Jackie Broon

I remember it like it was yesterday. On the day it was announced I was in an English lesson at school (Heaton Manor Benton site) and the deputy head burst into the room and said "guess who is the new Newcastle manager... Kevin Keegan!" he went round the whole school doing that. I remember the impact he had on the city as a player as well. I was only 8 when he flew off in the helicopter and not interested in football at all but I loved Kevin Keegan.

If Darlow or Elliot had played today we would have conceded one or more. So many matches this season we've lost or drawn on fine margins with those two conceding goals or putting us under pressure with poor command of the box, weak kicking and weak hands. On that performance he will tip the balance in our favor in a lot of the remaining games.

Remember reading something like you can't do it that way after a certain date? Fourth Thursday of March according to Wikipedia.

Expect them to go into administration before the end of March to avoid their points deduction carrying over to next season in League One.

Just like when they won their first few league titles.

This is why I don't really get their hatred and blame of Short for their footballing position. Pretty much all of his managerial appointments have been initially popular with their support, he supported those managers with significant transfer funds (until it was completely unsustainable to do so) and when their support turned against each one of those initially popular appointments they were swiftly replaced. The mess has been created by Short giving them what they called for.

The reason they are in a mess is because of Ellis Short, Their net transfer spending over the past 10 years has been in the top 20 clubs in the world. Short has supported them, it's not entirely his fault that the spending he's allowed has been wasted. Ultimately their issue is they're trying to be something that they are not. In reality they are a mediocre club in a shithole city. In attempting to appear to be something they are not, at the insistence of their support, they've had to pay over the odds to attract players who don't really want to be there. That has led to a collective malaise in the squad. It's not Short's fault that they have a city and club up the road that is fundamentally superior in every respect and a support that cannot accept that fact.

But I thought they don't want to sign Africans anyway. Is Algeria not too African for them? What could be different about north African people? Random factoid; Africa is massively genetically diverse, far more than the rest of the world put together, northern Europeans are actually more closely genetically related to Aboriginal Australians than West Africans are to East Africans.

Nah. Ashley keeping the club means he is now going to be responsible for keeping us up. He has to back Rafa basically and if it cost the club £20m, so be it. If we go down after he's put his faith in Rafa's judgement, relegation will be purely down to the manager. This is an “ashley isn’t stupid enough to let us be relegated” post. No, it's an "Ashley will be willing to spend £20m (of the club's money) in order to avoid relegation/shift the blame to Rafa if we go down". Then why have we been haggling over the price of this lad for over a week? Feyenoord aren’t going to shift on their price, so why are we so reluctant to spend that £20m that is apparently readily available? It's called negotiating. Most clubs do it. Negotiation typically goes like: stage 1 - daft offer you know isn't going to be accepted stage 2 - more sensible offer stage 3 - agree to meet in the middle Ashley's negotiation process appears to be: stage 1 - daft offer you know isn't going to be accepted stage 2 - slightly higher daft offer that isn't going to be accepted stage 3 - walk away Ironically, when someone else tries a similar negotiation technique with him he calls them a timewaster.

If we manage to clamber to safety Ashley will almost certainly up his asking price. He will not give a f*** about losing Rafa, or what would be a small section of the support. He'll pocket as much of the premier league money as he can, bring in another yes-man manager and continue gambling on survival with as little investment as possible. he's ran out of yes men and gambling. If he doesn't sell he has killed the club and will never get anything like he can possibly get for it in the next 6 months ever again. It's plain to see to anyone looking that we have finally got a possible buyer who is open with their future plans for the club, and has only been held back from giving fatty his current price due to his tight arsed mis-management of the club, hence the need for clauses. If we are safe from relegation later in the season and PCP decide to match his offer, and he ups it to £400 million due to potential TV deals, who's to say that PCP won't say OK then, here you go? If that were the case the deal would've been done already. I thought Ashley would have realised that it was his best and last chance to get out, I though he was just trying to squeeze all he could out of PCP, knowing he'd have to sell before January or face potentially being completely stuck with us. His ego is clearly more important to him than what happens with the club, he probably feels that he was fucked over when he bought the club and he won't sell unless he feels he has fucked over the new owners.

