AyeDubbleYoo

Which was kind of my point Mine too.

Do we even have a 'board' in the traditional sense? Yes we have senior staff but we don't have any shareholders to answer to, surely the owner can do what he wants, within the law and the contracts people have with him.

I still think it's mental that he didn't know the full financial picture when he bought the club. I mean, he's obviously rich but chucking around 100s of millions without doing your homework doesn't seem to make sense.

I suppose the legacy of the whole Hall/Shepherd regime is - did great things for the club, got carried away, shot for the big time and over reached to do it. Thus we're left in the current situation where a lot of steady rebuilding/progress is required, non of which we have the patience for because of our memories of flirting with the elite.

For once I agree with Hitler! (Edit: Wish the page hadn't split there, that looks a bit dodgy without the video! )

That's a quality post, everyone has to be able to compromise and work together, no manager is all-powerful. I loved it when Keegan came back, but I always had the factors you mention nagging at the back of my mind. It was easy to ignore them when the euphoria was at its height.

Hope it will represent a balanced point of view and not just the 'Ashley is satan' brigade.

Fuck, that makes it a lot less funny, if I was Fagan I would be fuming

Not 6 or 7 tho I thought he always slammed in 4?

I agree, the thing is, there's only so many Champions League places so any other mega-rich owners will have to be content with a constant drain on their finances and not much in return. Even if you pump money in like Man City are planning to do, there are only so many Robinhos and Ronaldos you can buy - and even then you'll probably finish 5th.

I honestly don't think he'll hang around. If he feels as strongly about it as the statement makes out, he'll be desperately trying to flog the club before the next home game. I hope he cares enough about the club to sell it to the right people. He is a business man, he will be looking to sell to whoever gives him the best offer... I couldn't blame him for not caring about the club the way he's been treated by the fans.

We were never in danger of relegation this season. We flirted with it through Big Sam's non-football, but the squad stronger and with Keegan's brand of football we would have been fine.

I hope that George Caulkin article is meant to be sarcastic, because if not it's a load of bollocks.

To be fair, 'interested in the football side' is exactly what Ashley is, that's why I find it so baffling that people have turned against him. He just wasn't prepared to bankrupt himself or the club trying to buy success (which most likely wouldn't work anyway).

Well, fair enough maybe 10th would be average, but anything 8th or better would be excellent progress. And people would have every reason to be pleased. The summer was in no way 'very poor', and the only reason we are even contemplating relegation is the manager walking out.

Well in a way, but the only reason the backroom setup is pissing people off is because it led to Keegan walking out. If the manager had been working with it OK, we would still be saying the players were good quality and the whole thing was a brilliant idea.

That's a good point as well Dave, the same could be said about Keegan. I'm a bit disappointed in Ashley for giving up so easily. He could have easily released that same statement except with a few sentences changed to things like 'I've got the message but I'll show you it's for the best what I'm doing', and 'I hope you'll welcome me back when I come and sit with the fans again soon', and he might have been able to calm things down a bit. That said, it seems he wants NUFC as a hobby and as something to do on a Saturday, so if he couldn't go to the games and enjoy himself then I suppose the shine went off the whole thing for him. He needs to realise though that a good manager appointed and a top-10 finish would have seen him a hero again. Fans really are that fickle, as we've proved the last couple of weeks.

top top top post no more words needed Aye, I'm very worried as well. We've driven out a competent owner with a sustainable long-term plan, and I don't know who else will be coming in who is better. And if we had such a problem with Ashley, who was essentially buying us because he loved football and wanted a hobby, what are we going to think of an oil sheik who just wants to boast to his mates and make himself look powerful in the west. Or someone who wants to bring in a couple of Chinese players just to sell more shirts in Asia?

After reading that statement I'm even more sure that we have done a disgusting thing by forcing Mike Ashley out of this club, and the way people turned on him over the Keegan affair is shameful. Perhaps he didn't realise the strength of the love for KK here, but to me that is his only failing. Everything he said in that statement about spending I agree with, and I believe it could have brought us consistency given time, even if it was unlikely to win us the premiership. I think sometimes we get the club we deserve as fans, with our constant overreaction, moronic protesting and unthinking devotion to the wrong people when they represent the past rather than the future of this club. Really sorry we didn't let Ashley get on with his plan.

Got to be Bassong for the LB spot until Enrique is back, no need for Zoggy ever to appear there again.

Thanks Luca, you almost cheered me up with that

Well said that man, it hurts like hell, but it's not the end of the world. No one is claiming it to be the end of the world man but people are passionate about this club. Surely we can all accept that. This is as an emotional time time as I have ever known. Lets just accept each others reaction to it all. OK, well you accept mine then, it's as valid as anyone who is sobbing into their pint right now.

The only reason the Souness/Roeder/Allardyce times didn't end in a crash was because Allardyce was removed before he could relegate us. I feel pretty low at the moment, but still not reaching the pant-wetting terror that I had when I thought we were going down last season. We'll see what happens!

We can get away with selecting dodgy players like Butt, Ameobi etc, playing people out of position (Zog) and sticking the occasional youngster in when we have the likes of Jonas, Oba, Viduka and Beye also playing. Without them we are fucked, we just don't have the depth to sustain more than one or two injuries. Glad Xisco did well, when will people realise that Zoggy isn't a defender? I'd like to throttle the fucker who made that idea acceptable.

Well said that man, it hurts like hell, but it's not the end of the world.