themanupstairs

Apparently Cardiff agree a 22m euros fee for Sala. Meanwhile we do fuck all

The absence of an s or h at the end of his name makes me slightly uneasy tbh

Love this little gem from the original Ashley thread. Martin Lol knew exactly what Ashley was up to:

"A little more info:

He's thick with Levy, Lewis and Kemsley leading to rumours that he would do a buy out at Spurs, although he'd never given any indication that he would.  Genuine football man so, in many ways, a better person to buy a club than an Abramovich."

Reckon if Rafa leaves we'll get Solano.

Andre Marriner ref

Fantastic. Ensuring the precious 3 pts go back to OT. Sky have some headlines to write and drama to build up for the end of season race for CL places. Can't be letting those pesky Geordies have a chance of spoiling that.

Roofe has had an impressive season, his movement is good, and would give us another useful option.

 

We won't pay the required rate though. Snide Ashley.

Aye but could he raise his name in the PL?

:lol:

 

Fantastic

Yet more evidence that the FA want Liverpool to win the league. How the actual fuck was that a penalty?

100%. They've spent the money now they can have it.

Is he the last of the al pards mohicans?

Steve Howey on Twitter saying he’s been told by a source that a takeover is further down the line than its ever been. He’s very close to Caulkin isn’t he?

Welcome to yesterday

If Ashley ran us like a proper PL football club, and actually gave Rafa money to spend, who would your ideal targets be? No crazy ideas like Messi or Mbappe.

 

James Collins

He said no crazy ideas

Are we going to start saying Howey is an Ashley stooge now?

No but he's a mackem.

I think he'll go in the next few weeks

Unfortunately this may be true. Possibly sacked even. There's no end to Ashley's malevolence and determination to destroy everything he touches.

Thank fuck it’s away.

We'll win this. Manquillo to score in the 93rd.

That handball from Lascelles is arguable, but I wanna point out that if VAR was there then it must be a penalty. That’s the problem of VAR where players intention will always be ignored.

 

Good point that.

 

When VAR is in use, could we get a situation where attackers delibarately try to kick the ball at defenders arms in the box and claim penalty?

 

I am all for VAR by the way, but it will obviously have some downsides.

Yes why not? If they're skilful enough to hit their target and the arms or hand were not tight on the body, it should be a penalty. IMO the whole intention thing is arbitrary and doesn't really work. The best way to handle penalty decisions (hehe) is to determine whether or not the arm or hand changed the direction of the ball. It's simple and eliminates second guessing. VAR will help tremendously with this as slow motion replays will help the ref decide. If more penalties are given as a result then so be it. It's the only solution as it stops inept refs/bent refs from making decisions in their own little world.

Nearly everything about the club is just awful at the moment. No quality on the pitch, and none in the stands either (at home). We may look organised defensively on the face of it but we're actually vulnerable to set-pieces and can't score for toffee.

Mike Ashley has signed his bankruptcy -and our death warrant- by letting it get to this stage. No spending in the summer and now the fake takeover stories so as not to spend in January. NUFC will be finished as a top-flight club if we go down this season and there's still every chance of that happening. Grim days ahead.

Happy Christmas lads.

In what version of this lifetime was this cunt ever selling the club? The story about him wanting an advertising deal on top of the 300M is ridiculous enough that I don't believe it. I would believe it if he were to ask for let's say a 3 year deal providing he knock 50-60M off the asking price. Either way he's not selling what is in his eyes his most viable business at present.

Give it Giggsy

Kenedy is def not a wing back. He’s a winger through and through.

 

But how does playing wing back mess up his passing? You would think it should be easier when you are playing deeper.

Yup. It's not like we're a team that's always on the front-foot these days anyway. His position shouldn't have been that alien to him especially that he will have played there a few times with Chelsea.

Not sure what he was playing at today. Can't be the first time he's played that position. Hoofed it and lost it pretty much every time he touched the ball. Something's not right with him. I hope the hoofing wasn't an ironic dig at being played as a wing-back.

Get the fuck in. Massive 3 pts for us even though we were shite for the vast majority of the game. Huddersfield were, unsurprisingly, fucking rancid. We gave the ball away so many times, any half decent team would have ripped us apart.

All in all delighted Rafa put another one over that horrible fraud Wagner. Ayoze MOTM and if refs could actually ref he'd have added to his tally with that gorgeous little chip.

This cunt bankrupt yet? How likely is it that his wealth is seriously taking a hit and potential suitors know this and are trying to squeeze him?

Nah. Didn't think so either.

They can go on about it being "different this time" all they like. IMHO it's all still a pile of steaming bollocks and Ashley most certainly will not be selling the club. If he were to ever sell it, I don't see it being played out in public like this. He has a stealth, almost under-handed, way of doing things. His connections to Kenyon are suspicious to me, especially that Kenyon's is the only name mentioned publicly anywhere.

The only slight glimmer of hope I see is how much damage he's taking on the retail/SD side of things and may become desperate to raise the cash from the sale of the club.

Presser the 'morra I'm hearing on the grapevine!

Isn't there one anyway? Pre-match and all?

It's certainly gone way beyond fans just thinking their team is hard done by.

A court of law would struggle to say there wasn't something bent going on when you weigh up the hard facts of the last few seasons.

This. No doubt in my mind that dodgy shit goes on behind the scenes somewhere. The entire sport is rotten.

Personally thought he got both the Yedlin and Perez decisions correct.

 

Lascelles never looked like getting there IMO and unless you can prove intent from Boly I can't see how you can send him off for the elbow. He didn't look at Perez, so if he was trying to elbow him, it was guesswork.

 

Mike Dean is still a horrendous cunt though.

Nope.

Yedlin's wasn't a cut & dry case. First of all his shirt was being pulled first and Lascelles had to have a chance of covering. Of course it was all Yedlin's doing in the first place (don't get me started on this useless sack of shit), but it didn't warrant a text-book red card at all.

As for the elbow it doesn't matter if it was intentional or not (which it definitely was). It's a foul. You are impeding a player from getting to the ball. It happens to be in the box so it's a clear penalty. The shape of the left elbow tells me it was deliberate.

Woke up this morning still seething. English refereeing and football in general is making me hate the sport. Maybe it's because we're not doing well as NUFC. Everything about it though is just substandard at the moment.