Benwell Lad

Thought they would have email and phones in Vegas by now ? Still, if this implies that they won't be able to sanction any deals then nobody should be leaving which has to be good. Surprised Chelsea ever buy ANYONE the amount of time Abramovic spends on his yacht. Maybe he's got a phone though ?

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/newcastle-utd/2010/01/10/desert-ers-leave-toon-79310-25565574/ Thats it then - no chance of signing anyone if they're not in their offices at SJP - I guess that must mean no departures too. Hasn't Farrington heard of email and telephones ? And the city council story - WOW ! His standard journalism is about the same as Ashley's standard of running a football club, he must have been inthe desert himself if thats the best he can come up with for his Sunday diatribe.

I think it has more to do with the issue of money. Most people aren't prepared or can't afford to part with such a large sum of money for it to be put straight in Mike Ashley's lap when he runs into the sunset laughing and celebrating with Derek. Unless I'm completely missing your point that answer seems a bit ludicrous. You imply that fans are unwilling to put their money into a "fan led" scheme to buy out the present ownership because the money would.... err... go to the present ownership ??

The Times "understands" that 6,000 people have declared intent to support "and the NUST’s financial advisors have cautioned that up to half of the pledges may not be followed through". So this current guess puts the number of potential backers at around 3,000. “The take-up has been astounding and demonstrates fans have the appetite to back the ‘Yes We Can’ campaign,” a source close to the NUST said last night. Based on the above figures I would beg to differ. 3,000 is a tiny number considering the club has a fan base of more than 100,000. It means less than 3% of fans prepared to back the scheme meaning it would almost certainly be doomed to failure. All the above is of course conjecture and hearsay, but possibly not too far wide of the mark and with no real information coming from the NUST theres little else to go on. We still look forward to hearing the names of the significant local businesses and institutions are who are backing the scheme - now scheduled to be released mid January - let's hope they can save the scheme, but a guesstimate of 3,000 supporters backing it hardly realises the dream of true fan ownership. I wonder if this could end up like the 1980's buy a player scheme which was a bold campaign started by fans' representatives with the aim of raising £100,000 to buy a player for the cash strapped club as the directors themselves were unwilling to invest. It started enthusiastically but was sadly wound up some time later with the organisers admitting that they hadn't raised anywhere near enough to buy a player but might have enough for a new set of strips.

Derby looked fuller, than Boro which was 49,600 or something, and as full as almost any game last season. Definitely more than 47,500.

"the more you eat, the more you - sha la la la MacNamee"

I agree with you about young player versus Premiership has been. His agent would have been watching in glee yesterday wondering just how much more he could prise out of any possible deal and will no doubt be hawking him around as we write.

Cant see any of our current strikers scoring that goal yesterday atall. Fair point but could he have scored the goal Carroll scored vs Stoke last season or some of Shola's this season ? It's a serious question as I know very little about Beckford other than he scores regularly for the team at the top of the third division. His goal yesterday was huge but after his poor first touch the keeper really should have got to it.

I've just finished the 80-81 season in the book, it's so amusing and yet depressing to read about it again. Exeter away 0-4, the Oldham riot, The Specials Mayfair concert etc stand out, but I was at most of the matches written about and we were absolutely f@cking terrible and yet we turned up in such numbers (away) and gave amazing support week after week. Our lowest ever goals total, truly crap players and shite grounds - no wonder there was so much fighting although by and large we were pretty oblivious to the violence and just laughed about it when it occured. I still see some of the lads from those days regularly at the match - and like you say about Tommy - occasionally bump into someone in the pub or walking up to the ground. I've never subscribed to the super fan thing but looking back maybe we deserve something for what we went through back then. Campaign medals could be belatedly presented to us at half time of some game.

The kind of numpty who moans about the former regime being "ousted" when in reality they sold the club to Ashley as quickly as possible, took the money, and ran to the bank, laughing. To be fair Fat Freddie was in hospital when it all went down and by the time he launched his own little salvage mission it was too late. Still hardly ousted by Ashley, was he? If anyone "ousted" Shepherd, it was Sir John Hall. Yeah, it was clear that the "offshore whoremongers" grabbed the filthy lucre and ran at the first opportunity. To say they were ousted is laughable.

Dead right Ollie.

Robbie Savage will no doubt get his usual stick but I have to say a couple of years ago he was warming up pre match (can't recall who for) and he went across to the Leazes End and started talking to some young Newcastle fans and got them involved, great crack and done cos he wanted to not for any "publicity" reasons. Not a bad lad really.

Black and White Daft - the book - superb !! Got it for Christmas - read about 40 pages so far and I was at most of the games mentioned up to now. You almost forget about how bad it was back then compared to the sanitised state of the game nowadays. It's good that this book will ensure those days are not forgotten.

Taylor looks far less of a liability in this league. Apart from the lower quality strikers, having Coloccini alongside him on a regular basis may also be a factor. This might just be a partnership that works. I hope so.

True. A forum is indeed a medium of free speech and diverse opinion. That said the title of this thread is extremely disrespectful to a top class goalkeeper and extremely loyal Newcastle player. It's something you'd expect to see posted on the pisspoor macum RTG forum.

