Happy Face

I agree. I just don't think that's how he will see it, or he would have started doing it already. Paying off his £29m first would back you up. What reason was there for him to repay that beyond a stubborn principle that he had said he wasn't putting any more in after the Keegan affair? I think he'll stick to that though and stop repayments with the £29m satisfied. Why? It's an assumption as I said. I'm far more likely to believe he'll start pumping excess cash into anything but the playing squad unless we find ourselves in danger again. I firmly believe that they want us to actively avoid cup runs and European qualification in favour of the bare minimum that guarantees a place on the Premier League gravy train. Based on 7 years or so of evidence, and reading their bullshit about 5 year plans to become the next Arsenal or Villa or whoever suited them at the time. I understand that you think you've spotted a trend and am always interested to read an argument that is built on solid analytical grounding, but in this case I don't think your guess is better than mine or anyone else's. Who's to say he won't start using excess cash after the initial loan is paid off to pay off the remainder of his loan or do whatever he likes with it for that matter? Not you, not me, not anyone but the fat, evil, unpredictable cunt that's done whatever he likes since he stepped through the door. Assume the best all you like, but forgive me for assuming the worst. PS you said that this financial trend you'd spotted was the reason you had no doubt we'd appoint the best candidate as manager, so I'll be interested to hear what you have to say if Carver gets the gig full time or we go into next season with Mike fucking Williamson making 30-plus appearances a season. Yeah, it's just a case of "we'll see" at the moment isn't it. Ashley, Llambias and Charnley have been shambolic in getting across the limitations the club has. Whether it's because they don't want to draw attention to Ashley's refusal to invest or because they're too conceited to think they need to explain themselves to anyone, or because they are limitations that the owner will increase as time goes by, I don't know. All I know is that up until this season NUFC weren't making enough money to spend it. That wasn't a concerted effort by a malicious owner to keep the club as low down the league as possible while avoiding relegation. It was just a financial fact... Then with the sale of Cabaye, and the start of a new TV deal in 13/14, the club returned to profitability operationally and over the ownership of Ashley (after player trading). Guessing the likely figures... This is what led to the biggest net spend and the biggest gross spend since Ashley arrived. And I see no reason to doubt it will be continued.

Williamson would be fine as a 5-10 games a season 4th choice CB. Problem is he's got 20-30 games a season for 4 yeras running now. The only CB not justifying their wage is Coloccini, ship him out and bring in 2 of his standard at his best.

I agree. I just don't think that's how he will see it, or he would have started doing it already. Paying off his £29m first would back you up. What reason was there for him to repay that beyond a stubborn principle that he had said he wasn't putting any more in after the Keegan affair? I think he'll stick to that though and stop repayments with the £29m satisfied.

I find plenty to criticise Ashley for, without criticising him for what he might or might not do. I always assume he's going to do what benefits him and sorts direct the most and Newcastle united second. In terms of spending club earnings, Ashley, SD and NUFC all benefit greatest from the club investing all it can in players and coaching.

I think the spending in 11/12 was higher than he'd have liked because we bought an "expensive" striker in Cisse. £10m was beyond the level of what we were spending on players back then, but needed a striker as Carroll had gone and Ba had the release clause. So in 12/13 we were supposed to cut back (only Anita in a frugal summer), but then we strugglesd in the league and spent in the winter, when we weren't going to. That money was earmarked for summer 13/14, which is why there was no spend then. In 14/15 the spend was at the affordable level the club would like to keep adding to. So it's not right to split 14/15 into 13/14. i think of it more like £17m a season in 11/12, 12/13 and 13/14. It's not an assumption that the club will stop re-paying Ashley debt. It's as stated in the accounts.... http://i60.tinypic.com/2pu0t8o.png £18m was repayable within 1 year, which everyone expects to have been covered off in the 13/14 accounts. The rest....isn't.

I think he does, he's just sticking to the plan of slow, sustainable growth so he's not carrying the can for further investment. Just wrote this over on TT, which is as I see it.....

