BottledDog

Still feel that maybe things could have worked out with Ashley. An owner who unlike the previous lot has taken no money out of the club, who's player recruitment team once installed have successfully brought in a raft of players that actually look like retaining or quite possibly increasing in value, got us on a secure finacial footing, whipped the academy into shape, and retrespectively, who's first choice of manager (which he was widely derided for on here) is actually doing pretty well at Tottenham now. There were positives, but, bang, yet again things go tits up for us. Keegan walks, presumably because he felt the club did not do all they could to bring in his first choices which undermined his position and, in his eyes, the squad, Ashley fails to talk him around or understand the depth of feeling enough to communicate properly to the supporters (even if there were certain conditions layed down by the lawyers), goes into hiding, and we're stuck in this fucking limbo. Blame? I loved Keegan as manager, never saw him as long term, but was very dissapointed in Ashleys chairman that that he felt the club were not backing him. Nevertheless the Ashley bashing at that critical time, especially the threats from respected fanzines was out of order. I still don't understand why things could have not been worked out, and Keegans choice to walk out at that time helped nobody and and certainly not the club. The structure failed, yes, but I didn't see it as clear cut, fuck knows what happened, and for that reason I'm not closing the door to anyone. We can't go back in time, but just as I would have been happy for Keegan to walk back in at the time, if Ashley can get things back on track then he will have my full support. If it's too late for that then fingers crossed the next lot have deep pockets, a lot of luck, and seriously thick skin.

Especially considering who his team seemed capable of bringing in, with most of our recent purchases likely to at least retain and quite possibly increase their value over time (a pretty rare thing for us).

Good stuff.

Loving the Villa supporters kicking off over Milner, and I'm finding it difficult to fault any of his signings. Not a dud amongst them so far, in fact they have all been bloody good and great value for money. /much better than the mostly misses Keegan brought in for City. //*Runs away quickly*

Because he wants to be even lower in the league? A team desperate to pay through the nose for a top striker however crocked, and his big chance to form a future international pairing with Bent for years to come. Tottenham's the dream move!

Nailed on for Tottenham, shirley.

Absolutely.

I don't think anyone on here is truly privy to exactly what he has or hasn't done. His track record here doesn't look too impressive with that said. Wasn't wise just charged with bringing in 5 youth players per year? Sure I read that somewhere. In that respect he seems to have done fairly well with the likes of Ranger, kadar, Tozer, Zamblera, and Spear. Though guess we can't really tell until any of them are ready for the first team.

You just have to look back at threads over the last few days of the transfer window and hardly anyone blamed Keegan for not getting all of the positions filled that we needed, so that point is miles off. The rest is the usual boring rubbish that gets posted by people that think Keegan can do no wrong based on what he done here over a decade ago. No because they were still dreaming about a wow signing and brimming with hope after Ashley's interview. I remember Roeder didn't get any stick until the transfer window closed and then as results suffered it was a stick to beat him with constantly. The same would have happened to KK once results suffered due to the lack of depth and real quality that never come in in the summer, guaranteed and you know it. As for can do no wrong, he is not that man but for those questioning his motives and character I say provide me with some evidence to back up these doubts with some facts please, like the facts I posted above about him. It shouldn't be too hard to prove he's skint or doesn't really love the club or engineered this given how often such claims are repeated on here as facts. You're wrong, dig up the thread that was posted after midnight when the transfer window closed and see how many blamed Keegan. Bang on. One of the byproducts of the new setup was that anger over signings would be directed at Jiminez or Wise or the board, taking much of the pressure away from Keegan. That's something Keegan understandably felt he could not work under and so under the team in place that system failed, but that's not the arguement. Why HTT is bringing up Roeder, I haven't a clue. It was the traditional setup where the manager is seen (whether true or not in the case of Roeder) as being in charge of finding players and getting the best deals, so of course he was going to be the one to get stick if it went wrong.

