GM

I see the WUMs are out

Yup. You can guess how much I now really, really wish I'd kept my season ticket in the Gallowgate End rather than letting Mike Ashley kill my passion. "Fairweather fans" all regretting walking away now, no doubt. ?

Sadly not. I think Chez's probably deep undercover for the French secret service by now. Miss him. Parky, not so much.

With Chez, it was only really a matter of time, tbf. Not blind, just replied on the basis of only reading the first couple of pages of this thread in between meetings. Lo and behold, you reared you head up within the next few pages. That'll teach me for pitching in to a N-O thread without having read it in its entirety first. Anyway, nice seeing you and the TT chaps once again.

Sad to hear of TT's demise even though it was as dead as a dodo last few times I went in for a skulk. Wonder if this means we'll end up seeing the return of ChezGiven, Parky, Alex and Gemmill? It won't happen. We all know what happened when Grange Hill merged with Brookdale and Rodney Bennett.

The transfer 'strategy' so far has seemed a bit bemusing to me. Trippier is a decent signing but Wood is a bit of a nobody to me. I'd have thought a shrewd strategy should and would have focused on pushing for survival and seen us scouring Europe for loan deals capable of being us out of our current mess, rather than shelling out big bucks for decidedly average 30yo players like Wood? He seems more like a purchase with championship football in mind? Is that due to Howe or do we have a similar scenario now as we had under Ashley where someone else is vetoing transfer bids etc?

You knows it.

9

Shearer loves Puuki

That's my thinking too. I don't feel that I can really trust this lot yet. Folk assume that the moneybags will just keep replenishing but if something more appetising than Newcastle United comes along, they could easily decide to ditch us. Yes it's a pessimistic outlook, but as I say, I've not seen enough from them to make me really feel confident.

It's an interesting notion, being that supremely confident in our new owners and their motivations and willingness to invest, let alone the underlying presumption that they wouldn't perhaps look to sell the club off if we got relegated, especially if it looked like we'd not get back up at the first attempt. A lot of pretty big assumptions bouncing around at the moment, based on the size of the owner's wallets. We still know next to nothing about their real views of their new investment, its potential and the sorts of returns they want out of it.

While I'm obviously delighted to see the back of Mike Ashley, the words 'frying pan' and 'fire' spring to mind. As do 'Faustian' and 'deal'. I want to enjoy the start of a new, hopeful era but you just know that there's a dark shadow in the corner of the room all the while and it's not one the media is going to let up on us about any time soon. That bit pisses me off a lot. Aye, it'll be great to see the world's best players signing for Newcastle - bringing my one-time FIFA 2004 dreams into reality, but the fact remains this game is absolutely rotten to the core.

I'm expecting him to jump from the Tyne Bridge later tonight

What's the betting he'll end up at some second string Scottish team? Like Hearts or Rangers?