Christmas Tree

Another Ashley story today in Abu Dhabis The National. Thing is if we can keep this run going and creating positive stroies, you never know who may come wading in with lots of oil money.

Its just all coming together for Mike.

Its always crap knowing your Christmas presents in advance.

Lovely picture of him on NUFC.co.uk (Blackburn picture special) It looks like one of those "angry" faces that granddads usually give. (not sure how to copy and paste off there) http://www.nufc.co.uk/page/News/Gallery/0,,10278~2462495,00.html

Appreciate your emotion but... nah. It's tacky and awful and would prefer it not be there, but that's as far as it goes for me, nor does it matter whether it produces money either. The money side of it means nowt, Ashley can bring in money, subsidise the club, take a shitload out like the last lot, whatever; as long as the strategy for giving us decent competitive football and a team I can enjoy backing on the pitch (as has happened since the drop) I'll have pride in the club and by extension the city, and that's all I care about to be honest. Absolutely chuffed at the minute. Plus 1

Quite confident going into this game. Don't even feel the need to second guess formations. Faith in Pardew to put out the right team. Happy days.

As always down to a mix of issues but I would guess the biggest will be the financial climate. Belt tightening is effecting most business's (apart from belt suppliers). You also had those who came back for Keegan not renewing there 3 year deal. I basically jacked it in when Keegan went and have been going as and when and other times watching in the pub. However this season our lass bought me a season ticket for my anniversary and my 22 year old daughter got one as well. Totally loving being there again especially given the type of football we seem to be playing.

Anyone got any funny / interesting stories from away games? I remember me and a mat went to watch us beat Sheffield at Old Trafford in the cup. Got there nice and early and parked the car up in the first car park we came across offering match day parking. We had also decided that it would be fun to buy and wear two massive magpie hats. Look a bit like beefeater jobs. Anyway the game finished and thousands of toon fans pored out the ground and marched and sang up towards the main road. At the T Junction, thousands of fans turned right to pick up coaches , parking etc..... 2 turned left and had to endure a half mile solitary walk through thousands of Sheffield fans, coaches and mini buses. Luckilly I think they saw the two magpie hats and thought we were a tad special. On another occasion, me and the same mate were very pissed in London on our way to the final against Arsenal.....wearing our magpie hats. We ran across this tube station and dived on a tube. As the doors shut we realised that it was entirely full of Arsenal fans. Without a thought my mat started singing "stand up, if you hate Man U" to which the entire section of the train, laughed and joined in. Looking forward to hearing others stories. (Please stick in the right thread if one already exists)

Not necessarily. Five very winnable games coming up first.

Apologies if already posted but I found it funny.

Thought the boards were extremely bright today. Didnt like them at all.

Its a bit strange going to St James again expecting to win, but that's the way its getting again. Nice couple of pre-match drinks in the Forth and Tilleys before getting to the ground and putting down Ba as first goal scorer and the overall score as 3-1 or 4-1. (Collect that later). Excellent crowd around us in the Leazes with a bit more singing than usual and some great craic around us. Went to the loo and got lost on the way back trying to enter a row about 30 seats away. Was one of those games that very quickly never looked in doubt and just a case of how many we would get. Best played really well and should have had a few, Tiote looked commanding again, Obi looked great and tbf it was an all round solid performance. Onwards and upwards.

Must admit that I thought it added a bit of colour to the ground......But that's just me I suppose. Bit strange like that.

A joy to watch. Loving having a season ticket again.

Getting better with every game. Goal coming.

God

Time for Marveaux and Obertan to take centre stage. Thought Obi was great today. Scares defences shitless.

Plus 1

:snod:

I must admit that today I sat there almost pinching myself at times at what was unfolding before my eyes. Not only am I watching a team capable of sublime passing movement, I'm also watching players who still want to hound and harry and fight for the cause. Regardless of it being early days, we have a team we can again be proud of and who might just deliver the unbelievable this year. I also love the way Pardew spends all the game in the little box thingy.

As some of us are on the metro watching this thread for news, the guesses arnt helping.

