ohmelads

F*ck me sounds like Messi would struggle to get into this team. What could we possibly have to worry about?

If we can get him on a free and decent wages it's a no-brainer. Even if we get promotion, the rebuilding job is massive and if Ashley's here he won't do it and we'll be more than likely to go back down. But even if he sells, the rebuilding job is going to be an expensive one, we're lacking quality and depth all over the park. We have no matchwinners anywhere at Premiership level and these players don't come cheap. We need wingers, a goalscorer, midfielders, defenders. To land an OK right back on a free, one who is established at the club, removes one problem. I have a feeling he may have been loaned to us to put him in the shop window for a January sale though. His contract is running out and they're not stupid. They'll try to flog him to us or someone else in Jan. Having said that, we do have the advantage that it's pretty easy to "tap him up" while he's playing for us, so you never know we might be able to nick him on a freebie in summer.

Or the fans for that matter. Why has he come out when the fans are at their most furious and put himself directly in the firing line? Why break his silence just to do that? Hardly seems like the actions of a prospective buyer.

Closed-minded to what? Hardly any clubs have done this anywhere in Europe. Selling the naming rights to an existing stadium which has been the home of a club for over a century is extremely rare. The chairman has said it will not be used to improve the team. Of course it's a no-go, why on earth would any fan want this to go ahead? Do you honestly see our rivals worrying if we sold our stadium's name? Worried that we'll suddenly be financially stronger and buying better players? No chance. They'll be loving it.

Isnt that down to the President and the board not the people running NUST at the moment? If the club were to be run like Barca or Real Madrid (I assume they're looking at a similar model) then I would imagine a chairman (or 'president') would be elected by the fans to run the club. As Laporta was at Barcelona, or Perez who was re-elected at Real Madrid this year. Anyone running for election would surely curry favour with the fans (voters) by promising he will keep the stadium's name. No chairman/president would dare change it because he would lose the majority of votes if he did. Could you imagine a president at Real or Barca doing that? He'd be out the door straight away. The NUST are right there's no chance it would be changed because the chairman is chosen by the fans. It's not a foolproof system by any means but like most fans I like the Barca/Real model, both practically speaking and out of principle. It makes the owner accountable and gives the fans the chance to get rid if he's making a hash of things, or keep him in charge if he's doing a good job (eg Laporta who has stayed president at Barcelona for 6 years). There would be major question marks over how the club would be funded but right now the biggest question mark is whether we have a big enough fanbase to make it a reality.

What utter bollocks. Llambias has already come out and said the money will not go towards transfers. He said there will be little or no transfer kitty in January whatever happens and he would prefer more loan signings. Moat is either badly out of touch with events at SJP or his "bid" was a classic salesman stunt by Ashley to flush out potential bidders. Having read these comments my money is on the latter.

Sounds like he's saying it to take the heat off Ashley. A bit like how his "bid" did recently as well. Certainly looks that way.

..which is what he's already doing. Look at his recent performances. Are you suggesting he would retire because he feels guilty taking people's money?! This to me sounds like a bit of a tantrum because he's not being picked for club nor country (due to his attitude to most likely). He needs to sort himself out. You have to say that on the evidence so far Ferguson was right to get rid.

Reading between the lines of this and Llambias's latest comments, I'll be very surprised if there are any cash signings in January. I'm guessing Simpson's contract would be extended if offered to us, and Harewood and Kniz may be on their bikes to be replaced by new loan signings. If Simpson is in the final year of his contract then Man Utd may try and pedal him for some handy money in January. It may well be that they loaned him to us to put him in the shop window.

Looking at the name, the most obvious conclusion is that it's been done to piss people off. There'll be other motives, but that was definitely one of them. Ashley flew in with his helicopter like the big boss, handed Hughton a contract, took the club off the market and gave the stadium a comedy name which has left fans up and down the country laughing at us again. He wants to prove he's in charge. Who's going to argue with him? Llambias? Hughton? Just to eliminate any doubt in your mind, I will remind you of our stadium's new name: Sports Direct @ St James Park Stadium. It's clearly a pisstake man, look at it. They have even tagged 'stadium' on the end of 'park' just to emphasize the name change. Ask fans of other clubs what they think and they will tell you it's clearly a pisstake, that's half the reason they're finding it so funny.