If we manage to clamber to safety Ashley will almost certainly up his asking price. He will not give a fuck about losing Rafa, or what would be a small section of the support. He'll pocket as much of the premier league money as he can, bring in another yes-man manager and continue gambling on survival with as little investment as possible.

That's like taking a car to We Buy Any Car, being told it’s worth £2,000 then insisting “well I didn’t notice that it needed new tyres when I bought it and I've crashed it twice, that cost me £1,000 so the car is actually worth £3,000”.

I’m still holding on to the theory that the deal is done and we’re securing transfer targets behind the scenes, whilst feeding the press with negative misinformation about the takeover, to give us a better bargaining position on transfer fees. This adds up for me because I’m convinced that Rafa would be more clearly unhappy at the situation if we really were where we are reported to be with transfers, as he was in the summer and last January. I don’t buy that he is waiting for funds to become available. I can’t see PCP (or whoever they represent) buying the club half way through the window leaving us with a couple of weeks to do all of our business from scratch. Realistically, that’s not going to work out, it doesn’t add up that PCP would take that risk. The takeover has probably either already happened behind the scenes or it’s not happening unless and until we’re safe. If it’s the latter, Rafa would be publically pushing harder for funds from Ashley. I think the actual situation is either really good: takeover is done but being kept quiet until transfers are done, or really bad: the takeover will only happen when/if we’re mathematically safe (and even then Ashley would probably bump up the price and screw it up). What makes me think the good theory is more likely than the bad is the holding company. The press response that Staveley has many business interests and therefore establishes new companies all the time is bullshit, a quick search on Companies House shows that is not the case. It’s too much of a coincidence and, logically, seems likely that it would only be done if a deal is essentially complete. I wait to be proved wrong when the window slams shut and we’ve only singed Shefki Kuqi on loan.

For me, he would have to travel back in time ten years and alter the course of history resulting in an owner that runs the club in an intelligent, professional manner, maximising its commercial revenue and allowing that to be invested back into the playing staff. Who exactly do you think would do better with this current squad? Pardew? McClaren? Kinnear? Carver? That is the quality of alternatives under Ashley. I think the guy in the opposite dugout today could do just as good a job as Rafa is doing today with this squad to be honest Im sick to death of him being absolved of any blame for s**** performances week in week out. The 2 performances we have just put in this week are 2 of the most insipid, pathetic,gutless and toothless performances ive ever ever witnessed. Dress the Man City one up all you want but we conceded that game before wed even kicked off that is not football and Rafa is the guy who tells these useless fuckwits to play this way Im sick to death of watching this negative approach to every game as if we are little old Newcatsle from the northern premier league taking on the big boys...its s*** Maybe he could, or maybe we would not have been relegated with Rafa in the first place if Ashley had not sacked Hughton to replace him with a yes man who would not object to his soulless vision for the club. I don't think that Rafa is infallible but, in the real world, Ashley has demonstrated time and time again that he will not attract or appoint a manager that would to do better. Rafa showed loyalty to the fans by staying and he got us promoted at the first attempt, something only five other clubs have done in the past ten seasons, and none of the relegated clubs look like repeating this season. He has more than earned our loyalty.

For me, he would have to travel back in time ten years and alter the course of history resulting in an owner that runs the club in an intelligent, professional manner, maximising its commercial revenue and allowing that to be invested back into the playing staff. Who exactly do you think would do better with this current squad? Pardew? McClaren? Kinnear? Carver? That is the quality of alternatives under Ashley.

