Wullie

Depressing state of affairs. Not to have managed a goal yet speaks volumes. Pre season means little but you'd still rather be scoring and playing alright than this.

We'd probably just play a 90 minute Sports Direct ad and get fuck all from it.

I love the thread title by the way, made me laugh out loud.

I think him being 4th choice centre half next season is complete fantasy, unfortunately. We really need another one imo.

Comparisons between Smith and Nolan are absolutely ridiculous tbh.

At £9m? I don't think so. Looney tunes.

Arsenal home 2007, Villa home 2010- that's about it? Last season, against Sunderland away - till he got injured - didn't he do quite well there, too? Went off after about half an hour like.

As I've said before, I'm glad I don't have that shite in my life. It's the derogatory opinion of people from the North East I can't abide. If you want to live your life on the moral highground, get on with it, but don't try and pretend it's a problem with us. Who the fuck do you think you are? United for Newcastle? You're an embarrassment.

Season starts in 3 weeks wormy.

He's even shit at his own PR.

Least you'll have the disappointment still to come on Sunday when you read the match report.

If you've such a problem with the way you think people from Newcastle are, why associate yourselves with us? Piss off and follow somebody else tbh. I'll have to go now, I'm waiting for the mackem driver at work to pick me up. Might smash his car up after too, the cunt.

The problem as I see it is that nothing about the idea serves as an effective deterrent for trouble and certainly nothing that costs £20 to implement. An incredibly transparent money making scheme dressed up as good intentions.

I don't see how this decision changes anything at all other than fleecing the supporter for a bit more money? I think this incident was a total one-off but ignoring that for a second, how will this stop trouble in future?

They have nothing but utter contempt for the fans of NUFC tbh.

The Junior Magpies used to sing it in the Odeon at the beamback games in the 90s, chorus led by some Century Radio buffoons. Not me, I was a miserable sod even then.

Unless they've been means tested in court. Saying that, I'm not sure if the £8k figure is before or after tax, probably after so Matt could be accurate, Otter will know.

What's he on? £20k a week at least is my guess. That's not peanuts for most Championship teams. He's on £8k. Not sure why you'd think a Championship free would be on £20k minimum.

Teams at the top end of the Championship could do a lot worse than Lovenkrands. He's on peanuts too.

That's Ranger.

I'm not trying to defend Shepherd, I hated him. Our income should be much higher than Villa and Everton because of the size of the stadium and much higher prices than sunderland. Tron's point about Sports Direct is a good one. The club must be losing millions in revenue due to most of the advertising space within SJP being coated in Sports Direct blurb.

I don't have a problem with big wages, that's the state of the game. What I do have a problem with is constant whinging and whining and crying about the wage bill left to him by Shepherd, then going and handing out comparable deals and then whinging and whining and crying about that. Absolutely no doubt in my mind that in the next 2-3 years, we'll see, at best, several of Tiote, Coloccini, Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Marveaux, Ba pushed out the door because their wages are too high - and some people will still bring Shepherd into it in an attempt to defend it. Makes me laugh when I see people defending not buying anybody because "Ba, Cabaye, Marveaux are on £60k a week" and then the same people saying we shouldn't be in for N'Zogbia or Sturridge at £60k a week because the club shouldn't be held to ransom.

Because a large number of them are financed by generous benefactors who are happy to throw money at their clubs? Like Stoke and Wolves? Aye, righto. Ok - I'll try again - other clubs weren't trying to correct years of negligent ownership that had created an 100% unsustainable business. Any other examples you'd like me to bat back? How long are you going to bang this drum? Will you still be defending him in 2015 on the basis of "what Shepherd did"? At what point does it become his responsibility seeing as there isn't a contract at the club that wasn't signed under Ashley? I'd agree that there comes a point where Shepherd's mistakes become irrelevant (even if they did set off a chain of catastrophic events). But I am not sure that pointing out that none of the contracts at the club were not signed by Ashley makes a whole lot of difference. He still inherited a mess and has to try and clean up that mess. This will be a popular post. It has to be said if Ashley left the club tomorrow he would leave it in a hell of a lot better condition than the day he took it on. In what sense? Not financially and on the pitch, the difference is marginal. Damn it man, don't ask me questions I can't answer. Any accountants online? I was thinking along the lines of many saying the club was on the verge of going under when Ashley took over. Statements from Mort etc. And that Ashley had turned that around, at least to a good degree. Am I way off? If he's prepared to write off the money he has loaned the club when he leaves, then you are right. We all know he won't and the club's debt (to him) is much larger than when he arrived. His status as a guarantor overshadows some utterly disastrous financial mismanagement from what I can see. For a Premier League club of our gates not to be able to afford transfer fees, well that speaks for itself imo.