macca888

I fell out of love for the game many many years ago when the money men took over and cast the sport forever into outer space in favour of the almighty pound.

Moyes has stated that Taylor is too expensive and he is not interested. He is after Sederos from Arsenal. Taylor will be staying.

One thing I admire about our fans is the eternal optimism in the face of constant and consistent bollocks. If anyone really believes we will win promotion back to the PL with a ragamuffin bunch of has beens, also rans, kids and loanees, managed by a buffoon and owned by a first class, inept, self serving postulating tosspot, then they might as well scream for the little men in white coats. Simple answer to all this nonsense is: fight against relegatiion to league 1 if things remain as they are. After that, Gateshead might end up being the senior team on the tyne, boys.

Live in Oz again, 2.30 am, sunday morning. Damn, looks like I am going to have to miss church again..........LOL

I wouldnt worry about this l;ads. I dont think he will be within 300 miles of SJP on saturday. All paper talk. The guy is gutless and a coward.

HTL Regarding your post, I think there is an awful lot of difference between what happened under FFS and our current predicament. However, the only similarity is the club having an unmanageable debt, by all accounts. As for your comment regarding FFS love for the club against Ashley, I think you should backtrack on that one. We all know that Ashley's love for the club doesnt exist, but his love is the almighty dollar, or in your case, the pound. Ashley has tried to run the club as a business and failed due to the appointments he has made. FFS made similar failures but put the club on the verge of insolvency to make himself popular by buying inept players at hugely exhorbitant prices to please equally inept managers. Give Ashley his due on that one, he hasnt paid over the odds for any player other than possibly Collocini, who at the time, was an Argentinian international and highly rated by most on this forum. Of course, Ashley is still paying off the debt incurred by FFS, that is the 27 million for Luque, Duff, Owen, Martins etc.

Ashley cannot afford to sell because no bidder has agreed to his terms, nor will they, because he wants his 100 mill. plusloan back as well as the price of the club.

I am probably going to get absolutely slated for this bit I actually think Colo could end up being a really quality defender for us in the future if the following happens: 1. He accepts he is remaining at NUFC for the foreseeable future when the transfer window closes. 2. Realises that only quality performances, even in the CCC, will get him his place back in the Argentina WC squad. 3. Hughton and Calderwood arrange regular training sessions around him and Taylor defending in the CC environment. 4. Understand the time to play and a time to hoof. If we can achieve this level of organiosation in the bloke and get off his back, then he will prove to be an asset, that is, if he stays.

To be honest, I cant see what the problem is. Bassong clearly wanted to leave and why shouldnt he if he believes he is good enough to play at a higher standard. We have been no angels in the past ourselves and have basically got good deals off struggling clubs, particularly Leeds with Woodgate and Milner, who we bought well below their real value and sold them on at massive profits in a short period of time. Anyway, by all accounts, Basssong was a reasonable player in a relegation side and if we got no more than 8 million quid for a player we bought for half a million a year earlier, smacks of good business to me, especially considering he doesnt want to play for us any longer. My main issue is that the 8 million should have been invested immediately in several championship players such as Beckford of Leeds, Turner of Coventry etc. and clearly, that is not going to happen.

I think much of the problem relates to the Ashley's request for the 100 million loan to be repaid to him. I dont think any prospective buyer would have a problem paying 100 million for a club with the ptoential we have. It is more to do with Ashley wanting the loan back. Also, didnt Seymour Pierce say that a decision on the sale should be finalised before the end of the month? I think this 24 hour thing currently doing the rounds in the paper is nonsense. Ashley will try to get as much as possible from prospective buyers and if he decides to stay on, he must put some money into the club in order to achieve promotion or else the value of the club will further reduce and his losses will be even bigger. He is really in a difficult position personally and has to gamble on winning promotion immediately. To do that, he has to spend money.

THOMMO So, who is backing Moat? Dubai or the USA?

I watched the Coventry-Ipswich game last night and really enjoyed it. It was end to end stuff and no pussyfooting around. None of this diving around and feigning injury, just men getting on with it. Mind you, I am still trying to figure out how the hell Ipswich lost that game. They had some 20 shots to 6 at goal. Liked the look of the Coventry keeper Westwood and the yound kid Turner at centre half. Belive we should take a close look at him. I also saw a lot of the championship games on TV here in OZ last year and for entertrainment value, it mwas really enjoyable. By the looks of things, any 3 from a dozen teams could challenge for promotion.