They may only be 3 points from the top four, but if you look at the table there's a lot of teams bunched up around them. They're only 3 points above Burnley. It only takes one of Villa, Spurs or Man City to go on a run, and they look capable of challenging. Before the season began I thought the top 4 would remain the same. Now I'm not so sure. Liverpool will get their fit players back and will go on a run of wins at some point. They will be there or thereabouts, no doubt about that. Man City will be up and down but if they can find consistency they'll pose a real threat. I expect them to try and get rid of some of the dead wood which is cluttering Mark Hughes' squad and replace them with one or two real quality players. Their squad is way too big and I think that's causing some of their problems. I'm certain Rafa will get til the end of the season. His job will depend on finishing top 4 though. That or an unlikely cup run like the time they finished 5th in the league. Back then, winning the champions league probably saved him his job. I remember a lot of fans in Liverpool wanted rid.

How would we know? F*ck all has been done to put pressure on Ashley whatsoever, pretty much since he arrived at the club. It's quite amazing given all that's happened. That's why he doesn't give a sh*t and thinks he can get away with anything. The way people are reacting, maybe he's bloody right. The current regime is having a negative impact on the team. Forget about the fans. The squad is paper thin, there is a good chance it'll get weaker in January. This squad will struggle through the season and if things stay as they are I don't think we'll make it to promotion. I really don't. Injuries always tend to pile up after christmas as players start to feel the effect of the season and with some of the crocks on our books and the size of our squad, it'll be stretched to the limit. Soon as we throw those academy kids in we will drop points and you need to be winning nearly every week. There will always be a negative atmosphere before, during and after the game while Ashley is 'running' the club. Whatever happens against Peterborough, this will be in evidence all season. This idea that protesting would somehow upset the harmony is ludicrous. The fans aren't happy and the players shouldn't be either - the total lack of squad cover has cost us plenty of points in recent weeks. If you give an inch, he'll take a mile. How many times before people realise this? We have tried doing nothing and look where it got us. To think there are still people saying "hang on, maybe it'll all turn out alright". Unbelievable.

The performances have been pretty crap though let's be honest. If dodgy 1-0 wins turn into 0-0 draws and 0-1 defeats I can see some lazy journalists blaming it on the protests, even thought the same thing happened a couple of weeks ago against teams like Scunthorpe, Notts Forest, Bristol and QPR.

I think the idea is to give it such a ridiculous name that when Adidas or someone come in offering the "Adidas Arena" some fans would say "f*ck it that's an improvement on what we've got". It's utterly ruthless but it makes as much sense as anything else I can come up with. They have chosen a deliberately farcical name and their efforts to try and hide it by calling it a 'showcase' are pathetic. No sponsor is going to pay millions a year for a stupid name like that, as someone said looks like a f*cking email address.

Do you really think that's the reason our players would want to leave??! Because fans are angry at the owner who has left their squad wafer thin, run the place like a circus, given them 4 different managers to play under and second tier football?! Someone comes in for Enrique and he buggers off, you really think it'll be because people shouted nasty stuff at Mike Ashley? I imagine the players were pretty pissed off at the lack of investment in the squad themselves.

So roll up, roll up & put your name to something that the MD of company trying to flog you the "@" is telling you nobody is going use. f*cking hell, to think this guy is a chairman, he runs a football club.

You seem so sure of this but what has ever actually been done to put pressure on Ashley?

