afar

I'd rather have a squad of 16 kids than go bankrupt. We won't go bankrupt in 6 more months of paying those wages after we've survived years of it. This is the thing that people don't seem to get in the whole hysteria. Ashley is the one taking the hit on money, not you or I. If we went into the season with the same squad, financially we would take a huge hit but the receivers will not be called in. If this was to continue for a few years and we hadn't got ourselves back up, we continued to pay wages beyond our means and our crowds had dwindled to a fraction of what they had been, then the club would will would quite rightly be "doing a leeds", but we are not there yet. If you look at other clubs for examples of this Leeds themselves, once the troubles hit, it took a couple of seasons before they went down then 2 more in the championship before administration hit them. Despite everything Ashley is still a very wealthy man and even he is not stupid enough to right off completely his investment by calling in the receivers. So lets not make the situation even worse by blowing everything up out of propotion.

PLAYERS WHO ARE BEING TREAT BADLY, ARE UNMANAGED, UNMOTIVATED AND KEPT AT THE CLUB AGAINST THEIR WILL, WILL NOT PERFORM WELL. Apologies for the capitals, but Jesus wept, how many times!? Firstly they are not being treat badly in the slightest, they are still being pampered, paid way more than their worth and not in any shape or form being mistreated. Secondly, that situation hopefully will not be the same once the season starts. The managerial position will surely be filled by then, even on an interim basis. This squad currently isn't just good enough to go up, it's better than any other by a long chalk, if you don't think so you are totally over estimating the quality of player in the championship. Those wanting to leave will soon change their tune once a bit of stability is introduced and the reality that they won't pick up the wages they are on at clubs like stoke, hull or wigan hits them. Motivation will return, but even if it doesn't, this is still the same unmotivated squad that took 10 out of 12 from our fellow relegated teams, who surely will be among our main rivals. What would you rather have right now then ? Have all our players sold without anyone being brought in because no one is there to pick and chose them ? There's nothing wrong with being concerned, even panicky right now, we are in a bloody mess, but please get a grip it's not time to slash the wrists just yet.

Confirms what we thought really. I 'm glad they are not letting anyone go since we could be in a even deeper hole if we have to scramble around at the eleventh hour to fill up the squad. But at the same time, we are missing out on potential signings and the pool of players we would be interested in is getting smaller and smaller.

That's why we need a bloody manager in ASAP.

This is actually an important point. Personally I think our squad currently is more than capable of winning this division, all it needs is a manager to guide them. It's a small comfort but at least Ashley is not stripping the club of it's playing assets right now. Financially of course we are screwed if we go into the season with this squad of players but that's Ashley's problem for now, the consquences of his delaying of the sale will impact him soon enough in his back pocket and may push him into speeding things up a little.

I had a feeling today would be the day we heard the first of a resolution to the ownership issue with confirmation that the conclusion of the sale had started, arriving tomorrow. There is still time I guess, but looks like my esp is a little off.

So I go on holiday for a couple of weeks, expecting to come back to some sort of progress if not resolution. Ubelievable really that we are no further forward than we were before the end of June. We said back then that July 1st was a line in the sand, we've gone way beyond that now, the club looks in serious trouble with only 25 days to the start of the season, no interested owner, no manager, an incomptent caretaker, last season's players and last season's wage bill. This club is dying, it's a slow lingering death. Is anyone brave enough to pout their lips and administer the kiss of life ?

Funny thing is we could end up with having to keep most of the squad because there won't be time to shift anyone in or out. If we don't go up at the first attempt that could seriously damage the finances of the club. What is a more interesting question and perhaps more relevant is "Is this squad minus Owen, Viduka, Loven, Edgar and Nacho good enough to get out of the championship ?" On paper I think it is, but in terms of heart and application they proved last year that they have none of either.

Harris was confident last time too He does seem a bit of a bullshitter doesn't he, I tend not hold too much stock in what he says.

Yeah but that wouldn't fit with Parky's agenda of having a bloody argument about anything no matter how irrelevant his stance is. See what you have to say when the next sale deadline passes ringo. IMO 100m is too high and it seriously hampers the sale. He's got people biting at 100 million. The final sale could be 100m it maybe less. But so f***ing what, as long as the club is selling. The first day we've had some remotely positive vibes in weeks and you are pratittling on about how the club's not worth 100 million, you're a f***ing loon. Again who the hell cares ? Lets just hope we get some good news by the end of the month, worry more about that than whether you are proved right that the club is not worth 100mill. thats wrong, things arent worth what people are willing to pay for them. case and point stock market. one day a stock of a company could be 100 dollars. the next day with the company absolutely nothing changed, the stock price could be 60 because of stupid investors. The companies true value does not change at all, only peoples perception. the key is to be able to estimate or know the true value of something, then you can know whether the market price is high or low. its called value investing. Again who gives a shit ? All I care about and so should you is that we get this ownership crap sorted out before the end of the month. I couldn't give a monkeys how much Ashley makes off the sale.

