Happy Face

Why don't you offer to get involved at the top level? Seriously. They'd be over the moon to have any assistance people can give.

(2) would win by a country mile. On the whole the NUST have been organised, earnest and effective. This is clearly a mis-step but it's a long term, well backed campaign amongst fans and the media. Such clangers hurt them all the more having built up the level of momentum they have exactly because they're a far more well publicised and organised group than whoever knocked up the pamphlet on powerpoint that no-one outside of a couple of message boards has any clue about. Do they have your support still, and more importantly your money if they make a bid? I've paid my membership and pledged nothing else because i don't agree with making a bid to buy the club. They still have my unwavering support though. They're Newcastle fans. I'll say when i don't agree with something. i won't call the entire endeavour flawed and insist a stop be put to it. You'd have to be a mackem to do that. To me a Supporters Trust which has access to the board on scheduled, regular occaisions to discuss certain aspects of the club (not including transfers, management etc) could only be a good thing. The NUST isn't this model though (imo obviously). Buying the club this way was never going to work within English Football (for better or worse) and nothing which they have done/said in relation to the campaign has strengthened the appeal of the trust to me. They started off like a couple of piss heads in a pub, got better, but now have slipped back to appearing to be a key stone cops type organisation (again this is my perception obviously). I don't have to be a Mackem to state that this Trust has failed at present You don't, and I never said you would. I said only a mackem would insist they wrap it all up. What have been the biggest failures for you? You seem to be suggesting it was a failure from day 1 and will be until it succeeds. It won't be a failure in my opinion until they lose the financial support of fans and therefore run out of money to keep campaigning The "Yes We can" campaign is only 8 weeks old and only started because of the refusal from the club to give the fans the recognition that you say would be your aim. How else would you go about achieving that? I'm not going to trawl back and pick up every early example of mis-information which has come out of the press rooms of NUST, its just that the tone of what was released early doors was very childish and made the Trust appear to be nothing more than a one trick 'Ashley Out' protest group. If you were MA or DL would you encourage such a group to engage in discussions on the direction/activites of the club? A bit like Osama Bin Laden inviting Bush and Blair around for tea. Not really. Bush & Blair never wanted the same thing as Bin Laden. Don't we all want success for Newcastle United? You'd have thought Ashley would bend over backwards to keep his customers happy. You don't walk on egg shells with the manager at Argos when the widescreen telly he sold you blew up after a week.

Personally, I think the proposed fan buyout is more of an effort to call Ashley's bluff than it is to actually buy the club without an individual figurehead guranteeing ongoing running costs. What they want him to come out and say the clubs making a loss ? Surely it's common knowledge in this league that we're making a loss which is why he's still having to put £20m a season in to cover those costs. No. Call his bluff on selling. There's been several offers for the club and Ashley has not been able to negotiate those offers (that reach up to £200m) into a sale despite all his talk of being eager to go.

(2) would win by a country mile. On the whole the NUST have been organised, earnest and effective. This is clearly a mis-step but it's a long term, well backed campaign amongst fans and the media. Such clangers hurt them all the more having built up the level of momentum they have exactly because they're a far more well publicised and organised group than whoever knocked up the pamphlet on powerpoint that no-one outside of a couple of message boards has any clue about. Do they have your support still, and more importantly your money if they make a bid? I've paid my membership and pledged nothing else because i don't agree with making a bid to buy the club. They still have my unwavering support though. They're Newcastle fans. I'll say when i don't agree with something. i won't call the entire endeavour flawed and insist a stop be put to it. You'd have to be a mackem to do that. So if you don't agree (partly) with them you are a mackem? Well done, that'll get them in. I don't know where people get this opinion that the members are deluded and up their own arse from. I thought you were on board with them until this statement came out. We have a supporters trust growing faster than any in the country. I don't see how that can be a bad thing for the club whatever campaign is currently being run and i can't see why any Newcastle fan would prefer that endeavour to end.

