tmonkey

This. It's a combination of "why would he want to sell?" and "why would anyone want to buy at the price he wants with assets stripped, all manner of contracts tying the club into future dealings for SD as per Rangers, a shiite playing squad, no manager soon, decaying outdated facilities, and underqualified/inexperienced/incompetent executives and senior management - aka Ashley's gambling/drinking/business mates - running the club probably tying themselves into nice compensation contracts".

The PFMs alot of our fans and some pundits in the media want here would have panicked a month or two ago and started chopping and changing formation/lineups/playstyles in a desperate bid to get the critics off their back and save their own skins. Rafa is far too good/classy to succumb to shit like that.

Need to see more of Ki over a longer term. Couple of half decent performances isn't really enough to suggest the player who (imo) has been comfortably our best footballer since the Championship should lose his place in the team. Still think at PL level Shelvey looks a league above everyone else in our squad when it comes to controlling the ball, not panicking, distributing it, and actually doing something positive with a touch of class (or at least taking the responsibility on for trying to, as opposed to playing it safe).

My favourite comment so far from that Sun website article:

I honestly think if the previous regime had had the explosion of new PL money wed be in a similar position to Spurs by now Could you imagine the Shepherds with this money? We'd definitely be where Spurs are, but they'll be rolling into the stadium with gold teeth, a gold limousine and 10 Spanish prostitutes. And I'll be totally okay with it. He'd be spending on marquee players and we'd be better off compared to where we are now because we'd have a few big name players at least, even if they might be over the hill. But it's still Freddie Shepherd. The lining of his own pockets wasn't the only issue even though it's a pretty big one - reducing our available resources, heavily influencing who who we'd buy since e.g. we brought exclusively from Willie McKay alot of the time just to further line the Shepherd family pockets. But his appointment in managers pre and post Sir Bobby was beyond dreadful. The guy appointed Souness, Roeder and Allardyce in an era when our competitors were going for world class talent (like Rafa) or progressive visionaries (Wenger at Arsenal). I remember the day Souness was appointed when practically our entire fanbase felt sick to our stomachs with how bad that appointment was, especially when you look back to who the rumoured candidates for the job were and the calibre of some of those putting their names forward. Houllier? Nope. Lippi? Nope. Capello? Nope. Cuper? Nope. Hitzfeld? Clearly a gambling scam. How about the widely viewed as shiite manager from Blackburn, at a club at the bottom of the table and on the verge of the sack, with a reputation for falling out with players? YES! It's exactly the same sort of shit decision making Ashley has shown for most of his tenure here. Spurs right now have Ponchettino, a progressive genius of a manager who Shepherd would probably never appoint. I'd argue the Sir Bobby era has heavily influenced how many people remember Shepherd. Sir Bobby was practically a Geordie with emotional ties to the club, a world class manager with vast continental experience at the highest levels, and coming towards the end of his career looking to return home - it was the easiest appointment in the world for Freddie, and something he should get minimal credit for (in the same way Ashley should get minimal credit for appointing Rafa, circumstances just aligned). There's no Sir Bobby out there for us, no easy appointment, so who do you honestly think Shepherd would be appointing? Probably a Moyes or Warnock.

What makes you think that?

To be fair he said it a few months after leaving based on that article. Harsh as fk though.

Probably would've had the same outcome in terms of having to sell to someone thick enough to buy. Shepherd and Douglas Hall were bleeding the club dry with their various schemes aimed at financially benefiting themselves to the detriment of the club, and I'm convinced they decided to get rid when they realized we weren't in a good spot. Future revenue had all been committed to fund our bigger signings at the time (e.g. Owen), and we had a dire squad with some players on massive wages who we couldn't shift and no real financial ability to change that. They saw the warning signs, found a buyer stupid enough to not do any due diligence (or maybe Ashley didn't care since we were always an add on to Sports Direct), and decided to cut and run. I imagine the same thing would've happened if we had slightly more income due to a bigger stadium.

