Benwell Lad

An extremely sad story.

PP your post above has explained some of the issues I raised in mine.

When I talked about names in the frame though I made it clear that these were experienced business people, I honestly dont know any of the names because Im not involved in the discussions at that level. What I do know though is that these would be people that we would be happy to see running the club. As I also said, these are names that have been sounded out as to whether they were interested, more will appear as candidates Im sure as time goes on. Hell if you know someone suitable then make sure their name is in the frame. None of the current committee have the experience to do this and would not be in there. I can safely say I wouldnt personally vote for them if they were. We need big business brains and a football knowledge. Thats not to say the President would have the football knowledge but you'd expect at least one of the people who surround him to have that. At the end of the day, its the voters that decide the President. 5,6,10,15k Newcastle fans arent going to vote for some daft arsed shop assistant or civil servant over some self made business genius. As I said earlier, this is not a stitch up to get ourselves in there and make a shed load of money. If you want that then give Moat a call and offer him your cash. As far as Im concerned, the day this happens and everything is in place then I will be moving back into working on the Supporters Club side of things and have nothing to do with the football club stuff. Theres many better qualified to sit on the board than the likes of me. Thanks but it doesn't really address the bit I wrote below the bit you highlighted which was :- I assume if you say the 2% is guaranteed for 2 years it will be placed on deposit during that time ? As most pensions funds have gained 25%+ in the last 9 months and lost 40% in the year before that it may or may not seem attractive to a potential investor, but as you say "after that it's dependant on how the club is doing" which I assume means our investments will be more of a a market driven PLC type arrangement. Also I've asked the following twice :- If this campaign gathers momentum, would NUST view any subsequent offer to buy the club from Ashley as a rival bid ? In the future would they be sympathetic to a serious bid from serious investors or do they now see themselves as the only way forward ? Sorry if these questions are difficult, but I would have thought that on the day a multi-million pound buyout plan is rolled out to the press and the public, you'd have been able to give potential investors this information. I don't really understand why you said to me "As I said earlier, this is not a stitch up to get ourselves in there and make a shed load of money. If you want that then give Moat a call and offer him your cash " Is there something we should know about him ?

On the 1st question I dont have the answer, I know there are some names in the frame (and I promise you I dont know who the names are) but obviously not all of them yet as we dont know who else will come out of the woodwork as such and we'd be daft to draw up a list based on people we've spoken to and then say "right no more", the list wouldnt be drawn up until election time. As for the salaries, again I dont have that answer, you'd have to assume that they would be the going rate for that kind of position, its no good getting people on the cheap, at the same time theyre not going to be silly money above the likes of Man U, Chelsea etc. I'll ask the question but I would honestly assume that there is no actual figure decided yet. The 2% is guaranteed for the first two years, after that its dependant on how the club is doing. Promotion would obviously see us having a higher income but as we know also higher outgoings. Nobody could say until two years time what the possible figures would be. Again I could do a Graham Roberts and promise 10% as in two years time who would remember? but frankly we're not interested in doing that, all answers will be honest ones not made up to get you to buy in. Thanks. The elected board member structure is clear, it's the "managing" directors bit that interests me. If as you say there are already "names in the frame" then it sounds like people already involved fancy the posts, which doesn't sound too good unless they already have considerable experience of running football clubs. I assume if you say the 2% is guaranteed for 2 years it will be placed on deposit during that time ? As most pensions funds have gained 25%+ in the last 9 months and lost 40% in the year before that it may or may not seem attractive to a potential investor, but as you say "after that it's dependant on how the club is doing" which I assume means our investments will be more of a a market driven PLC type arrangement. My questions stem from a post by "Shellshock" who sounded like he/she was from NUST, on page 6.

Don't need accurate figures, but what kind of "ball park" salaries and contracts will be on offer for the Commercial, Financial, Legal and SIP directors. The best people won't come cheap. Will these posts be advertised or do you already have people in mind ? Is the 2% return on investment guaranteed ? And if so how ?

If this campaign gathers momentum, would NUST view any subsequent offer to buy the club from Ashley as a rival bid ? In the future would they be sympathetic to a serious bid from serious investors or do they now see themselves as the only way forward ?

Man talks sense Not entirely sure, as that would imply that takeover discussions would be taking place on the strength of an £8M escrow account. Ashley made it clear he needed to see the real money previously, so I think it should be clarified whether it's 5% of the pledged amount or 5% of the amount required to make the deal happen.

Sshh ! This is no time for a reality check.

Surely this is part of the job of the chairman of the club not the job of NUST ? The salaries would therefore come out of the clubs budget as it does now ? I'm sure it will be and I'm sure they would, but it doesn't answer the questions I asked. I'm sure they will be able to answer, you can hardly commence a multi million pound takeover without plans for what happens should the takeover succeed.

Don't need accurate figures, but what kind of "ball park" salaries and contracts will be on offer for the Commercial, Financial, Legal and SIP directors. The best people won't come cheap. Will these posts be advertised or do you already have people in mind ? Is the 2% return on investment guaranteed ? And if so how ?

That kind of confuses me too. I must be missing something ?? They want investors of £1500 minimum, but any size of investment equals only one vote, so why would I invest more that £1500 unless I'm going to see a return on my investment as I would in a PLC. This should not be confused with the model in Germany/Spain where you are a club member for a small (possibly €10 annual subscription) and much like a working men's club you get to vote for a committee and on certain issues. This seems more akin to what happened a few years ago when a flotation took place and we all bought shares in the belief we'd live happily ever after, except this time it won't be floated.

