HawK

En-masse? Sure, all stop at once and make a difference. One guy on a forum calling for people in general to stop is not the way to win the war. It dillutes the match going fanbase to unreasonable, unreachable happy clappers that can't and won't form any part of a collective protest or boycott.

You can't see why people would want to turn up and protest? That's the best answer. Not going has proven not to work as there's enough happy clappers to take the seats of the legitimate, knowledgeable supporters that don't go. The evidence would suggest otherwise. https://twitter.com/bigchrisholt/status/1021338404104097799 Boycotting games en mass is different to the odd knowledgeable fan jacking in his season ticket. Mass boycotts is the best protest. Will it happen? Not in a million years. There's probably at least 100 active members on this forum who've stopped going to matches in protest over Ashley in the past ten years, and what has happened to average attendance as a result? They just got replaced with casual fans - that's the point I was making. It would be more damaging and meaningful if all the season ticket holders were proper fans, then things like the boycotts might happen, then whole-stadium protests might happen. The collective strength of the match-going fanbase as one entity, like Liverpool for example. Well hopefully that's where TMG will come in and get as many people boycotting as possible.

You can't see why people would want to turn up and protest? That's the best answer. Not going has proven not to work as there's enough happy clappers to take the seats of the legitimate, knowledgeable supporters that don't go. The evidence would suggest otherwise. https://twitter.com/bigchrisholt/status/1021338404104097799 Boycotting games en mass is different to the odd knowledgeable fan jacking in his season ticket. Mass boycotts is the best protest. Will it happen? Not in a million years. There's probably at least 100 active members on this forum who've stopped going to matches in protest over Ashley in the past ten years, and what has happened to average attendance as a result? They just got replaced with casual fans - that's the point I was making. It would be more damaging and meaningful if all the season ticket holders were proper fans, then things like the boycotts might happen, then whole-stadium protests might happen. The collective strength of the match-going fanbase as one entity, like Liverpool for example.

What? This is like the best part of Ashley's reign of the past 10 years. Someone the fans are mostly united behind, who is extremely well respected in football across the world, is effectively going to war with the nemesis. This is the ultimate Michael Jackson Popcorn gif moment for me.

You can't see why people would want to turn up and protest? That's the best answer. Not going has proven not to work as there's enough happy clappers to take the seats of the legitimate, knowledgeable supporters that don't go.

Bit surprised anyone expected anything more. I would have been shocked if we'd had any significant arrivals. Can't even say I'm disappointed which would require a modicum of raised hopes to begin with. I always expect the worst and unfortunately I'm rarely surprised.

Coloccini started all 4 games under Keegan. If you’re going to post drivel at least back it up with facts man. Calm down young sir, got mixed up between Keegan and Shearer. I'd remembered Colo was underperforming but misremembered which manager dropped him.

I must be in quite a small minority of people that never really rated Colo. I remember one of the first things Keegan did when he arrived is drop him to the bench. I think we've had quite a few better centre halves, I'd even put Dabizas ahead of him.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I struggle to think of a worse CB that's played for us over the past 15-20 years. Worse than: Marcelino Frank Dumas David Beharall Titus Bramble Steve Caldwell Gary Caldwell Jean Alain Boumsong Oguchi Onyewu Paul Huntington David Rozenhal Cacapa Tamas Kadar Peter Ramage David Edgar Zurab Khizanishvilli Fitz Hall Sol Campbell Grant Hanley If you think he is the worst centre half than all of the above then yeah we will have to agree to disagree. Remember, we got to see Mike Williamson in all his glory as a regular starter over a number of seasons. Most of the guys you have listed above were bit-part players who didn't play often enough to make a fair judgement on. Did Gary Caldwell even make a first team appearance for us? Zurab Khizanishvilli made only a handful, same with the Gooch. Of our REGULAR STARTING CBs from the past twenty years, how many can you realistically say were worse than Mike Williamson? I'll say again, Peter Ramage.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I struggle to think of a worse CB that's played for us over the past 15-20 years. Ramage?