(2) would win by a country mile. On the whole the NUST have been organised, earnest and effective. This is clearly a mis-step but it's a long term, well backed campaign amongst fans and the media. Such clangers hurt them all the more having built up the level of momentum they have exactly because they're a far more well publicised and organised group than whoever knocked up the pamphlet on powerpoint that no-one outside of a couple of message boards has any clue about. Do they have your support still, and more importantly your money if they make a bid? I've paid my membership and pledged nothing else because i don't agree with making a bid to buy the club. They still have my unwavering support though. They're Newcastle fans. I'll say when i don't agree with something. i won't call the entire endeavour flawed and insist a stop be put to it. You'd have to be a mackem to do that. Leaving aside the fact that they've just proved they're either incapable of understanding the club's finances or else trying to play people for suckers, you're giving a group your "unwavering support" even though you disagree with their principal aim? Do you have an alternative pressure group that's targeting Mike Ashley and looking to get the fans recognised? The buyout is not their principle aim. It's the best option left.

(2) would win by a country mile. On the whole the NUST have been organised, earnest and effective. This is clearly a mis-step but it's a long term, well backed campaign amongst fans and the media. Such clangers hurt them all the more having built up the level of momentum they have exactly because they're a far more well publicised and organised group than whoever knocked up the pamphlet on powerpoint that no-one outside of a couple of message boards has any clue about. Do they have your support still, and more importantly your money if they make a bid? I've paid my membership and pledged nothing else because i don't agree with making a bid to buy the club. They still have my unwavering support though. They're Newcastle fans. I'll say when i don't agree with something. i won't call the entire endeavour flawed and insist a stop be put to it. You'd have to be a mackem to do that. To me a Supporters Trust which has access to the board on scheduled, regular occaisions to discuss certain aspects of the club (not including transfers, management etc) could only be a good thing. The NUST isn't this model though (imo obviously). Buying the club this way was never going to work within English Football (for better or worse) and nothing which they have done/said in relation to the campaign has strengthened the appeal of the trust to me. They started off like a couple of piss heads in a pub, got better, but now have slipped back to appearing to be a key stone cops type organisation (again this is my perception obviously). I don't have to be a Mackem to state that this Trust has failed at present You don't, and I never said you would. I said only a mackem would insist they wrap it all up. What have been the biggest failures for you? You seem to be suggesting it was a failure from day 1 and will be until it succeeds. It won't be a failure in my opinion until they lose the financial support of fans and therefore run out of money to keep campaigning The "Yes We can" campaign is only 8 weeks old and only started because of the refusal from the club to give the fans the recognition that you say would be your aim. How else would you go about achieving that?

Personally, I think the proposed fan buyout is more of an effort to call Ashley's bluff than it is to actually buy the club without an individual figurehead guranteeing ongoing running costs.

(2) would win by a country mile. On the whole the NUST have been organised, earnest and effective. This is clearly a mis-step but it's a long term, well backed campaign amongst fans and the media. Such clangers hurt them all the more having built up the level of momentum they have exactly because they're a far more well publicised and organised group than whoever knocked up the pamphlet on powerpoint that no-one outside of a couple of message boards has any clue about. In what way have they been "effective"? They're the fastst growing trust in the UK.

(2) would win by a country mile. On the whole the NUST have been organised, earnest and effective. This is clearly a mis-step but it's a long term, well backed campaign amongst fans and the media. Such clangers hurt them all the more having built up the level of momentum they have exactly because they're a far more well publicised and organised group than whoever knocked up the pamphlet on powerpoint that no-one outside of a couple of message boards has any clue about. Do they have your support still, and more importantly your money if they make a bid? I've paid my membership and pledged nothing else because i don't agree with making a bid to buy the club. They still have my unwavering support though. They're Newcastle fans. I'll say when i don't agree with something. i won't call the entire endeavour flawed and insist a stop be put to it. You'd have to be a mackem to do that.

