OzzieMandias

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2009/02/05/nufc-fans-plan-new-match-protest-72703-22862023/ One of these days someone will show them the club's accounts, and then perhaps they'll figure out this supposed transition from "buying club" to "selling club". It's more like a transition from "borrowing club" to "finally having to live within its means club". This Ord is the knacker who accused Ashley of deiberately sabotaging Bobby Robson day, no?

the quote is : "any individual or group resourceful enough to raise the £100 million plus that would be needed today to take over the club is likely also to be intelligent and resourceful enough to make a better fist of it than the current board" - ozzie mandiarse 24th Oct 2006 So, the obvious answer is that they haven't ? Which, using mandiarse's remarkable gift of hindsight, would appear to be the case, wouldn't you agree ? Unless of course, he is still happy that the new regime is moving the club towards matching the european qualifications, capacity gates and therefore the long term revenue [at least] of the board he was slating, which is down to the appointment of Dennis Wise and other factors which come together as part of the running of the club ? Cheers. I'd been unaware that quote was now the one under discussion. But actually yes, I have a major problem with your interpretation. You've taken the last part of that sentence "... than the current board" and tried to apply it as a criticism of the entire tenure of the board. When that quote was posted, Late October 2006, we were just in the middle of a 9 game winless streak, Roeder'd been found out as having completely lucked up that 7th place finish and there was still a lot of dissatisfaction floating around about the board, spending and Souness. When Ozzie said that I think it's very, very clear he was talking about what they'd done recently and not what they'd done as a whole. You are quite wrong. There was a lot of support for what Souness was doing, with mandiarse one of his main supporters. I think his statement is very clear, as clear as is possible, meaning that he thought pretty much anybody would come in and do better. Then the disagreement is the length of time to which he was speaking. You interpret it as "Do better than they've done since 1992", the entire rest of the world interprets it as "Do better since the sacking of SBR." so the first 12 years of when they ran the club is being conveniently ignored here ? I will remind you, that we finished 7th only 2 years ago, a position that was achieved only twice in over 30 years prior to the Halls and Shepherd taking over the club. And a position, which, under the present setup and owner, we will never match. In my opinion. So what is your opinion of the setup of the club, including the appointment of Dennis Wise of which is incorporated, and the progress towards at least equalling the league positions, european qualifications, capacity crowds and therefore the revenue and interest in the club which their predecessors achieved ? Where would the money have come from if we were still in the Ownership of the Halls? How would we have funded our team rebuilding? Would you have expected the Halls to put the money up from their own pockets? If not, whose? Genuinely curious btw. The answer is that he hasn't got a fucking clue.

Am I the only one who detects a certain irony in these idiots who constantly fulminate about "hindsight" (apparently unable to tell the difference from "history") constantly snouting around in the detritus of three-year-old discussions in an infantile search for ammunition to try and silence other posters?

Alas, in October 2006 we did not know quite how badly the old board had fucked up the finances.

You lack the special brand of agenda-driven idiocy necessary to transform one into the other.

And all financial issues completely ignored.

.

What statement?

That's a strange choice of words, we were already paying £8 million a year to service the debt, try sticking £30 million on top of that. I'm sure we'd paid something like £5 million trying to re-structure the debt in the last set of accounts before the takeover, all money bleeding out of the club. Income was less than expenditure so you then have to add to that every year at a time when money just isn't being loaned and you have a massive problem, that isn't hindsight, it's the state of the economy. I'm not even sure any of this is hindsight, the clubs finances have been discussed on here for years and in the main it's all been shown to be true. In the main, it's actually been shown to be even worse than those who were concerned about it expected. No mystery now why SJH was looking for a quick sale. It must have been like christmas for SJH. A man wanted to buy the club at a premium with no due diligence Remember polygon and the other hedge fund that did due diligence on us. No wonder they chose to turn away from the deal I've been thinking the same thing.

That's a strange choice of words, we were already paying £8 million a year to service the debt, try sticking £30 million on top of that. I'm sure we'd paid something like £5 million trying to re-structure the debt in the last set of accounts before the takeover, all money bleeding out of the club. Income was less than expenditure so you then have to add to that every year at a time when money just isn't being loaned and you have a massive problem, that isn't hindsight, it's the state of the economy. I'm not even sure any of this is hindsight, the clubs finances have been discussed on here for years and in the main it's all been shown to be true. In the main, it's actually been shown to be even worse than those who were concerned about it expected. No mystery now why SJH was looking for a quick sale.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but would we be where we are now if fatboy was still running the club regrettably we will never know. Callling the administrators, is my guess.

The club would be in even deeper shit right now if SJH hadn't found a buyer. Where would Shepherd have found the £20-30 million a year that is evidently necessary right now just to pay the players' wages and keep the club solvent? I guess the people who laughed at the idea that our increasingly ridiculous wages/turnover ratio was a problem must be feeling like proper tits right now.

My apologies if I've got this wrong, but wasn't the cartoon-y one that most people are voting for done by someone who accidentally outed himself as a previously banned poster and promptly disappeared, vowing to return with yet another username?

This one, I guess, though I don't like either the jittery shadow at the left or the typeface. The tagline is what makes it.

