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Not sure if I'm that excited tbh. If this is a prelude to the club being sold then fine but to me is shows a sign that Ashley's taking the opportunity to make the club sale more attrative, and if he's got a ceiling price for when selling a player does not devalue the club's price, then that does not go well for the rest of the transfer window as we still have no replacements in. The money for the sale will go into the club and not directly into Ashley's pocket, of course but an extra income 9mill over however many years will help balance the books a little so too will the loss of Martins's salary from our wage bill. At this moment in time I'm even more worried than I was before, as if this is true, and I guess we are still waiting for confirmation, it signals that despite the talk of transfer embargos, every player has his price. This won't be lost on the rest of the squad and their agents, who I'm sure will push on with their efforts to get a move, leaving us with an already paper thin squad even thinner. Don't assume he's selling Martins because the club sale is just around the corner, and that 9million will really help us build the squad again, he's just looking out for himself as he always has. Need I remind everyone how happy we were with 12 million for Milner only to find the money for that deal not being used in a manner we hoped.

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I’ve got to admit, although I haven’t up until now contemplated the thought that we could go into administration this season, I feel this is really the most likely scenario right not. Ashley I don’t think has contemplated it yet either but reality is starting to bite him in the bum and he’s going to have to make a tough decision soon. We are clearly not being sold for a price that Ashley thinks is realistic. The decision simply is whether he takes Shepherd’s low price for the club, gives up on the sale and concentrates on getting us back up to raise the club’s value again or just cutting his losses by asset stripping before putting the club into the hands of the receivers. I’m assuming the latter is a route that Ashley will favour, pride may stop him accepting the Shepherd offer and even though he’s a gambling man can’t see him taking the risk of gambling that we’ll go straight back up. So the only question that really remains is when he’ll pull the plug ?

It's not the populous of the city of Newcastle that makes the supporter base so large it's the geographical area that it sits upon. The urban development of Tyne and Wear along with one of England's largest counties. The catchment area is huge bigger than any other club. Although there are huge areas in Northumberland that are sparsely populated there are still a considerable population who's "natural" allegiance is to NUFC. The area of that size will always be served with a football team.

The whole thing doesn't make any sense. From Ashley buying the club in the first place all the way through to his running it into the ground now. I wonder how the media would be reacting if the people who bought Man U, Chelsea or Liverpool had done the same sort of thing to them that Ashley has done to us. It's funny how Mike Ashley is a 'fit and proper person' by the Premier League ownership rules but we'd have been better off if a Taiwanese dictator had bought us! Huh? We are one of the most talked about teams pre-season, i don't get your point at all. We are one of the most talked about teams but most of it very inaccurate and resorts to the old cliches. With the exception of George Caulkin, there are few if any print or broadcast journalists reporting the current situation in what I would consider to be an accurate manner. As ever, everyone else thinks it is all the fans fault and that Ashley has paid off all the debt and we are an ungrateful bunch obsessed with former idols and so deserve everything we get. Furthermore we would not be in the mess if we had kept Allardyce and so on. I don't even think the comparison with Leeds is that relevant other than where we might end up. There are so many times in the last 2 years that you can point to where the wrong decision has been made (if they had just made the correct decision on one of those occasions, our situation might be different now) - it has not been about chasing the dream as with Leeds and overspending in trying to achieve that. It has been about employing the wrong people, employing people with no football experience, choosing to back the wrong people, selling the wrong players, not reacting promptly and letting things drift, employing Xisco for £50k a week for 5 years (still cannot believe that is true) and Bassong on £5k for 2 or 3 years to mention just a few. Most of these things are being glossed over. We've already had a play written on this season but there is definitely a whole book waiting to be written on how not to run a football club based on the last 2 years under Ashley. Yeah you're spot on with Leeds, it annoys me how people consistly compare our situations, but as you rightly say the only thing that is similar is the probable outcome. Administration right now is looking the most likely outcome of this sorry mess.

I'm afraid you're wrong, Ashley does not have "the power to absolutely destroy the club" but he does have the power to drag us down a few divisions and that looks to be his gameplan. The club will survive Ashley and, trying just to see the merest hint of silver in the blackest of clouds, a total clearout and starting again with a blank canvass might not be all bad. Of course he has the ability to destroy the club. He doesn't need to put the club into administration. He can pay the overheads, sell off the good players and recoup as much of the money he put into the club to buy the debts, but spend bugger all on new players etc. He can basically run us into the ground if he wants to. He did not become a billionaire by chance you know. The club will still be here though, even after administration. No one can destroy an institution the size of NUFC. As Jimmy says he can however do a hell of a lot of damage to the club, which I truely believe he's blindly doing right now, in very much the same way as he allowed us to sleepwalk into relegation. I don't think he's factored everything in, I'm certain he's still under the impression that he'll get his 100 mill for the club and is prepared to wait until the last day of the the transfer window to get it. Only then, when no one has stepped up, will he realise the folly of his ways.

Nice to read all these stories from non Geordies, whatever you reasons you must be commended for the lifetime of misery you signed up for Seriously though, although things look pretty bad right now and there is hardly a sign of the light at the end of the tunnel, I'm sure at some point in the future things will turn around. I still feel proud to follow the toon despite everything. I'm a Geordie so I have no story to tell.

The constant transfer rumour nonsense is one of the things that make the football free summer bearable, unfortunately we've not been able to enjoy any of that his year. Due to one fat bastard.

I Know it's just a pre season game and all the "voice of reason" people like to have a field day calling people kneejerkers but that result to a team from league 1 is hugely worrying, no matter how you spin it.

