hilarious you admit this is when you started supporting the club They didn't attract me. Supporting my local side did. When exactly did you expect someone to 'own' their own first season ticket - given I was 12 at the time? I know kids could run around the streets in your day but times had changed by the time I was a lad. Those questions? I thought it might help if I kept reminding you? What with your age and that. Oh, and Matron will be around at 5pm for your dinner, so just reply after she's wiped your mouth and washed your hands. You've been making some decent points mate, but you're letting yourself down with stuff like this.

How old are you? Cheers How old are you? Cheers I'm 27. Ta

Being critical of someone else is a bit rich coming from someone who is proud of sitting in the Gallowgate end laughing at and booing our own players.....

How old are you? Cheers

Your reference to "he" shows you still don't get it.

we are talking about the performance on the field Johnny. Unless you think the chairman told the managers who to buy, who to play, etc etc, it boils down to the managers. This has been discussed, there is no way you can blame a chairman for players underperforming, as in 2 FA Cup Finals for instance. The job of the chairman and board stops at backing the manager, and that is what they have all done. They have all been backed with money and backing to put together teams good enough to have won trophies, and they have all won trophies previously to show that they also had the capability to do it. Especially Dalglish. And as we have also said, Sir John did not appoint Keegan, he didn't think of him, and he was outvoted when it came to appointing him, so you can't give him any credit for it, that goes to the 3 people who did ie Shepherd, hall Jnr and Fletcher. so taking the club forward gets the owners a pat on the back, and failing to capitalise on it and going backwards is the fault of the players, nice one I don't believe I said that. It's always the players who play. I do believe however, that you are looking like one of those people who are unable to differentiate between the different roles of players and directors. Nor do you understand that major shareholders of a multi million pound company don't normally leave the entire major decisions to someone else, and don't have any input, but we know that you are only spouting this nonsense to satisfy your agenda. au contraire, i understand everything here, including the excruciatingly difficult concept to grasp that a players role is different to a directors, are you having a laugh? i just think that freddy shepherd is a stupid c*** that we're better off without, and you dont, that's the only real difference between me and you, could you consider stopping thinking that everyone that doesnt agree with you either doesn't know the facts, or is just too daft to know what they mean? i'd love to know what my agenda is, by the way, because freddy's gone and the majority of people think he was a t*** anyway, i'd have to have a screw loose to be devoting my spare time to wrecking his 'good name' haha. Now you are looking a bit daft. If you think Shepherd is a dick and we are better off without him, then 87 clubs watched us enviously playing in europe regularly, and brought top class players to the club for a canny few years. As usual, I don't expect you to get a perspective, rather than chase a silly agenda. Also, if you think we were better off without the ex board, you wouldn't last 5 minutes supporting a club with a real s**** board. As usual, ALL of your post concerns the personality, which affects your judgement, but I suspect you aren't capable of seeing this. I don't expect you to take up factual issues rather than personalities or you would have done so by now. I'm not having a laugh ref my remarks about the difference in roles between players and directors, I think you - and many others - don't understand this. You clearly don't seem to understand when the job a director does becomes that of the player. BTW, I'll only think we are better off without the ex board, when someone comes along and does better. The fact that you can't grasp this fairly basic concept says everything. i can grasp the concept of your opinion, its not hard, i just disagree, they did a good job initially and then did a really s*** job and took us backwards, therefore i think we're better off without them, its ok though, i can disagree with you and still feel ok about it because its not disturbing to me that someone has different opinion to mine, i have no agenda You don't grasp the concept at all. From your posts it looks like you're posting on an entirely different subject. There's no doubt at all from your comments that your gripe with the previous board is nothing to do with how they ran the football club but is more to do with Fred being fat. mackems.gif I don't think you really have a clue what the previous board achieved for the football club. If you do know, then you have no grasp of the history of the club, given how you dismiss it so easily. Perhaps you think we have a divine right to win a trophy? I don't know, so you tell me. The reality is there is only so much any board can do. If they put in place everything it takes for the manager to build a team/squad capable of 3 top 5 finishes in a row, even though the league is the true measure I'd suggest that team is capable of winning a cup competition at least. If they fail to do so it can be for any number of reasons but it is not down to the incompetence of the board. This is really, really, really easy to understand once you can see past Fred being fat, a c**t or whatever other idiotic and childish label you want to pin on him. What happened was they made one terrible managerial appointment. I'm not underestimating how serious this was because it's the most important decision they have to make and they got it badly wrong with Souness. They then failed to put it right with Roeder, although he wasn't a disaster like Souness. Perhaps they got it right with Allardyce? If so, what will you and your type moan about then, I wonder? again, i UNDERSTAND all of that, i just have a difference of opinion, but if it suits you, you're right, i'm wrong, sick of this now anyway and by the way i'm not a moaner, i am definitely a glass half full supporter, fred's a c*** I don't care whether you think I'm right or wrong, I'm just pointing out that your criticism of the previous board isn't based on how they performed in their relative roles, rather it's based on Fred being overweight. allow me to roll my eyes back at you mate, because i've not mentioned weight at all, read before you post. Your posts clearly indicate that you "dislike" the man despite not knowing him, so "fat" will do. It makes the point that whatever the reason is for this dislike it's nowt to do with his performance in his job. I'd sooner refer to "fat" to make the point than referencing the daft tripe you actually do write.