PRL

Not as easy as thought, no, but as was discussed a while back, a lot of the Arabian consortiums and investment groups are doing it as a show of financial strength / positive western publicity. They aren't necessarily looking to run the club as a business, more of a status symbol. I'm not sure which of those two options is best, mind. What happened to clubs being run as football clubs? As and when i have kids how rubbish is it going to be trying to explain how it used to be about the fans and a passionate birthright? All football is now is a big business, it sucks. If you're right, and the primary motivation is to acquire a 'status symbol', than that's a worry, because that kind of motivation won't last. I don't think Ashley was all about big business. He wanted to run the club in a stable fashion, but he's a genuine football fan and he wanted something more than that. He's been dismissed far too quickly, all on the back of this emotional reaction to Keegan going. My reasons for dismissing him are far beyond the action of Keegan in leaving but definitely another thread for that! I don't actually agree that Ashley wanted us as anything other than a business and none of his actions have demonstrated otherwise, with the exception of wearing a toon shirt and sitting in with the fans, which cynics have called PR. The buying cheap, apparent re-financing rather than removal of debts, minimal input in playing staff and sky high asking price (if all true, obviously), will show this to be nothing but a short term high gain business deal. Maybe he sussed the markets were going to go tits up and has used an imaginitive alternative equity trading process. If it ends up seeing him make £100m plus in around a year i'll find it hard not to feel like we've been totally done. Also, sure it's been discussed elsewhere, but didn't Whelan say he was a Spurs fan? Don't trust a word that comes out of that asshole's mouth in fairness, Bruce in best 4 managers in league, Zaki the new Shearer, dear oh dear. He doesn't like Ashley after the whole shirt-fixing scandal anyhow. I'm arguing with myself now, i'll stop.

Not as easy as thought, no, but as was discussed a while back, a lot of the Arabian consortiums and investment groups are doing it as a show of financial strength / positive western publicity. They aren't necessarily looking to run the club as a business, more of a status symbol. I'm not sure which of those two options is best, mind. What happened to clubs being run as football clubs? As and when i have kids how rubbish is it going to be trying to explain how it used to be about the fans and a passionate birthright? All football is now is a big business, it sucks.

It actually sounds like Ashley has been reading this board... "oh those Arabs must all be the same, that fake Rolex i got last Christmas was priced at $1,000 and i got it for $10, best stick the football club at an obscene cost and then we'll shout prices at each other until we eventually meet in the middle". Newcastle's very own Terry Tibbs

Hmmm... would have said the same about the story in the Sun of him getting smashed up in LA as Keegan was quitting, until i saw the pics to go along with it. Not suggesting this is true, but certainly doesn't sound unlike Ashley

Haha, reminds me of Andy Murray's interview after the US Open. "You may have lost, but you have still won $250,000 so you must be happy with that?" "It's about £10 at the minute isn't it?" Dollar is hovering around an 18 month high against the pound, also doing well against the Euro. What's happening in the markets impacts us as much as the states (see ftse v dow today). What we wanna do is get our investors to come from Switzerland or Japan, then they can take advantage of a few decent days of fx adjustments...

Let me be first to say.... source?

It's been a good few years since I did company law during my law degree but i can say with relative certainty as outright owner of the company he can do whatever he pleases. Regardless of day to day running of the company, any constitutional articles that he bizarrely chose to draft would be his and his only to amend, so he could change them and do as he pleased. This is such a silly conversation as we're talking about a successful businessman who would never ever relinquish control of his companies in such a way unless it saw him benefit (sports direct becoming plc), not to mention his undoubted hoardes of legal advisors who would have said more than a few things had he suggested he was going to give over power for no apparent reason. No offence intended.

