Happy Face

"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'.

I'm glad Derek took the time to explain that to us all. His big business brain is clearly working on another level to ours. We all presumed he was just doing it to wind up the fans, but it seems we couldn't grasp the real reason...he's doing it for money. Now that the complicated economics have been explained to me I feel quite the fool for having missed it. In fact it gave me another idea. Why doesn't Mike Ashley promise to wear a hat with "cunt" written on it at the next game if the fans can raise £200,000? If every one of us who was at the game on Saturday had chipped in a fiver each, he could have been in the papers wearing that hat the very next day. To allay fears regarding the name of the owner, we will never lose the Mike Ashley name. That is part of his twattery and incompetence, a name that is known throughout world football and associated with abject failure. What we'd be doing is bringing more money to the Club which could go nowhere near the strengthening of the team - but would cover some of Mike's losses and that would surely be of benefit to everyone who supports Newcastle United because he'll then be able to leave sooner. Contradicts what Derek himself said in July "There have been more than two bids at £100m," The club was taken off the market on October 28th, only days after Mike insulted every one of his 'customers' with the false claim that "I spend more than every other fan put together puts into the club each year." If Mike has the best interests of the club at heart, he really should stop slagging off it's main source of income.....and start making that "cunt" hat. Which large sums of money? Was there a fee involved with Marlon harewood i didn't hear about? Was the £25m of transfer income earned over the summer handed to an agent to ensure the best talent once we're promoted, like magic beans on the never never? 42,000 fans did exactly that on Saturday, and have done all season. There's no need whatsoever to urge it. Why would we need to put grievances to one side? We support the team fantastically, they're playing well, we're 8 points clear of the play offs, we take pride in our performance on the stands and the players take pride in their performance on the pitch. The players hate Mike Ashley as much as the fans do and would join in with "fat cockney bastard" if they weren't concentrating on the game. http://nufc-ashlies.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-succeed-in-economics-and.html

The Newcastle Online Arena. Hands in your pockets lads.

This confirms what we already knew. The statements from the club stating categorically that the asking price had been met by several groups and that a deal was days away can now be officially added to the growing list of examples of the club ‘repeatedly and intentionally misleading the press, public and the fans of Newcastle United’. The whole embarrassing process has been an exercise in 'public relations' which only serves to cast entirely warranted doubt on the rest of the claims made to day: Unless evidence of this investment is seen in January (or sooner) we should assume it’s completely false. Continue to receive their full backing? Pre-season Hughton was allowed to bring in three loan players no-one else wanted and a free transfer we let go last season who couldn’t find another club in the meantime. To suggest the owner has done anything whatsoever to assist the new manager is ridiculous in the extreme. He has done nothing but hinder the manager by depleting the squad to maximise income. This is the killer paragraph, the one that Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias would have had a good old chuckle at while they composed it. This is a disgusting move on behalf of an owner twisting the knife having stabbed the fans in the back repeatedly. Lip service is paid to moving forward on the pitch, but we will see no action whatsoever on this front. They are bereft of ideas. They do not know football. They refuse to improve the squad and will use any income the club has to satisfy their own debts. It’s only off the pitch where they have a plan. That plan is to sell our heritage to the highest bidder without any consultation with the fans whatsoever. http://nufc-ashlies.blogspot.com/2009/10/commited-to-future-selling-our-history.html

Yes, but anti-semitic behaviour is exclusively directed towards jews. There's papers on it... http://middleeastinfo.org/library/lewis_antisemitism.html Where does the 'Jews for Jesus' tribe originate from? Denver Colarodo.

Yes, but anti-semitic behaviour is exclusively directed towards jews. There's papers on it... http://middleeastinfo.org/library/lewis_antisemitism.html

He appears to have changed his mind again. Or he was bullshitting in the first place. I think he's had a vastly inflated price from the start and no one has come close to matching it; we've clearly not been close to being sold which is very worrying. recession or not people snap up football clubs like nobody's business these days yet we can't attract a half credible buyer for shit. We don't like Cockney wankers, why the fuck would we want investment from potential terrorists? Thank fuck they aren't interested I say. WTF? Didn't you read about the lad from Wallsend who complained to a BT call centre worker in India about his poor service? He got threatened his house would get blown up by the irate Indian. I am concerned that if we are taken over by Arabs and they cock things up, anti- semitic chants could have disastrous consequences. :omg: Why would there be anti semitic chants?

