TRon

Maybe he does want to stay but wants a contract extension? Something I'll bet Shearer privately suggested he'd be getting if he was put in charge. Shearer had ear-marked Beye as one of the three players he wanted to re-build around, but now we have Chris Hughton handed the reigns with no clout and no respect from either directors or playing staff. If the goalposts have been changed then obviously players attitudes are going to change as well. Give Shearer the job tomorrow and this will all be sorted.

Ironically he is one of the few decent players who I think would have stayed had the club shown any sort of standards during this period. If Shearer had been appointed and the take over process underway, no doubt in my mind he'd be happy to stay put, but why would any player who can still do a job at a better level want to hang around a club which is in freefall with a first team coach in charge for the forseeable future?

I suggest any player who is desperate to move could always buy out his remaining contract. Don't all rush at once lads.

No we won't. He won't make a blind bit of difference one way or the other.

Ashley lives in his own little dream world where we wouldn't have got relegated if good old Joe hadn't took ill. I can still see him sneaking Kinnear back into the set up once the sale of the club falls through.

Think about last season. None of that s*** made sense either. How did it not make sense? You're saying you don't think he's really going to sell and is using all of this to take heat away from the relegation, which would imply he wants to stay and take us back up. But if this was the case, why would he leave us with a caretaker manager and no new players in? He's just fucking himself over as well as all of us. I'm not saying I believe it myself, just putting the suggestion out there. As I said before, think about last year. He appointed Joe Kinnear and failed to invest in the team when it was obvious at fuck to er, well the rest of the fucking world that we were struggling. That made no sense either - it was clear that for the sake of £10m he risked losing £100m - but those decisions were made and he fucked himself over as well as us. He probably thought the heat would be much worse btw, and as in September just bailed like the jellyfish cunt he is. I don't know, it's just fucking infuriating this, and the lying and piss-taking by Llambias (both in the past and regarding the 'sale') makes me more suspicious by the day. I don't think Ashley thinks too far ahead. Right now all he is aware of is that there are a couple of interested parties and his priority is to get them to bid against each other to get him as high a price as possible. This is similar to last season where he refused to drop the asking price to the level required, scared off all potential investors, then tried to do a bodge up job for the rest of the season resulting in relegation and the loss of millions. Can anyone see a pattern emerging yet?

The fact that there is more than one party interested in buying the club means that serious bidders will have to put up decent offers though, then it just comes down to whether Ashley is going to bite the bullet and accept the best one....and if he doesn't where does he plan on going from here?

Yup - he's going to try his arse off next season, he'll get the supply and he'll score goals. We're going to hate it but people need to get used to it and move on. He was a disastrous signing for us, you cannot build a side around Michael Owen and if a club like us pay £17 million then it needs to be for someone who you can build around. It was a case of wrong player, wrong club. Ridiculous decision to make him captain, he is quite clearly not a leader and never will be. His faults were on full view at the end but the club is not blameless IMO. Every word spot on. I think the most important factor for Owen is that he will be happy at his club and with the prospect of being closer to home (his real home). That was never the case here from the first day to the last and that's the only reason very few up here have taken to him. A bad deal all round.

...and yet we search everyday for some reason in all his madness. Me thinking he might sell them and pocket the money seems wishful now. Strangeness like I've never seen it. You have a short memory then. we saw exactly the same thing last season when Ashley, sat on his hands after Keegan walked out, wobbled a bit, then appointed Kinnear as manager. Now he's reverting to type by sticking Hughton in charge at the lowest possible price while he fucks off down south and sticks his head in the sand. Just another day in the football world of Mike Ashley

Ashley's sale of the club appears to be following a similar pattern to his ownership of Newcastle; basically limp along aimlessly, hoping for the best outcome in the end. It's clear there are buyers at the right price, the only question is whether fattie is prepared to swallow his losses and scuttle off for good. I'm still waiting to see if the hapless buffoon will price himself out of a sale and end up lumbered with a football club 300 miles away from his foxhole.

Haven't read this thread or his interview, just popped in to say "fuck off Michael...fuck off and die."

Halfway there. How do they come to that conclusion? I would have thought any potential buyer would want to give themselves a decent crack at promotion next season so the longer the sale is delayed the less chance of getting the squad ready for a promotion push...that makes the club a less valuable asset every day the sale drags on in my view, although I'm no expert on these matters.

Everything is just speculation though, we don't know how much he would have taken and there's no real evidence of any offers being made for the club at any time. I think the most there's ever been was City's owner saying they were interested in the PL and looked at us, Liverpool & Arsenal as well as City. The story that Ashley turned down an offer for £Xm from him was just made up from that. There is a quote somewhere where they said they offered 200m, but Ashley was asking 400m. I'll try and find it. I am pretty sure that Anil Ambani's representatives flew in for talks to buy the club last year but pulled the plug after claiming their time had been wasted or words to that effect. It's a pretty consistent theme to be fair.

Wouldn't argue with any of that. Enrique is one of the few players who would do well for a decent Premier side for me and while he's on big money he's still a saleable asset. Can't say that for for many of our squad.

