Chris_R

The main problem with buying him back isn't convincing Liverpool to sell. Or finding the money to buy him. It's matching his wages or at least convincing him to take a massive drop to what we could afford and be comfortable with paying him. So really the question of whether we should buy him back is utterly fucking irrelevant as we'd never be able to convince him to come at the wages we'd be willing to offer.

... on the bench, whilst we put up with Simpson and Ryan Taylor.

If you're quoting me, and I guess you are, then all I was pointing out was that if as a penalty taker you're hitting it down the middle, the only thing that should concern you is what height the GK will be able to save it at if he dives out the way. You can't factor in what height he'll save it at if he stands still as he'll save it whatever height it's at, so you need to be thinking about getting it over his legs. This means hitting it into the top half of the net. Not doing so is gross incomptence really, you're banking on the GK diving but still hitting it at a saveable height. Hitting it harder is also a bad idea, as you're giving him less time to dive out the way. The best option if you do go down the middle is to hit it high and not too hard. Maximum chance of it being above the GK's legs and maximum chance that he's completed his dive and is fully out of the way. Hard and low down the middle is fucking atrocious and shows a terrible lack of mental capacity and planning. Either that or you've tried something completely different and you're so shit at striking a stationary football that it's ended up in completely the wrong part of the goal. Either way, you should never be allowed to take another penalty for the rest of your career for being an utter buffoon.

But it wasn't a fraction higher. So it was a bad penalty. Even a fraction higher and it's a bad penalty, it's just lucky that it goes in off the 'keeper's legs. If you're hitting a penalty down the middle, get it completely out of the goalkeeper's way. If he stands still, it's going to hit him whatever height it's at, so you're banking on him moving which means you have to hit it high. And by high I mean AT LEAST above half-way up the goal. Anything else is asking for trouble and is, therefore, a shit penalty. So yeah, shit pen Andy.

Tragic. Consummate professional, have so many great memories of him over his time here. RIP Gary.

Never a penalty and loads of luck, but I'll take that any day if it means a point. They've had way more than their share of the luck over the years against countless different opposition, so it's about time some went the other way. Feels extra good that it's us getting it!

Personally I'm f***ing sick of eternally hoping the next transfer window will be the one where he shows he means business. It's been like that for about the past f***ing 8 windows now, have we learned nothing yet? Hands up who'll be sat here on Feb 1st saying "Oh well, it's always hard during January as nobody wants to sell their best players then. And we couldn't really refuse that money for Tiote either, it was a big fee. And I'm sure we'll invest heavily in the summer.... Won't we?" How many times does something have to happen before you spot a f***ing pattern?

If we'd been spending money and looking to push on, this could almost (and I mean ALMOST) be tolerated. But that's not the case at all. We've spent nothing, and either by luck or judgement we've spent it wisely. It's irrelevant whether it's luck or judgement because the fact remains we've spent a net sum of fuck all. We've shown no ambition whatsoever, so I can't see that more money is needed in the club. We've no ambtion to improve, Ashley's had umpteed transfer windows to prove otherwise and failed during just about every single one. Next you need to look at the timing of the announcement. They think they can get away with it now as we're unbeaten in ages and riding high. They think (perhaps rightly) that they've cut themselves some slack with the supporters. Also, our next matches are Man U, Man C and Chelsea so they know we'll probably never be this high in the league ever again so if they're going to announce shit like this then now's the time. Also, because we've got such a fucking horrid run coming up, they know that if (When) we do lose, they can blame the fans for protesting against their shit decision and destabilising the club.

Llambias reckons this particular bit of heritage is worth giving up for £8m-10m per year. One player, he says. Just how much more competitive do you think that will make us? May I ask how much it would cost to convince you to drop 'Newcastle United Football Club'? One of the regular difficulties in getting into a debate about Ashley is that people keep on bringing up things that he hasn't done. I need to start chilling now. Night all. Quite easy to bring up all the things he's not done though when he's had four and a half fucking years to not do them in. He's been cut more than enough slack. Actions speak louder than words, and for Ashley his tenure is littered with a mix of inaction and bad action. (Though to be fair he's not even uttered any words either, he's been utterly silent.)

Someone already has. That's a holding page. It says "This domain has just been registered", or something like that. No idea who has bought it. Could be the club, could be another private individual. Time will tell. I'd imagine that since they have NUFC.co.uk, and someone else has NUFC.com, they'd prefer the .co.uk to match their existing domain. Obviously both would be best, so I struggle to imagine that they've bought one and neglected the other for the sake of a tenner a year anyway. I know they're hard up but I doubt it's that desperate yet.

If it's not, I'll fucking drive up and replace it using a spray can and a giant stencil set.

How the hell were they dumb enough not to check that. FFS what clowns. Top work by whoever beat them to the punch though. They'll get it. Money talks. Yeah, just like they got NUFC.com. Oh, hang on... Sometimes principles are worth more than money, not that I'd expect anyone at NUFC to understand that given their recent announcement.

Fairly astounded that they didn't at least buy this up and reserve it well in advance: http://www.sportsdirectarena.co.uk/ Fair play to whoever did, though. Hat off.

Exactly. Ashley's STATED LEVEL OF AMBITION is to finish top 10 every year. He's got no intention of pushing us on beyond that. He wants us to avoid relegation, comfortably, but only to protect his investment. After that he couldn't GAF what happens as long as the money keeps rolling in.