I hope you are right mate but can't see it really.

It's a little too early to be writing off our season just yet, it hasn't even bloody started. If we went into the season with this squad, pretty sure we would walk the division, if they owner appointed a decent manager.

wrong Nah combined with the cream shorts it looked s***. No it didn't the whole kit looked great, the best away kit we ever had, by a long mile

I agree the fansw in action too is not really helping. We've got to do something at the moment we are just bent over Ashley's knee and saying "please sir can I have another ?" as he whips our arses with a cane. LOL I was just thinking the footballing world and particularly the media had forgotten us No amount of prancing round like idiots on SSN will help us, unless the further humiliation of NUFC fans is classed as helping. There are other ways to protest than just making "Cockney Mafia" banners and hiring single brain celled bafoons to hop up and down outside SJP, you know. Currently we, the fans are doing bugger all, we may not be able to effect anything but one thing is certain, sitting around and doing nowt will not make things happen any quicker.

I agree the fansw in action too is not really helping. We've got to do something at the moment we are just bent over Ashley's knee and saying "please sir can I have another ?" as he whips our arses with a cane.

They may be appear to be powerless but they can put the club under pressure, I've not heard a single word from them about the fiasco at all. What pressure can they actually put on though? They can voice their concerns, they can make threats that they will act if they see evidence of Ashley intentially damaging the club. They can act, even if it's just a fine, under "best interests of the game" umbrella. Right now they are just standing by and letting it happen, if he goes into full asset stripping mode which NUFC.com are alluding too and they don't act then they are not doing their job as administers of the game. We are not talking about a small little club here, this is a big club with a huge fanbase and a proud tradition, if you think the FA's role is not to ensure they do everything they can to save clubs like that (because make no mistake about it, administration is just around the corner if this continues) then you've got a perverted sense of what a footballing authority should do. We are talking about the FA and FL here. Whether they can step in or apply pressure or not isn't the issue. They won't until the club is in administration and even then it'll be to kick us in the teeth with a points deduction. Other clubs (smaller ones) have been through similar stuff and the powers that be did nothing. They will not make an exception for Newcastle United. Who said anything about how I expected them to act. They consistently shown us that they really don't have a clue how to act. All 'm saying here is that if they are to fulfill their mandate to protect the game, this is exactly the type of situation they should be getting involved in.

They may be appear to be powerless but they can put the club under pressure, I've not heard a single word from them about the fiasco at all. All the FA know, as all the quotes from the officially involved parties continue to emphasise, is that the club is in the proccess of being sold. While the way it is dragging on is beyond f***ing frustrating and seemingly incompetent, there is just no actual evidence of any 'fiasco', just papertalk and rumour, s*** stirring and paranoia. This I agree with, there is no evidence there right now, that's why all I'm saying is that they need to step up here and make some kind of threat of action should they see any evidence of willfull damage to the club by Ashley. Ferguson can call a referee a cunt. Benitez can criticise the FA of favouring Manure. Fabregas can spit on Brown but no one is "bringing the game into disrepute" more than Ashley has by virtually destroying one of England most famous clubs and apparently is going to further by asset striping.

They may be appear to be powerless but they can put the club under pressure, I've not heard a single word from them about the fiasco at all. What pressure can they actually put on though? They can voice their concerns, they can make threats that they will act if they see evidence of Ashley intentially damaging the club. They can act, even if it's just a fine, under "best interests of the game" umbrella. Right now they are just standing by and letting it happen, if he goes into full asset stripping mode which NUFC.com are alluding too and they don't act then they are not doing their job as administers of the game. We are not talking about a small little club here, this is a big club with a huge fanbase and a proud tradition, if you think the FA's role is not to ensure they do everything they can to save clubs like that (because make no mistake about it, administration is just around the corner if this continues) then you've got a perverted sense of what a footballing authority should do.

They may be appear to be powerless but they can put the club under pressure, I've not heard a single word from them about the fiasco at all.

Loads of clubs have been treat like this, what makes our case any different. I'm not sure they have. A lot of clubs like Leeds and Southampton have been left in a mess due to financial problems, but I'm struggling to thinkof an example of another club that had it's owner apparently willfully doing everything in his power to damage the club. Even the likes of Doug Ellis at Villa could be argued to having what he viewed as the best intersts of the club in mind. Ashley does not, he has no interest at all, it would appear that he would rather run the club into the ground than accept any offer that does not meet his valuation.

I think we are better off directing our communication toward the footballing authorities to act in this matter. A petition aimed at getting the FA to act would stand a chance, whereas a petition to Ashley to sell will just be ignored, since he's apparently trying to do that right now.

I'm starting to think that the FA really needs to intervene here at some point. I know it's a private sale of a company, which they'll argue is out of their control, but the current owner's apparent desire to do nothing that is in the best interests of the club, is damaging to the game in general, especially as it's one of the best supported clubs in the country. Time for the spineless FA or football league to act, IYAM. If nothing else to insist on more visibility on the process which is leaving the fans in the dark.

Nufc.com seems to imply that Ashley is staying but is simply going to asset strip the squad, we're well and truly knackered, league one here we come. I just read that, seems like they know something we don't.

Soubnds like a missed a lot of fun here, damn work.

I'm wondering the same myself. I'm no fan of Barton in the slightest but Nasri was a complete and utter twat in our game at their place last season. I have no sympathy for him. Just because Barton's a twat too doesn't mean Nasri is a bloody saint.

I think we need a poll for on what page of the mamouth thread a "cold sold" announcement is made. I'm going for page 454 personally, but that might be a little optimistic.