peasepud

Hung like a Chinese mouse allegedly

I kept a copy of them all.....just in case I ever needed Political backing 😉

Ahhhhh my old friend

Am I allowed back on here then? 😃

The sudden change in attitude on TT has an awful lot to do with the key people on there not getting re-elected to the NUST committee imo. I can see how that opinion would be formed but can assure you its not. Firstly, that thread shows many of those who were losing faith stated the fact before I or Tom came into the thread with our views. For myself, as Ive already stated elsewhere, not getting re-elected was not the reason for my views, they were already heading that way a good while before the elections. I had many an argument at committee meetings about things I wasnt happy with, lack of communication and the way in which Internet forums are viewed by the (now) chairman being just two of them. You just need to look at my "manifesto" to see my thoughts. NUSC (not NUST) is something I strongly believe in, when I came on here many times and argued the points I did so because overall I believed in the organisation and I still do. Things such as the £7m per month, I was sucked into and made to believe that there was proof of this from an independent source due out any day. When that programme was aired it turned out to be something totally different, do you think I took pride in being made to look a fool? As for YWC, we had a small group who were dealing with it day to day and believe it or not, they gave very little information to the rest of the committee (something thats still happening today and needs to be stopped). The rest of us however needed to back this, it looked fantastic from the basic info that was given out. If I and the rest of the committee hadnt backed it and promoted it as we did then it would have been doomed to failure without even a chance. Id like to think however that all promotion we did was informing rather than selling. I always (wrongly) believed that more info was just around the corner and by keeping people involved it stood a better chance when the full info was released. Newcastle United needs a supporters club, thats something I strongly believe, thats what we set out to build, yes it came at a time when all that was talked about was protest but the basis of a good supporters club should be working for whatever is best for the fans. Away trips, fan days, stuff to keep the younger generations interested in the football club rather than have them go to "successful clubs". It hurts to see what is happening now to the organisation I was proud to be part of, no consultation with the members, no meetings since it became a Trust (when Supporters Direct recommend 3 or 4 per year), the belief that those who post on places such as this are not representative of NUFC fans. All of that is wrong and needs to be changed.

In what way do you mean? If you're saying we shouldnt have mentioned the £7m until it was proven then Id argue that we have clearly pointed out that its not fact and at this moment in time is "hearsay"

oh and cheers for the kind wishes, little un is doing a lot better today, still in Special Care but working hard and for the first time in a week they are starting to talk about him possibly coming out.

And thats a fair point however it needs members, and plenty of them to get on the message board or email in and point out the fact, everytime I have pointed out something like this to other committee members then they dont see it because their mates in the pub, family members etc havent said its a bad thing and the members havent complained about it officially. They dont see it whereas I do because Im on these message boards.

Im going to be unable to provide any real answers here because Ive been out of the main loop for the last couple of weeks due to personal circumstances. What I will say is that the £7m isnt a figure that we've plucked out of the air, this is something that will be coming out through other respected media organisations very shortly. If it was down to me, I wouldnt have put that bit in the mail but we did and whats done is done, all I would ask is that when someone else reports the same allegation with the evidence to back it up then people need to backtrack on some of the stuff theyve been saying. Its a known fact, Ashley is taking money out of this club (and to be fair he can do, its his club, he owns it and he can technically do what he wants), the amount is the only thing that has been at question. When that withdrawal of funds however imacts the clubs ability to run properly ie last seasons transfer windows and the subsequent relegation then that is the fans business.

Nobody within the Trust thinks that running the club would be easy, its got to be one of the hardest businesses to get right. What I was getting at in the above is the amount of financial rules and stipulations which mean you cant even release information on these things until a thousand i's have been dotted and t's crossed. The model is still essentially the same model, its been refined and enhanced following feedback and ideas from other sources where we thought we'd be able to pull together some support and then release details of this aspect or mention of that backer turned out to be more difficult. Solicitors were onto it like a ton of bricks stating that nothing could be done until other things were in place. As for the comment on "moles and insiders", how many of those have turned out to be true? how often have we been fed some info that has actually been legitimate? Simple fact of life in this instance is that only those who need to know, do so and none of those involved have any interest in leaking the info. Theres no Redheughs here, it does nobody involved any good in leaking stuff. The fact that its running "beneath the radar" and not being played out in daily snippets of random bollocks from some "insider" should provide some comfort to those interested in this and go towards refuting the claims of those who say we're just a bunch of publicity hunters. If that was the case then we'd be putting out insiders with wild claims of "Microsoft and the Queen" backing it. None of that is happening because people have their heads down getting on with the low level detail and final preparations.