This is what happened at Notts County, isn't it? The trust took a vote and flogged the club to a Middle East lot. Was it sold at a profit, if so any idea what happened to the surplus/profit - did the trust/shareholders trouser it ? That would make it a more attractive proposition for anyone thinking investing pension money etc.

If this campaign gathers momentum, would NUST view any subsequent offer to buy the club from Ashley as a rival bid ? In the future would they be sympathetic to a serious bid from serious investors or do they now see themselves as the only way forward ?

Mike Ashley wearing a jacket ?? Thought it was only pissed up Geordies who went to the match in shirt sleeves when it's freezing.

Good team performance. Harper is a street ahead of any GK in this league and should be in the England set up. Colo was good, Smith was good, Guthrie was good, Jose ditto Harper (not England though), Carrol put his usual hard shift in. Couldn't really fault anyone, even Harewood looked more interested and put a bit of graft in but his control is poor.

Been trying to leave this out but WTF here goes. Fornication in the back of the Leazes End (the old and proper Leazes that is). It was long before the expression charvas had been coined and long before Ruud brought us sexy football too.

in the 70s a match would be abandoned if the players hadn't chased a dog round the pitch at least once. Remember seeing Peter Withe showing some particularly sharp dog catching skills at one match.

I believe Stelling said on air he didn't intend to call it anything other than SJP. That half time tosser Justin Lockwood(?) and the stadium PA must have called it SJP about 50 times between them yesterday, never once mentioned the new title I noticed that when they announced the crowd figure he seemed to put massive emphasis on saying the official attendance at ST JAMES' PARK today is... I don't think anyone, including our ownership and even potential sponsors, thinks it will ever be known as anything other than SJP. It won't. It seems like a storm in a tea cup really and issues like what we're doing for a scouting network etc concern me much more. If they'd had the savvy to say they were looking for a stadium sponsorship deal rather than use the stupid expression "renaming", it would hardly have been noticed.

Not sure how to answer the poll, shouldn't it be Accept or Decline, or Accept yes or no ? Anyway I wouldn't sell for £4M, he's a very good header of the ball, has a decent left peg and showed on Monday night he's physical enough to cope with intimidating defenders. Seems pretty honest and hard working too. The more I see of him the better I like him.

Terry's old man sells narcotics = supports terrorist organisations = killing British troops. On Remembrance Sunday too.

Ironically, just about everything he said could be applied to the club who's game he was attending and a few others too, however they all still love talking about the "insignificant Newcastle"

"You fat Geordie b@stard get out of our club" If it happens will our lot want royalties ?

Having seen people on here use expressions like "slurper" and "bum-f***" as a way of communicating their argument nothing should surprise us about the levels they'll sink to. Legitimate and even insultory protest can be justified and the present Newcastle ownership deserve criticism, but the "Ashley rapist" banner yesterday was a disgrace and going too far, in a stadium where many parents take young children. Perhaps the "politician fans" who like to organise protests could ask their protesters to do so in a manner which does not offend decent people ?

Very good.

What a complete pile of s****. I didn't go to the home game yesterday as I live 300 miles away and I was moving house. When I do go, due to travel/accommodation my hand goes deeper into my pocket than most fans. Same goes for a lot of posters on here who live abroad but still follow NUFC despite it being incredibly difficult, or even those who have decided not to go back whilst Ashley is here. I don't agree with them, but everyone is entitled to an opinion, and spending £30 every 2 weeks on a home game ticket does not make it any more valid than anyone else. Protesting during the match does create a negative atmosphere, and if the players are saying it then you're not going to convince anyone otherwise. Beating a team who are now bottom of the league 3 - 1 doesn't vindicate your point, If we were playing West Brom and were 1 - 0 down and the team needed a lift, would you still rather be chanting Ashley Out rather than trying to lift the team? Having said that, got a lot of respect for any of those who got there early and protested before and after the game outside of the ground. ASHLEY OUT The old "I'm better than you cos I go to the match" chestnut. I agree with you that exiled fans have just as much passion (sometimes more) than some of those who are at the match. My yardstick has always been that if, for the 90 minutes Newcastle are playing, you are there with them whether in body or spirit wherever you are in the world then you are a TRUE fan. Equally, as the previous correspondent said, if you pay your money then you are entitled to voice opinions whether they be political protests or support for the team. As someone who is always at SJP, I'll put yesterday's protests in context as I saw them. They were sometimes loud but pretty sporadic, certainly louder than at any other game but the atmosphere never sank to the vile level it did last season vs Hull. Surprisingly those who were singing the protest songs were still in the minority, but as we all know a vociferous minority will always stand out more than a silent majority. The "stand up" song had the most impact, although that's always a difficult one to gauge as once a few people stand up everyone has to follow suit just to see what's going on. The new "Sports Direct" ditty was a bit feeble and ironic - I'm sure most of those singing it have been known to buy an occasional pair of cheap trainers there. Once again the old "you're support is f*cking shit" ditty got an airing for the Posh fans who had sold out their section to follow the league's bottom side, unlike the fantastic support our team got when the third goal was immediately followed by the "fat cockney b@stard" ditty. So another day of protest at SJP but probably not at the levels some had hoped for. Maybe the realisation that until some "skinny Geordie b@stard", or other, is prepared to show the real colour of their money then the "fat cockney b@stard" is all we've got.