OzzieMandias

Not really a sport movie, though.

Jerry Maguire.

Fixed.

Very true. The only exception I can think of is Any Given Sunday -- and I say this as a man who normally hates Oliver Stone movies and has no interest in gridiron football. Cinderella Man tbf. Yeah, that's not bad.

The first Rocky is all right. The rest of them are shite.

Very true. The only exception I can think of is Any Given Sunday -- and I say this as a man who normally hates Oliver Stone movies and has no interest in gridiron football.

Why on earth would you think that? Goalkeepers rarely attract huge fees and I just don't think he's going to fetch much more than that. And it's not a bad return for someone who cost us £1.5 million about ten years ago. Events will prove me right or wrong.

I wouldn't want to sell him – he's not just an excellent goalie, but also represents continuity at the club – but I wouldn't be surprised if he did leave. We'll be lucky to get £6 million, though.

At what point did you realise that you'd paid too much for the club? a) When you found out about the trigger clause for the remaining £45 million of the stand loan? b) When you realised how much of future income had already been spent? c) Round about the moment you banned Freddie Shepherd from SJP? d) When you began to have nightmares about how much more of your own cash it would take to keep supporters happy? d) When nobody else in the world was prepared to pay as much for the thing as you had put in?

Because he's the master of PR isn't he? Even if it wasn't deliberate you'd think someone would have said "hang on Mike this may look bad in some quarters" but that would involve either he or any of his lickspittels having the slightest fucking clue what's going on at the club or in the region. To be fair though, the majority of the fans at the game didn't know what was going on yesterday. I am not trying to belittle what was a wonderful idea (poorly executed), but I cannot believe that Mike Ashley thought that the first steps to endear himselves to the fans today was to piss on a parade. I agree with Ozzie on this one. Maybe the publicity was lacking but they'd contacted the club about it so someone there knew. And they had the batphone to Ashley right? Are they serving big plates of Paranoia with the Guiness in the Irish Club now? RING RING Club lackey - Mike, that group that has criticised you non-stop since September, has made banners calling for your head, made press statements about you not speaking to them and them demanding answers has organised a charity day that hardly anyone knows about. Why not piss on their parade and release a press statement saying that you are going to take the club off the market. That will enrage them even further. You know how they think that you should run every detail about running the club past them first. Mike - http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/cerkir/123-1.jpg

It's certainly a fair point, regarding the length of time involved, and we did consider looking at doing it at sometime in February to mark his birthday (I think the Everton game would be the closest to his birthday), which would have given us extra time to plan. But we also had to consider the fact that he is ill and we don't know what the situation is going to be by then. So rather than do nothing at all we decided to do something around Christmas and though that Spurs was a bit too soon in terms of organising, so we went with the Liverpool game. As for the comments that Michael said about Ashley's announcement ruining the SBR day. I can understand the sentiment. It's annoying that it happened yesterday. Maybe Ashley did do it deliberately (there was plenty of coverage about it, and we had been speaking to the club re the collections and the banner), but then again, maybe it wasn't intentional. We (NUSC) have said that we wanted Ashley to come out and tell the supporters what the situtaion is. Now it's taken him ages to do it, and maybe it wasn't the best timing, but he has at least now done that. Personally, what I think needs to happen now is that he needs to make sure that the club gets the money and players that we need during the transfer window, which is something NUSC has been saying for a while. If we don't bring the right/enough players in during January, we really could be in deep trouble, because other teams down there WILL spend and bring players in. If he does that, then it's not all is forgiven, but he's at least moving in the right direction to sorting things out. I still think NUSC should be cautious of him, but what I don't want us to be is stuck in 'Ashley Out!' mode, regardless of everything. Because we've never (depsite what some may continue to think) been a single-issue group. It might all come to nothing, but if his comments are the first step of him admitting mistakes, resolving them, running the club properly, listening to the fans etc then we at NUSC have to allow for détente. Jesus, get your head out of your paranoid arse. It was the last home game before the transfer window opens -- an obvious landmark re Ashley's decision to commit or not commit for the medium term. It's a perfectly natural time for him to make his announcement. And why the fuck would he deliberately want to disrupt your little flag day? If he does start "listening to fans" (from a distance, now, given that the fans he used to stand among told him to fuck off, and he certainly heard that) I hope he doesn't listen to you.

We could make a few "'Cockney Mafia Out!' Banners Out!" banners.

I never heard that myself but if that's true that's very poor and ironically the same thing Ashley has reportedly been accused of in a way, using the Sir Bobby Day to send out an altogether different message. There needs to be some clear policies on these things, but these are ordinary fans at the end of the day so we cannot expect media savvyness just yet from NUSC spokespeople. So why call yourself a media spokesperson if you have no media savvy? He basically accused Ashley of trying to hijack Sir Bobby Robson day (a comment made before anything else was said about the club being taken off the market) and painted all fans who disagreed with his comments as idiots with no football knowledge or love for the club. Well thanks, but not in my name. I am a Newcastle United supporter who at this moment does not want to be represented by the Newcastle United Supporters Club as they are making tits of themselves. It's also funny that these "ordinary fans" with "no media savvy" should be the fans who happen to have "influential" (as the mainstream press like to call them when they're trying to validate some rentaquote) websites and magazines. Why don't they get some people with "media savvy" involved?

What was said? That Ashley made the decision to take the club off the market just to ruin SBR day. Or something to that effect. If that's true, that'd be the end of any sympathy for NUSC I may have had. They seem to be shockingly advised in terms of PR and strategy. Was the first thing out of the bloke's mouth before he even commented on the situation with Ashley. If most of the fans hadn't even heard it was Bobby Robson Day then Ashley probably hadn't either.

Criticising them for their self-importance in attempting to inspire initiatives that are obviously way beyond their reach/competence, relevant, very relevant.

Bollocks. The Toon Ultras do what they do. It's a stupid name with the wrong kind of connotations but at the end of the day they're just a bunch who want to make some noise at matches. I'm happy to let them get on with it. NUSC on the other hand are behaving as if they're the voice of all supporters, and making statements and graciously offering to meet Ashley as if they actually wielded some real power. They don't, though, and most of their self-important initiatives are more embarrassing than anything.

What does it mean to "give them a chance" when they behave as if they are representative of Toon fans yet so obviously are not -- as they've just proved with this Bobby Robson Day?

i hope he falls over in front of a convoy of bendy buses useless w***** Sad and bitter. Aye lets blame mike for our injuries, suspensions and the fact keegan is a pussy cunt who pissed of when he couldn't take the heat. What the fuck is the point of hating mike ash? Fact is he is our chairman, we have to hpe he invests and thats the end of it. If he invests where will all you bitter people be? They'll find some reason to moan whatever Ashley does.

Judging by the reaction around me not a lot of people knew about it and the few who did probably half of them only knew as a result of Ashley being accused on ruining it. A reality check for NUSC, hopefully.

How successful was this Bobby Robson Day, then?

Tony Blair

"Ricky Don't Lost That Number" by Steely Dan?

"Ricky's Hand" by Fad Gadget?