BottledDog

Yup really hope he'll get to step up when Tiote disappears for a few weeks. Be great to see Vukic back in the next week or so too. Really love the fact that the ressies are a proper team of kids coming through where as in the past it sometimes felt like a bit of an afterthought, often peppered with fringe players trying to stay vaguely match fit.

Got to love a full back who goes stepover crazy. Well played Daveeeed.

"Someone" would have funded the club - good to know that. I too have seen some horrendous balance sheets and yes some of these businesses survived. I have never said the club would have gone into any sort of insolvency, but it was technically insolvent and had borrowed against every asset and revenue source. Ashley had to guarantee to fund it to ensure its going concern status - it was in REAL difficulty. So Shepherd said things weren't as bad as made out, he is is of course the man who said the club made a profit every year he was there. Numbers with brackets around them obviously don't count as losses in his world. We needed someone with proper cash resources to come in and fund it. One or two potential buyers had a look and we got Ashley who could fund it but was clueless as to how to run it. And no other f*cker wanted it. Whether you choose to go to games or not is, as you say, your call. Ashley owns it, he runs it how he likes and if you don't like it then you can stay away. For me I know what Ashley is like, I think he's a spiv but there again I don't like the look of quite a few football club owners. I'm more bothered about what happens on the pitch than taking umbrage at what he does. Just about all of us on here have supported the club even when it has been in absolute turmoil. It feels like a life sentence at times. But if the club puts some good entertaining players out there I want to see them play and want them to do well. Each to their own.... Do you think he would have bought the club if he had done due diligence? P I'm not sure he'd have had the chance. SJH said that Ashley was only the preferred bidder because the Malaysians wanted to take some time to go through things, while Ashley was willing to offer a quicker sale.

This years keeper kit originally had black cats on the arms in the first promotional pictures, they were changed to white cats by the time the top came out.

I'm really struggling to believe that anyone at the club including the money men didn't want that shirt back on the pitch and back in the club shops sooner rather than later. We had every intention of getting in a striker but were unwilling to take risks, and not just risks on whether or not they get value for money either. There is massive pressure on whoever comes in to fill that number 9 shirt, something they have sadly added to by taking so long, and I think once it got down to the likes of Maiga the personalities of these players were becoming too much of a question mark.

god, remember NE5's be careful what you wish for jive? and then when he started being proven right... feels like we're back on the other side of that whole argument but now ashley is in the freddy seat, problem is there's no-one in the ashley takeover seat He hasn't been proven right for me. There was a very real chance of us going down under Shepherd and there was no way he could have afforded to bring the players in that we did on Allardyces arrival, or plough any of his own money in if we ever got into difficulties further down the line. Added to that, we now have a squad and staff that I have a hell of a lot more faith in than the one he left us with, and I think we'd actually have more to worry about when it comes to any prospective new owner than we did back then imho.

Then stop looking at it that way. We're buying young players, players who have issue with their clubs, or recent injury problems who have potential to develop into players that normally wouldn't come to a club like ours. If they fulfill their promise, we do well, and naturally the price goes up and bigger fish may snap them up, giving us money to attract or retain better players in the future. If not, the risks are minimised. Where's the downside? Oh right, inevitably good players will leave. Yeah, like that doesn't happen anyway at the vast majority of clubs, whatever recruitment policy you have in place.

Tiote, Cabaye, Marveaux, Ben-Arfa, Santone, Abeid..... Havent these all arrived under his watch and probably a few others who slip my mind? what are we actually saying about these signings? french league winning captain well known french ligue 1 winger bound for liverpool 5 times (?) ligue 1 winner and all round famous frenchie ex-wonderkid italian u21 international and 'new maldini' as much as carr, unless it falls under his remit, the people who are sniffing out the deals and finalising them deserve massive amounts of credit imo Exactly. True, but who are we talking here, Llambias? Charnley? Are there others who actually do most of the spadework? Either way, top stuff on the recruitment side, staff as well as the players tbh. Shame they fucked up so royally when it came to the task of getting a goddamn striker in. If we’ve still got a problem in the striking department, it doesn’t seem to be a big one. It’s unfortunate that this search for another striker got held up as the deal breaker for whether the transfer window was a failure or not. It now remains to be seen whether Ashley / Llambias were right in sticking to their guns and not over-paying for someone who wasn’t going to improve us by very much. If we’re still in the top six by January, we might well be able to attract a better striker than was possible in August. Oh, I agree, maybe too much was made of it, and I'm not against holding out if there all we were left with was last minute deals that were barely upgrades. But they made a rod for their own back and it's an absolute joke that after 7 months we still started the season with the number 9 shirt stuck in a cupboard somewhere.