Yep, remember that conversation! I have to say, whilst i don't in the sober light of day wish injury on anyone, if you're going to act like a complete cunt, as fagan did throughout the game, in a situation as passionate and emotional as Saturday then you're going to get kicked. You'd be lucky to last 2 minutes playing with that attitude in a Sunday league and even those paid to play sometimes let the emotion get the better of them. Even the idiot Hull fan in front of us in the pub said Fagan is a grade a cock. Hopefully Guthrie will learn from this and hopefully won't have to be in such a shit situation many more times during his toon career (either a very ambitious hope or very short career for Guthrie with that second one). totally agree with your whole post mate Yes but that's where being professional comes into it. I know and I understand what he did was wrong, but football was a sport long before it was a profession and it's so hard to objectively draw such a line. I'd find it very hard to stay cool in such a situation and can at least empathise with the action, whilst not condoning it. Hopefully it was just a misplaced action that showed how much he cared for the cause. I certainly don't think he thought 'hmmm, the squad is bloody thin at the moment if i get a ban we'll be a bit fucked, i'm going to kick him anyway', i reckon he probably didn't think at all and saw red and would probably have been gutted a few minutes later. It'd be nice to hear him apologise, more to the fans than Fagan. As i said, it was a really emotional afternoon, he's a young lad, trying his best and let emotion get the better of him. He did wrong, but lets not crucify him for it. He'll serve his ban, come back and then we get behind him. I agree Fagan deserves little/no sympathy, but the bit in bold is absolute rubbish. Agreed, typing quickly and muddling things - i meant in the situation it's v hard to be objective, very easy to do so now

Most of the lads i've played Sunday league with are accountants, finance professionals and IT consultants, all classed traditionally as more intelligent than footballers and in the main very placid, thoughtful and good company off the field, yet i've still seen a few cases of people losing their rags in situations where pros have stayed calm. Just because someone is paid to play football doesn't mean they will become a saint and have all aggression removed. Saturday league that i have played on the other hand, is a majority of viscious animals.

Yep, remember that conversation! I have to say, whilst i don't in the sober light of day wish injury on anyone, if you're going to act like a complete cunt, as fagan did throughout the game, in a situation as passionate and emotional as Saturday then you're going to get kicked. You'd be lucky to last 2 minutes playing with that attitude in a Sunday league and even those paid to play sometimes let the emotion get the better of them. Even the idiot Hull fan in front of us in the pub said Fagan is a grade a cock. Hopefully Guthrie will learn from this and hopefully won't have to be in such a shit situation many more times during his toon career (either a very ambitious hope or very short career for Guthrie with that second one). totally agree with your whole post mate Yes but that's where being professional comes into it. I know and I understand what he did was wrong, but football was a sport long before it was a profession and it's so hard to objectively draw such a line. I'd find it very hard to stay cool in such a situation and can at least empathise with the action, whilst not condoning it. Hopefully it was just a misplaced action that showed how much he cared for the cause. I certainly don't think he thought 'hmmm, the squad is bloody thin at the moment if i get a ban we'll be a bit fucked, i'm going to kick him anyway', i reckon he probably didn't think at all and saw red and would probably have been gutted a few minutes later. It'd be nice to hear him apologise, more to the fans than Fagan. As i said, it was a really emotional afternoon, he's a young lad, trying his best and let emotion get the better of him. He did wrong, but lets not crucify him for it. He'll serve his ban, come back and then we get behind him.

Yep, remember that conversation! I have to say, whilst i don't in the sober light of day wish injury on anyone, if you're going to act like a complete cunt, as fagan did throughout the game, in a situation as passionate and emotional as Saturday then you're going to get kicked. You'd be lucky to last 2 minutes playing with that attitude in a Sunday league and even those paid to play sometimes let the emotion get the better of them. Even the idiot Hull fan in front of us in the pub said he was a grade a cock (Fagan, that is). Hopefully Guthrie will learn from this and hopefully won't have to be in such a shit situation many more times during his toon career (either a very ambitious hope or very short career for Guthrie with that second one).

Did you add that bit about the majority of corporate businesses deciding against renewing due to lack of transfers? Jut looked on .cock and definitely isn't there now... Maybe someone made a bit of an error letting that out the bag officially I added it in, sorry. ha, no worries, seems totally plausible!

Did you add that bit about the majority of corporate businesses deciding against renewing due to lack of transfers? Jut looked on .cock and definitely isn't there now... Maybe someone made a bit of an error letting that out the bag officially

Shepherd - "Never say never". Shudder.

You have to force quit to get the damn thing to stop. Use Google Chrome, it'll ask you after the second prompt if you want to close it straight away. Be a bit careful, my mate got keylogged on Chrome the other day, think there's a patch to fix now but seems there are a few problems cropping up

What the hell are you on about? Agreed, totally different circumstance!

If only Keegan hadn't agreed to sell Milner Having been promised a replacement...