I am pissed off at people thinking that NUSC represents them it, strangely it represents Newcastle United Supporters Club. Are you in the club? I am guessing no here, so it doesn't represent you. As 'the voice of Newcastle United Supporters' of course I feel they represent me. I have no choice in the f***ing matter. They are the go to boys for the national media. Nice to see you missed Club off It is like saying the British National Party represent everyone who is a British National. Oh I'm sorry, have they not already been the subject of the national press? Have they not already been the subject of stories saying the Newcastle fans are continuing the boycott god know what? Or demand interviews with possible buyers. And are they not the fucking go to site if the newspapers have nothing to print... but wait there is another story we can jump on that newcastle fans are now fucking boycotting/demanding/upset about this that and the other? Course not.

I am pissed off at people thinking that NUSC represents them it, strangely it represents Newcastle United Supporters Club. Are you in the club? I am guessing no here, so it doesn't represent you. As 'the voice of Newcastle United Supporters' of course I feel they represent me. I have no choice in the fucking matter. They are the go to boys for the national media. Christ, there latest bullshit press release is just as heartening as the rest... "Newcastle United Supporters Club today welcomes the departure of Vice President (Player Recruitment) Tony Jimenez from NUFC with an air of cautious optimism. As one of the key antagonists behind the recent traumatic events at NUFC that have led directly to the club’s current instability, we believe that Mr. Jimenez’ continued employment at the club had long since become untenable. With the club currently up for sale it seemed increasingly obvious that Mr. Jimenez’ role at NUFC was effectively redundant and we are pleased, therefore, that he is no longer on the club’s payroll. The committee of NUSC would like to express our cautious optimism at today’s announcement and our hope that it can act as a precursor to the departures of other undesirable elements of the board followed by a quick sale of the club to a party who has the club’s best interests at heart. The departure of Mr. Jimenez must not, however, be used as a smokescreen, nor must his departure be a sacrifice that allows the current regime to maintain their hold on Newcastle United Football Club." Fuck off you miserable cunts.

I'm sorry. What? You dont have to be a sodding robot to look at the wider picture. As for the rest, the idea tha the manager is the be all and end of the club is just, well, mad. When there is no logic, no reason and no damn communication people will often go with their gut instincts and I think since KK walked, those instincts have been proved right by the complete balls up of a salvage operation Ashley and Co have attempted since then. I say attempted they've actually done nowt but release a few daft statements and forced by unhappy players to put Chris Hughton out of his misery and bring in an interim manager. It is perfectly logical for fans to react they way they did even if you don't agree with it which oddly enough I didn't myself (the protests and stuff). I understood the reaction though and considered fans perfectly entitled in the face of zero communication and the whole pointlessness of it all to react the way they did which is something believe it or not that fans, certainly at Newcastle, have done over and over again when things have happened they don't like or agree with. "Sack the board" predates trees. Well I do have a problem with people getting emotional to any degree that I feels damages the club. I'm not like you. You hated bellamy, you got emotional, same with Robert. Any quotes you jumped on and condemned them for it. I don't condemn so readily, I took what they said as not an attack but as pretty fair observations from players who took massive amounts of joy from of scoring for the club, or at least a damn sight more that some of the hard working passionless cunts some people seem to crave. Players that I love watching (not just strikers, I still bang on about woodgate who I got fucking joy out of his time here and have great hope that Collocini can maybe do something similar). I gave Ashley the same, I saw good things there. Not perfect but I hoped the relationship with the club would grow. Keegan walked. A massive fuckup but god knows what went on, and he got crucified. Maybe he didnt have the belly for the abuse, but then I'm not sure anyone who wasn't here purely to make money would have, he was demonised and had to go. I'm pissed off, and I'm sick that groups like NUSC are representing me, saying that we're willing to boycott the club and it's sponsors, and wish/demand to speak to possible owners purely to presumably warn them not to cross the emotional bullshit and employ a KK or Shearer or we'll walk. It fucking sickens me.

Are you ITK. What did he do? How many times do people have to be told this? Jimenez was the negotiator, and Vetere is the scout. All was made pretty clear by the job titles and their respective CVs where Vetere was a scout for Real Madrid, and Jimenez was a freelance superagent. So the article was bunkum. He didn't fly around the world sourcing talent, none of that shit. He was simply the negotiator. I thinks you need to write some strongly worded letters to the editors then.

I'm sorry. What? You dont have to be a sodding robot to look at the wider picture. As for the rest, the idea tha the manager is the be all and end of the club is just, well, mad.

