Wandy

I think the reason Ashley desperately wanted Rafa to stay was precisiely because he really, really does not want to sell, and as long as Rafa was here he knew he would always have a mid-table club, thus allowing him to stay on the gravy-train. Rafa eventually realised this and stopped communicating with the club. Ashley realises he has "lost", spits out his dummy and promptly "sacks" Benitez by releasing the statement without telling Rafa it was happening. Now he is in a postion where he has 1 month to find a manager, sign new players and try to steer through a media shit-storm and supporter revolt as he has allowed the takeover story to rumble on without comment. If Rafa had signed that contract we would have been taken off the market, I am certain of it. Now that he is gone though I think the chances of us being sold to BZG have increased. It just depends on if Ashley can use the logical side of his brain or if his inner man-child will once again run riot.

Jesus Christ. Have you missed the last 10 days or something? Remember three years ago when they stayed up and "sent us down"? If you think that a similar reversal in fortunes for the two clubs cannnot happen in the same timescale then you are completely in denial. Simple fact is NUFC's future is on a total knife-edge. We get taken over and everything is rosy. Ashley stays and the next 5 to 10 years will be hell. And in that time the Mackems could very easily get their shit together.

It Always winter in your life. they are and will always be a shit club with shit fans. even when they were in the premier league for 10 years they regularly fucked off at half time if they were losing. Hounded every manager out. they have a couple f 2 bit chancers in charge now and they have not got any money to put in. they gambled on going up and 'flipping' the club to pay short. the gamble has failed hence having to get rid of players. You have got your head in the sand. If there is no takeover happening then believe me we are firmly on the path to becoming the exact same kind of club as them. This superiority complex that we have over them is currently based on fuck all. In 12 months its highly likely that we will be in the same division as them. Quite ironic that this board is full of people slagging off the people who continue to attend SJP for "not seeing the big picture". If you can't see where NUFC are headed and the fact that the Mackems have now bottomed out and can only start to go up then you are guilty of exactly the same small-mindedness.

We are absolutely in no position to gloat or take the piss out of these anymore. In fact their future is lot rosier than ours right now. Yes, they are in a hole at the moment but slowly they will climb out of it and find their feet again. We however are lumbered with a criminal who is being allowed to vandalise our club and the only possible way to get rid of him is to head down the path that Sunderland have taken over the last couple of years. In our case though, we will probably need to suffer a lot longer than they have to have any chance of getting rid of him.... and we may never actually be truly rid of our cancer anyway as Ashley may always have some kind of a stake in NUFC, even if he is not the owner. And of course, once this Gallowgate development is complete there will always be a bricks and mortar reminder of his legacy standing right next to SJP. In my 34 years of supporting NUFC I have never felt threatened or inferior to SAFC but for the first time in my lifetime I think within the next 5 years they will be the biggest club in the North East.

Please, just let this be over one way or another tomorrow. I can either get excited by NUFC again or simply walk away from football altogether.

Pity they couldn't have spelt "preparation" correctly......

This really isn't good news for the takeover happening. If Benitez had any inkling that it was happening soon he would have stuck around so it really does sound like it's miles off/not happening. And even if it's true that he has gone to China because he knows that BZG don't want him then we will be getting new owners who know fuck all about football. Great stuff.

This is why it's so important that people cancel their season tickets. It's clear as day now that this deal is on a knife edge and Ashley is looking for a reason to pull out so if he sees that 45K+ season tickets are renewed after letting Rafa go he will know that he can stay here for as long as he wants without repercussions. If however he sees a fanbase in total revolt and the club about to completely implode as the new season is about to kick off he will surely know that the game is up and now is the time to finally sell up. The club is literally at the most crucial crossroad in it's history. We are either about to become great again or fall into the wilderness for a generation.

Fake tweet or not, they will be making a statement of some sort soon. And it will be along the lines of "the club can confim it is in talks with a number of interested parties for a possible sale, however since a resolution is still some way off we ask the supporters to get behind the search for a new manager so that we can have the best possible start to the new season". They can get fucked. Either sell to BZG within the next four weeks or they can watch the club burn down to the ground.

He won’t until after the 30th i’d imagine Why leave it until then if he knows he is gone for good?

Has he issued his own "thank you & goodbye" statement to the fans yet?

Jesus. If this has truly been a wind-up by this Odin character then there is actually a bigger cunt out there than Mike Ashley. How long has this Odin character been a member on here?

We don't have time to wait another 6 weeks for this to happen. There needs to be a major announcement by the end of the week or this saga is over.

If there is no announcement from either party by this time next week then it's obviously off.

What about people on the 10 year deal who have paid for next season upfront? Can they get their money back?