To be fair you obviously didn't read my post or got completely the wrong idea. If you read it again you'll find I'm agreeing with you. I'm all for a protest now - the time for chinstroking is well and truly over. As I said, there has to be a line where you say enough is enough and if he hasn't crossed it by now then we deserve him. Not a lot has even been done to try and get Ashley out or even put pressure on him - people seem to think he holds all the aces but he doesn't. He does what he likes because he keeps getting away with it. Ultimately he needs the fans, it's a business. I don't care for those who say protesting won't work. Something has to be done. I think people are easily fooled by the league table, we have been eeking out results and - protest or no protest - our squad's permanently on the brink on injury crisis and we've been promised it'll be propped up by loan signings again after xmas. Simply getting behind the lads and hoping it'll all be alright - it won't. I won't be back in the north east until next month but I'll take part in any protests at the ground. Because if we're going to sit back and take this we may as well throw in the towel and stop supporting the club. The situation has reached an absolute shambles.

I'll have to quote this in bits cos you've addressed several issues here. The achievement would be forcing him out of the club - not making him poorer for the sake of it. I'm not convinced it's the right thing to do either, not while we're top of the league. I wouldn't advocate it right now, because when you're in first and your position is bloody precarious it doesn't make sense to rock the boat. But that could all change in a matter of weeks if we pick up a few injuries or he sells a few players. I think a lot of people will see what he does in January. Llambias has already said he'd be looking at more loan signings in January - and he didn't mention whether more players would be leaving. We could be a lot weaker come February and we're eeking out wins as it is. What worries everyone though is even if we go up, he has had ample opportunity to show his commitment to this club and he's run it like a circus, operating in the transfer market on a shotestring budget. He's admitted he knows nowt about how to run a club yet insists he'll call the shots. If we go up we'll be straight back down with Ashley in charge, I'd put big money on it. So where does that leave us? Our best hope is promotion and a quick sale. The new owner will have a bloody hard job but if he makes a good fist of it we could stay up. Even if that means bank loans - you have to speculate to accumulate and noone would buy the club without having that in mind. But ideally we need a new owner this season, someone who can make plans for the summer and hit the ground running. You make it sounds like we're giving up promotion by forcing Ashley out, but promotion is far from guaranteed at the moment and the club is not being run well at all. Right now I'd put promotion at 50/50 because injuries and the January window will probably make us weaker. This is where we disagree. I don't think it's based on impusle at all, I think this is the straw that broke the camel's back and the anger people are venting is a result of 2 years of seeing their club taken apart. I believe it's reached a situation now where if we do nothing he has carte blanche and he knows it. The more complacent he gets, the more he will asset strip and damage the club. Look at the events of the past week and if a line has not been crossed then our fans deserve everything that's coming.

This is precisely the attitude which has landed us where we are. He doesn't hold all the cards for the simple reason that massive championship attendances are helping to bankroll the club through this mess. Take them away and who has to fund it? If he puts it on the club's debt that's money coming off his asking price. Whatever way you cut it, it hits his wallet. But nothing has been done to hit Ashley where it hurts. Ever. Is it any wonder he doesn't care when 44,000 fans are turning up? I really am beginning to fear that a boycott will be the only way out. Sometimes you have to take a step back before you can go forwards.

This is it though. Every chance that players going out the door won't be replaced. It'll just leave us even weaker. We saw that in the summer. Take out the loan signings and look at our squad. 2 centre backs, 1 player for the right hand side. Ashley is more than capable of leaving us without cover or even first team players and the last thing I want to see is Hughton scrapping around in February for a winger on loan - anyone he can get.

Because it could all go pear shaped at any time. You could say this about any club who lose a few games on the trot but our situation is so combustible it feels like we're sitting on a time bomb waiting for it to go off, because all we have ever had with Ashley is bad news - it makes you cautious. - Scraping unconvincing wins. Feels like it won't last. - Lunatic in charge of the club who seems to openly dislike the fans. - Anything could happen at any time, almost always bad. Said lunatic "failed to find" a buyer, said he's staying.. - ...and appointed his caretaker as manager until 2011 after his worst run of results. - January looming. Selling one key player could trigger others to look for the exit. Ashley spent nowt in summer, let 8 or 9 go. - Stadium may be renamed. - Top but very tight league table. Couple of defeats could drop us to 8th or lower. - Injuries at any time could totally f*** up our season. The squad is tiny and being propped up by loan signings and academy kids. I think January will be critical to how our season pans out. We'll know a lot more about our chances come February 1st. Until then we take nothing for granted, every 3 points are precious but without the performances to match it makes you worried.