Also not convinced Ashley would definitely sell if we're in the Championship, or even League One, for X number of years. By that time the devaluation of the club has already happened - e.g. we've gone from being worth £250m+ to <£100m, so why would he sell after he's lost a big chunk of the value? Logically you'd want to sell before you lose that amount (i.e. sell now whilst the risk is high), but we know Ashley isn't interested in selling. So unless there's risks of further relegations resulting in even more loss in value of his asset, he might want want to hold on to the club in the hope that there's a promotion or two in the future, which means the club goes back to being worth £250m+ or possibly more. From a risk-reward perspective, it would make no sense to sell at that stage. There's also the likelihood that Ashley sees NUFC as still being beneficial to Sports Direct, even in the Championship. He'd gamble on an immediate return initially, but if that doesn't work he'd cut back running costs drastically and operate us as a profitable Championship club which continues to line his/Sports Direct's coffers. He stills gets to imprint the Sports Direct logo on home and visiting away fans every other week, we'd still be on Sky a couple of times a month, we'll still be well supported with fans spending their cash in the club shop, etc etc. It won't be as good for Sports Direct as the club being in the PL as part of his Far East mission for Sports Direct (if that's still an aim), but it will still be beneficial to Sports Direct. And then there's the problem of who would want to buy NUFC in the Championship (or lower) with Ashley's debt attached, with all kinds of long term contracts tied into using Sports Direct, assets stripped and/or transferred and leased back, etc etc. As James says, probably some chancer. It's all very unpredictable due to how Ashley operates.

Both have a chopper and own football clubs, one is great and spends money, the other is a utter tosser who has deliberately sabotaged his own club. Pretty easy to see the relation really. Comparisons to Ashley are understandable given how he seems to be a polar opposite owner to Vichnai, but social norms dictate that at a time when people are upset, want to grieve, or pay their respects, it's poor taste to be using tragedies like this to make a point or air your own grievances against someone or something else not directly related to the incident. On an internet forum that translates to keeping Ashley comparisons out of this thread. Even if you don't agree with those social norms, as I do, it's the way it is - using tragedies to point score will raise ire and disgust.

Pardew was technically screwed over to a degree by Ashley. Just because he was a really shit manager and a total arrogant cunt of a human being, it doesn't mean he didn't suffer some of the issues associated with being a manager of a Mike Ashley club. However: a) Pards would have signed utter shit if he was given the chance to (Obertan was a taster - look at the money he spunked at Palace). Thankfully the club signed Carr's recommendations predominantly. Rafa on the other hand has an overall very good track record in the transfer market across the continent at the highest levels (Napoli being the best recent example of what he's capable of if backed). He's someone you want to back when it comes to spending money. Pards isn't. b) The club was signing players for Pards back when transfer fees were "normal" and so £5m to £10m bought you a potentially good player with a greater chance of being successful (Cabaye, Cisse, Ben Arfa, Tiote, etc). With Rafa it's a different kettle of fish, he's restricted to signing players who are genuine bottom of the barrel stuff, players even relegation competitors aren't interested in. And the worst thing is that transfer fees are inflated because clubs have vastly inflated income - we have the money to spend, but refuse to do so. c) Pards was in on it all. Him being manager of NUFC was entirely down to being a beneficiary of the horrifically incompetent way in which NUFC is run by Ashley. Pards was ridiculously lucky to get the gig here, snaking his way in through the back door by hanging around the casino Ashley frequents, whereas we're really lucky to have Rafa here.

I still don't get why what Ashley pulled off at Rangers isn't brought up regularly in the press. Genuinely disgusting how he successfully abused a well supported football club for personal gain and absolutely nothing gets said. It's like noone wants to acknowledge it. TF need to get Caulkin or someone of a similar respected stature to write an article about it and how it's indicative of what is happening at NUFC. The podcast was great but it's hit a very limited audience only.

