Ashley17

Thanks, Yorkie. The third part with Matthew Raisbeck will be up in the next few days.

I’ve been interviewing Newcastle commentators from over the years. Mick Lowes mostly about the 90s and the Keegan times and then Justin Lockwood for the Sir Bobby days. If you’re like me and enjoy the past hopefully you’ll find them a good read: Lowes: https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/nostalgia/legendary-newcastle-commentator-mick-lowes-keegan-shearer-and-new-radicals-song-2853405 Lockwood: https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/nostalgia/justin-lockwood-sir-bobby-robsons-parking-outrage-and-cheick-tiote-commentary-2853477

To an extent, but the bulk of football clubs aren't still paying Lee Cattermole.

Was it the summer of 2011 where, after selling Enrique, we spent the whole summer low-balling Swansea for Neil Taylor before eventually settling for plan B - Italian International Davide Santon?

I hate Keys as much as the next man but he did say this was happening a while ago. But then we know he's in with the Ashley crowd so that shouldn't be a surprise.

Cried my eyes out that night because we lost and could not get to a semifinal. Plus Ginola my fav player was sent off. Hated Dixon and whoever the ref was for a long time after that too. Watched it back on VHS recently and at full time they go to interview Keegan and they're asking him about the ref and all that sort of thing and KK just says "the better team won on the night, here's the man you should be speaking to" and he puts an arm round Ian Wright and then leaves them to it. Thought it was really classy.

I mean it’s almost certainly bollocks but if the deal was as far along as alleged earlier in the year Ashley would be stupid not to sell at the agreed price. It would be worth far less if the negotiations started today and with £340m in his pocket he will be hoovering up companies that struggle over the coming months

I was watching Shearer on Soccerbox on Sunday and it doesn't really tie in with your story. Shearer met with Keegan and then Ferguson and Shearer was 90% certain he was going to Man Utd. Keegan rang again and asked for another half hour with Shearer to convince him to sign - and succeeded.

With the Word Cup in 2022 being in November I guess they might see this as a chance to align the leagues with that rather than have everything stop for a month? Going to take some bloody sorting out though.

They're giving everybody zero for GW30 and 31 (or less if you've taken a transfer hit) so a lot of draws in H2H leagues. Also means, if we get back underway, there'll be an awful lot of double game weeks. Could be some massive swings to come (or it'll all get scrapped).

It was like last night where Danny Murphy mentioned us not scoring for 7 hours and said Bruce was doing a good job. As if it's somehow not his job to make the team score goals. It's mad.

It was also before FFP so completely irrelevant

Just remember Edwards spent the summer basically laughing at the BZG link when we know for a fact it was a real thing as Ashley referenced it in his Martin Samuel PR stunt. For all it has been "leaked" I'm not too sure it has been in the truest sense. This will have been talked about for months and it was only reported by WSJ yesterday when it became near completion (allegedly). As many have pointed out, WSJ wouldn't be publishing stuff as a favour to Ashley/Bishop or any of the other fun and games that go on. I think it's fair to assume the interest is legitimate, however that doesn't mean a deal will be done. Also I understand the scepticism about this being news in January but realistically there are only two times to buy a club like ours - the summer and now. The summer is a relatively short period of time to get a deal through in time to then have a stab at building a squad (even changing manager too) so doing it now when we are looking like being safe makes sense for a buyer but also for Ashley. The value of the club should be fairly secure right now as we should stay up, any buyer can have everything in place well in time for the summer. We looked certainties for relegation in September/October sort of time and that has been the case for the past few years. So it really shouldn't be a surprise that these stories come out in January. There have been rumblings, little snippets here and there, about potential deals for the club for a while now. Dickhead Keys, a couple of lines from Ornstein in The Athletic, that fella on ESPN I think it was - all saying a deal was being discussed. The NE press pack have always maintained people were in "the data room" or whatever you want to call it. The reality is none of them have a clue, they're all fishing about for 2nd hand information. A few of them yesterday came out with "well I'd heard some things..." but it's not like the Chronicle is short of column inches, there is some pure shite printed in there. It won't be one of that lot who break any news like this if and when it finally happens. Fingers crossed this is the one, just don't get your hopes up when Ashley is involved.

You'd play Carroll just to defend set pieces more than anything. Clark will be a big miss if he's out too, probably our best header of the ball (aside from Carroll).

It's better to be lucky than good. I don't know how we're getting some of these results but as a few people have said, it's so similar to the Pardew 5th season. Credit where it's due to Bruce for getting the results at the moment but we've seen what happens when he tries to put his own "stamp" on the team and I'm sure he'll try it again soon and we'll get humped.

If it’s anything like their tennis coverage, make sure you’ve got any score notifications off on the device you are watching on. A good 30-45 seconds behind

Put in a lush cross for Clark last season against Arsenal. He’s not bad on the ball, albeit not as good as Schar

I would say Sterling is more likely to be rested than Aguero. It's Pep though, nobody really knows.

I think we're all desperate for change, at least Kenyon has a track record of running a football club and making it a success commercially (IIRC). A handsome man wrote this recently: https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/fan-blog-why-newcastle-united-has-lost-its-soul-639179

Nobody running a takeover bath? https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/exclusive-gacp-sports-and-peter-kenyon-take-big-step-towards-newcastle-united-takeover-formation-two-new-companies-643078

No he was garbage really. Seem to remember a cup replay against Plymouth where he put in about 100 crosses that hit the first man. Only other good memory of him was him piling in from the subs bench for the celebrations down at Bristol City when we got it back to 2-2

We were better than I thought we'd be, especially when I saw their team. The tackle on Ritchie was awful, looked a red although I haven't seen it back. Atsu and Muto both did well physically against their defenders which was a surprise. Longstaff junior started well but faded badly, he was knackered by the end but we'd used all our subs. Willems is a total maverick, I can see him becoming a bit of a cult hero. Some nice bits of skill tonight, an awful dive and then finally injuring himself tripping over the ball. If all the injuries from Sunday are legit then this goes down as a good effort in the circumstances, however we all know the likes of Joelinton and Almiron are just hanging back for Saturday. Obviously our cup record under Ashley is a joke and this is another one for the list but in isolation, this wasn't a surrender and it was streets ahead of the Watford game in January. Though we went on to beat Man City a few days after that so the end justified the means. Let's see what Saturday brings.

The countdown to the big Sam rescue act is on

The cynic in me makes me wonder why nobody else has come in for him if we've been pissing about for a few months

Midnight BZG time. Smart.