So would I. Every time. It's a fucking slippery slope that will lead to us playing in blue and red stripes and most of the other shit that timnufc22 suggested at the top of the page. However ignoring that, the real choice isn't the one you proposed above. It's either have the identity of the stadium remain the same or allow Ashley to just trouser £10m a year and then roll round in it in his house whilst masturbating furiously. AND have a slippery slope towards playing in blue and red stripes and the other shit that timnufc22 suggested.

Actually I don't have much of an agenda against him, not that you'd believe it reading what I've posted tonight. But it's really the first anti-Ashley stuff I've ever written and in general I've defended him and the fact that his money effectively saved us post Fat Fred - which I still stand by. And up to the Keegan debacle I think his intentions were genuine, and even after that I continued to defend him or at least refrained from criticism as on balance I thought he was the best option we had and that he might come good. However there's only so many times you can kick a dog before it stops being pleased to see you and then eventually turns and bites. I've had enough. I agree that protests won't work, which I've already said. He's too thick skinned and money orientated for that to have even the remotest effect. It'd be about as effective as trying to knock your house down by throwing snowballs at it. You'll do no damage, and everyone watching will just think you're a fucking imbecile. The only thing to do is to quietly and determinedly take his money away from him, and do the same to any company that takes over the naming rights. Make it public that this is what's being done, and bloody make sure we do it. It's not exactly hard to not shop in Sports Direct ffs, it's not as if there's nowhere else to go. Ask other fans to do the same, I'm sure there'll be plenty who share our concerns if this becomes widespread and would fear it happening to their club too. It's workable, it doesn't disrupt the team and it's the only thing that can work. Just let's not use the word "Boycott", in any of it's varied spellings!

Or sell Carroll for £35m in January, spend a net of about 0.5m in the summer, spend the rest on Ginsters pies then plead poverty in November. Fat c***.

If Ashley really only cared about progress for the club and was in this for our best interests, then you might have a point. But that's not the case. He's in this game to make a profit, it's become abundantly clear over the recent past. Not that this in itself is a bad thing, all businesses should be profitable, but he'll not be happy with just breaking even and giving us a good team in the process. He's here to make as much as he can like a fucking locust swarm over a field of crops before fucking off and leaving us to pick up the scraps. Maybe his intentions were different at one point, but not now, not after he felt that his nose had been put out by the fans after the Keegan debacle.

I can understand people being unhappy about the situation, but now that the proposal is out there, and the club is committed to it, do you want it to succeed or to fail? That's the real question now. It strikes me that the likely consequences of failure would be instability and uncertainty. I want it to fail, indeed fail spectacularly, so that any business associated with the club (including Sports Direct) is hit extremely hard financially as a result. This will mean the only option is to rename the stadium back to St James' Park, or for the business associated with it to suffer massive and continuing losses. How realistic that proposal is I'm not sure, but that's what I'd like to see happen in an ideal world. I don't see why this would create financial instability. If it's another company, they've already paid up hence no problem. They'll just not renew their deal at the end when they realise it's been a catastrophe and resultingly there'll be no other sponsors taking it up. On the other hand if it's still in the name of Sports Direct and Ashley starts haemoragging money then the only thing he needs to do to stop it is to change the name back, something that can be done just as quickly as changing it from St Jame's Park in the first place. Problem immediately solved, financial instability avoided.

In what world do you live where a stadium name change correlates to the success of a football club? You already know the answer to that, don't you? If the club increases its income and it spends the money wisely, you increase the chances of success on the field. Look, forgetting the distastefulness of renaming the stadium, they haven't even managed to spend the Carroll money yet. They're not short of cash, they're fucking rolling in it at the moment. Suggesting that they need more money to not spend on top of the money they're already not spending is hardly going to do anything to increase our chances of success on the pitch.

I've not read the whole thread, but here's my 2p worth: I'll not be lauching any protests or shouting at the players or ruining the atmosphere inside, but I'll quietly make sure that I never spend another single penny inside a Sports Direct shop as long as the club is called something other than St James' Park. And on top of that, if they sell the rights on and call it after another company then I shall avoid giving that company a single penny for as long as that deal lasts as well. I'd suggest that everyone considers doing likewise. Vote with your wallets, it's all this greedy cunt will understand. Shouting won't work, protesting won't work, hit the fucker in the pocket and make sure that any company that takes over the rights KNOWS that they'll be hit in the pocket as well, it'll act as a nice deterrent. I'm sure that between all of us we can take more than £10m profit each year from Sports Direct, the touted sum that this bell-end is trying to raise by selling the name, thus making it a loss-making venture for him. It's the only language he understands, profit and loss. Let's make it a loss for him.

Have no bad feeling towards him, but he's a terrible footballer and I'll be pleased when he's off the wage bill. Really not getting the hate though. We offered him a ridiculous contract, he signed it. Where's the problem? Those saying "He should leave and get half the money so he can play football every week" are being incredibly idealistic. I'd respect him massively if he did do that, but he's not obligated to and I can't blame him for staying and seeing out his contract. I'd do exactly what he's doing, and I reckon the majority would too.

Agree the first picture is awesome. Is there a higher res version anywhere?

Marveaux looks streets ahead of Obertan in terms of talent. Obertan's just another Pancrate IMO. Fast and direct, but little else. Young enough that he can improve though. Needs to learn some ball skills and get his head up a bit more then he could be a terrific little player.* The phrase "Terrific little player" appears here with kind permission of Mr H. Redknapp, ©1990-2011. All rights reserved.

I thought his pace looked decent tbh. Hard to judge, but when he got going a couple of times he was really shifting. It'll take time to get match sharpness back, but he's fit now so pace will either be there or will never be.