Jackie Broon

To be fair, Yedlin should have been off for a second yellow last week.

If he sells for £300m (plus the 'interest fee loan') he'll have walked away with £166m profit, plus 10 years of free advertising. He took over a club that had finished top 6 in half of all its premiership seasons, and top 4 in a third, had made the FA Cup final twice, semi final twice and quarter final twice in the previous ten years and was top 20 in every world football rich-list published. He's taken us to two top half finishes and two relegations and four FA Cup match wins in his time. But, 'better the devil you know'.

Depends how well the books have been kept and if they add up. If everything is ship shape and accountable then her accounts should have a pretty straight forward job. If they find discrepancies then these will have to be investigated and Ashley answer their questions. Could be a while, we just don't know. Unlike when Ashley took over, I doubt there would be any big surprises in the books. All of our transfer fees are clearly paid upfront, the only debt we'll have is the 'interest free loan' from Ashley which they'll already be well aware of. There's the HMRC investigation issue but they must be satisfied that it can be resolved or they wouldn't have got to this stage.

looks mental http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/30/article-2317258-06538A5F000005DC-453_233x423.jpg http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01967/Amanda-Staveley_1967929a.jpg Scary as f*** eyes Looks a bit like an ex of mine... who was a compulsive lying bunny-boiler.

I would guess this - and the money raised last summer in sales - is what Benitez keeps referring to about what Ashley 'told him' was going to be available. Theoretically the money is already ours but I bet they're playing silly c***s about it not being actually here yet. Moving the goalposts. Almost certainly this is the case. Handicapped by our owner for absolutely no reason at all. There is a reason; he and/or Charnley has come to the conclusion that the profitability sweet-spot is bouncing between the Premier League and Championship. Penfold will have a spreadsheet proving that the costs of building a squad capable of guaranteeing safety outweigh the financial benefits.

A zombie club existence.... simply surviving, stinking the place up with a Sports Direct sticker affixed to it's rotting arse. That was his previous strategy, I think that's changed. Rather than setting us up just to survive we're being intentionally set up to be a yo-yo club. He'll pocket the cash while we're in the Premiere League, accepting that we'll probably get relegated but doing just just enough for us to be in a position to bounce straight back each time.

I've been 3 times and witnessed a 1-0 loss on each occasion. Hnng. I live in Wigan, I've only managed to see one Newcastle visit since I have, with the others all falling when I've been back in Newcastle for christmas, but the one I did go to I actually got the assist against Newcastle in a 1-0 loss. I was in the home end, Bramble I think (playing for us) fouled one of their players and the ball flew straight to me, I caught it and threw it straight back, Ryan Taylor (playing for them) took the free kick and sent it over the wall and into our net with me having had the last touch on the ball. Fortunately I'm in the away end this time and I'm going to duck if the ball comes anywhere near me!

Reminded me a little bit of Beardsley vs. Portsmouth.

Just found some highlights. The England goal was Owen > Bowyer > Smith, it was like a future Newcastle flop convention!

Under 21s? If so that's the game I watched and he looked head and shoulders ahead of anyone on the pitch. It was an u21 tournament and he bossed it. It was a senior match, a friendly in 2002 that finished 1-1. He came on for the second half with Portugal losing and, like with the u21s, he bossed it and set up the equaliser.

A wasted talent. I remember seeing him play for Portugal, I think it was against England, and he was sensational. He sat deep in midfield and effortlessly dictated the play, very much like Valderrama.

They used to have a very entertaining forum too, until they changed the format and the regular posters went off and set up cupwinkcook (the name was inspired by the swear filter on the old F365 forum).

Diame was much improved, although I'd rather us start games with two strikers. In Rafa I trust, but some of these games we're winning by the skin of our teeth we'd be putting to bed in the first half with an extra man in the box to put away the missed opportunities.

I remember the West Ham game at home, 3-0 or 4-0, the one where Les Sealey was amazing and we had something like 42 shots. It was only 3-0 but it was the most one-sided match I've ever seen, the peak of the Keegan years, the next match we lost at Arsenal and everything unraveled.

You dodged a very expensive bullet... well, it dodged you. For Spurs he could be a very good player, he'll be happy to be in London and playing in the Champions League, he won't have one or more eyes elsewhere and might actually put the effort into every game that he only put in for us when he was in the shop window. Everton would've ended up with the same want-away Sissoko we did, who looks like a world beater for the 2-3 games a season he puts any effort into and disappears for the rest. Or maybe it wasn't about effort and he's just a very inconsistent player. Either way we're both better off without him.

The perennial excuses. Yes it's a minority. Yes other countrys' 'supporters' may often throw the first punch. But this happens tournament after tournament with England fans, our reputation has been well earned. The only way we will lose that reputation is if these excuses stop and England fans get the message that, whatever the provocation, 'fighting back' is not excusable.

Women and kids in that crowd ffs. One time where our lot don't appear to have done anything wrong. Pity we have a reputation for fighting back mind. Eh? You wouldn't fight back? I don't want to fight anyone. It's a f***ing football match. Canny enlightening seeing all the forum hooligans coming out of the woodwork to justify all this like. Hooligan? Never had a fight at a football match in my life and don't intend to however if I was attacked I'd feel vindicated to defend myself. From what I've seen/read it's quite clear Russian / French hooligans have started most of the violence. Having said that, there's cleary a significant number of English happy to revel in the chaos. My feeling is that the vast majority of English who are well behaved are easy targets for both violence and blame. Then you are part of the problem. It's the perennial excuse... the poor England fans who were attacked, provoked by heavy-handed policing and so on and so on... it's bullshit! It takes two sides to fight. As a reasonable adult, if I were attacked I would get myself out of that situation as quickly as possible, not escalate it by fighting back. Throwing bottles, goading police and punching old men holding shopping bags is not defensive.

I can see us having an even bigger average attendance than 09/10 (43500, IIIRC) It'll be 50K at least! As I said in another thread, we're the only English club that has averaged over 50,000 for a season outside of the top flight (56,283 in 1947-48) and probably the only club in the world to have done that. We might do it a second time next season.

Think Napoli averaged 50k in Serie B a few seasons ago. Seems unlikely given that they average under 40,000 in Serie A.

? We didn't even average over 50,000 this season. Maybe not, but we have since we appointed Rafa.

We're the only English club, and quite possibly the only club in the world, to have had an average attendance of over 50,000 for a season outside of the top flight... If this comes off we might just do it again.

Has to be Wijnaldum, the other obvious options are just shit or have been out of form, he was clearly only arsed to play when he thought he was in the shop window.

Aye, they've moved up the table one place since he took over, and that one place was occupied by Aston Villa.

It's the hope that kills me. Just when I had given up they win 3-0, like the fuckin' Ramsay Bolton of football!

Am I right in thinking, along with Coloccini, he's about to become the first player in Newcastle United's history to have been relegated twice?