If it's not happening then I can only think that Ashley has decided he can live with the club plummeting through the leagues and will get his money by stealing the parachute payments over the next few years then selling the club at a pittance to someone who will maybe allow him to retain a stake or keep SD as the sponsor or controller of club shops.

I will accept it when NUFC under Ashley appoint their own successor to Benitez. Until then, everything happening stiil suggests to me a takeover is in the works. Something needs to be said by both parties within the next 10 days though You’ll be disappointed trust me. Maybe. But for now I will indulge myself in a final sliver of hope before the worst possibly happens. After that I will just walk away from NUFC, probably for good.

I will accept it when NUFC under Ashley appoint their own successor to Benitez. Until then, everything happening stiil suggests to me a takeover is in the works. Something needs to be said by both parties within the next 10 days though

The darkest hour is just before the dawn.....

This is a nonsense cliche that has grown over recent years. The modern-day SJP crowd is not all that different to that from the 1980s. People in the stadium are simply quietly depressed but they are still capable of getting every bit as angry at a game than any of the 80s lot. NUFC are not Chelsea FFS, it's a club comprised of people largely from an ordinary/lower working class background and most of those people are in it for the long haul, no matter what. I was there in the late 80s and remember it all vividly. The main parts of the ground where all of the vitriol came from were the Gallowgate Corner & Scoreboard. Even the West Gallowgate was considered to be full of what would now be called "customers" but it was enough for the Corner and Scoreboard to create the anarchy that started off the snowball of negativity around the club. Most of those in the 20,000 crowds that we were getting back then used to simply shrug their shoulders at it all too but the small pocket of militancy was enough to turn it all to shit and send us into the 2nd Division. SJP may have 50000 crowds next season but will only take 1000 of the remaining vociferous ones to start off a new spiral of doom. The main part of the ground where all the vitriol came from in the late 1980s was the Milburn Stand (Leazes section) so you've got it wrong straight away. They made it more uncomfortable for McKeag (to the point where he couldn't go to games for his own safety) than the Gallowgate, or the young lads in the Leazes did. I never said that the Gallowgate Corner/Scoreboard were the only places that had militant elements. Yes, I remember the Milburn Stand Leazes wing very well and they did make a racket too, but the main dissidence came from the Gallowgate. That's probably the only difference in the SJP crowd now...you wouldn't get that kind of intimidation from the Milburn Stand. You can thank Freddie Fletcher for that though with the disgraceful bond scheme that ended up in most of those lads being chucked out of their seats in the Milburn. You said the main parts of the ground where the vitriol came from was the Gallowgate Corner and Scoreboard. I'm simply saying that wasn't the case. The Milburn stand leazes section were far more vocal (and effective due to their proximity) in their chants against McKeag than the Gallowgate. Today's crowd have sat and suffered Ashley in silence for years now. If you are suddenly expecting them to explode in a fit of rage next season I think you might end up disappointed. Your saying that a hundred or so people in the Milburn were more influential than a fair few thousand in the Gallowgate? Not a chance man. For a start, those in the Mllburn had the benefit of a roof over their heads, which amplified their noise. No doubt they were the main source of intimidation for McKeag and co but that's not the point I am making. The nasty atmosphere in the stadium was generated mainly by those on the terraces. The atmosphere in SJP next season won't need to be at the intimidation level of 1988/89 to have the effect of sending the club into a spiral, it just needs to be suitably negative. And with no Rafa to keep the ship afloat that is what is nailed on to happen. It was a lot more than 100 like In fact until Keegan arrived in February 1992 it was the noisiest part of the ground for a good 2/3 years. There's zero hostility inside that stadium now. People would rather sit in silence or boo at a misplaced pass than aim any abuse at the directors box, not that Ashley makes many appearances these days anyway. Most of the militant ones have already walked away. Ok, a couple of hundred maybe. Disagree that they were the noisiest, as I say they just had the benefit of a roof. There has been zero hostility over the last few years simply due to Rafa holding it all together. Once he has gone that will change, no doubt about it. Again, probably not on the intimidating level of 1988/89 but the vibe will be equally as negative.