Hard to argue with this but in the Championship an average player can let his physical attributes dominate more. I admit we've seen little of it from Gutierrez but I fear that if you take him out the squad we'll be a lot worse off. I also have a feeling that if he goes, Enrique will follow and others could see that we're selling and jump ship too. This is one of my biggest fears about January, Ashley will try to pocket more money and in doing so players will get itchy feet. Try replacing two left-sided players in January, on a measly budget, and come up with two better players than Gutierrez and Enrique. No easy task, let alone gelling them into the side and then you've got the Ashley factor - would he replace them at all? I think with one winger at the club and a team desperately lacking in pace, width and in some cases attitude, it's a case of better the devil you know with Gutierrez. We'd be mad to sell our only winger without bringing others (yes plural) in first.

I like to put the boot into .COM for the way they've got up themselves as much as the next lad but you're chatting s**** here. Local Hero and St. James' simply aren't comparable. One was a song (which I like, for the record) by a faux-Geordie that was introduced a few years ago. The other is the name of our ground and has been since the 1880's. I don't agree with the banner adds, i'm sick of the sight of seeing Jennings Ford advertising some wonderful deal on Fiesta's, but again they're not comparable and it doesn't make them hypocrites. If the crux of .COMs opposition was bourn out of some anti-capitalist sentiment then fair enough but it's not. It's about history and heritage, something a two-bit website simply doesn't have. And please don't try to paint Mike Ashley and his pals as some unfortunates who can't do anything right. Maybe .COm would've kicked off had they poo pooed persuing other revenue streams but that's because said revenue streams don't begin and end at renaming the f***ing stadium. Good post. It seems the only way people can try to justify this is by making absurd comparisons to totally unrelated situations. I can't fathom why any Newcastle fan would want this to go ahead, and I certainly don't believe we or any fans would accept this without putting up a fight. You can't compare this farce to Arsenal or Bayern getting new stadiums or to Local Hero being changed by the DJ before kick-off! And in today's world, you can't compare it to adverts on strips because almost everyone has those and almost noone changes their stadium's name. Let's stop trying to compare it to something it's not and just call a spade a spade. dot com don't seem to be on any high horse of their own here, they're sticking up for something the vast majority of Newcastle fans believe in. With the club in the state its in, battered bruised and humiliated, pride in the club's tradition is all the fans have left. You can't take that away from us. Or can you? If we let this happen, where does it end?

There's no point going around in circles because these are the facts that can't be escaped. Ashley is talking about selling our current stadium's name. No, we won't get a new stadium out of it, like Arsenal and Bayern did. When Arsenal moved from Highbury it signalled the end of an era and a sad moment for many fans. But they were moving into a shiny new home, a better stadium with much greater capacity, and a move that was necessary to compete with their long-standing rivals. More fans would get to see their team, the benefits were huge. If Liverpool move, it's exactly the same story. If we sell our stadium name, we get a few million quid a season. This money will likely go straight into the club's debt, ie repaying Ashley for the debts he didn't pay off but said he did. It's not even remotely the same as what Arsenal did. If Adidas are happy to finance a whopping great San Siro-esque stadium in the toon then I'd be all ears, but if they're just planning on slapping their name across our current one so Ashley can pocket a few million quid they can p*ss off. We, the fans, will get little if anything from this. We have to oppose it - not just from a moral standpoint but if we tolerate this we will continue to be walked all over by this man. He's getting 40,000 plus gates while he treats the fans with utter contempt, he's laughing at us and there has to be a line where you say enough is enough. He has proven time and time again his main concern is to get money out of the club and flog it on, if he gets away with this scot free then the club and its fans deserve everything that comes our way because it's bloody obvious what he's up to.