OzzieMandias

Be nice not to lose quite so often, though.

Judging by this thread, it's high time they re-opened St Nick's.

Harris is like the guy who rents my spare room. Same old bullshit every time the rent is due.

Are those the initial decisions of allowing Allardyce taking the funds from the sale of Kieron Dyer and bringing in Alan Smith being taken into acount there? You can say what you want about the conspiracy theorists, but EVERY decision that he has been involved in has fucked us over, from not going through due diligence to where we are today and will still do into next season. He's not trying to fuck us over but the bloke is a pig shit thick chancer who has been as lucky as fuck up until two years ago, but now luck is biting him on the arse. You're right. The bloke is thick as fuck but every decision has been a bad one? Hardly. Ashley was widely praised until a slow summer on the transfer front and Keegan walking. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, however I can remember supporters being quite happy with the sale of Dyer and the signing of Smith. I can remember thinking that the squad Allardyce had put together was one of the strongest in recent history and I know that optimism was indulged by many other fans. He obviously also took care of the debt Shepherd had ran up. bunged in more money to keep us solvent, and began investing heavily in the academy just to piss everyone off.

We need an emoticon of little men in white coats rushing in with a straitjacket.

Have to say, it's almost certifiably ridiculous to believe that Ashley is delaying the sale (and writing off £100-£150 million) out of nothing but spite against the club and its supporters.

I think that's spot on. If it is true that he's writing off the debts to him, he'll not want to do it to the bloke who left us in the position where he felt he had to do so. Might do it for a new party, but not a chance will Freddy get it for £60m without owing Ashley the money imo. Yeah, you can't imagine Ashley wanting to sell to Shepherd if he can possibly help it. And in this, I believe, he'd be doing us a favour.

Born and brought up – Newcastle. Currently – Berlin.

Anyone who thinks Freddie Shepherd is the best we can get lacks ambition. Fact.

Well, hell, who's to say Shepherd couldn't take us down? He already took us from a club capable of challenging for a Champions League place to a club paying out some of the highest wages in the league to hang around hopelessly in lower mid-table racking up further debt.

Shepherd would be terrible. I would much rather take a chance on somebody else. We would be very very unlucky to end up with someone worse than Shepherd again. What if there is no other option? If theres no other option other than to die as a club, of course I would take Freddy back. However, from reports it seems like there ARE other options. We don't know how ambitious they will be though. With Shepherd you know he will set his sights on a return to the Prem and will make the funds available to do it. After Ashley, I'm very nervous about the motives of foreign investors unless they are minted. I would rather see the club safe and well run tbh. With that we will progress on and off the field at the correct pace. If we are well run we will get promoted anyway. Shepherd plunging us into more dept and making a fool of himself holds no attraction to me, especially considering how bad his decision making has proven to be in the past. You can be well run AND ambitious you know. This club can be both considering the potential it has to generate money. I would rather two years in this division sorting ourselves out, than spunking a load of cash we don't have up the wall and Shepherd strutting around making more ridiculous decisions in the Premier League. We would most likely end up back at square one the Shepherd way. How anyone can trust the fat cunt is beyond me. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Two years "sorting ourselves out" in the Championship is not the way to go for a club this size. We have to show our intent and make sure we are giving ourselves the best chance of blazing back into the Premier and we need an owner with the ambition to go for it. "Ambition" is a much-mythologised quality on this board. We also need owners with financial acumen and an ability to get key appointments right. Shepherd fails on both those counts, although luckily the first big decision (manager) is a no-brainer.

At least there was some logic behind all of FS's decisions. Explain the logic behind not providing any money for new players the summer before Partizan, while at the same time finding £8.5 million in dividend payments. Gah, i mean't the appointments.. that's why i quoted his post as it was a direct reply. I beg your pardon. When you wrote "all of Freddie's decisions" I thought you meant "all of Freddie's decisions". Now explain the logic behind appointing Souness.

At least there was some logic behind all of FS's decisions. Explain the logic behind not providing any money for new players the summer before Partizan, while at the same time finding £8.5 million in dividend payments.

I'm well aware of that, Dave. Doesn't mean I have to welcome the prospect.

I see Shepherd as a chairman who is capable of spending other people's money.

I just remember how fucking leaden everything felt in the last cack-handed seasons of Shepherd's reign. Like nothing would ever change for the good, and we'd just slowly carry on sliding into grey oblivion. No hope. That Ashley only succeeded in accelerating the decline has not altered my judgement of one damn thing about the Shepherd era. If his return is the best we can hope for, that is truly pathetic.

It's barrel scraping time when you're copying Dave's gags. I didn't even see Dave's "gag". But you're absolutely right that it's barrel-scraping time.

mackems in stitches.

i have to say i disagree, freddy is afar better bet as it stands than ashley. he is far, far from perfect, and made huge mistakes, but i would rather thim then ashley or another unkown. as i keep saying, better the devil you know. The devil you know is still the devil.

ALL of this - plus the nepotism, constant dealings with the likes of McKay etc AND the way he started the club's downfall by failing to either back SBR or bring in a new manager in the summer of 2003(because he didn't want money spent at that time) - is the reason that, after almost half a century, I will be finished with Newcastle United if it falls under his influence again. Whatever happened in past years, we always had hope that something better may be around the corner, but there is no way I would feel like that with him in charge - if NUFC has to depend on FS taking over to survive, then the club isn't worth a light in my view. Will never enter SJP again if this happens - the club will be a total laughing stock and deservedly-so. Yup.

Out of the fire and into the frying pan.

I have to say I find this thread a bit depressing. Sometimes we remind me of one of those little central European countries that's been kicked around by history, nursing a festering sense of injustice and infected with fatalism and self-pity, where the "natural borders" are always seen as those at the time when it was biggest and most powerful. Little to cheer the embittered soul but endlessly replaying those long-vanished days of glory as if doing so would somehow turn back the clock.

All of the recent England managers did better than Keegan, though, with the possible exception of McLaren. wonder if he will take stephen smith with him eh oz? Stephen SPENCE!

All of the recent England managers did better than Keegan, though, with the possible exception of McLaren.

Word.