Truth. So what message will that be?

You're a moron.

Tell me about it. I can't be arsed to argue anymore. Just listened to the full NUSC meeting and I've rarely heard anything more depressing. It really breaks my heart to hear a room full of fans so hurt and betrayed by their football club, and what they're essentially doing is futilely lashing out at whoever is within reach. They don't have a chance of ever affecting a real change, they don't even seem to know what they want and why. The focus on removing Dennis Wise was also bizarre, when nobody knows what he has done wrong (if anything). The problem they've got is that any point anyone makes, it is assumed it has to be underpinned by the premise that Ashley is evil and the only answer is to hound him out. I wouldn't dare to turn up to one of their meetings and express the kind of points I do on here... From what I heard yesterday, there were differing views on most things. One or two dissenting voices, but they were mainly just acknowledged and then ignored. I didn't hear anyone make an impact on the anti-Ashley stance. One of the committee seemed to be more reasonable, but the main guy (I assume the chairman) was pretty focussed. Just my take after one listen through. Fair enough. How should we move forward then? If we're stuck with Ashley, as I think we are (and thank heavens, frankly, despite all his bumbling that we didn't still have the old lot in control when global financial meltdown time came along) then any fan organisation should be looking to find ways to work with the guy because our fortunes are intertwined for the forseeable. Naturally an organization whose unshakeable principle is "Ashley Out" is a perfectly useless vehicle for this purpose. NUSC is, ultimately, an irrelevance.

I made that same point yesterday, what kind of owner will we end up with who can only afford to buy us in a crisis sale? Of course there's always the possibility that we'll simply go bankrupt.

Aye, but back then there was some hope of the club being sold. The old board hung on too long, to our detriment.

It seems likely to me that Ashley simply doesn't have the money to do anything more than what's he doing -- pumping enough in there to keep the club going. If he could have sold up without taking an unacceptably huge hit he would have done it already. Current financial circumstances have reduced his own fortune, made the club look like a less interesting buy, made the Premiership as a whole look like a less interesting proposition, big-money-wise (even Liverpool and Arsenal are in trouble, Chelsea are in sell-to-buy mode, last year's FA Cup winners are broke and also looking for new owners), and made it more or less impossible for anyone that isn't immensely cash-rich (we're talking the richest people in the world, here) to buy the club, keep it solvent, and make huge investments in the playing staff. Would these people be holding off for Ashley to drop his price? And anyone tempted to buy the club so they could have some fun in the exciting, glamorous world of Premiership football will certainly have watched with interest Ashley's attempt to do the same. It's possible he will sell at a loss, I suppose, if it looks like the club is just going to remain a black hole for his cash. If protests are going to assist to that end, then they'll only do so by making things much worse before they get better. And the kind of owner we'd end up with wouldn't likely be the kind of minted Fairy Godmother everyone's hoping for right now.

I didn't expect them to sort everything out in one or two windows, our midfield lacking in creativity is the biggest problem that I can see with our squad and they should have done something about it. I'm saying that now because I've always said that we lacked creativity and was willing to give them a chance to sort it, they haven't. what a load of whitewash, defending your man, and utter crap to go with it. Anybody but Fred. Hope the current shambles isn't too embarrassing for you mackems.gif Mike Ashley will never match the previous regime. The one that gave you the best 15 years of the last 50 by far. If you can put up league positions and european qualifications that show embarrassingly otherwise, I'll hold my hands up and admit it. Do you honestly think Shepherd was going to get us back into the Champions League? we know you thought at least 3 of the 6 managers would succeed Ozzie, you have said so on this very site. What do you think of the merits of appointing a manager who had won 4 titles with 2 different clubs and 3 manager of the year awards, which would make it 4 out of 6 you agreed with. Do you also still think that anyone who bought the club for 100m quid or more would have more idea than the last board [see my sig if you want to know who said this ?] Your second sentence shows that you have completely missed the point of my question. Why don't you try answering it, rather than spamming this same old drivel because you don't dare acknowledge the fact that Shepherd had long ago ceased to take us anywhere?

Honest, man, that's just nonsense from the first word to the last. i could contribute that reply to countless posts, youve made when debating with Ne5. Instead i will ask you to explain what parts are nonsense. Keegan being forced to become England manager against his will, England manager being an impossible job. Nonsense.

It's mad, though. Everyone complains about lack of communication from the club, but when it comes down to it there are hardly any important questions anyone is burning to ask Llambias.

I didn't expect them to sort everything out in one or two windows, our midfield lacking in creativity is the biggest problem that I can see with our squad and they should have done something about it. I'm saying that now because I've always said that we lacked creativity and was willing to give them a chance to sort it, they haven't. what a load of whitewash, defending your man, and utter crap to go with it. Anybody but Fred. Hope the current shambles isn't too embarrassing for you mackems.gif Mike Ashley will never match the previous regime. The one that gave you the best 15 years of the last 50 by far. If you can put up league positions and european qualifications that show embarrassingly otherwise, I'll hold my hands up and admit it. Do you honestly think Shepherd was going to get us back into the Champions League?

Honest, man, that's just nonsense from the first word to the last.