I think its safe to say we've all been frustrated by what appears to be a lack of actual progress (none more so than me). Numerous times I've made promises on here, TT and a dozen other message boards stating that further info would be out soon. Trouble is, its fairly easy to come up with these plans but when the actual in-depth work starts then you start getting into the territory of solicitors, financial rules and such like. This has turned out to be an eye opener for us, being told you cant "release this info" or cant "do anything with that until object A of document X has been agreed" has gone against the ethos of the whole campaign and the Trust itself. That has been hard for us to work with but its what you would call a necessary evil, these are the people with the important experience and knowledge in these areas and what they say goes. If only we'd known all this at the start then we would have been able to play out the six weeks differently and would have given everyone that view from the start. It is important though that everything is done properly, we will only get one chance at this, do it right and everything will come together, get it wrong and its all over, we cant ever attempt a fans buyout again because people will quite rightly look back at this one and say "it failed last time so its not worth trying". So from me personally, thats an apology however it goes with what we were doing, we've not asked anyone to actually hand over any money yet, simply register to say you'd be interested to know more. This is what is used by the big backers and financial industries to decide how popular this is going to be and its chances of working. Already we have what we believe to be a high enough level of support but its important that we get as high a number as possible. As soon as the full info is out (which will be in the next couple of weeks...honest :-[) then I will get it out on here.

If NUST ever manage to buy Newcastle United I think they might be in for an unpleasant surprise about how many "petty" red tape, rules and regulations they have to comply with. Just to clear something up here, we didnt hand out any leaflets on Saturday, we delivered them to bars around the city and left on tables within the bars.

I think its important to note that the idea of the surgeries is not to take questions on the likes of the Yes we can campaign or what the NUST is doing but more a chance for people to raise issues they have with the football club. For instance if you're having problems with stewards, the price of pies, warm beer, problem fans around you etc. Things that one fan on their own cant really get sorted or get their message across to the right person, we may be able to help out, the contacts and (although its probably not obvious) the fairly good relationship we have with certain relevant people in the club means we have a chance of helping out. Although, problems such as "how come Harewood gets a game?" arent really what we're looking for. Saying all that though, if you're in the Irish Club and do have a question on something NUST related then we'll happily attempt to answer it.

I did, it's somewhere in the depths of the thread. Basically we currently pay 12% interest on our overdraft, so £40m was costing £4.8m per year in interest. £200m through this scheme wil cost us £4m so basically if nothing else the football club would save £800k in interest payments but have had a cash injection of £100m+.

Apologies, Im chasing this today as I also agree there needs to be more info coming out now. I know it appears to have gone quiet but believe me in the background things are moving at quite a pace, the problem is the financial institutions are still putting those final touches to the documentation (the final touches I said a week ago would be done in a few days ). Once thats out then things will really start to step up a gear. Its frustrating though, I agree. Liam, I've taken your question away, I can definitely see the logic in what you're saying, if you bought a single £1500 investment then thats got to be easier to sell on than a £15,000 one, personally I dont see any reason (other than potential admin costs) as to why you wouldnt be able to sell it off in blocks ie sell 3 "shares" to reduce your investment to £10,500 and three new investors come into play with 3 lots of £1500 from yours. I'll get back to you on that.

Darts commentator. More importantly, the man who gave us Jossys Giants.

No, the decision to drop it to £1,500 was made quite late on, by that time the Chronicle had already drawn up the adverts. Not sure why they couldnt have been updated, it could even be that its an oversight on our behalf and not thought to chase them up and get them updated. Its been raised now, hopefully the next time one appears it will be correct....*crosses fingers

hmmm, cheers, I'll put that forward.

Seems Barry Moat is now saying in an exclusive interview with SSN that hes thinking of putting another offer in for the club and has this to say....

Names of the backers and businesses involved will start coming out very shortly, as it is everyones working on getting the financial aspects finalised, which are almost all complete but as I said earlier, things change once you announce, people such as yourselves ask questions that havent been thought of or give ideas which mean a few tweaks etc. What it does mean though is that we all get a financial product that should be spot on and have all the questions answered. The big businesses are then happier to be associated with a product which does exactly whats needed.

Yes, in total its a six week campaign.

The campaign is running for six weeks, by that time we will know whether this is viable and the level of monies we have available, if its enough then we will have our deposits in and be able to prove "proof of funds".

You can hear Mark Jensen and Lisa Bullivant from the Trust talking to Kevin Williams on Radio Newcastle tonight 4.50 - 6.30pm. Its a phone in so get your questions ready. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_radio_newcastle/

One of the main issues I imagine a lot of you have is just exactly who are the NUST? Who are these people who are looking to get a couple of hundred million out of us? Well why not come and find out? we're holding a roadshow next Thursday evening at the Blacksmiths Arms on Gosforth High Street, its free entry, John Gibson from the Ronnie is the special guest (whos always good for some stories and a reminisce) and we usually have a quiz and few other spot prizes. If nothing else its always a good way to spend a couple of hours in the company of other Toon fans, it will though be your chance to see some of those involved, talk to us and ask a few questions in person about the campaign. Just as now, we cant guarantee we'll have all the answers but we'll give it our best shot. Come along, have a beer and at least you'll know who we are when you're reading all that financial gumph thats about to come out.

I know a couple of people mentioned that they would like to donate to the orphanage that the NUST sent strips to (the ones that then sent a fiver towards the campaign). The orphanage's trustees live in Heaton and we would be able to forward any donations etc onto them. We will be more than happy to collect any monies or old strips (as they're always on the lookout for those) and send them on, alternatively the original appeal was ran through St Marys school at Forest Hall if you preferred to send stuff directly there, Im sure they'd also pass them on.