Monday IS some point before Friday!? some point between Tuesday and Friday now? Nope, still some point before Friday

Mike Ashley is dense man. He doesn't realise that with average financial support his current manager could have us competing easily for the top 6 with a slight chance of even breaking into the top 4. He is wasting an incredible opportunity. Unfortunately, we are stuck with the oaf. Now, with that said, I believe Rafa is so good that even with players down his list we will still have a team to really get behind and enjoy because we will still be competitive and fun to watch. That's all I'm saying. I think people thinking these players are going to be terrible and therefore the team will be terrible, and the likes of Wolves, Fulham and Everton are going to put us to shame will prove to be massively inaccurate. This isn't difficult to understand. Now, if Rafa continues to excel even under these ridiculous conditions, maybe the fat man eventually realises that he cannot ever afford to let the guy go, and perhaps eventually does the right thing. Alternatively, maybe someone form the outside looks at the potential of the club and what Rafa continues to achieve in such ridiculous conditions, and just throws what money Ashley wants at him, and takes us over. I am not writing off our situation with Rafa still here that's all. Doesn't mean I'm supporting MA, but you are entitled to perceive it that way, being the dingbat that you are Well, there's absolutely no way I can come back from that

Already outed a few pages back, you can give it up now

Looks like KaKa's had his weekly backhander into his PayPal account cleared. How many posts a week do you need to get paid for supporting Ashley's lack of investment in the club?

I'm sure he'd take some joy out of selling us to a shitter owner, however it's all about what he can gain from it, so best offer wins. Unfortunately there hasn't been any serious offers to consider. Or there has been serious offers BUT he isn't really interested in selling? Closest we've come is the mess Staveley made last year, but it looked like she was just a tyre kicker with no real interest apart from looking to pick us up on the cheap. Now, i know we want him out, but he's not going to accept an offer that doesn't suit him. I wouldn't accept an offer for a possession that wouldn't suit myself either. If she was serious then they would have found an agreement, found the £50m or so to make the deal happen. They didn't and it was telling for that they tried to use a dirty trick media campaign to force his hand (which failed spectacularly) rather than come back with a better offer, something we'd expect from the current owner. IMO it would have been out of the pan and in to the fire, only with less potential financial backing. Mind, Staveley may have been hung out to dry by potential backers. Maybe at first she had a few that were worth a fortune and they liked the idea, but for whatever reason they pulled out so she tried to do it on her own. This would be why she couldn't make a second reasonable offer, if so then see the original point; not real offer was made. Staveley met Ashley’s price for the club, Ashley then went and put the price up as soon as we did, and we arn’t talking about £50m here, we are talking another £100m, another third of the price. Staveley has the money to pay that, assuming Ashley wouldn’t put the price up again. However she has plans for the club which includes about £150m of immediate investment. Around half of that would have been for players. Another half would have been for the training facilities/academy, and stadium improvements. From what I understand it wouldn’t just be training and acedemy upgrades, but a whole new training ground and academy complex in a new location. The sort of campus that Premier League clubs are building, and something that would be for every age group could use. It would also have meant that we would be able to invest a lot more into the woman’s team and included a female acedemy. All of this is what Rafa has said is essential to the club long term, and as I have said it’s what the bigger clubs in the league are doing. Staveley was nowhere near a tyre kicker, she even went out of her way to being in the Rueben brothers who own land in Newcastle that is to be developed in order to not only kick start the development of the club, but the city as a whole. Give over. This is basically what George Caulkin said, and he's seen evidence of the bids made. Ashley doesn't want to sell unless at a ridiculous price - hence he put the price up to £400m. Exactly this. The lad I know in the Middle East spoke to Staveley, knew the people involved and that they'd verbally agreed to the deal. Ashley changed his mind out of the blue after a boozy lunch meeting, and released the 'time waster' stuff through Bishop/The Sun. Anybody who believes the Ashley side of this story, is quite frankly, a fucking idiot. He has form, for being impulsive & belligerent. Remember he had a meeting with Sheik Mansour's people scheduled, he got on the piss, turned into Billy Bignuts and supposedly told an offsider something like "Fuck them (SM's people), they can come to me". Mansour turned his attention to City, and the rest is history. I can believe the story of the boozy lunch meeting, and Ashley doing his best impersonation of a East End gangster. Wait, what's this got to do with recently-outed super friends group?

I’m not wrestling a kid again.

So that's KaKa and Dokko on the take now. Who else?

Hell, only Phillips and Arca would make our CURRENT line-up Gray top tbh.

I like the idea of Rafa breaking into his flat, sitting on the sofa in the dark waiting to ambush him about tactics Recurring nightmares where he walks into his study at night, Rafa's silhouette greets him as only a desk-lamp is turned on behind him. "Isaac, I like what you're doing, but we need to talk. There's some things you can improve on.. improve on.. improve on.. improve on.." Wakes up screaming

We sells matz sels to the strasbourg.

I think Kaka's on the take, personally.

But why Qi? Qorean init?

What never gets taken into account when 'budgeting' player sales for re-investment () are not only the undisclosed fees received, but the years of the contract wages we had 'budgeted' for when purchasing him initially should now be back in the hopper. Amazes me how much Ashley gets away with.

Spot on, HTT!? Hard for some people to hear but that pretty much sums it all up. Hard for me because it didn't come with a contents page.