Wallsendmag

Ashley wins again. If I still cared enough I'd be furious.

They'll announce 44k. In reality there'll be around 38k there.

It's mags pretending to be mackems who are giving him all the abuse marra; https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/nufc-november.1492228/post-30721093

Been to several Newcastle Benfield games this season. Other than that I've also been to see Rangers v Aberdeen, Queen of The South v Dundee Utd and later on this month I'm going to Portugal to watch Sporting Lisbon v PSV Eindhoven. December I'll be at Aberdeen v Livingston and Dundee Utd v Dundee. Being 100% truthful I've never missed NUFC one single bit. Doubt I'd get my season ticket back now even if Ashley left.

If he didn't hate criticism he wouldn't need to pay Keith Bishop 100s of £1000s a year to try to make him look good.

1 win in 4 for the new manager then.

I wasn't expecting much but he's actually underperformed compared to my expectations. I at least thought we might get some sort of new manager bounce before he reverts to type but there's been nothing. No gameplan, no organisation, players don't appear to know what they're doing, and our attacking threat is zero. He has now developed a further annoying habit of referencing Benitez after every poor performance. He's simply not got enough. But we knew that anyway.

Difficult to argue with not being there, didn’t look so bad on telly . Most of the emptiest parts don't show up on tv. Gallowgate Upper was less than 50% occupied (there's an article doing the rounds about that), Milburn L7 had a few thousand gaps and corporate areas were sparsely populated. Ground certainly looked less than 75% full. Sometimes the TV pictures can be misleading though because the fullest parts (East Stand/Gallowgate lower) are the areas TV viewers see.

Nowhere near 40k there yesterday if the pictures doing the rounds on Twitter are anything to go by. Looked around 5k empty seats in the Leazes End alone, Milburn was very sparsely populated in both the corporate areas and L7, and the Gallowgate Upper was only 50% occupied. Looked more like 36/37k there. I don't even think they're counting tickets sold any more as there's not a chance 15k people bought tickets for that on general sale. They're simply plucking numbers out of thin air.

Just voted for Heron. Felt a bit sorry for him as he was the only one without a profile picture.

Tbf I think their owners are trying to do their best but the they are skint and the club won't generate a great deal of money in the 3rd Division.

They aren’t in terrible form, and they have a game in hand over some teams, but most teams also have a game in hand, meaning they could easily be in the same position even if they win. They have lost only 2 games, but I’m sure they only lost 3 or 4 games last season. They are now either half way towards that figure or 2/3rds towards it. Their aim for both this season and last is/was automatic promotion. For the money that they have spent they should have done it or be much closer towards doing it. They have no define right to comeback up, but their owners bought the club betting/assuming they would. They know that unless they go back up then they need to sell in order to stabilise the club. Right now they don’t seem to be going back up, and multiple potential buyers have ran. Is it any surprise the owners have got nervous and sacked the manager. Let’s also factor in the fact that right now they can make Ross out to be the bogeyman, and for now no one is pointing the finger at them. They put all their eggs in one basket last year, paying £4m for Grigg which has so far not worked out. Whether that was down to the board or the manager I don't know as managers seem to have less and less say on transfers these days. They've padded most of the rest of the team out with free transfers and unknowns. I still think they would have gone up last season if not for the Checkytrade Cup final. Losing at "Wembo" seemed to really demoralise them and they weren't the same after that. They were handily placed this season. 2nd favourites to go up behind Ipswich but the fans turned too quickly, and with the takeover being on the skids it just seems like a decision to appease an impatient fanbase. I think history shows that a lot of Play Off final losers have a bit of a hangover early on the following season. No half decent manager is going to dirty his hands in the 3rd Division. Rowett would have been canny but he wants nothing to do with them, so I really don't understand the decision other than to appease the fans short term. Hopefully they go for Keane. He'll lose the plot quite quickly having to work with such inferior players and could end up leaving them in a far worse position.

They're 6th. 2 defeats in 11. Game in hand over one of the teams above them. There's no way that can be described as a "terrible" start like

They've been on the slide for years. They were in turmoil when he took over. They had no devine right just to come straight back up. It's a long term rebuilding job for whoever takes over and I think sunderland have proven as much as any team over the past 6/7 years that chopping and changing your manager so frequently isn't usually the most sensible course of action to take. Also I think you need to check your League tables before coming out with nonsensical statements. They are in 6th place with 19 points from 11 games. Only a complete moron would describe that as "terrible". With the most expensive squad in the division? I’d say that was pretty bad tbh Money guarantees nothing. Man Utd have spent £968m since AF retired and have the highest wage bill in England yet sit in the bottom half of the league. 6th place with 19 points from 11 games can certainly not be described as "terrible". Ultimately they have a group of players that most people outside of Sunderland have never heard of, with 1 or 2 exceptions.

They've been on the slide for years. They were in turmoil when he took over. They had no devine right just to come straight back up. It's a long term rebuilding job for whoever takes over and I think sunderland have proven as much as any team over the past 6/7 years that chopping and changing your manager so frequently isn't usually the most sensible course of action to take. Also I think you need to check your League tables before coming out with nonsensical statements. They are in 6th place with 19 points from 11 games. Only a complete moron would describe that as "terrible".

Tbf to Ross, since he went to Sunderland only Liverpool and Man City have lost less games than they have. Proper deluded and over demanding fanbase they've got there.

Assume he drew the short straw this week then.

Yep. That's the last game I'll have seen us live until he goes. I've also noticed how short the match threads are on here these days too. Universal apathy. We're playing Man Utd in 3 days time. Nobody has even started a match thread yet.

Players deserve a day off today. Unlucky not to get a point yesterday.

Seriously though what's an acceptable valuation of NUFC as it stands? I know £350m seemed to be the ball park figure but that was when we had Rafa Benitez as manager, a solid mid table PL team and 52k sell out crowds every week. Now we have Steve Bruce, look like relegation certainties and the stadium is probably 70% full at best despite the club pretending it's fuller than it is. I'd be genuinely amazed if he could get £200m in its current condition!

The fans that would have done that are no longer there. The happy clappers won't turn. Never will.

Already have in the last 2 games. Club are massaging the figures now.

He's not an actual fan though. He was cheering on Man Utd against us in the 1999 Cup Final. He probably prefers Sunderland to us tbh.

A group of us got thrown out of there last year for giving him a load of grief.

Didn't Ashley already admit this with his "If he's a billionaire whats an extra £10 million or so " He did yes, although surprisingly those comments seemed to go under the radar somewhat. To me it sounded like a price was agreed and then he's tried to screw them for another £10m.