Attempting to draw a foul is not a dive and not against the laws of the game. If every player were booked for deliberately drawing a foul no defender would see out 90 minutes.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's dad was apparently interested in buying the club in 2008 but was put off by the £480m asking price. Even though they're vastly wealthy, they'll not be willing to just pay anything to get the deal done. Not indicating any of the above is true, but the Dubai royal family have clearly been looking to buy a premier league club for a while, and have reportedly been interested in us in the past.

I would hate to move out of the city centre. Me too. I'm reckon we could possibly do something with the East Stand to increase capacity, without affecting Leazes Terrace. Knock it down completely and build it much higher with a steeper angle...could even possibly make it two tier. It only holds something like 5000 ffs Leazes terrace has a "right to light" though. Make the east stand taller and it'd infringe 'Right to light' is a civil law matter that is for the affected property owner to enforce through the courts, or not. If it would infringe, the club could potentially come to an compensatory arrangement with the University. Loss of light is a consideration in planning applications. Each Council tends to assess it in different way depending on their adopted policy, guidance or just established rules of thumb. No idea how Newcastle go about it, just tried to access their SPDs to see but I can't download them.

slowly, brick by brick that's what I was told by some guy at St James a few years ago, anyway. Assuming you're talking about leazes terrace Leazes Terrace is a Grade 1 Listed Building. To give an idea of what Grade 1 means in terms of significance, roughly 90% of all Listed Buildings are Grade 2, about 7% are Grade 2* and only about 3% are Grade 1. They are buildings of exceptional significance. There is no realistic prospect of Listed Building Consent ever being granted to move it, which would inevitably harm its significance. Aside for that, it's f***ing massive, it would probably cost hundreds of millions of pounds to do. It is never going to happen. Nor should it, it's a stunning building that I beam with pride is part of my city every time I walk past it.

He must just be It will be interesting to see if Ashley is prepared to lower his demands in order to sell up for a reasonable fee. I can't see PCP hanging around until the summer, if the deal's not done before Christmas, realistically it's probably off. They won't want a club in the championship, and Ashley won't want to sell for an even lower fee either. I can't see why they would want to hang around and wait to see which division we are in before going through all this again. Ashley has to lower the asking price or agree a relegation clause basically. Otherwise he'll have to rebuild the club without Rafa and with a furious fanbase on his back. He must just be holding out until the last minute to squeeze every last penny he can out of PCP. He's been trying to sell the club since the day he opened the books and saw he's been swindled by the Halls. This is his first, and probably last, serious chance to get his money back, and possibly make a profit. He's not going to let it slip away knowing that he'll have to heavily invest to keep us up.

Isn't that more than Harry Kane? For a manager who hasn't finished above 10th in the league since he left Bolton 10 years ago.

Not selling = almost certainly losing Rafa and probable relegation or having to invest heavily to keep him and stay up. If PCP are the only serious potential buyer they have him over a barrel and he'll know it. The gambler in him must be bluffing to squeeze every penny he can out of them, knowing that he really has to be out by January.

The value of anything and everything is based on what a buyer is willing to pay.

Maybe that's where the 'well short of £300m' comes from. Ashley was aiming to get around £300m before them paying the debt, they're offering £300m including the debt payment.

Didn't he buy the club for £240m, and then pay off debt worth £110m through his interest free loan? Would be interested to know how much he has put in, but it's irrelevant really - the amount of money he's been robbing for the club year-on-year. The first bid was never going to be the 'right' one to him - we just have to hope that this strong signal of intent means they're prepared to go the extra mile for us and fingers crossed the fat c*** will agree to 'meet in middle' somewhere. He bought the club for £135m. He's in line to more than double his money after the s**** he has served up for 10 years, and it's still not enough for the c***. He effectively paid a lot more than that for the club though mind, with the debt. Which has risen in his tenure, due to his own failings. And was his fault, since he didn't check the books properly. I get the impression the debt is not factored in to the price of the club. They would have to pay Ashley back the loan, either now or later, in addition to the cost of buying the club.