Wallace

AaronHughes18 Aaron Hughes Can't believe the news.I'm devastated. One of the greatest guys I've ever had the privilege of knowing. An idol in every sense......

Is it Nicky Deverdics? http://blythspartansafc.co.uk/new_php/?p=4610

This happens all the time with this club and Simpson should be aware by now that the club don't do negotiation - every contract offer seems to be a case of take it or leave it. He is not in a strong position because the club have Santon waiting to play and I guess they feel he is easily replaceable should he fail to sign the contract. No doubt Simpson is on a pretty low wage in comparison to most of his team mates but unless we know what the club are actually offering compared to his current deal, I think it is unfair to judge the player. This will continue to happen with all of the players. Although I am still amazed that Jonas' new contract went through so smoothly and the first we heard of it was when it was signed.

Would be funny though if he came back to us and started playing brilliantly again.

Taylor and Shola both greeted him, I assumed it was some sort of U-21s connection, especially since Platt's at City now. No idea who he is though. I think it is someone who used to be on the backroom staff for us. I remember last season, there was also someone on their staff (the same person?) who several of our players spent time chatting to.

It is like the Carroll situation where Best came in and did a decent job when Carroll was injured which showed that we could cope without him. Likewise Guthrie has done well in Tiote's absence so they might think they don't need him anymore.

It is a shame that we gifted them their goals yesterday. I think it is 11 goals we have conceded so far and 4 of them have been penalties so we are obviously making it very difficult for teams to score against us in open play.

Reminds me of the takeover stories when the club would let the media know they were close to deals in order to flush out interest when in truth there was never any serious interest.

Best hasn't travelled.

Love how player investment is always used as the excuse.

Isn't it to do with the fact that with some clubs you have to pay for all unsold tickets so rather than take the higher allocation and risk a few unsold tickets, NUFC always choose the lower allocation. I am sure they get an option to take a higher allocation but choose not to. I expect it is clubs who know they can sell tickets to their own supporters that will enforce this policy whereas clubs like Wigan and Blackburn are just happy to sell as as many as they can which is why we take so many supporters to those grounds.

A couple of weeks ago there was a Scottish journalist on the radio criticising the Celtic team and he said that Forster had a heart the size of a pea.

If it did end up being Sports Direct, I wonder what the impact would be on shirt sales. Mind you seeing as Dekka says they make no money from retail, it won't be a concern!

For the last 2-3 seasons, the team and manager have given us back some dignity but all the time it is being undermined by those above them.

There is a part of me that is concerned about what will be Ashley's next move. If they don't find a buyer (and I am not convinced they are looking because the plan is for it to be SD), I can imagine Llambias blaming the fans and saying they had no choice but to sell Tiote etc to raise funds because the fans had put off potential buyers. The backlash provides them with an excuse to justify whatever they plan to do next.

He's laughably poor. Other brand experts have come out and said Newcastle have been badly advised in this and as a resullt are likely to prove unsuccessful in finding a buyer.

didn't llamblias say last week the club makes nothing from retail, or something to that effect? that being the case why would they give a f*** if the fans stop buying shirts? Literally nothing? I just find it hard to believe they make nothing from shirt sales. But I stand corrected. They are playing the poverty line at the moment though. Last month, it was all about how well we were doing financially. They change their story to suit whatever agenda they are trying to push at the time.

Llambias is really bad at interviews. In his position, he should be able to make a decent job of "selliing" the idea to the public. No wonder, we struggle to attract sponsors if he is the one selling the "brand". He says at one point they have to raise the extra revenue to keep the cost affordable for supporters. He then said it was to buy a new player because the fans are always demanding new players. He then said it was to make the club financially sustainable. He also said that retail brings in "nothing". I always thought we did quite well on the merchandiing side of things. You would think he would have thought through carefully what to say but instead it sounded like he was making it up as he went along.

It just goes to prove that the board cannot be trusted and anything good they appear to do is a means to an end. They may think they are softening the fans up for when they sell the rights but I think it might have been better if they had just waited until they did sell them. At least then we would know there was money coming into the club whereas now everyone just thinks it is a smokescreen for promoting SD with no real intention or expectation that they will be able to find anyone wanting to buy the naming rights and therefore no additional income. BTW other than the Spurs match, has Ashley been to any games this season? He has never missed this many games before - seems strange when we have been doing well.

This is something I have noticed. There is so little advertising from other brands in the stadium compared to before Ashley took over. Is it down to the economic climate? Unwillingness for other brands to associate themselves with Sports Direct? A deliberate decision to promote SD pver everything else? Whatever the reason, other advertising/sponsorship seems to be reduced each season. It rankles when they complain about reduced revenue when there seems little attempt to attract new advertising. They seem to have an "All" or "Nothing" policy. Maybe they are genuinely trying to find new sponsors all the time but failing but we will never really know what the true motives are behind anything they do.

Well we have a captain who is probably a bit shy about speaking English in front of an audience so most of the broadcast interviews are being done by Saylor, Simpson and Krul who all seem more at ease with the media side of things. Last year it was Nolan, Barton and Harper doing this sort of stuff.

Unfortunately for him, he is not in a good position to negotiate because Santon is waiting for his chance and they have Tavernier who can come back and provide cover.

I went past last night at about 10pm. All the fairground stuff was going on but there didn't seem too many people about - I guess the party started quite late. With all the lights, the equipment was visible from some distance. Fortunately, I live on the other side of Wylam so I didn't hear the music.

People were having their photos taken with the facepaint guy outside the ground.

Alan Brazil said this morning on TalkSport that Newcastle had signed the French striker they had been chasing for a while but then said he did not think it had been announced yet.