It's not an honest argument to complain about Cabaye's sale contributing to both huge profits in 13/14 and a break even net spend in 14/15. Cabaye Profits from 13/14 led to a £21.4m net spend in 14/15. http://i61.tinypic.com/9773ip.png

Think this is where people might go wrong. The likes of JJ and T&B on Twitter can't just rock up and ask the questions they've had on social media. An agenda is created before the forum with all the questions submitted via the club website. http://www.nufc.co.uk/page/Fans/FansForum/0,,10278~3462537,00.html You can choose your representaive and the question will go via them. Don't know if they get to edit the question for palatability or brevity, but I we'll see if my Q's get through what form they take.

All the fans forum people I'm aware of say they've had every question submitted to them asked and answered to be fair to them. I've always assumed someone would ask the questions that occur to me at some point but no-one has so I'm submitting them this time for the end of season one. Recommend everyone does.

Got my juic3s flowing now....

I'd be gutted if the stadium was blocked from the city skyline Anyway, 2 questions submitted for the end of season forum...

Good that we've moved on from complaining about spending nothing to complaining about spending £30m.

Sick joke if they're announcing profits on fa cup day.

Doubt the club will spend every penny it has in the bank in any summer. There will always be a war chest in case of disaster and January requires spending to recover the situation.

Cheap managers!? Reinforces the point.

He's not going to spend. The club.

Let me try to put it this way. Its taken 8 years but Ashley has now got a club in the position he always claimed it needed to be in order to compete. There have been excuses that deserved some degree of credence throughout his painful and destructive ownership. Now there are none whatsoever. He either starts to deliver a superior product on the field or the small number that were willing to stick with him on the terms of his 'vision' will dessert him too. I am hopeful he proves us all wrong and builds a club as successful as his shop. Though I remain doubtful.

In your world of fantasy does every side in the PL make huge yearly profits? Here in reality clubs are able to spend(as opposed to making £40m transfer profits) while in debt for the good of the football club rather than the balance sheet. We dont because we have zero ambition to match the rest of them not because we cant and no amount of fixed graphs to suit you will change that. Edit: As ever you completely ignore minor details like those 14 competitors getting the same huge TV cash bonus that we have to go with their already hugely increased ambition. That's basically what I've been saying. Nufc has been hamstrung by limited spending while it waits to turn an operating profit and pay off repayable debt. Now that has been achieved we can spend everything we earn after costs.

Because people disagree that spending goes up with profits and seem to think Ashley is pocketing money from transfers. Just because you have cash in your pocket it doesn't mean it needs spent immediately. Everyone has been raging about january and the need to spend to survive, but we're as good as safe with 10 games left. Summer is the time to spend as it drives season ticket sales and starts the season on a high. Throwing money around in January only leaves less available in the summer. I'm just excited at being able to spend at the same level as our other bottom 14 competitors at last, or a little higher.

The actual profit will be £50m+ How can he link last summer transfers to our profit with a straight face? Its almost as though Cabaye was never sold for about that amount just 6 months earlier You don't think the £21m net spend in 14/15 had something to do with turning a £30m+ Operating profit in 13/14?

No. Did we see opportunities considered in Summer? Did we see opportunities considered in January? The accounts when they come out relate to the state of the club on 30/6/14. They will not be a shocking revelation to the people running the club when the auditors sign them off. Net Spend goes up in line with operating Profit..... http://i59.tinypic.com/2ms0v29.png (conservatively guessed 13/14 profit) The 13/14 profit we announce won't be a surprise which is why we spent over £21m in 14/15.

You don't think the first set of accounts to show an operating profit in 10 years is a sea change moment that presents opportunities to be considered?

Well exactly. How does this: http://www.themag.co.uk/assets/Newcastle-United-Ticket-Prices-Under-Mike-Ashley-NUFC.png translate to: Only 2 seasons out of 6 (one post-relegation) where it hasn't gone down. Edit: As an aside, I'm dubious about the average attendance figure for 2013 considering there were 7 Europa league games which were typically getting 30k crowds. The average. Shepherd £1.18m, Ashley £1.20m

On the metro to the game so can't reply in detail. But here's what I base the per game increase on... http://www.themag.co.uk/2015/02/increased-cost-tickets-since-mike-ashley-bought-newcastle/ Its almost imperceptible like.

He wants us to win so bad he wont allow us to sign players to help us win. :lol: He does allow us to sign players. We've spent over £150m on players since he arrived. He gambles on us winning enough WITHOUT spending his own money, only the clubs. The fun for him is in taking a business making massive losses and turning it into one that is more profitable than any other in the field.