Chris_R

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...

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.

I'm not saying that you can't find higher-paying retail positions, just that this one doesn't seem disproportionately low for the industry as a whole. There's plenty of sticks to hit Ashley with, but I can't see how this is one of them.

Yeah I can't imagine what people expect that job to pay to be honest. You're one step up from the people on the shop floor, who'll likely be on minimum wage which is what, just over £16k on a 40-hour contract?

Still a cunt.

I don't care about any of that, minimising their tax exposure, whatever. My problem is not that they're doing a lot of illegal things, but that they're doing a lot of things which simply are not in the interests of NUFC but instead set up to favour Sports Direct.

The "Transfers are hard" thing would wash if other clubs were having the same problems. They're not. They also said things like "we were after players whose clubs wanted more than our transfer record" as if this is some wonderful act of generosity and drive to better the team, when A) that transfer record has stood for 13 years, including all 11 years of Ashley's reign and B) they still didn't manage to break it. It's pathetic.

Whilst what you say is true about the club just lying to their faces and effectively laughing at them, I respect the guys for going along and making the club tell those lies. That's something that the club can be called out on, whereby if we let them just sit in silence there's no lies to question. It's like when the police interview criminals, just because you know they're not going to admit to the murder* and know they're going to lie to you or whatever, that is no need to not ask them questions. You hope they trip themselves up and you have them bang to rights. As long as the right questions are asked, which looking at the minutes from this one they were, then I'm fully behind the people who go. *Oh and if Mike Ashley's lawyers are reading this, it's an analogy. The only thing I think he's killed is this football club.

"Shit, they've spotted us breaking the rules. What should we do?" "Just change the rules" Whole thing wants burning to the fucking ground, honestly.

It'll be deducted from Rafa's transfer budget in January. Hahaha "transfer budget"!

This shows exactly how much credibility the rest of what he said last night should be given. He's simply incapable of telling the truth. Everything out of his mouth is just a massive fucking lie.

Well hopefully that "moving forward" will be soon. There's no harm in the next few protests being local, as the club is local, but if local means trying to get people to stand outside SD yet again then people are going to quickly get bored. This needs to move forward whilst we have momentum.

Well they were the numbers given on here, iirc. Apologies if I've misremembered them. Irrespective, my general point stands. This thing needs to move forward not stay still. If the next protest is just standing outside another branch of SD then I think people will start to drop off. I may sound negative but I'm actually trying to be positive. We have a chance to make a difference here, a chance to do something. Let's not fuck it up.

So there were 400 people at the first meeting, and 150 at this one. Yet we don't want a boycott in case it backfires and things fizzle out. Let me just put something out there: Standing outside a different branch of SD every match with a few banners is not going to drum up support or increase supporter engagement. People need to feel like they're part of something which is moving forward, at the moment this feels quite stationary. People need something to rally behind. Something to believe in. Something to give them hope. Something new, something that's pushing the boundaries. If between now and Christmas the only action is going to be standing outside various different branches of SD, then this movement is dead and Ashley has won. Again.