Just fuck off back to MOTD Alan, nothing happening here.

He is staying IMO, this has all the trademarks of his previous deals which have hit the rocks. Trying to get as much as possible, brinkmanship tactics padded with plenty of tactical bullshit and red herrings leading to a breakdown in negotiations and back where we're started with a cockney barrow boy installed as interim manager. Bob's your uncle and jellied eels all round.

I remember saying at the time that JK as manager on a temporary basis was one thing but the prospect of him handling transfers and contracts scared the shit out of me. In the end his involvement probably doomed the club with contracts for Butt and Ameobi and Nolan and Raylor arriving to seal our fate.

I would imagine most of the decent players will still get sold once the club is taken off the market, which shouldn't take long as there are only one or two. Then next season without proper leadership I would say our best chance of picking up any results will be to introduce a few of the younger fringe players like Ranger, Krul and Lua Lua to try and inject some hunger in the team. The nucleus of the squad is more than good enough at this level the problem is going to be motivation unless their places are under pressure.

The correct answer is.... he loses credibilty by stating Ashley has us on a stable footing. Christ, I miss out the word 'financial' and look what happens...the Shepherd apologists out in force (not aimed at you Cp40, I know you're just a Keegan fan) Does thinking MA is a clueless c*** immediately make one a Shep apologist? Explain...... Ashley cant be defended on his record, so comparing him to his predecessor is the only way of avoiding saying I got it wrong. I was blaming Keegan and Shepherd and people with cockney mafia out banners for our problems, when it was down to Ashley all along. Pretty much everyone must realise by now what a catastrophic dimwit Ashley is. as regards nufc ...yes does it mean fred left us on the up or in the s*** ? When MA took over he had access to capital within the region of at least 700m to 1bl. How the f*** did he manage to get us relegated? because he didn't want to spend all his money on the football club. much like you and I. He needed to spend £20m to safeguard the club and save £100m. He didn't because he's a stupid c*** and us in the Championship is testament to the fact. not so sure about that..............i 'm not sure giving kinnear 20mill would have saved us. I think that sentence sums up Mike Ashley's competence to run a football club pretty well.

Was just going to say this, he thought of a football club as a rich man's toy and amusement for the weekends. His naivety was staggering. So no one thinks that his business model could have worked for other clubs? What was Ashley's single biggest mistake? The Keegan debacle? or was it the fact that he let the club play out more than half the season with Hughton and Kinnear in charge? These weren't business mistakes. What hurt Ashley the most as owner of the club was when he started to piss on the fans from a great height thinking he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it. His business model could have worked at other clubs, as it could have here, but he appointed the wrong people and fucked up nearly every decision he ever made. He would have made the same stupid mistakes at a different club, just on a smaller scale.

The correct answer is.... he loses credibilty by stating Ashley has us on a stable footing. Christ, I miss out the word 'financial' and look what happens...the Shepherd apologists out in force (not aimed at you Cp40, I know you're just a Keegan fan) Does thinking MA is a clueless c*** immediately make one a Shep apologist? Explain...... Ashley cant be defended on his record, so comparing him to his predecessor is the only way of avoiding saying I got it wrong. I was blaming Keegan and Shepherd and people with cockney mafia out banners for our problems, when it was down to Ashley all along. Pretty much everyone must realise by now what a catastrophic dimwit Ashley is. as regards nufc ...yes does it mean fred left us on the up or in the s*** ? When MA took over he had access to capital within the region of at least 700m to 1bl. How the f*** did he manage to get us relegated? because he didn't want to spend all his money on the football club. much like you and I. He needed to spend £20m to safeguard the club and save £100m. He didn't because he's a stupid cunt and us in the Championship is testament to the fact.

There has to be a point where if the deal takes much longer, it will be too late to re-shape the squad and make the necessary changes to have a genuine promotion push de-valuing the club even further. I would imagine that might see potential buyers decide to walk away. With Ashley's talent for blowing deals it must be a fair bet as well.

And then what? Do you suggest racking up more and more debt to remain competitive? We have sucessfully cut our debts and where are we competing now?

did i say it was ? whos fault was it that we hocked everything we had and still made losses. do you think in that situation the banks would fall over themselves to loan us more to invest ? Yet still Fat Fred managed to sell the club for a tidy sum taking the banks out of the equation. Was that his fault as well? and what position were we in when he left ? what position had we been headed for 2 or 3 years priior ? This is the question you really need to ask Mike Ashley as he thought it was a good buy at the time. and he got it wrong ? still doesn't mean fred didn't leave us in a financial shitheap. So do you think after Ashley bought the club, he should blame the problems on Shepherd?

did i say it was ? whos fault was it that we hocked everything we had and still made losses. do you think in that situation the banks would fall over themselves to loan us more to invest ? Yet still Fat Fred managed to sell the club for a tidy sum taking the banks out of the equation. Was that his fault as well? and what position were we in when he left ? what position had we been headed for 2 or 3 years priior ? This is the question you really need to ask Mike Ashley as he thought it was a good buy at the time.