What makes everyone think that Shearer is the answer? Lets be honest here, he didnt exactly impress in his 8 game stint against some ordinary opposition (Portsmouth, Fulham). Some of these players saying they would have stayed if Shearer was appointed makes me wonder why they didnt play for him during those 8 games. Whilst DOL isnt my first choice (neither would Shearer be as well), he has the experience, like him or not, and to be honest, does anyone on here feel we are in any position to pick and choose at present? We desperately need some stability, guidance and organisation, a figurehead etc etc etc. Someone who can look at the transfer window now and bring in a couple of bargains on free transfers (Camara, Campbell etc) in what little time is left. In all honesty, Shearer probably asked for too much and Ashley wasnt in any position to give him it. I am not defending MA but remember, he has paid off well over 100 million of debt from the previous regime and he made it quite public last year that we are still paying off transfer fees for the likes of Martins, Owen, Luque and Duff (27 million pounds). Granted, he has sold off other assets since but that has probably been out of necessity to minimise future debt. In all honesty, we need an experienced manager and DOL is probably the best we can get from an ordinary bunch.

Regarding the 20 million bamked, I would imagine as there appeared to be an agreement with Inter Milan to pay the Martins fee at 2 million a year, a substantial amount of the money from Wolfsburg will go to Inter. As I understand it, last season, we still owed 27 million in outstanding transfer fees including payments for Luque and Duff. Im would imagine we are now owed money for the sales of Given, Milner and N.Zogbia so along with the mkoney from the Basssong and Beye transfers, the debt would be considerably reduced and the value of the club could still be 100 million

If it is true and there are 5 consortiums involved in the bids, then MA is obviously delaying to get the best price. The other thing is this, if these consortia have been involved in the bidding and due diligence for the past 4 months, then you would think something mis going to happen soon. Surely someone would have dropped out by now. Shearer knows more than he is letting on. The fact that he is still saying he wants to manage the club tells me that he knows who the new owner is going to be and that he is certain to be manager.

only change to that team I think will be Barton in for Ameobi. Skirge...............by the way, stick a pint in the dogs paw and Marley could almost pass for Ashley. However, thats probably an insult to the dog.

Game is on live on Foxsports 1 here in Australia, 2:30 am sunday morning. Just watching a re=run of Boro - SU at the moment

As I remember, noone jnew about the Abu Dhabi mob taking over Man City until it was completed. Maybe the same thing is happening here with us.

Billytray Wassnt he only on loan to Portsmouth last season?

OK, not mentioning any conspiracy theories here, but I read yeaterday on one of the blogs that the takeover was happening early this week and Beckford from Leeds and Kaboul from Spurs were as good as signed already. Just a suggestion that if the above is true, part of the Bassong deal to Spurs involves the transfer of Kaboul to us. Just a thought.

Skysports are reporting that we have turned down a 10 million bid from Spurs for Bassong and a 2 million b id from Hull for Beye. Could be that because Shearer told Ashley he wanted both to stay and formulate the basis of the defence, moves are a foot re: the sale this week with new owners directing no more sales. Lets hope so.

Any more bloody smokescreens from Llambiarse and it will be more like a fog on the tyne.

Now this is possibly more accurate than the Dbai coinnection, if there is involvement by SJH. Isnt SJH still honourary life president of the club? Is he still on good terms with Freddie Shepherd, despite FFS having the club sold over his head to Ashley. When you think about it, if they are all fair dinkum for the club, the diamond mine billionaire as major benefactor of the club with both SJH and FFS supplying some back up funding in return for SJH remaining life president and FFS coming in as Managing Director/chairman, appointing Shearer as manager? With the constant rumours all pre season about FFS and Shearer involvement and the fact both have really been quiet in the press, this take over could have legs.

For what it is worth, Iran are not a bad side and have some fairly useful players. They are the current Asian champions and have a history of some of their players doing well in europe, especially Germany. The talk of Ali Daei is very interesting. He is by far, the most famous player to come out of Iran and played mat a high standard of club football with several teams in Germany including Bayern Munich. He is their equivalent of Alan Shearer and would probably be useful as a forwards coach at the club. If it is true about this bloke buyng the club, then interst in the middle east will probably boom for NUFC. Furthermore, if he is working out of Dubai, he may have a lot of useful connections in the finance world, which he could bring on board. However, my main worry is that there appears to be nothing on the internet about him although several very reputable middle eastern newspapers are quoting him and they are not often wrong.

I think my favourite moment was during an interview, he was asked if we could win the league. He replied, we have as much chance as flying to the moon. the reporter asked him if he would like to be there (obviously referring to top of the league) and Bobby replied straight faced, "What, on the moon?" Absolutely cracks me up. I live in Australia and have done since 1979. I came home in 2003 for the first time in 20 years and my wife and I were given tickets opposite the players entrance for the easter game v Villa. (Nobby scored a free kick in a 1-1 draw) I remember throughout the game, looking across to the bench and Bobby dressed immaculately in a black suit, white shirt, club tie, standing like a giant, directing, cajoliong, encouraging, praising and occasionally bolocking the players throughout. He was magnificent and I remember thinking to myself how dominant he looked and how proud I would have been to play for someone like him.