Yeah but that wouldn't fit with Parky's agenda of having a bloody argument about anything no matter how irrelevant his stance is. See what you have to say when the next sale deadline passes ringo. IMO 100m is too high and it seriously hampers the sale. He's got people biting at 100 million. The final sale could be 100m it maybe less. But so fucking what, as long as the club is selling. The first day we've had some remotely positive vibes in weeks and you are pratittling on about how the club's not worth 100 million, you're a fucking loon. Again who the hell cares ? Lets just hope we get some good news by the end of the month, worry more about that than whether you are proved right that the club is not worth 100mill.

Unbelievable that we saddled ourselves with yet another has been on high wages, lets hope we can get rid pretty fast though. Bolton must have been laughing all the way to the bank when we gave them 4 million to take him off their hands.

Unfortunately this is true. To me this is the most crucial part of the transfer window, the early stages, here is when the hot properties usually go and historically over the last few years even with relative stability, we've not been a big player in it, as our key people have been off on "well deserved breaks" for too long. One thing I hope changes with the change in ownership, that we move from a largely reactionary football club to one that is much more pro active.

Simple really, it's great marketing for the clubs concerned. Ooh looked at how ambitious we are we are after the great Michael Owen, they are probably not that bothered if they get him or not, it's good press for the clubs. Also rightly or wrongly these clubs think they are now bigger than Newcastle as they are in a higher division than us, so why would they not think they could sign a player from our club.

Yeah but that wouldn't fit with Parky's agenda of having a bloody argument about anything no matter how irrelevant his stance is.

What he said. That was the first thing I thought - might actually be a great move if he can put together more than 5 games on the trot. No he wouldn't be at all, Stoke do not create that many chances and the chances they do create come largely through set pieces and long throws, where they've exploited their teams large physical attributes. Owen is not the fox in the box player eager to pounce on any scraps that people who don't follow NUFC seem to think he still is. He's decent in the air but is not a threat at all from set pieces as his success in the air (which TBH are fairly distant memories) has been because he's ghosted in largely undetected, in a packed penalty area, like you have from set pieces that's just not been so easy for him. His reactions are way slower they were even since last year, his positional sense , once his great attribute seemed to desert him last year so feeding off the scraps is not something you can bank on. He's not aged well as a footballer. To be perfectly honest I'm struggling to find an environment where he can flourish these days, he really needs to be playing for a top 4 team or one that will create a bunch of chances for him. Otherwise you we see his lack of interest and basically ineffective play when he manages to get himself off the treatment table.

Stoke and Hull. Stoke are exactly the team that Owen does not need. It's not like last season they were creating a bucket load of chances and just needed someone to put the ball in the back of the net. Wherever he lands, the one thing Owen should look for in a club is the ability to offer him the service he absolutely needs, Hull and Stoke are not those teams.

Oh well at least some positive noises if nothing else, experience has taught us not to get our hopes up and believe every word said but perhaps just perhaps by the end of the month we will be ready to begin planning for next season. Fingers and toes firmly crossed here.

8 days to go. I'll be in on holiday in sunny Florida by then, hope i come back to some good news.

Ashley's leaving present for us, the twat

Dang, I originally thought someone had just been showing off their Photoshop skills but it's on the official site, so must be real. Oh my god, hopefully we won't need to wear it too often, it's a disaster.

That's one of the worst strips I have seen in my life, terrible.

Pat Dolan worked on the Setanta Ireland show which is the coverage that North Americans got. Setanta Ireland may trade seperately from the UK arm of the company. This article is a bit old but it sounds like nothing much will change for us in Canada at least, which is a good thing, give me a pompous t*** talking at half time like Dolan over no coverage at all. http://fulltimefootballshow.blogspot.com/2009/06/setanta-canada-what-happens-here-in.html

I have to agree completely with fading star's posts, they've been spot on.

There's a real probability that this fool will be taking us into pre season training, I didn't think anyone at the club was stupid enough to alows this man to manage the club again, for any period of time, but they continue to prove me wrong with further acts of idiocy.