He appears to have changed his mind again. Or he was bullshitting in the first place. I think he's had a vastly inflated price from the start and no one has come close to matching it; we've clearly not been close to being sold which is very worrying. recession or not people snap up football clubs like nobody's business these days yet we can't attract a half credible buyer for shit. We don't like Cockney wankers, why the fuck would we want investment from potential terrorists? Thank fuck they aren't interested I say. WTF?

Aren't the options in the poll rather loaded?

So £32m down and £50m up. Not sure about the merchandising claim either, given that we've got 3 new strips out this season.

You're equation is missing one important part, profit. I didn't mention anything about attendances being irrelevant. Obviously bigger attendances minimise the clubs losses. But the fact is the losses are continuing which makes the idea of Ashley hanging onto the club as he fills his pockets completely idiotic. If he's hanging onto the club then he'll be doing so to try to sell it for more if/when we're promoted. So we agree.

You're equation is missing one important part, profit. I didn't mention anything about attendances being irrelevant. Obviously bigger attendances minimise the clubs losses. But the fact is the losses are continuing which makes the idea of Ashley hanging onto the club as he fills his pockets completely idiotic. If he's hanging onto the club then he'll be doing so to try to sell it for more if/when we're promoted. How do you know he's losing money? If we lost £20m (was it) in the last set of accounts... And we've gotten rid of £25m off the wage bill. And earned £25m in transfer fees (say...half of that up front.) And we got the parachute payment so the TV money isn't vastly reduced. And we've released 3 new strips. Isn't it possible he's not losing money this season?

Wasn't there accounts released by the club last year ? Aye, that's where the figures in the 07/08 column come from.

£100m to £150m better off then last season, are you being serious?! I've moved it to the finances thread rather than derail this topic, but i can't see how Ashley comes out of this season without a chunky profit. Again, some of those figures were rash, but with the lowered wage bill, transfer profits, new kits, and canny stable attendances I don't see how he can be anything but a lot better off this season. Happy to be corrected. I'm sure I'm missing something else.

Any thoughts on how this season should look given the attendances/transfers so far. I'm trying to come up with a figure for how much Ashley has spent on the club now. Got the 2008 figures from http://www.nufc-finances.org.uk/ and extrapolated the rest.... 07/0808/0909/10 Club Purchase-£134m Existing Debt-£70m Match (bums on seats)£32m£30m£23m Media (Sky/Setanta/Parachute)£41m£41m£20m Commercial (shops and sponsorship)£26m£22m£20m Interest-£6m-£3m-£3m Payroll-£70m-£70m-£50m Transfers-£10m£0£27m Add all of those up and I make it that he's £133m out of pocket come the end of the season. More importantly he's comfortably in profit for 09/10. What have i missed? Cheers

You could start by looking at the figures and tell me where I've gone wrong. Let's not argue about it. Those figures are my best guess at what cash has come in (or is due to), if you can refine them we can come up with a more accurate picture of the situation at the club. It's been my view that this is what Ashley wanted all along. Look at the last set of Premier league accounts. Outside the top 4, only West Brom turned a profit. How? By maintaining a championship quality squad, and yoyoing, thereby earning the premier league money or the parachute payment season after season, while never investing too much of it. It's also what's been advocated by lots of fans...spending within our means and hoping all the other clubs go bust. I've already spotted one mistake..I've included the parachute payment as extra, when we (obviously) lost the tv money and of course, gate receipts were higher last season...still £50m transfers £25m lower wage bill 3 new strips - what's that worth? Didn't we owe money out on loads of players still as well ? Dunno. The story from Ashley's goons has always been that he prefers to pay the entirity up front. They claimed there were payments left to be made on Luque didn't they?

I'll continue to confidently say Ashley is £75m better off now than he was this time last year then. And i think it's clear that, should we be promoted, which the bookies believe, he'll be a whole lot better off this time next year.