Nobody within the Trust thinks that running the club would be easy, its got to be one of the hardest businesses to get right. What I was getting at in the above is the amount of financial rules and stipulations which mean you cant even release information on these things until a thousand i's have been dotted and t's crossed. The model is still essentially the same model, its been refined and enhanced following feedback and ideas from other sources where we thought we'd be able to pull together some support and then release details of this aspect or mention of that backer turned out to be more difficult. Solicitors were onto it like a ton of bricks stating that nothing could be done until other things were in place. As for the comment on "moles and insiders", how many of those have turned out to be true? how often have we been fed some info that has actually been legitimate? Simple fact of life in this instance is that only those who need to know, do so and none of those involved have any interest in leaking the info. Theres no Redheughs here, it does nobody involved any good in leaking stuff. The fact that its running "beneath the radar" and not being played out in daily snippets of random bollocks from some "insider" should provide some comfort to those interested in this and go towards refuting the claims of those who say we're just a bunch of publicity hunters. If that was the case then we'd be putting out insiders with wild claims of "Microsoft and the Queen" backing it. None of that is happening because people have their heads down getting on with the low level detail and final preparations. Point taken about moles and insiders. Most of it is normally way off the mark, I don't think anyone wants to hear rumours just for the sake of it but what I said was that in a small city like Newcastle where football is the No.1 topic of conversation it's unusual for nothing to be going around. Credit to you for keeping the information concerning major backers under wraps until things are formalised. Ironically when Ashley came to Newcastle the club started being a lot more secretive about transfer dealings etc. rather than playing it out on Sky television like the previous regime had. That policy extended into whatever sale negotiations took place and they were generally criticised for not being open enough with the media and fans. One thing I'm sure your organisation will be learning is that it's a lot easier to sling mud from the outside than it is to conduct serious and meaningful business transactions. Time will tell if you're up to the transition and I, like many others, eagerly await developments.

Newcastle is a city where rumours about our club circulate on an almost daily basis and there is always a "mole" or an "insider" passing information to the public domain about any impending business. Strange that there has been nowt circulating about any of the "major institutions" backing this bid.

I always found the rugby culture in South Wales different as it was a working class sport there. Hartlepool was a microcosm of that up here. In the NE, by and large, if you were good enough you played football, if you weren't you might turn to rugby. Hence the best athletes played football. It's probably the opposite in S.Wales.

Likewise most rugby players couldn't compete in a game of football. Nor throw a javelin, drive a golf ball 300 yards or hit a six in cricket.

I've really got nowt against rugby, it's sometimes watchable and I like to see the Falcons and other NE teams win. It's just the superior way they look down their nose at football that irritates me. I spoke to a woman recently who kept dropping the line that she had to "pick up her son from rugby" in a way that was supposed to mean "we're superior because little Johnny plays rugby not football". Pathetic. Also should in no way be confused with rugby league - a game where the blood is always real.

Fewer points than Boro had at same stage last season (I think) and notoriously bad in the second half of seasons. Oh and a manager who seems to have little else to offer other than blaming refs every week. Hmmm......

Watching Gareth Thomas speaking on BBC, the interviewers implied that if he had been a footballer he would have not had such support as his team mates would have been too ignorant and homophobic to understand him. Credit to him he did not support that view. Of course had it been a footballer coming out it the tone would have been more along the lines of "we always knew they were a bunch of nancy boys who love embracing each other but you'd never get that in rugby - it's a real man's sport" I remember a few years ago a hotel on Tyneside where visiting rugby teams stayed and they behaved like absolute yobs around the gym and pool, but of course in their superior way it was just boys having fun. Had it been a football team (who by and large behave impeccably) no doubt the police would have been called and it would have been headline news. Is it because TV and media are still controlled by ex public school boy football haters in this day and age ? Got to say I've never understood why grown men wanted to roll around in the mud groping each other anyway.

Bellamy didn't want to leave, Given did. By all means revel in your Given worship just don't get miffed if everyone lese doesn't want to join in. Added to that, Bellamy's departure had a huge impact on the team (and possibly the club) and has never been replaced. Given's (voluntary) departure has made virtually no difference whatsoever.

I've heard the mackems are coming up with pages of their usual drivel regarding yesterday's attendance at SJP and why it was nothing special. I thought it was bloody special considering, A) it WASN'T a derby. B) it was snowy and freezing and lots of roads in Northumberland, Durham, N.Yorks and Cumbria were unpassable. C) the metro failed due to points freezing. D) it was the game before Christmas - which traditionally pulls in the lowest crowds (the highest are on Boxing Day but we're not allowed home games on that day !) E) it was live on free to air TV. F) Boro failed to sell their full allocation. I actually thought it looked 50K plus in the ground and wouldn't be surprised if it hits that figure for the Derby County match.

Totally agree, back then the 1st Division was where the best British players played along with a few foreigners. Nowadays our 1st Division (PL) is where most of the world's best players play, meaning a lot of players who would have made it at that level years ago now play in the league below.