Yep, in fairness there was a shedload of people saying that people should shut up moaning until after September 1st and that then we would see the true Newcastle United for the season ahead (even KK, in fact!). Well the true Newcastle United has a smaller squad than last year, no manager, risks losing it's most promising player for a number of months and is pretty much up shits creek. Whilst Ashley may not have injured the player, selling Milner and leaving pretty much fuck all cover for Jonas has, albeit unfortunately, turned into another glaring error. If we aren't allowed to moan now when threatened with a midfield of Zog - Butt - Guthrie - Geremi / Duff then when are we?! I do try and be positive most of the time but right now it all looks pretty bleak. I really hope the team turns up on Saturday and does a job on Hull or i fear a riot.

Don't think he would quite fit into the current plan of young and hungry players... That said, he certainly is hungry... Sorry, thought i'd get there first

i was expecting a joke then... very disappointing

Wooo! I thought no one was going to reply, all the effort would have been wasted! Ashley may not have made it happen, but he could sure as hell done more to stop it - again, good enough reason to be pissed off if you ask me. He's also at the top of the tree, like it or not the person at the top will always get external shit directed at them, then they'll run it downhill to those below them internally - worked my fair share in some pretty beasting organisations and have first hand experience of that. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the reason for people's continued anger. Of course, Keegan being Keegan has made a massive difference, but the concerns run far beyond that (well, to me and a lot of people on here at least) and relate to the entire set up at the club and the way it's been run these last few weeks, and potentially a long time since. I'd hope if one of your key staff members wasn't aligned to strategy but you were working client site and knew he was very important to maintaining relations with client and customers then you would at least try to sit down face to face with the person in question and attempt to discuss the issue and compromise. Even if you could not do so then at least you'd shake hands at the end, say no hard feelings and not dredge it up with the client next time you speak, especially if you knew that the staff member who was leaving had really cared about the company itself and the client you were working for and the feeling was mutual. (Stretching this analogy now i realise). Your last statement totally contradicts your statement in your previous post: Either you can make a difference or you can't? Peace out They did try to sit down with Keegan, he wasnt having any of it apparently. I agree there are some contradictory elements to what i'm saying as i dont want to piss all over people's efforts. The reality is that Ashley wont sell unless someone is prepared to pay his asking price, and i can see no harm in 'Ashley Out' campaigning when its clear that there is someone on the horizon. If you say there will never be any forewarning or prior knowledge if a groupis interested in buying then that answers my question about the point of campaigning in the first place. Cool, i enjoyed that, thank you for some reasoned conversation - back to trying to do some work, going to be a late one i fear!

Wooo! I thought no one was going to reply, all the effort would have been wasted! Ashley may not have made it happen, but he could sure as hell done more to stop it - again, good enough reason to be pissed off if you ask me. He's also at the top of the tree, like it or not the person at the top will always get external shit directed at them, then they'll run it downhill to those below them internally - worked my fair share in some pretty beasting organisations and have first hand experience of that. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the reason for people's continued anger. Of course, Keegan being Keegan has made a massive difference, but the concerns run far beyond that (well, to me and a lot of people on here at least) and relate to the entire set up at the club and the way it's been run these last few weeks, and potentially a long time since. I'd hope if one of your key staff members wasn't aligned to strategy but you were working client site and knew he was very important to maintaining relations with client and customers then you would at least try to sit down face to face with the person in question and attempt to discuss the issue and compromise. Even if you could not do so then at least you'd shake hands at the end, say no hard feelings and not dredge it up with the client next time you speak, especially if you knew that the staff member who was leaving had really cared about the company itself and the client you were working for and the feeling was mutual. (Stretching this analogy now i realise). Your last statement totally contradicts your statement in your previous post: Either you can make a difference or you can't? Peace out

I'm pretty sure if i'd seen Alisdair Darling dancing on a stage in the States surrounded by morons looking for 5 minutes of fame whilst Northern Rock collapsed i'd have every right to be pissed off and you would be too, no? Great post pete I'd actually started a long response to your main post but work got in the way unfortunately... I shall resume asap! Apart from the fact NUFC hasn't collapsed...it's manager walked out. Err yes, but the analogy was the Chancellor - Northern Rock crashing wasn't the equivalent of the entire financial network crashing, it was just a major component of his overall sphere of responsibility going ass up, as Keegan leaving NUFC was to Ashley. We still have an economy as we still have NUFC

