macphisto

I know you're in Germany Parky so I understand why you know a lot about German football but I think the points about Germany having to rebuild are being overstretched. Not even taking into account their record pre-1990 they won the world cup in 1990, Euros in 1996, final of the world cup in 2002 and 3rd place in the last two world cups and were runners up at the last Euros. So basically they had two poor Euros (in between which they got to the world cup final) and we beat them 5-1 in Munich. I think it's more to do with them experiencing cyclical bad period more than them having to rebuild, indeed their record is so good what did they need to rebuild? I'm not saying that they haven't changed their youth system etc, but I think that is German forward thinking for you. There's no comparison between Germany in the past to what England are like now. I would say better examples are France after they didn't make the World Cup in 1990 and 1994 and rebuilt resulting in the team that won the world cup and Spain who have always under achieved apart from recent times. For me I would simply replicate whatever training, youth system they have in Holland as they sure do produce world class players for such a small country. I know it doesn't always work like this but if they had a population comparable to ours then I think they would win everything in sight.

If he's under the impression that there are girls anywhere in England as fine as those in Madrid, he's gonna be searching for quite some time. London girls were sharp, tbf. A very pleasant and diverse selection of females. Reading, Nottingham, and Liverpool were barren, though. I hope Newcastle is at least decent or better than Wigan. I thought Nottingham had something like 3 lasses to every 1 man in terms of population? Best looking lasses I've ever seen on my travels were Arabic women, bloody hell, when they don't cover themselves up... Masallah! Ugliest women, and this is not biased.... Boro lasses. Ugly doesn't describe the horror! I agree about Arabic women but most of them lose it after their thirties, they go down hill dramatically.

Wonder what impact this will have on our transfer strategy this summer? Certainly increases the chance of us holding onto our players

I'd consider the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes 'bigger' car companies than most others btw, they don't sell the most cars... Also you'll get some absolute s**** that that have sold more records (especially recently) than some absolutely massive all-time artists. I'd say that is more to do with who is better not who is bigger.

I do find it strange that football differs to all other areas when it comes to who is the biggest. For me it should just go off people through turnstiles/shirt sales/TV subscribers, something tangible with regards to number of fans, simple as that. I can't think of any other area where it's not a question of who has the most fans/sells the most things. For example biggest car company is the one that sells the most cars. Same for music, might not always be an indicator of how good the artist is but the number of fans/records sold is the answer to who is the biggest band/Artist.

I actually think he come across all right and talks a lot of sense. I did like the part where he pointed out that he pays their wages via the license fee.

Never seen this interview before, but well worth a watch. I wonder what he would think of MOTD today???

A lot depends on the result this weekend for me, if Everton lose I think we'll go really close for the Champions League as the pressure will be off knowing that we've qualified for the Europa League. If Everton win then all of a sudden the pressure is on and I'm not sure how we'll handle that situation.

I'm not sure if I've understood you right but for me it's all about winning something first and foremost (we haven't won a domestic trophy in nearly 60 years). We would then all be in a position to say whether we would prefer George Graham style football and winning trophies ahead of playing well like under Keegan and not winning a trophy. Obviously there's a massive area in between the two styles and Barcelona epitomise how you can win by playing attractive football. Simple truth is hardly any fans are in a position to say what they would prefer as very few have experienced winning a cup. All we've ever had is playing well and not winning anything or playing poorly and not winning anything.

I think it's slightly different when you could be super-rich and achieve some worthwhile career goals by signing for a good club in a decent league, but decide to become super-mega-rich by going to Russia and live in a secure compound manned by armed security. Either way they'll be set for life, it's just weird that the greed is such that they would opt for a complete non-team. Not saying I would be able to turn it down, but I'd like to think I would. Secure compound is a bit too far, they live in Moscow which is a pretty cool city.

Like most people in a state of shock over this and just can't get my head around it. Also angry about the whole thing, such a terrible, terrible waste. Just been reading the lyrics to the U2 song Stuck in A Moment, kind of sums up my feelings.

Fair enough but I don't really understand where people are coming from as it's better than doing nothing. If as a fan base we are not willing to even do this then we deserve everything Ashley throws at us. 100,000 people signing a petition that could be potentially discussed in Parliament along the lines of "Does the House of Commons agree that the renaming of St James' Park is an act of cultural and sporting vandalism towards an iconic North East institution?" (very draft wording) could only be a good thing in my opinion.

