Mowen

Don't you get paid a pretty hefty fee just for being in the premiership? Based on your finishing position or something? Also, matchday ticket prices have gone down so there will be a slight increase in the drop you've predicted there I guess. Basically Llambitwat just plucked 50% out of the air though.

It was the first time I'd ever noticed you could change that when editing your post...thought I'd see how it worked. I love Dave really.

I don't mind Platini. Comes out with some gibberish but generally I quite like the way he challanges the biggest, richest and most powerful rather than letting them have it all their own way.

In principle, absolutely. Can't see how it could ever work though. I think making it exactly 25% rather than allowing it to get higher might also be a good idea.

The daily mash...always a classic. Particularly liked the bolded section. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/newcastle-to-rename-stadium-every-30-seconds-200911052203/

You'll never stop people going, but it would be quite an impressive visual protest if you could somehow persuade 90% of the fans not to take to their seats until 5 mins after kick off. Would probably be an absolute nightmare mind and see a lot of people missing a lot of the game.

Jon Dahl Tomasson and Dietmar Hamann Hamann was pretty good for us in his only season here imo. Certainly remember being gutted at the sale at the time, although iirc he said a few bad things about the club after leaving (or maybe that was about Gullitt?). Good signing Hamaan. Did very well for us in his year and then when he decided he wanted out we made a fair old whack on him. I'd have preferred him to stay but that's the next best option.

Shola hardly came on a lot under the tutorship of Shearer on the pitch. Admittedly, that might well be because he's a bit terrible.

Beye would be a very good signing, he left for a better offer (after turning down Hull I thought) and very few fans would be against him after his pre-season performances that were supposedly "a disgrace" because hardly anyone will have seen them.

Penalty play? You've been in america for too long.

Well I know 2 people who are going that don't usually and only one regular who isn't going. So based on the assumption that the world revolves around me - yes. I agree. People will go to make their voices heard.

It won't. Why has the club been put up for sale in apparent panic twice then? I don't believe for a second there's a single bid that was turned down in the summer. There's just so much in there. As I think Keefaz said, I can see why he usually doesn't say much, it's better to remain silent and have people think you're a cretin than to open your mouth and confirm it.

I didn't vote as unfortunately won't be able to make it up. Wish I could be there though, I reckon it'll be quite an atmosphere around town on Saturday.

Oh the poor wee lambs eh? Are they men or are the mice? They all know that the bad feeling is not towards them, it shouldn't affect them. Some of it's towards them. Harewood got roundly booed the other day. I'm sure you've complained about others not helping you create a good atmosphere in the ground a few times, do you do this purely because it's more fun with a good atmosphere or is there an element of it helping the team? Also, whether or not it should affect them is a moot point, what counts is whether it will affect them. No point in me answering this. You know the answer. I assume it helps the team...it would be a reasonable inference to believe that a negative atmosphere would be worse than silence as it would increase pressure on the players regardless of whether it was directed at them or not. Also, in an angry environment the fans would be far more likely to turn on the players if the game doesn't start well. For the record I'm all for as much as possible being done to make fatty uncomfortable...I just can't work out how it would happen. At the end of the day my priority is seeing the team do well over getting Ashley out, although I'm well aware the two are intrinsically linked. I think the best we can do is to get an atmosphere outside the ground for an hour or two before kick off and an hour or two after...problem is the organisation and getting people to change their long standing match day (pub) rituals that for many will be the highlight of the day and one of the main reasons they still go.

Aye, I said we should go for him back in september. Was scoring for fun before he went to City. If his pace is still all there he'd be a great signing, but he'll be on big wages there.

Oh the poor wee lambs eh? Are they men or are the mice? They all know that the bad feeling is not towards them, it shouldn't affect them. Some of it's towards them. Harewood got roundly booed the other day. I'm sure you've complained about others not helping you create a good atmosphere in the ground a few times, do you do this purely because it's more fun with a good atmosphere or is there an element of it helping the team? Also, whether or not it should affect them is a moot point, what counts is whether it will affect them.

I know it's cherry picking, but I don't follow this line of argument. There was some dissent towards Ashley (granted no protests etc.) but I was personally quite 'proud' of the way our fans handled relegation. The toys weren't thrown out of the pram and the stands weren't full of people crying; we just accepted that our team wasn't good enough and continued to support them. Out of interest, at what point did your grandad actually give his season up? Was it when Ashley actually arrived? Most people were at least fairly supportive of him for a good while at the start.

. thats quite a good idea. easier to get the numbers and cause a bit disruption. it would mean them having to get the police in to clear the protestors. you'd probably get a lot of shoppers joining in too. easier to organize than a huge demo at SJP and would cause more problems. still should have a protest at stadium, but the ones at the stores would allow those not comfortable joining in at the match to vent their spleen. i was talking about this at work today, 500-1000 people walk into Sportsdirect at eldon square at midday on Sat afternoon and just sit down, block everything, tills, doors etc....no one can move in or out and nothing gets sold, then at 1pm everyone gets up and walks to SJP, join in any other protests, then goes to the match. I feel like interrupting the operations of a business is something that warrants the intervention of police forces. Not sure this a bright idea. Are you for real? This is Mike Ashley's business. Fuck him. He has raped and destroyed this football club, why the heck should anyone care about his crappy sports shop business? Edit: BTW I am not keen on a sitdown protest in Sports Direct, drowning in a sea of cheap trackie bottoms is not the ideal way to die really. How much of SD does Mike actually own though? I thought he was just the biggest shareholder and that it wasn't 'his' as such. Quite a lot of collateral damage from doing something like that too, even if it would be funny.

I can't see any reason for the sportsdirect.com naming thing other than to piss off the fans.

I'm sure I remember someone telling me they thought we'd stay up 5 mins before kick off against Aston Villa

Liverpool draw and Inter win double was my first win for a while last night...£4 paying just over £30. Thankyou mattis, never again shall I doubt you.

Fuck me / for fuck's sake. Utterly brilliant goal.

I wish you'd stop enticing me to bet on Inter by consistently going on about how good they are. I'm very easily influenced.

Yeah, that worked. Let's just roll over and do nothing then Yeah, that's what I suggested.

Yeah, that worked.