(2) would win by a country mile. On the whole the NUST have been organised, earnest and effective. This is clearly a mis-step but it's a long term, well backed campaign amongst fans and the media. Such clangers hurt them all the more having built up the level of momentum they have exactly because they're a far more well publicised and organised group than whoever knocked up the pamphlet on powerpoint that no-one outside of a couple of message boards has any clue about. The latest in a long line to be fair. And still they keep going. Like the previous mistakes, I'm sure this one will not lose them all credibility as so many seem eager to insist will be the case. Lots of impatient fans who insist on things being perfect immediately will hoy their toys out the pram and denigrate what has been the most succesful enlistment of fans into a single collective voice in my lifetime. But there are too many fans that realise if it falls apart it's a wasted opportunity that nobody else will feel compelled to try again because there are too many naysayers. The NUST is what everyone was crying out for for years so they won't call it a day because of one badly worded statement amongst many.

(2) would win by a country mile. On the whole the NUST have been organised, earnest and effective. This is clearly a mis-step but it's a long term, well backed campaign amongst fans and the media. Such clangers hurt them all the more having built up the level of momentum they have exactly because they're a far more well publicised and organised group than whoever knocked up the pamphlet on powerpoint that no-one outside of a couple of message boards has any clue about.

It's not like they ever got any credit on here anyway though is it?

You can't really class the loans from St James' Holdings as debt- in reality that is equity because all of the risks and rewards fall at Ashley's door. Occasionally in takeovers there are 'vendor notes' where the selling party lends to the new owners to help smooth the sale but I can't really see Ashley being keen on that- surely he'll want a clean break. The only price is an all-in price- so no interest at £80m should give you an indication of how much interest there would be at £200m! That's right, As Mike said himself... “Barry Moat has been driving me mad for two years. If he wants to buy the club, he’s got a one-off opportunity to come up with the cash — £80m upfront.” http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article6879373.ece

I look at it from the complete opposite direction. The reason is he doesn't want to sell. Whenever he puts it up for sale (which is ridiculous as you say, anyone is free to make an offer at any time) there's interest, and whether he calls a £200m offer from the arabs an insult or watches a consortium withdraw their £100m offer before offering it to someone else for £80m (though not the original people that made "several £100m bids") He looks like a man who's enjoying the down and dirty bullshit of business and dragging us kicking and screaming towards financial security as a yo-yo club. Putting us on the market is just an excuse for a lack of ambition in managerial appointments and in the transfer market where he will ALAWAYS spend the bare minimum.

Its all about perception though isnt it. Flying off to Vegas just doesnt give the impression that they are concentrating on the Transfer Window - whether it be rightly or wrongly. Fans, I think, like to know that their top boys are in their offices working on things. MA & DL seem incapable of avoiding this kind of thing. Fair point, but should they have to make every decision based on how the Sunday Sun might interpret it? They probably don't give a shit about the tabloids, and I can't criticise them for that. There should be no consideration of how the papers will interpret anything. They should consider what's best for the club and to get what their manager is after in January. Unless they took Ken Bates with them to ensure a deal is done for Beckford then they're taking the piss.

Its all about perception though isnt it. Flying off to Vegas just doesnt give the impression that they are concentrating on the Transfer Window - whether it be rightly or wrongly. Fans, I think, like to know that their top boys are in their offices working on things. MA & DL seem incapable of avoiding this kind of thing. It's not that they are incapable of avoiding it, it's that we seem to be uniquely obsessed enough with all things negative for the rags to warrent bringing up shit nothing stories like this about us to fret over. It should in my opinion be relegated to the 'media hates us' thread, not get unnecessarily wound up by. I'm shocked it's only the Sunday Sun that's picked up on it because I think it's a fucking disgrace. If we have a major release at work, I tend not to use my annual leave around that time because it's a bit of a busy period and I want to be available and at my best. When did they come back? What were they over there for? Does Lee Charney not do all the spadework on the back of Hughtons reccomendations rather than Lambiarse anyway? But no, despite there being almosty no substance to the story, it's 'a fucking disgrace'? Get away. The substance is that Llambias is in Las Vegas when we've got 5 defenders and 3 weeks to get some back up for them. 3 transfer windows in a row have gone down to the last day with them spouting shit about working round the clock to bring bodies in only for fuck all to come of it. I'd be very interested to see the answers to your questions too, but I seem to remember last January that it was Llambias and Kinnear supposedly at Darsley through the night trying to bring people in so don't pretend he has nowt to do with it. When Jose is in the papers saying how we need players, is that aimed at Charnley or Hughton? Is it bollocks. They're powerless beyond identifying the player and completing the paperwork. It's aimed at Ashley and Llambias who have to finance it and negotiate it.