Are you ITK. What did he do?

Disappointing to see him go, though not much of a surprise sadly.

Thumbs up from me, reads fine.

Impossible to argue with. When you use emotional language like 'it took a good man with Newcastle United in his heart to expose the sham', seriously, what can I say. You have a very sure view of Ashley, that he is clearly 'lying, conniving, manipulating and wholly untrustworthy', but for me there is very little about his intentions or the events that led to where we find ourselves that is particularly clear and straightforward. Oh, and I think most of the defending of the guy is only in reaction to some of the over the top attacks, not in any sense of loyalty to the er... fat cockney bastard.

Did he tell you that? He doesn't need to, it is so obvious now. For clarity I am not saying his intention was to sell the club on for a profit a year or so later, the timing has obviously been forced on him or rather the situation has dictated the exit earlier than probably intended. But in general the aim was always to sell the club on for a profit. and that makes him evil because? Because to do that succesfully would mean that the he would need to leave the club in a better state than he found it? No wait, that doesn't sound too evil. Actually, hold on. This structured plan, to clear debts, to build up the scouting network, bring in academy directors and coaches, and invest in youth (that would only see any benefit in some 3 to 5 years) and in the meantime try and bring in further outside investment to compete in the transfer market in the short term, doesn't sound all that evil or 'out for a quick buck' thinking at all! WHAT THE DICKENS! And spitting the dummy out over a few protests mainly populated by bairns doesn't scream committed to me... It was not just bairns, it was supporter groups and fanzines threatening that as long as he stayed there would be active boycotts agains himself and the club, and that he was not welcome to go to matches and continue to have the pleasure of being an active supporter. You could certainly level that he was nieve in thinking that he would be able to always get to do that, but I think the backlash shocked him a fair bit. If his reason for investing in the club was simply to sit back and use the club to make a profit then the protests wouldn't have been half as successful in forcing him out. A hard nosed consortium wouldn't have taken a blind bit of notice. But that's by the by. The argument was over whether he was simply here to make a profit. My arguement was that that didn't matter one jot if true, as all that he was trying to put in place suggested that he was not here to asset strip and was not doing anything intentionally to harm the long term future of the club. The opposite in fact. That's not to say he was right for the club or hasn't royally fucked up in some of his decisions. He has. Fuck knows where we go from here.

Did he tell you that? He doesn't need to, it is so obvious now. For clarity I am not saying his intention was to sell the club on for a profit a year or so later, the timing has obviously been forced on him or rather the situation has dictated the exit earlier than probably intended. But in general the aim was always to sell the club on for a profit. and that makes him evil because? Because to do that succesfully would mean that the he would need to leave the club in a better state than he found it? No wait, that doesn't sound too evil. Actually, hold on. This structured plan, to clear debts, to build up the scouting network, bring in academy directors and coaches, and invest in youth (that would only see any benefit in some 3 to 5 years) and in the meantime try and bring in further outside investment to compete in the transfer market in the short term, doesn't sound all that evil or 'out for a quick buck' thinking at all! WHAT THE DICKENS!

I think they claim to represent the fans so the numbers of members is dwarfed by the number who go to games and rightly or wrongly, they probably carry that number around with them for now. Why don't you start your own supporters club then so you can complain about NUSC in the public arena, and keep supporting Ashley or whatever your views are? Because setting up anything that is likely to fall into the trap of thinking it represents the 'voice of the people' kinda disagrees with me. I'll stick to the policy that anyone who hands me one of their leaflets/rants will will simply be told to fuck of, thanks.

More threats against him. Classy. ...besides I just cannot see any way that hanging around for a bigger profit makes any sense, the longer this goes on his ability to negotiate a better deal for himself I suspect would go down not up (besides, he's setting deadlines for a start which doesn't suggest he's simply sitting back in the vain hope some megadeal may turn up for Christmas). Chill, I cant see how a 'hurry up and sell to the first bunch that come along' sentiment helps anyone.

As a 'minority shareholder' he had no choice other than to sell, no choice but to put his name to that statement? Give over.

So it was all a Keegan conspiracy to make millions then. Blimey.