This is a nonsense cliche that has grown over recent years. The modern-day SJP crowd is not all that different to that from the 1980s. People in the stadium are simply quietly depressed but they are still capable of getting every bit as angry at a game than any of the 80s lot. NUFC are not Chelsea FFS, it's a club comprised of people largely from an ordinary/lower working class background and most of those people are in it for the long haul, no matter what. I was there in the late 80s and remember it all vividly. The main parts of the ground where all of the vitriol came from were the Gallowgate Corner & Scoreboard. Even the West Gallowgate was considered to be full of what would now be called "customers" but it was enough for the Corner and Scoreboard to create the anarchy that started off the snowball of negativity around the club. Most of those in the 20,000 crowds that we were getting back then used to simply shrug their shoulders at it all too but the small pocket of militancy was enough to turn it all to shit and send us into the 2nd Division. SJP may have 50000 crowds next season but will only take 1000 of the remaining vociferous ones to start off a new spiral of doom. The main part of the ground where all the vitriol came from in the late 1980s was the Milburn Stand (Leazes section) so you've got it wrong straight away. They made it more uncomfortable for McKeag (to the point where he couldn't go to games for his own safety) than the Gallowgate, or the young lads in the Leazes did. I never said that the Gallowgate Corner/Scoreboard were the only places that had militant elements. Yes, I remember the Milburn Stand Leazes wing very well and they did make a racket too, but the main dissidence came from the Gallowgate. That's probably the only difference in the SJP crowd now...you wouldn't get that kind of intimidation from the Milburn Stand. You can thank Freddie Fletcher for that though with the disgraceful bond scheme that ended up in most of those lads being chucked out of their seats in the Milburn. You said the main parts of the ground where the vitriol came from was the Gallowgate Corner and Scoreboard. I'm simply saying that wasn't the case. The Milburn stand leazes section were far more vocal (and effective due to their proximity) in their chants against McKeag than the Gallowgate. Today's crowd have sat and suffered Ashley in silence for years now. If you are suddenly expecting them to explode in a fit of rage next season I think you might end up disappointed. Your saying that a hundred or so people in the Milburn were more influential than a fair few thousand in the Gallowgate? Not a chance man. For a start, those in the Mllburn had the benefit of a roof over their heads, which amplified their noise. No doubt they were the main source of intimidation for McKeag and co but that's not the point I am making. The nasty atmosphere in the stadium was generated mainly by those on the terraces. The atmosphere in SJP next season won't need to be at the intimidation level of 1988/89 to have the effect of sending the club into a spiral, it just needs to be suitably negative. And with no Rafa to keep the ship afloat that is what is nailed on to happen.

This is a nonsense cliche that has grown over recent years. The modern-day SJP crowd is not all that different to that from the 1980s. People in the stadium are simply quietly depressed but they are still capable of getting every bit as angry at a game than any of the 80s lot. NUFC are not Chelsea FFS, it's a club comprised of people largely from an ordinary/lower working class background and most of those people are in it for the long haul, no matter what. I was there in the late 80s and remember it all vividly. The main parts of the ground where all of the vitriol came from were the Gallowgate Corner & Scoreboard. Even the West Gallowgate was considered to be full of what would now be called "customers" but it was enough for the Corner and Scoreboard to create the anarchy that started off the snowball of negativity around the club. Most of those in the 20,000 crowds that we were getting back then used to simply shrug their shoulders at it all too but the small pocket of militancy was enough to turn it all to shit and send us into the 2nd Division. SJP may have 50000 crowds next season but will only take 1000 of the remaining vociferous ones to start off a new spiral of doom. The main part of the ground where all the vitriol came from in the late 1980s was the Milburn Stand (Leazes section) so you've got it wrong straight away. They made it more uncomfortable for McKeag (to the point where he couldn't go to games for his own safety) than the Gallowgate, or the young lads in the Leazes did. I never said that the Gallowgate Corner/Scoreboard were the only places that had militant elements. Yes, I remember the Milburn Stand Leazes wing very well and they did make a racket too, but the main dissidence came from the Gallowgate. That's probably the only difference in the SJP crowd now...you wouldn't get that kind of intimidation from the Milburn Stand. You can thank Freddie Fletcher for that though with the disgraceful bond scheme that ended up in most of those lads being chucked out of their seats in the Milburn.

Agreed. It will be a turbocharged version of 88/89. Ironically, I can see Ashley trying to pull a similar stunt to that of Gordon McKeag and co back then by rolling out some signings to try make up for the loss of Rafa, just as McKeag did back then by signing John Hendrie, Dave Beasant, Andy Thorn etc to try to appease the masses for the summer sale of Paul Gascoigne. It was futile though as despite some initial optimism the bitterness of the Gazza sale soon came back to the fore when things started off badly. The exact same thing will happen with a Rafa-less NUFC. I was there at Goodison that day too and you just knew what was coming for the rest of the season. Cottee scored after 30 seconds and the writing was on the wall immediately. I was at Anfield for the 2-1 too...and swear I had a mini-heart attack when the final whistle blew. Ironic that we won at Anfield in a thoroughly dismal season, lol.