Its all about perception though isnt it. Flying off to Vegas just doesnt give the impression that they are concentrating on the Transfer Window - whether it be rightly or wrongly. Fans, I think, like to know that their top boys are in their offices working on things. MA & DL seem incapable of avoiding this kind of thing. It's not that they are incapable of avoiding it, it's that we seem to be obsessed enough with all things negative for the rags to warrent bringing up shit nothing stories like this that by rights should be relegated to the 'media hates us' thread. I'm shocked it's only the Sunday Sun that's picked up on it because I think it's a fucking disgrace. If we have a major release at work, I tend not to use my annual leave around that time because it's a bit of a busy period and I want to be available and at my best.

Completley different matter tbh. Who would want hughton doing contracts? Fair point I suppose, although I imagine Ashley and Llambias aren't going to be in Vegas permanently. Of course not. But there's only 4 months of the year when they can do ANYTHING to help the first team. The other 8 months it's down to Hughton and his playing staff. Even in the Summer there's a good month or two when no deals are being done. Basically, Llambias only has August and January in which to support his manager. It would be nice if he could dedicate one sixth of his working year to the club when it needs him. Of course he chooses not to. He just spends the last day of the window at the training ground telling SSN he's doing all he can working around the clock when he's spent the previous month doing sweet FA.

Completley different matter tbh. Who would want hughton doing contracts?

I couldn't give a f*** if Ashley is away, all he has to do is say yes or no. I'd have thought Llambias should be around to haggle and for contract negotiations though. Just another crap article written by a woeful lazy journalist who can't be bothered to find a real story. Shouldn't worry about it as it will make zero difference to who we end up buying or selling whether they're in Las Vegas, Longbenton or Lima. It won't make a difference only because we weren't going to sign anyone anyway. The point is they spout bollocks about giving the manager their full backing and doing everything in their power to get the players he wants....and when Beckford's put in a transfer request they fuck off to Vegas. What happens if Leeds decided to take the offer on the table. Beckford drives up for talks, gets hoyed on a teleconference call by the receptionist and gets a pissed up Llambias using his mobile at a Tom Jones show going "I fucking love you Beckham! hic! We'll give you £2,000 a week or fuck off!"

I couldn't give a fuck if Ashley is away, all he has to do is say yes or no. I'd have thought Llambias should be around to haggle and for contract negotiations though.

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/newcastle-utd/newcastle-utd-news/2010/01/10/ashley-and-llambias-head-off-to-las-vegas-79310-25565574/ I'm sorry I don't follow the US league too closely, but I'm pretty sure Vegas isn't a hotbed of young football talent. Whether the trip is business or pleasure it once again shows that the managing director and owner of our club do not see us as their priority and continue only to say what they want us (and the manager) to hear, but fail miserably every time it comes to taking action to make good on those promises.

I'm loving this idea. Mike can really show just how much he wants to strengthen the team even more than he already has since taking over. How about this for Mike: http://imgur.com/MEcFC.jpg and seeing as Barry thinks it's such a good idea how about one for him too: http://imgur.com/GWaT9.jpg Perfect

"Over two bids" remember? OK so two bidders submitted bids of £100m and then could not come up with the readies when asked to do so. There is no lie in the statement that the club had two bids of £100m. And If I'd sent an email to bid £100m I'm sure they'd have publicly announced a third bid matching the asking price. The point is they weren't credible bids. The club see announcing any Tom, Dick or Harry's interest as 'an exercise in public relations'. Or the two parties have bid £100m, proven funds, got access to the data room & then tried to reduce their offer. ...and Ashley reduced his asking price. So why wasn't a deal done with them?