Northern Monkey

'lil Mikey will come on dressed in one of those inflatable sumo suits, flanked by minders.

I was talking to someone last night who has a good mate pretty high up in Sports World and apparently it's fairly common knowledge in the higher ecehelons of the organisation that Ashley is none too happy with the state he's found the club in and would be willing to sell if there was a suitable buyer. If that's the case then all the talk of what a great, self-made, businessman he is, is utter sh!te. No-one goes into a 150m investment without a thorough investigation of the business they are buying, if that was his way he wouldn't of made it any further than the half arsed local sports shop he started out with. Forgetting the fact that no-one really knows what Laura thinks, his business history is that of buy low and build it up. There is no history of selling out, there is no history of giving up on one of his investments that he has taken full ownership of. If all he wanted was a quick turn around why delist the club? Earlier in this thread I mentioned that the media here likened him to Howard Hughes. Hughes was constantly hounded in the press with rumour and speculation and this was the 1950s, imagine what it is like in this day and age of everything being scrutinized on football forums, in the tabloids, television and radio - the media has to justify its existence therefore it looks for any angle, something I doubt Ashley would of even considered before thinking about buying a football club, let alone the one with the largest neurotic fan base in the world. Ashley for the money he paid could have bought almost any premier league club, he didn't and there must be a reason why. I was also under that impression but I read somewhere that because he didn't make an offer to buy the club outright, he bought pieces that built up over time, he couldn't undertake due dilligence where the prospective purchaser gets to take a look at the state of the business including the accounts. That's why he quickly undertook his "internal review" to find out exactly what he'd got himself into. The review has revealed that the club is in a worse state than he anticipated, including £80 million of debt. Perhaps his chairman is now advising him to sell and take even a small profit. Possible but let's be honest most of us knew the club was at least 60m in debt just from the various NUFC finance sites that have been about for the last 3-4 years. You'd hope a man who allegedly prides himself on the people that he surrounds himself with business wise might actually had someone look into things, a trawl or two of most NUFC message boards and you'd be at least aware of the concerns for the clubs debt levels. Like I said, the media needs to justify its existence and perpetuating rumour and speculation is an easy way to drive headlines. (By the way, Mike, if you or one of your many advisors are reading this - you stepped up to the plate, now follow through and actually turn our club into the huge club it has always had the potential to become.) Nail on head.

we didn't play all long balls, and he was just as ineffective with the ball on the ground.

Oh yes.

i don't understand or agree with the "fuck England" thing, but i agree with the benefit to us.

They can't be any less effective than Martins and Viduka were at the weekend. An unfit midget and a workhorse > fit midget, fat man Hmmm. i'm going with the unfit midget and the wrong-haired workhorse. Go team!

".......unless we have to rip CL final tickets out of the hands of children, or storm the turnstiles/use forged tickets to get in, and risk another tragedy. But that won't be our fault, it'll be the Italians again. And Millwall fans. And ley lines. But not us". Exackkhly! (in a scouse accent natually!) There twats! in fairness, my hatred is directed at Liverpool fans specifically, so an Irish or Scandinavian-type accent would be more appropriate.

".......unless we have to rip CL final tickets out of the hands of children, or storm the turnstiles/use forged tickets to get in, and risk another tragedy. But that won't be our fault, it'll be the Italians again. And Millwall fans. And ley lines. But not us".

They can't be any less effective than Martins and Viduka were at the weekend.

An improvement on a player who wasn't good enough? I should fucking hope so.

for what?

Why should we trust him anyway? We need him to successfully run a business, whether or not we trust him means fuck all.

its not a bad return. As for whathe offers to us, not a lot, as far as i can see. He was never a great signing fo rus anyway as far as i'm concerned, and seemed to be more of a sign of our continuing presence as an average-sized, average club signing average players at the time. He scored about 1 in 3 at Boro, i think, which is not great, but had a better ration at Dirty Leeds. At his age, i don't expect him to improve, or do a lot for us.

I was talking to someone last night who has a good mate pretty high up in Sports World and apparently it's fairly common knowledge in the higher ecehelons of the organisation that Ashley is none too happy with the state he's found the club in and would be willing to sell if there was a suitable buyer. i heard from [insert un-named person here] that he is completely happy, and wants to get the club crest tattood on his private area because [insert unfounded and completely unprovable shite here]. SO that pretty much ends the debate.

his goalscoring record is not great overe the years, maybe because he doe sneed more creativity? I don't think he's good enough to do it by himself.

never said I was blaming you or the ultra's, just said that i sounded as if it was coming from the area you were in (from the front of lvl 7, it appeared to be coming from the back). Seemed to be coming from the posh seats from where i sat.

Sorry but that's utter cobblers. Your entitled to your opinion. Not my fault if your wrong You think Viduka had creativity around him last season? Please don't pretend Viduka is a great player who's goign to get loads of goals for us, for fucks sake.

"played for his place"? SO does it matter whether or not he's actually been better? Or would simply showing up get him a start ahead of a better player (whether thats Owen or someone else)?

I beg to differ. Ameobi offers people like yourself the opportunity to vent their frustrations about a Newcastle player, so really you should be thankful he's still here. Gives you something to rant about tbh. Yes, having someone a league above his actual ability os always a good idea.

But someone who sells shuttlecocks is ok? As long as he also stocks the jock-straps to keep them in. Oh how we miss the scrap merchant and his media friendly sound bites. Biscuits are the new scrap metal. Fact.

Cruelly overlooked.

But someone who sells shuttlecocks is ok?

based on what?

I'd rather see Smith up front than in midfield, as he is poorer at the latter than the former. But he's not international class by any means. Owen DOES have that class, clearly, but is short of match fitness. If he can get some of that from playing tonight, thats cool. I love England, but it just makes me wich we had better players than Smith fit, even for friendlies.

How does he know? We paid towards his poorly finger rehabilitation, of course he thinks we're ace.