Chris_R

Oh great. Another loan. No, this IS my happy face, I'm so pleased.

Charnley will probably do a Margaret Byrne or whatever her name is, and give himself a massive new contract just before any takeover goes through.

Couple of people have been severely "wooshed" there.

Yeah, they're not going to deny their own propaganda, are they?

Doesn't matter how genuine any interest is, we all know how Ashley loves moving goalposts. - The price will shoot up as soon as anyone gets close to it - He'll insist on the stadium being called "SD Arena" for the next 20 years - All his free advertising will have to remain until 5 years after the heat death of the universe And so on We all know how this ends.

Nah, just boot out all the "time away from the wife", "support the team" crowd. I'm sure CCTV could be used to identify those booing the 11-minuters or those who didn't make a single sound all match beyond shouting at Perez when he comes off. Get them out, and send emails out inviting those back who have cancelled their tickets in the last 11 years.

This This And most definitely this.

As ever, I'll believe this the moment that a binding deal is irrevocably signed, and not a picosecond before. Remember he was photographed out having dinner with Stavely, so there's no limit to how much bullshit this guy will peddle.

The problem with boycotts and protests is that, largely, those of us who want to boycott already are, and have been for years. I still think the protests must go on, including the boycott. But wee can't treat the other fans as the enemy, this is a battle for hearts and minds. Many of them can be won over, and fighting with them or calling them names won't achieve that.

Everyone should take part if they can. At least they can say they tried. These things often start small and grow. What happens at the first one is irrelevant, but everyone has the opportunity to say later on whether they did or did no take part from the outset. Be on the right side of history.

If you don't want to go , don't go, don't watch it on sky and go and find another hobby, but respect the fact that thousands of other people do want to go and enjoy going. Would you not enjoy going more if we won matches more often due to having a competitive team? Or for you is it simply about turning up, and the quality of the product on display or the results we get are completely irrelevant to you? Because that's the real question here. People are being asked to sacrifice turning up for one game in order to drive change that will give us the investment we need, which Rafa needs, to make this squad competitive. That in turn will make the match-going experience much better. I remember the Keegan days and the Robson days, and the matchgoing experience was light-years ahead of what it is now for so many reasons. I want that back, or something as close as I can get, and if that meant watching a game from the pub one week instead of from the stands, I fail to see how that could be considered too much of a sacrifice to make in an attempt to make that change. But each to their own, of course, if the quality of the experience is to you completely irrelevant and the only thing that matters is being there, then that's your call.

1) they would say that, even if it wasn't the case 2) How many are normally left? Isn't the majority of the ground season ticket?

Yeah sorry I've had a few beers tonight, you're quite right. Moot point though. They're hardly going to wait to announce something that's a done deal, it makes no sense on any level.

Just going back to this, but just why?! Why would the club agree a sale and then just not announce it for 3+ weeks?! "Yeah, the deal's all done, should we get on the blower to the stock exchange?" "Nah, leave it 3 weeks". It's not even close to being plausible.

Of course it's nonsense. They surveyed 2000 people in the whole of the UK. How many people is that per city? Just a couple of numbskull opinions would be enough to drastically alter any city's position. The margin of error must be enormous. Well, so enormous that Sunderland finished top.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Then he has the nerve to criticise other people for not scoring enough goals. Is it possible to die of irony?

why? whats going to force him out? Hopefully cholesterol.

I don't think for a single moment that Rafa will sign a new contract. Why would he? And news that he might, or is considering it, would not be enough for me because it's meaningless and because Keith Bishop. My thoughts change not one iota on speculation. But if Rafa signed - actually signed - a new contract, then yes. I'd have to trust that he had good reasons for doing so. Again, I don't think for a second this will happen. It's just an "if", because Rafa would have to be mad to sign anything without all but the most cast-iron assurances. Assurances which he won't get.

That for me would be the only thing which would make me stop efforts to get Ashley out*. I trust that if Rafa did sign a new contract, he'd been given enough cast-iron assurances regarding the future direction of the club and I'd be happy to see how that played out for a while at least. * at least temporarily!

I wouldn't bad-mouth my boss, but at the same time I'd not say something positive about him if he was an utter cunt.

Always love that one. It's like that's the only time they can get away from their wife, for 2 hours at the football. My wife's normally glad to be rid of me. If they need time away, can't they just go to the pub? Go to a mate's house? I know I'm preaching to the converted on here but it's pathetic.

Yeah sitting there in silence for 90 minutes must really inspire the lads on the pitch. I'd run through brick walls for that kind of support. Honestly there's too many people in the ground with fucking Stockholm syndrome.

I agree. Plus you simply cannot expect the first "proper" action to be decisive, it seems that the fear of it not being decisive is holding TMG back from trying anything beyond standing outside another branch of Sports Sodding Direct. So what if it's done and the engagement isn't Earth-shattering. You go again the following week. And the one after. It will build.

what about people who take their kids to the match? not going to take a 9 year old in a jam packed pub. "Sorry son, we can't go to the match tomorrow, dad's got something he needs to do". Then go to the pub without them if you think it's not the right environment but you can't bare to stay home. Simple. People need to make a sacrifice, stop expecting the rest of the world to do it for them. "I need to take my kids" is such a shit excuse, you don't *need* to at all and there's a hundred ways around it if you just put in a little effort.

it's unquestionably too early for a bouycott like, no fucking point talking about it start by hitting the sky games before xmas with something visual like a late walk in, when he fucks us in january and we're rushing headlong to relegation then is the time to pull out the bigger guns baby steps basically, our soopafans just won't do it (might never tbh) What if he lets us spend a bit in January. Not unprecedented, it happened with McClaren, and we all know he'll return to form after that because leopards/spots. But it'll placate the masses enough if he does it, and I reckon there's a decent chance he will. For my money, any boycott should be before the January window. Otherwise we risk him doing just enough to force us to push it back to the summer. If we spend in Jan we wont be spending in the following summer. Yeah, you're right. Let's just #wait. There's always next window...