You could start by looking at the figures and tell me where I've gone wrong. Let's not argue about it. Those figures are my best guess at what cash has come in (or is due to), if you can refine them we can come up with a more accurate picture of the situation at the club. It's been my view that this is what Ashley wanted all along. Look at the last set of Premier league accounts. Outside the top 4, only West Brom turned a profit. How? By maintaining a championship quality squad, and yoyoing, thereby earning the premier league money or the parachute payment season after season, while never investing too much of it. It's also what's been advocated by lots of fans...spending within our means and hoping all the other clubs go bust. I've already spotted one mistake..I've included the parachute payment as extra, when we (obviously) lost the tv money and of course, gate receipts were higher last season...still £50m transfers £25m lower wage bill 3 new strips - what's that worth?

You could start by looking at the figures and tell me where I've gone wrong. Let's not argue about it. Those figures are my best guess at what cash has come in (or is due to), if you can refine them we can come up with a more accurate picture of the situation at the club. It's been my view that this is what Ashley wanted all along. Look at the last set of Premier league accounts. Outside the top 4, only West Brom turned a profit. How? By maintaining a championship quality squad, and yoyoing, thereby earning the premier league money or the parachute payment season after season, while never investing too much of it. It's also what's been advocated by lots of fans...spending within our means and hoping all the other clubs go bust. I've already spotted one mistake..I've included the parachute payment as extra, when we (obviously) lost the tv money

You could start by looking at the figures and tell me where I've gone wrong. Let's not argue about it. Those figures are my best guess at what cash has come in (or is due to), if you can refine them we can come up with a more accurate picture of the situation at the club. It's been my view that this is what Ashley wanted all along. Look at the last set of Premier league accounts. Outside the top 4, only West Brom turned a profit. How? By maintaining a championship quality squad, and yoyoing, thereby earning the premier league money or the parachute payment season after season, while never investing too much of it. It's also what's been advocated by lots of fans...spending within our means and hoping all the other clubs go bust.

Since the window Keegan walked and he first put us on the market? Faye £2.25m Milner £12m Given £8m Zoggy £4m Martins £9m Bassong £8m Beye £3m Duff £3m? Total = £49.25m No-one knows. Of the 6 lads I sit with, I'm the only one who paid up front for all 3 seasons. The other 5 are all DD. What's amazing to me is anyone STILL believes what Ashley says. If he said "Nah, I'm staying really" there'd be a huge drop off in ticket sales. As it is, a lot of people are keeping faith and showing prospective buyers there's a lucrative core support. Ashley benefits from that core support and has no need to rush into a sale. Cripple him? He's a billionaire spending nothing on the club. £50m incoming from transfers. Wage bill reduced by £25m thanks to those sales. £23m a season in ticket sales. £20 - £30m parachute payment from the PL. 3 new strips released this season. He's easy over a £100m (and up to £150m) better off than he was last season. Zero on signings. Zero on a new manager. £2m on Keegan. ... Yeah, bones of his arse.

You are missing the obvious with your stupid claim that all the season ticket money has been collected when a good majority are on Direct Debit and commited for 3 years guaranteeing that future income. The overdraft is already massively reduced by player sales and loans from Ashley, so £7m would be a large portion of it. The rest of the money remains in the form of loans from Ashley to the club, which he has a better chance of recouping playing as "well" as we are....in front of a supportive 40k+ crowd.

Yeah ok, if thats what you want to believe You think Premier League attendances and a championship wage bill don't make us an attractive proposition? What? I'm not sure what you think I ought not to believe about Wilky's post. A 40k average attendance is better than most top flight clubs, and our wage bill is a lot less. Sorry but i have to go back to my original question...what? Even laughably thinking our wage bill is by any means 'a championship' one aside i merely cant understand why he thinks Ashley will stay based on those reasons. Which squad members do we have on an inflated Premier League standard salary? Barton, Smith, Butt,*....erm? The ticket sales we have are double those of Boro (for example). Gibson earns £500k a game from ticket sales, Ashley earns £1m...and you can't see why that would be attractive. *EDIT: Geremi