Scored in the last 5 in a row. Second highest top scorer as well. Couldn't get him though, would've upset Joselu. Supposedly he didn't want to come here, his chairman at Nice said he preferred the move to Germany even though our offer was a better deal for Nice. Of course there's no way of telling if our interest was genuine with the way this club works, but Plea did actually suggest that he was interested in a move to Spain because "La Liga is a league that’s very technical and is suited to attackers.” He ended up in Germany eventually, but you do wonder if he really fancied the Premier, allegedly West Ham and Spurs were interested as well. It's impossible to know. I'm under the impression that every competent club/manager informally makes contacts with players (or their agents) that they're interested in to see if the player will want to sign. It's tapping up, but everyone does it and gets away with it especially if the player is looking to move or the club is willing to sell. Same way that Keegan lined up Modric, or Hyppia, before we had even put a bid in. Rafa did this with Loftus Cheek and Tammy Abraham. So it's safe to assume Rafa had checked that Plea would be open to a move here. And I imagine he's one of the many players on our managers shortlists over the years who has no desire to wait for a mediocre yo-yo club like NUFC, with it's pitiful training facilities, rusting stadium and tacky yellow sports Poundland equivalent logos plastered everywhere, to maybe eventually make a (derisory) bid.

Personally thought Shay was a little overrated. Good keeper overall, thought his shot stopping was good as opposed to great, and the main positive with him was his consistently/reliability/confidence over a long period of time. But overall had too many weaknesses in his game, and as harsh as this is I always felt like his size was a disadvantage compared to other (better) keepers, those extra few inches make a big difference. Dubravka looks a better keeper imo, although has a long way to go to be considered in the same calibre or higher as Shay. Plenty of tests yet to come, especially if he makes a big mistake. That's sometimes when you know what a keeper is made of mentally as many start off alright but then it's downhill as soon as the confidence takes a knock and the criticisms/being a laughing stock starts impacting on them, and/or teams start targeting the weaknesses that led to the errors - Given had his big fuck up early on with us iirc, the Dion Dublin sneaking up on him from behind like a leopard incident, but seemed to get mentally stronger and more assured from it.

To be honest this applies worldwide. Real Madrid are shiite, Barca are shiite, Bayern are shiite (currently 5th in Bundesliga), Juve are shiite but they're in a ridiculously weak league at the moment.

I really hope this destroys Mahrez. Whinging like a fanny to leave Leicester and the knobhead can't even take a decent penalty.

LMAO. I think that's the worst penalty I've seen since Beckham's against the Turks.

You'd think with all the dirty paella eating forrins in our game the coaches and scouts at youth level would appreciate and understand the need for superior technical ability. But there's going to be loads of mini Pardews, Allardyces, Redknapps, Murphys, etc, infesting the game at the grass root levels.

He's looked shiite since the start of the season. Was wondering if he'd return the same player after Ramos the Impaler nailed him, looks to have really affected his game/confidence.

He's annoying as fuck to watch off the ball. Constantly asking for it from teammates when he's in a nothing position, then you can visibly see him whinging if they don't pass it to him. If they do pass it to him he'll pass it straight back to them or pass it sideways so it's not like ignoring him costs the team an opportunity.

Shiite match.

He should be one of the first names on their team sheet. Poorly used by Mourinho, but then talented attacking players frequently are under him.

1st half: gud. 2nd half: not gud. Git gud.

We did sell a striker for £27m and that was down to Rafa. He was more than happy to replace him with Rondon and for all we know, that might still work out, but I think he's big enough to take responsibility for that decision. A striker who isn't suited to Rafa's system, to things like Shelvey's passing ability (need someone more mobile to take advantage of arguably one of the best through ball passers in the league), and by the striker's own admission isn't good at following Rafa's instructions. And also sold at a time when Rafa was expecting to be able to spend money on replacements.