TRon

Is it really necessary to state that NUST has never got into a slanging match with Ashley and then proceed to do just that? This is all fine if it's a the work of a pressure group, but if it's a serious attempt to buy the club there needs to be a bit more professionalism.

It isn't optimism, I think he's been a disaster for us, but even when he's playing badly you can see he spots things most of our midfielders couldn't even contemplate. He's the only player in our squad who comes close to being described as a playmaker but he looks like he's just doesn't care enough. I think tooj is right though, it might help if he got to play in the centre a bit more.

In that case I don't really see where the better football is going to come from then, as I just don't se enough movement or vision in that pair to get us playing.

Does anyone think that the fault lies more with Hughton than with the players at his disposal. Me and my brother are in a bit of a dispute about this so far. I reckon to a point the midfielders are too knackered, he reckons Hughton's wilfully making them look shit with his long ball crap. The truth is probably somewhere in between I suspect.

That's what is going to happen.

I know he was garbage earlier this season, but surely a midfield of Jonas, Smith, Barton and Guthrie should piss this league and we shouldn't be getting outplayed by anyone? If those four started would we really need to throw as many long balls into the strikers as we do now? Do we have the players to play 90 mins passing football or is Hughton right - we need to play long ball because it's worked so far?

Figures that you prefer to ignore the posts from someone who's probably watched Beckford more than anyone else on this board. You're living in a fantasy world skirge, grow the fuck up man. You don't get it do you? I do not give a flying fk if you have seen him play every minute since he was 5, your opinion is your opinion. So you say you have seen him play more than any of us, so what man, you do not rate him and I do. Have to agree with this. I admit I haven't seen much of Beckford, but from what i have seen he looks like he's got something about him. I wouldn't really care what stats or figures anyone chucked at me or what their opinion was. I'd still reckon that the player might make it if he showed certain qualities, and from the goals I've seen him score he's worth a punt.

£150m was too much in the PL so no-one met his price. £80m was comically high for the state we were in the summer, so no-one met his price. When he names his price again, is it really any more likely to be met? Will he realise that investors are not queuing up round the corner to buy clubs? A number of major financial institutions will not touch football clubs after what has gone on at Man Utd and Liverpool. As for the concept that a low price would encourage a buyer who couldn't afford to run it- sorry- are we basically demanding that someone who buys the football club has some kind of moral obligation to pump tens of millions of pounds into it? It doesn't matter how much money any buyer has- if they pay what Ashley asks they are either very wealthy (unlikely to happen) or foolhardy. It was overpaying for the club in the first place which has driven Ashley to save face and ask for top-whack prices. I'd rather a businessman paid what it was truly worth- maybe that's the sort of level-headedness needed to run NUFC. £80m for us, £60m for Birmingham, £80m for Man City (Thaksin), so not that overpriced if we were in the Premiership like I suggested and there was some interest last time, even with us as a newly relegated club in a total mess, hopefully there'd be more if we were a newly promoted club in significantly less of a mess. I've never suggested that a new owner should spend ridiculous amounts in the transfer market - in fact I've been arguing in favour of us not doing that for years now - but the fact is we will need some investment in the squad in order to stay up, should we get up. The new owner would also need to have some readily available cash to keep things ticking over whilst they tried to sort the club out and make it profitable. Once that was achieved then my view would be that the club should be run within it's means, reckless spending is what got us into this situation in the first place and I'd be loathe to see it happen again, but in the meantime it will cost money to be the owner of this club, therefore it is essential that any new owner has access to cash, in the short-run at least. That is nothing like saying that "someone who buys the football club has some kind of moral obligation to pump tens of millions of pounds into it." We need an owner with the nous to be able to run this club successfully, anyone with that ability will know that they will need to be able to source the funds to buy the club and then some more to use as working capital. There are always costs associated with any large purchase and this is no different. If people ignore that things tend to go tits-up, it's and undeniable fact; as borne out by what's happening at Portsmouth and what might have happened here if Moat had taken over possibly? Those prices are misleading, the real cost of buying Newcastle should show the debt as well. In reality it will cost more than £80m for anyone to buy the club, will there still be interest if the actual price is closer to £160-200m?

I can't say I ever agreed with the idea of giving Clark a job at Newcastle without him proving himself first but fair play to him, he's doing exactly that. It would be great if he ended up manager of Newcastle one day on merit rather than because he was a former fans favourite. If he gets the job at Burnley I wish him all the best. Not many talented managers out there these days, it would be fantastic if the next one turned out to be one of our own.

Not desperate enough to lower the price to one that will actually get the club sold though. In other words not desperate at all.

So the transfer stories on Sunday are speculation, but this story is okay to believe? Until there's an official statement that he normally makes when this sort of story breaks I'll take it with a pinch of salt. Plus I think the reality is the club is always up for sale until an offer he deems acceptable is made, which we all know anyway. The question is, will he run the club properly or use the Up for Sale excuse to limp along like last season?