As promised, this may take a while as getting rinsed at work today, so apologies if about 1000 posts have preceded since i started this... I'll stick with the political analogy. Chancellor and Prime Minister (in the case of Gordon Brown, his role as both) live and die by their decisions. At the next election it's likely that Brown will get trounced as a result of his actions in both roles and I have no sympathy for him whatsoever. What makes the difference here is I can vote and essentially select a better option / punish him for his bad management. He should be held accountable and it isn't a long way apart to blame - If you are accountable for something it is your responsibility, if something that is your responsibility goes tits up you must shoulder part of the blame. To use a different analogy, if the guy who works for me puts some numbers together today and i fail to check them because i'm otherwise engaged on here, my boss is still going to be pissed with me, even though i didn't do the work, as it's my responsibility to check anything under my remit is correct. We're not talking a small admin matter here, we're talking about the loss of one of the key 'resources' of our 'business' (i hate describing football in such a way but seems it's the way it's going). Yes, Ashley must delegate, but when there is something that could have a massive impact on his business occurring, he needs to be on ground level and be involved. Either this did not happen, which makes Ashley incredibly negligent as a businessman and shows he grossly misread Keegan, or the information about what was going on wasn't communicated correctly, in which case the head of who is responsible must roll (my guess Llambias, but that's all it is, a guess), this has not happened, or he knew exactly what was happening and thought 'i know, i'll go out and get wasted and splashed about the papers, that'll go down a treat with all my customers'. None of those options really show him in the best light and i can understand why a lot of people are pissed. He's also tried to be 'one of the boys', which is of no concern at all to me, but if he wants to act like that then he can't turn round when he fucks up and expect people to then see him as a disconnected owner. Facts are he told us KK was in charge of transfers, there was a decent budget available for players KK wanted and that he was here to have fun. What has happened would be very few people's idea of fun in this last week and people feel betrayed. Rightly or wrongly, they're going to be pissed off. I think Wise wouldn't actually be enough now. I don't honestly think that Wise going would have any impact on the backroom set up and most people have said they want a manager in charge of buying and selling with a scouting team helping him track down purchases. It's clear 'the system' has won out and a lot people don't want the DoF in charge of transfers, which it appears is the case. Wise would just be replaced and unless it was someone very special people wouldn't accept who came in. A lot of people will be looking at the club exactly because the owner is beleagured and being forced out. It's not like it's an irrational reaction, Ashley made one of the mother of all fuck ups in his handling of this situation, it would be pretty difficult for anyone to repeat! I think many less eccentric owners wouldn't be put off. They'd be mad to reappoint Keegan though, I agree on that. They would realise they could come in on a tidal wave of goodwill and providing they used some sense could make a real difference. Interesting about Belgravia - did not know that. You do need to be careful what you wish for, but then i don't think it's totally absurd to think we'd be a great target for a buyout by a mega-rich type. I mean, Man City were hardly in a good position, with a fugitive owner and a history of recent instability. Not saying it will happen, but i'm a gambling man and right now i'd twist rather than stick. Again, if you have experience of managing large organisations then would you let possibly the most important staff member quit without even tracking them down and meeting them? Without even coming back to the country? Would your boss not be really annoyed with you if you did this? I also think this whole organisation / business thing for a football club is a misnomer. Not all businesses, in fact very few, have the community aspect of a football club and particularly Newcastle United. Ashley said he wanted to buy into the passion of the fans, he either lied or didn't get it at all. When it becomes clear there's a better alternative?! Will Anil Ambani / A N other Billionaire send an email to nufconline saying "hey lads, interested in investing some major wedge, now be good lads and get down and cause Ashley some bother"?! Virtually all recent takeovers have come totally out the blue, Chelsea and Man City especially, we don't have any idea what is potentially out there and how much impact some pressure now could have. As i said earlier, with the government there is a voting system in place to voice your displeasure; we don't have that luxury - if people want to protest in a legal manner and show their displeasure all power to them. Making a stand can make a difference and if it wasn't for those 'mongs' outside SJP last week i don't think any effort would have been made to get Keegan back. We all have different feelings as to whether protest can work positively, i feel in this case it can. Fingers crossed people get themselves organised, do it right and make a positive impact.

I'm pretty sure if i'd seen Alisdair Darling dancing on a stage in the States surrounded by morons looking for 5 minutes of fame whilst Northern Rock collapsed i'd have every right to be pissed off and you would be too, no? Great post pete I'd actually started a long response to your main post but work got in the way unfortunately... I shall resume asap!