I think we can take anyone in the next round. Pardew is right that a couple of more wins will give him some breathing space to attack this competition. We all know that the big boys will be sending out weakened teams and concentrating on the Title and Champions League. Bring it on.

Well yeah, if you'd rather look at a website where everyone thinks the same way and the only debate is who can shout the loudest, then Toontastic is the one for you. I prefer it over here because you do get a few people who can think for themselves a bit. I have been a member of toontastic in various forms for a number of years longer than here, this will no doubt get picked up here and posted over there but I agree. It certainly is a forum where the vast majority do agree with each other and those who have a different opinion will get a lot of abuse for it. Possibly why the forum is nowhere near as busy over there, it's hard to develop a debate when the majority agree on everything As much as we have the odd falling out, Chezgiven is one of the most intelligent and level headed football posters I have come across but despite getting respect for the way he constructs a post his posts are often 'swept under the carpet' because they go against the grain. Was even described as a more intelligent version of the person who created this thread One of my favourite posters. Always talks a lot of sense and is prepared to change his mind if that is the sensible thing to do. (Apart from politics of course where he simply talks crap ) There's a lot of good posters over there and the general chat can be good but the football chat has virtually died a death. Too many cant put aside their hatred for Ashley and let this get in the way of discussing anything good about the football side. I of course dont know the personalities over here but it has been lovely this week simply being able to enjoy the "lurve" towards the team and revelling in the excitement building up to today.

Bloody hell, forgot all about this.... :frantic:

Why should Newcastle United and Sports Direct be associated? Because they are owned by the same person? Do all sports clubs owners associate the clubs they own with other organisations in their portfolio? The only thing that links NUFC and SD is Mike Ashley. Sports Direct isn't a local company, it has no historical ties to the club - why should we have to accept providing them with free advertising that stains our stadium? I wasn't trying to suggest that SD should be a side interest to Ashley, but why should the fans of this club be forced to support his brand? "to promote his side interest" So that's exactly what you were trying to suggest. That is the only reason for the association... Which is wrong. He is using NUFC to promote his own company, that is what I disagree with. The 2008 and 2009 accounts suggest NUFC paid SD £47,000 for the privilege of branding in SD! The concept that we are in fact 'supporting' SD is strengthened, when you consider the opportunity cost of not having a stadium sponsor that actually pays for advertising... It looks truly horrible and, personally, I see it as having degraded a great stadium. But as far as the money side is concerned it's part of the deal with having Ashley own us. Just reading this forum it's obvious that plenty of people want him gone. As ever it's up to the individual as how much good they think he has done and is doing. But if we were funded by externally borrowed money we would be paying huge chunks of interest. In fact I shudder to think what rate we would be paying. If there is anyone around who would lend £140 million (or even half that) to a technically insolvent business they would want a substantial margin for doing so. Ashley is a package deal - like it or not. Sums the situation up. People need to get away from the reasoning that they don't like Ashley and therefore anything that harms him or his business is good for the club. In practice, it can work the other way. If Sports Direct flourishes because of its association with the club, then that can encourage greater investment in the team to raise the club's profile in overseas markets still further. Of course that's less likely to happen if Ashley is bombarded by hostile messages about his involvement. The other point is - what's the alternative? The local businessman made good isn't going to be able to compete at the top end of the game. There aren't that many oil billionaires around and their room for manoevre is likely to be squeezed by Financial Fair Play. We've seen money spent at QPR and Liverpool by new owners recently but they've made it clear that it's a one-off and the clubs are going to have to balance the books. (Questionable whether these time-limited spending sprees work anyway, but that's another issue) This is the thing for me, all the other fly by nights who may want to get their grubby hands on our club for much more sinister reasons. An English based sports magnate should be an ideal type of owner to have. Less chance of him getting bored like an overseas owner and more chance of the "marriage" benefitting both companies over the longer term. Im also not as snobby about the Sports Direct brand as some. Is it any worse than Venkys chickens or Tombola! Imagine the east stand Newcastle Sign with a rooster either side of it! Hopefully a period of calm can unfold.