oldtype

Based on what? They're allegedly quotes from the bloke himself, so you must have some sort of concrete belief we'll never sell the place. Allegedly being the key word. At this point I'm more likely to believe that the entire ArabianBusiness.com was built as a prank by some Mackem and that this Mahjoob bloke doesn't even exist than to believe that we're actually getting sold.

Curses, I've just realized that I've forgot to assume that all of this is made up and that Ashley will still own us for the next half century.

Part of me hates Iranian footballers more than I hate Sunderland. Thankfully, all of me hates Mike Ashley more than I hate Satan.

Must have double vision or he's counting the under 18's, mind you never know with Wenger. SSN 12.07 Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed he will not definitely enter the transfer market to replace Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor. No Bassong bid then "not definitely" = could or could not "definitely not" = will not no? (sorry about the grammar policing)

Surely his mental stability has to be taken into account when considering his managerial ability. Would he be a great manager if he wasn't going fucking bonkers and quitting all the time? Absolutely. But that's like saying Owen would be a great striker if he never got injured.

Regardless of who owns the club and who's the manager, the expectation at this club will be automatic promotion and nothing else. (I certainly don't think it should be, but it will be.) If we're not topping the table by October the pressure will begin to mount. I'd much rather send my player to a club with more realistic expectations. And that's without even considering the general doom and gloom surrounding the club and the utterly s*** squad chemistry.

That's a good point actually, if we ever get sorted we might be relying on Shearer to pull in some favours with his premiership pals. Ah yes, all his friends that turned up for his testimonial If I was a premiership manager I'd love to send a young striker to work under Shearer to learn the game. If I was a premiership manager I'd not want to send my promising young players anywhere near Newcastle United FC. Why? Because it's cursed? Absolute bollocks, it'll be a great place to get experience playing for a club with big expectations, some high profile players around you and at a great stadium in front of a lot of fans. If we get Shearer in I'll bet most loans would love to come here. Because it's a club in utter chaotic shambles with the vast majority of the playing staff crushingly demoralized and the fans just waiting to jump on their back? Even if Ashley sold and the new owner brought Shearer in, this would not be the kind of environment I would want to send developing young players into.

That's a good point actually, if we ever get sorted we might be relying on Shearer to pull in some favours with his premiership pals. Ah yes, all his friends that turned up for his testimonial If I was a premiership manager I'd love to send a young striker to work under Shearer to learn the game. If I was a premiership manager I'd not want to send my promising young players anywhere near Newcastle United FC.

So basically, all the players who we'll lose before the season starts were good and all the players we'll be stuck with were crap as usual?

I would like Shearer. If not him, then I suppose I can settle for Shola.

I'd be surprised if this Sirious Majoob person even exists, never mind actually made a bid for the club.

That kind of thinking is pretty short term though. They've been out of the top flight for what, five years now? And a lot of that time was wasted on dealing with ownership issues and sorting out financial irregularities. They'll be back sooner or later. It's just not possible for a club the size of NUFC (or Leeds) to fail completely, the laws of capitalism won't allow for it. At some point the club becomes so devalued that it has to become worth it for somebody to invest the time/money to build it back up again.

Shush, I've selectively erased any evidence from my brain that might convince me that Ashley is not Satan.

That's a good point actually, if we ever get sorted we might be relying on Shearer to pull in some favours with his premiership pals. The silver lining to all of this is that with the Championship season being longer, it's eminently possible to get promoted with a strong push later in the season even if you start off slow. I think Sunderland were actually in the Championship relegation zone a month or so into the season they got promoted. So theoretically, we could get bought a few months into a season and still have time to make a promotion push after strengthening with loans etc.

I thought you had decided to f*** off and go back to 'supporting' one of the teams you can watch on tv? I guess you couldn't resist posting more tripe as you try and pretend you're a fellow NUFC fan for one more day... Metropolis? League 1 the limit? 10 years in the wilderness? You're clueless. Please stop. I'd like to know to what extent this kind of pointless abusive behavior is allowed around here, especially considering that it's becoming a pattern. You're the poster who claimed that he couldn't support the club anymore, too embarrassing (or words to that effect) and now you're back trying to talk about the club in an 'informed' manner but coming across like a skysportsnews mong ("we'll be back up soon")... quite frankly, your contradictory opinions combined with your uneducated attempts to be a smart-arse come across as quite inflammatory I don't see anything wrong in any of the opinions I've expressed on this forum. Quite frankly, you're the only one who seems to have a problem with them in the first place. If anything is "inflammatory" here, it's your childish and abusive behavior.

I thought you had decided to f*** off and go back to 'supporting' one of the teams you can watch on tv? I guess you couldn't resist posting more tripe as you try and pretend you're a fellow NUFC fan for one more day... Metropolis? League 1 the limit? 10 years in the wilderness? You're clueless. Please stop. I'd like to know to what extent this kind of pointless abusive behavior is allowed around here, especially considering that it's becoming a pattern.

Mr. Ashley would accept somewhere around half that, no doubt. Ironically, the only thing he seems to be willing to hold out on for a good price seems to be the club itself.

NUFC is the club of Sir Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer, two of my footballing idols. ...Which is probably why the former got sacked within weeks of me starting to support the club.

NUFC is the only club in one of Britain's largest metropolitan centers with one of the finest stadia in Europe. We can only fall so far. I'd wager the lower limit would be somewhere around League 1 level. At some point Ashley will let go of the club once he's got his money back, someone with a brain will come in and that alone would probably let us get back to the Premiership eventually. We'll be in the wilderness for perhaps a decade at most. This club's too big to not rise again (same for places like Leeds or Southampton, which we'll surely see back in the top flight sooner or later.) Until then it's just a matter of clenching our teeth and persevering through the worst.

We have a winner.

We're going into the season with Mike Ashley as the owner, Houghton or some other fucker who's so desperate to get back into management that he'll work for next to nothing in charge. All of our good players will be sold. Those who are not will hate being here and will therefore play like shit to engineer a move. I'm normally the first to speak out against premature doomsaying... but in this case, I think it's more than justified.

I'd have some of that.

Lessens the pain of shipping off to the air force in two months i suppose

http://mahru.servebbs.com/zbxe/files/attach/images/2145/488/019/90kr.jpg Oh, by the way, they're opening a fucking Man U restaurant in Korea. On my fucking street.

With promotion out the window, I'm at least trying to look forward to a decent mid-table finish with the kids next season. Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to be one of the "young, exciting" clubs in the Championship. Perhaps we'll be able to build on that in the coming years.