Just been reading about the new stadium name and was wondering what people thought about doing an e-petition? Obviously can't stop Ashley doing what he wants but it would be a way to publicly demonstrate against Ashley and would generate a lot of negative publicity towards Ashley. There is the argument that no publicity is bad publicity but in the case it would be way to demonstrate our feelings towards Ashley on a national platform. It would also be worth seeing it debated in Parliament. Anyone got any ideas about what the question should be? If people are in support of it then maybe we could have a few suggestions about what the petition should say and put that to the vote on here? What are people's views? Here's a link to the site: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/new

I liked the house analogy, would he be happy to live in a caravan (in housing analogies that's what our current strike force is comparable to) for 12 months?

Read through your quote and tbh you blame Carr and cannot wriggle out of that one ,Carr identifies and leaves it to the clowns to get them . I'm being serious here, where am I blaming Carr in this statement: "If the statement is true and it’s not but if it is then Graham Carr should be sacked already." I was saying that if we took the club statement to be true then in my opinion Carr would be to blame but I acknowledge that the statement is not true so by implication this is not the fault of Carr. That's not wriggling out of it, it's what I said. What I am saying is that for my mind in view of our current strike force the following does not compute: Board serious about buying a striker+good scout=no striker Obviously I think the board was not serious but I was making the point that if their statement was true then I would blame Carr for our failure to sign a striker.

Read my post fully and you'll see I wasn't blaming Carr. I was pointing out that if the club was serious about buying a new striker then Carr would have been at fault as it would have been one of the easiest jobs in football to identify players who are better than the current strikers at the club. By the way Prophet I like the way you don't say why my statement is a load of rubbish.

Right up until the closure of the window I thought they would have got someone but in hindsight (wonderful thing) it's plain to see that there’s no half truths about it, they never had any intention of bringing in a striker. The very fact that we didn’t off load one of our current strikers during the window says it all as they would never have kept 5 strikers on the books (I feel annoyed about not picking this up at the time). For the club to say that we couldn’t find a striker better than what we’ve got for a reasonable price is just insulting. If the statement is true and it’s not but if it is then Graham Carr should be sacked already.

Me too, takes a lot for me to be surprised by the club now but I have today.

-5 for me for the following: If not the worse then at least joint worse strike force in the league Shola extended his contract Smith still at the club Barton gone Nature of Barton and Enrique's departures says a lot about the club New signings, jury out but even giving them the benefit of the doubt I have to wonder why they are at the club? No decent player with his head screwed on would come to Newcastle at the moment, FACT, we are rotten to the core.

We've got even closer links to Charlton than you realise as they are partly owned by Tony Jimenez who Ashley employed in tandem with Wise and another fella when he first came to the club for their "expertise"

I was at the Charlton sponsors night a few months back sat on the same table as Rob Elliott for a few hours and I've got to say that he's a really nice fella, well mannered and down to earth who went out of his way to make everyone feel welcome around the table. He's big for a footballer too, built more like a rugby player (not the fat type like Brian Moore). Only seen Charlton play once so can't comment on him as a player.

That's why the Fulham fans sing songs in favour of their owner at every match, he probably has more support amongst his fans than any other owner in the league. Saying all the above I'm not sure how many fans will buy the Michael Jackson range: http://shop.fulhamfc.com/retailprods.aspx?cat=139&h=56

I think they could get by without access to the club and just publish news that's been syndicated by the Press Association etc. As mentioned earlier it's not like they get that much information any how (particularly when compared to the relationship Oliver had with the club). For the “inside story from a club insider” and transfer news they could use any old information given to them by agents etc to keep fans interested. Also fairly sure they could quote Pardew when he speaks at press conferences.

I wouldn't call a few banners an organised and on going protest movement which is what I had in mind when I wrote earlier. Even if it didn't force Ashley out at least it would give the fans some pride, being treat with contempt and not doing anything about it doesn't feel too good to me.

That has to be a joke right? I was being serious, I'd be willing to go through anything for Ashley to leave the club. With him there I don't get one bit of enjoyment in following the team. I think it's disgusting how the fans/city have just let him do what he wants with the club without much protest. Personally speaking I don’t go to any matches or even watch matches on the box because I just don’t get any enjoyment from Newcastle at the moment. I even avoided this football forum for a long time and only log on at the moment because I’ve been travelling for work the best part of 8 weeks solid and also try to adopt the attitude of not taking some of the views on here too seriously. I might come over as a fair weather fan but believe me that’s not the case, just best for me if I stay away from supporting Newcastle because otherwise I just become angry/depressed about the whole situation.