Spot on Raping puppies, pissing all over you, and rubbing your faces in it? That's quite an imagination. It's shite sub standard nonsense that most of us wish wasn't there, just like The Gate is to the town. Doesn't change what the club stands for in the slightest.

Appreciate your emotion but... nah. It's tacky and awful and would prefer it not be there, but that's as far as it goes for me, nor does it matter whether it produces money either. The money side of it means nowt, Ashley can bring in money, subsidise the club, take a shitload out like the last lot, whatever; as long as the strategy for giving us decent competitive football and a team I can enjoy backing on the pitch (as has happened since the drop) I'll have pride in the club and by extension the city, and that's all I care about to be honest. Absolutely chuffed at the minute.

Barton's been wank.

Lives in Ponteland and home life consists of, sitting on his arse, shopping in town, sticking his kid in an English nursery. Learns English off CD's. Likes tempo, atmosphere of the English game. SJP perfect. Imrpessed with Tiote, but best player is Colo. Friends with the Frenchies and the Argies. Likes touching balls with other players like Oba. Hopes to do quick short passes against Blackburn to make Samba dizzy. Scared shitless about the North East winter. Does indeed wear the Fonz's jacket/T-shirt combo.

Similar vein of thought in this article, though it might be edging towards a trollish bit of journalism for some. http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2011/09/23/2678888/leaner-meaner-and-proving-the-doubters-wrong-mike-ashleys

Doubt it, more like <2m. Jonas was £5.5m in the end wasn't he?

Sound like sensible fellows.

Why did we bring him in? Think of him as a potential 'Harper' to Kruls 'Given'. A slightly older, steady keeper with the kind of personality that will keep plugging away for a chance, without getting anyone down, or demanding a move every five minutes. By the by, I have a couple of Charlton supporting friends who seem to rate him and that'll do me. Also, despite his age, considering his rapid rise up the leagues they think he's got a fair bit of developing still to do.

Well, no, it speaks to his intelligence and his outlook. If he was happy with signing average players like Warnock or Carlton Cole - frankly another player that I think we would sign if Pardew was in charge of transfers, given his links to West Ham that he boasted about after signing Ba - then it says a lot about his management IQ, if such a thing exists. Of course Pardew has a great deal to do with incomings (less so with outgoings which is pretty par for the course), Carr has stated it often enough himself - recommendations are made, Carr organises trips for Pardew to see the players, then the final lists are given to the board. And as for going for English cloggers over foreign flair when he has a chance, can you explain to me his signing of players like Yossi Benayoun from Racing Santader in the past?

"this 'sexy football' thing is being imposed on him by the hierarchy" Damn the hierarchy and their desire for 'sexy football'. Bunkum by the way, Pardew throughout his career has tried to play football the right way as it were.

Can't stand Edwards, but yeah, it's decent for a national. The comparison to Allardyce is doing Pardew a bit of a disservice though. Yes he has made us determined, hard to beat, obstinate, belligerent etc, but I don't think in the long term he'd want us to remain 'not exciting'. From what I've seen he enjoys attacking play and players that excite just as much as the rest of us, and given time, with the lads we've brought in we may see some expansive football yet.

Jonas should start for me, there is no way he should be dropped after the efforts he's shown again this season but i'm really intrigued to see what he can do on the right. Marvaux on the left if possible, and then Oba challenging from the bench. The great thing is we have the 3 of them, and they'll all get plenty of time on the pich this season, and if 2 of them get crocked we still have Barfa who can cover both sides. Really looking forward to the competition.

Tiote, Cabaye, Marveaux, Ben-Arfa, Santone, Abeid..... Havent these all arrived under his watch and probably a few others who slip my mind? what are we actually saying about these signings? french league winning captain well known french ligue 1 winger bound for liverpool 5 times (?) ligue 1 winner and all round famous frenchie ex-wonderkid italian u21 international and 'new maldini' as much as carr, unless it falls under his remit, the people who are sniffing out the deals and finalising them deserve massive amounts of credit imo Exactly. True, but who are we talking here, Llambias? Charnley? Are there others who actually do most of the spadework? Either way, top stuff on the recruitment side, staff as well as the players tbh. Shame they fucked up so royally when it came to the task of getting a goddamn striker in.

Can agree with that.

2.5h

Reading NUFC.com, no one did. Beardsley disagrees, but then he has to really. Plenty Of Positives For Pedro http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20110920/plenty-of-positives-for-pedro_2281670_2457221 /not a jot about Nile mind.