DJ_NUFC

FFS is anyone actually discussing the Q&A? Can we please keep the usual arguments for all the other soapbox threads where they're usually found? A few positives from all this: they claim to have a plan -- whatever the plan may be. They want the club to be self-sufficient. The Guardian article is scathing of the previous regime and compares, simply financially, where the two regimes differ. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/feb/10/newcastle-united-mike-ashley-john-hall-freddy-shepherd I've spent the last year clutching at straws for positives, so when I get a glimpse of them, I wish to hang on like fuck. Only time, of course, can tell what the real plan is, but I'm willing to give these guys another chance simply because we have no other alternative.

I'm glad Shola converted the penalty, and it was a solid one too, but man was he fuckin' annoying. Lovenkrands should've come on at the beginning of the second half. I just don't get it... the whole Carroll/Ameobi combo when Xisco is on the bench, who at the very least could offer us something different than what Shola gave us yesterday.

I wouldn't say he is, at least not 'by far'. However he is probably is our most influential player when he's on form, simply because of his pace. What is 'by far' and who is it then?

I had no idea how good he was until today.

Can we change the link at the top of the page to anything else but 'Go Down' please? I refuse to click it.

Taylor would have been pitch forked. Some won't get over Taylor winning us a penalty and keeping us from defeat while Colo caused it. No need for agendas. I don't think there was one Toon fan who wasn't cheering and applauding Tayls when he went down and the whistle blew. And on the same not Colo rightfully got slated for his 'off-side trap.' Fuk off with the agenda please, it doesn't dilute the facts. But I mentioned the facts. So did I. *Head explodes.*

We did 'batter' them in the sense that we had possession for long spells and played the ball on the ground. Their hopeful punts up the field were only magnified due to our defence's inability to deal with a bouncing ball. That said, yes, they should've scored on the counter, as should have we if we actually had one decent striker up there.

Taylor would have been pitch forked. Some won't get over Taylor winning us a penalty and keeping us from defeat while Colo caused it. No need for agendas. I don't think there was one Toon fan who wasn't cheering and applauding Tayls when he went down and the whistle blew. And on the same not Colo rightfully got slated for his 'off-side trap.' Fuk off with the agenda please, it doesn't dilute the facts. But I mentioned the facts.

Taylor would have been pitch forked. Some won't get over Taylor winning us a penalty and keeping us from defeat while Colo caused it. No need for agendas. I don't think there was one Toon fan who wasn't cheering and applauding Tayls when he went down and the whistle blew. And on the same not Colo rightfully got slated for his 'off-side trap.'

Frustrated me to no end today. If we're to use him as our sole channel of attack, he needs to at least deliver one telling final ball, otherwise he might as well be in the center of midfield and we should've kept Insomnia. FFS.

Wouldn't be surprised.

Just got in and am really confused by the title of the thread: Wait a minute, so you guys are saying Wigan PAID us 6M AND gave us Ryan Taylor for N'Zog? If this is true I need a massive, massive wank.

"He's not in the age bracket for which we're looking to recruit. So I'll sign Sibierski instead." Roeder.

This bid should never had had a leg to stand on if the final figure's anywhere near 5-8M. We should be getting 10M+ looking at how easily Man City have been chucking money at shite players and overvaluing all players they bid for. It seems they want this one on the cheap as they want Buffon or some other big name keeper in the summer. *Sigh*

Just signing one midfielder isn't the answer. We need bodies, but able, capable bodies on this lad's (supposed) calibre. If we can get him and a RB in even, I'd be happy. But this is good news, I hope Ashley awoke yesterday.

Don't come around here with such stats, it gets in the way of personal agendas.

Sounds like we're missing 10 other Bartons.

Do you honestly think adopting Ashley's methods (hiring an inexperienced DoF over the manager, net £0 transfers, allowing the star striker's contract to run down to get him off the wages, trying to sell the club, bringing in a manager unable to find a job anywhere else) back in 2001 would have got us into the CL? Is hindsight only ok to use when it's about Ashley then? Hindsight is used when you agree (or disagree) with actions at the time but subsequent events prove them to be wrong (or correct). In this case I agreed with the decision to push forward then and it proved successful, so it's not using hindsight on my part. Besides, Ozzie is the hindsight king. He'll love it. Remember the financial and on field situation at the time: The debt (£66m) was larger than the turnover (£55m) which relative to turnover is more than the "debt" now The club was making loses (£15.5 in 2000, £8.9m in 2001) which relative to turnover are equivalent to the loses now The club had finished 13, 13, 11, 11 in the previous years which is worse than our last 4 years. As I asked in another thread, should we have Cut back on signings and not brought in Bellamy & Robert Sold the likes of Dyer for a good profit Let injury prone Shearer's contract run down so he could leave on a free and we could get his high wages off the bill (after all, we had a ready made replacement coming through from the youth team). Got someone like Vinnie Jones in to buy and sell players over Robson's head. If it pissed off Robson and he left, should we have replaced him with someone like Dave Basset. Can I assume that the people commending Ashley for his prudence and vision for the club now would agree that we should have taken a similar approach back in 2001? Ozzie asked if Shepherd was going to get us back in the CL. Well in a similar position back in 2001, by being speculative, we DID get back into the CL. At the moment I can only see Ashley's way of handling the situation taking the club in one direction, and that's down. Although, I might add, Shepherd's continuation of that same 'borrow and spend' policy was never going to last forever and seriously needed to be curbed before we went bankrupt. But yes, Ashley needs to get into what is known as 'creative money management,' where he begins to use his business acumen to move us forward rather than simply cut costs, strip assets and wait for the tide to turn in the hope the somehow everything would be rosy if the books are balanced. We'd probably have destructed on the field by then. Surely there's a way to both balance the books (albeit slowly over a period of time) whilst also investing in the first team?

Evidence? Playing career You win.

Evidence?

I never would have guessed.

Hypothesising on transfers is the single worst thing people do on Internet forums. And yet, it seems to be the main topic every transfer window. The whole "we should sign..." line is tedious and about as useful as praying to cure world hunger. Anyways, when, oh when, are we going to sign someone? Fuckin' hell I'm gettin' miserable.

As an overseas fan I'd pay good money to get live streams of every single toon game. Of course, since they're more interested in suing me rather than selling their own product, fuck them for all they're worth.