We won't be sold and will spend all summer disrupting plans for next season. and repeat..

Agree with every word.

I don't really look at stats, I judge a player on how they look. From what I've seen Beckford looks like player with a bit of pace and a decent finish so I reckon he might step up a league. I wouldn't be surprised if the reports that Bruce is interested are true as well, he seems to like players who are quick enough to compete in the premier as well.

Wouldn't surprise me if that's the standard of signing we make as well.

£1.5m for a 31 year old? Just fuck off.

It would be typical of the amateurish running of this club for the past decade though. Fail to give Chopra a chance when he was on our books and see what he was made of, then buy him back for an inflated fee after he's scored goals elsewhere. Maybe so, but he's still less of a risk than Beckford. A matter of opnion, but if either of them goes on to have a half decent future in the prem I'd bet on it being Beckford.

It would be typical of the amateurish running of this club for the past decade though. Fail to give Chopra a chance when he was on our books and see what he was made of, then buy him back for an inflated fee after he's scored goals elsewhere.

If Hughton even mentions the idea of signing Chopra he should be sacked.

100% As for this thread, hopefully the horror of relegation has wiped all twattery from our squad(excluding Barton & Caroolll) and we start doing things right agreed. whatever people say about shearer as manager, i do believe he was hell bent on correcting the deep issues that we have behind the scenes/ Said at the time we needed someone to rip the club apart and build it up again from scratch. I think Shearer, given enough time and backing, would have done this. All academic now obviously like. We didn't go down that route and we are where we are. Shearer was offered the job under Shepherd but didn't take it. I'm pretty sure he would have all the time and backing he wanted back then so why he didn't is a mystery tbh. Maybe he just didn't fancy it at the time. Do tell... Shepherd was pretty vocal in the local press at the time that he wanted Shearer to take the job at some point. It wasn't me writing the articles so nothing for me to tell.

100% As for this thread, hopefully the horror of relegation has wiped all twattery from our squad(excluding Barton & Caroolll) and we start doing things right agreed. whatever people say about shearer as manager, i do believe he was hell bent on correcting the deep issues that we have behind the scenes/ Said at the time we needed someone to rip the club apart and build it up again from scratch. I think Shearer, given enough time and backing, would have done this. All academic now obviously like. We didn't go down that route and we are where we are. Shearer was offered the job under Shepherd but didn't take it. I'm pretty sure he would have all the time and backing he wanted back then so why he didn't is a mystery tbh. Maybe he just didn't fancy it at the time.

That's why it says 'pledged' But the money hasn't been pledged. NUST were only asking for expressions of interest, and were encouraging people to come forward by stressing that there was no obligation attached to registering. If the money really had been pledged, then it would be fair enough to say it had been raised, because a pledge in its true sense is a guarantee. Am assuming you mean my figures? I am as sceptical as you in that regard, i just put the absolute minimun for it My point wasn't about the ultimate target figure - your guess is as good as mine on that. I interpreted your and Chris's statements as meaning that there was still a long way to go, even though £50 million could be knocked off it. I was just pointing out that NUST hadn't raised any money at all yet, let alone £50 million. Am with you there, my point was that it would have to be £300m before Ashley played ball Ashley is only intersted in making money, why would he hold out for £300m if the club isn't worth it? You really think he will throw away the £200m he paid over the £139m? As always Ashley will want his full return I'm sure he'd like £500m if he could get it. as a business man though he'll probably take the best he can get, which isn't £339m. Unless you know better.

Hasn't Kilgallon told us to f*** off? Moncur sounds like a jilted lass mooning over the one that got away tbh. Actually Kilgallon is probably right here, get a better deal(and a choice of clubs for first team) when he is free rather than a reserve for a long time here So he doesn't really want to be here and is more interested in his options. Don't really see the point in Moncur wringing his hands over him tbh.

That's why it says 'pledged' But the money hasn't been pledged. NUST were only asking for expressions of interest, and were encouraging people to come forward by stressing that there was no obligation attached to registering. If the money really had been pledged, then it would be fair enough to say it had been raised, because a pledge in its true sense is a guarantee. Am assuming you mean my figures? I am as sceptical as you in that regard, i just put the absolute minimun for it My point wasn't about the ultimate target figure - your guess is as good as mine on that. I interpreted your and Chris's statements as meaning that there was still a long way to go, even though £50 million could be knocked off it. I was just pointing out that NUST hadn't raised any money at all yet, let alone £50 million. Am with you there, my point was that it would have to be £300m before Ashley played ball Ashley is only intersted in making money, why would he hold out for £300m if the club isn't worth it?

Forgot to mention, all these strong characters are on fairly big salaries but obviously they have earned them, no doubt we'll be fighting off bids from premier clubs for these stalwarts.