Odear

Ah NUFC 360, the go to for scoops relating to he club ?

Why would he inflate the prices of our shirts? Why would he increase ticket prices? Bring in Shola? Redfern? Maybe Odin knows? Well we knew about Shola and Redfearn for weeks, maybe months. And the other stuff is irrelevant. Those decisions would have been made months ago. It’s cheeky as fuck to charge that for a shit design top but that’s life. It’s 5p more expensive than the next 3 most expensive in the league. And then just a few pounds for most of the rest. I don’t see the big deal in moaning about something you won’t buy. The seasons tickets would piss me off more. But those decisions were made ages ago. Absolutely no relevance to the takeover.

How do you know this like? It’s being widely quoted in the press that this is the case. https://www.balls.ie/football/rafael-benitez-set-leave-newcastle-mike-ashley-refuses-budge-412765

Although I think the penny will drop for Keane as a manager at some point. He’s way off at the moment. The spell under Martin O’Neill has to have been the biggest waste of time for his career. He can’t have learned much if anything from that tit.

So apparently details of the structure of the money available to Benitez have come out. £50m plus any player sales which the club received immediately. Any loan fees, wages, agent fees would also be withdrawn from that £50million fund, drastically lowering the amount available for actual transfer fees. I’m not surprised Rafa has no interest in negotiating with them. Ashley is pure cancer.

I’m confident of the takeover. Not so much with Rafa.

If the takeover happens it will happen soon and not at the end of the Summer as that would massively impact on their plans. If Ashley suddenly started selling I would imagine they would tell him to stick it. However BZG said in their statement terms had been agreed with Ashley, signed by both parties and that they are in the process of assisting in the Premier League process. Nothing has been released to state that anything has changed. We will find out after the 30th, but to message him saying you're concerned about signings is a bit much. Not about signings. About how the current owner is prepared to let a manager of Rafa’s calibre walk because he won’t spend 16.5m on a 30 year old who will almost guarantee we remain in the league again in a years time. And I’m sure he’s being fed info but as far as I know he’s still in Dubai and probably isn’t as up to speed on everything as the average fan would be. The longer the takeover plays out, the worse the situation they are coming into. Midhat is a U.K. citizen based in London Not at the moment. Has a Dubai mobile no. He’s a UK citizen but he spends most of his time over there.

If the takeover happens it will happen soon and not at the end of the Summer as that would massively impact on their plans. If Ashley suddenly started selling I would imagine they would tell him to stick it. However BZG said in their statement terms had been agreed with Ashley, signed by both parties and that they are in the process of assisting in the Premier League process. Nothing has been released to state that anything has changed. We will find out after the 30th, but to message him saying you're concerned about signings is a bit much. Not about signings. About how the current owner is prepared to let a manager of Rafa’s calibre walk because he won’t spend 16.5m on a 30 year old who will almost guarantee we remain in the league again in a years time. And I’m sure he’s being fed info but as far as I know he’s still in Dubai and probably isn’t as up to speed on everything as the average fan would be. The longer the takeover plays out, the worse the situation they are coming into.

I would assume they would want to know that their potential investment isn’t going to be suddenly very shaky if Ashley starts asset stripping over the summer. These people don’t know the fucker like we do.

I text Midhat earlier with a photo of the Rafa story from today and pointed out that Ashley was going to do his best to ensure that we're in a relegation dogfight if Rafa is allowed to walk away. Also pointed out the insanity that one of the sticking points is that he’s refusing to pay 16.5m for a proven striker who could pretty much guarantee we stay up and keep making 130m+ a season, all because he’s 30 years old and won’t have much resale value. Anyway, he gave me the “seen” for about 2 hours. Then came back with a ? so have no idea how to read into that.

Ashley trying to get Rafa to sign a new short term deal could signify that the takeover deal is still a ways off. Possibly not before the start of the new season. Certainly not before his contract ends. We don’t know. But as far as Rafa and the takeover goes, they should be treated as separate issues. Just because Rafa might leave doesn’t mean the takeover won’t happen. It could be 1) It will take longer than he is willing to wait for 2) They don’t want him as a manager (strange as that would be) 3) Unlikely but perhaps he’s privately agreed to join another club when his contract ends. We won’t have long to wait to find out in any case.

I’m not sure how the dentist can get “someone playing silly buggers with the price” from a no comment. Pure guess work.

He’s not in any way connected to the coaching setup. He’s just a friendly face to go check on the kids and make sure they’re being looked after etc. He was never on crazy money while he was a player. He needs to work like a lot of players at that level do when retired.. what’s he going to say.. Ashley is an arsehole on live tv? Yeah that’ll get him the job.. We’re supposed to be one of the best supporters in the country yet we turn on former players and on each other at the drop of a hat. It’s mental. How did we ever expect to force Mike Ashley out if we could never stay united on a single thing? The sooner this takeover happens the better, for our mental health if anything ?

Load of crap. They should have called themselves “If Rafa goes we probably won’t go but we’ll make some bad noise for a week or two and then subtly change the name of our twitter account”

If Rafa leaves he will have his reasons but I really hope this is a case of him not wanting to deal with Ashley and waiting for the new guys to come in. I’d love to know what was said at that meeting because in the weeks leading up to it they had discussions and he seemed way more positive.

But he hasn’t rejected. They’ve agreed terms. Most probably way past that point. Why would they set up a holding company if they got the feeling they were being fucked around?

Murmurings from whom though? The local journos? Some numptie on twitter? We’ve heard nothing from anyone currently connected with the club. Not Ashley, not Charnley and not Rafa either. If Rafa simply thought Ashley was being a cunt, he would have made it known weeks ago. But no, he’s been silent. He’s waiting for something

Kenyon’s deal never got off the ground as he couldn’t get the investors on board. Doubt much has changed there. He’s never been owner material. Ashley might very well be playing some last minute asshole moves with BZG, or maybe it’s the other way around.. There’s a reason the Bishop machine sprung to life this week. Why? Maybe it’s all good to go and the reports about them wanting Mourinho are true? So they wait and let Benítez walk and Ashley gets all the flack. Not read the latest quotes from Mourinho on his next job have you? Odin do you just say this stuff to be popular on here because it seems it. What you going to tell us next the Sheikh wants Rafa out but has Keegan lined up as director football. Or Sheikh wants to re open Shearers bar by the end of the month? What line are you going to feed us next to be popular... I have no interest in being popular. This thread is tiresome. Not unlike having brat children in the back of a stuffy car on the way to the Lake District.. “are we there yet?! Are we there yet?!” Mourinho didn’t say he didn’t want to manage nufc, he said he wanted an interesting project. The reality is he’ll go somewhere that has a chance of winning something and will pay his massive salary. If he doesn’t get that he’ll take a step back and do international management. Back to the main point. Just look at the facts. The statements which have come out. Why would you doubt them? Do you really think Mike Ashley got a leading Dubai conglomerate which is many times the size of Sports Direct to make false statements and risk their reputation just so Mike Ashley could fuck Benitez over? Think about how mental that sounds. Yes Caulkin is a respected journalist when it comes to this club but everything he’s written has been guess work over the last few weeks. He didn’t have the scoop on the takeover, he hasn’t had any direct quotes from Benitez. Everything he wrote earlier is just his opinion. And why not, being negative is the safe call when it comes to this club. Seems to be your safe space too..

Kenyon’s deal never got off the ground as he couldn’t get the investors on board. Doubt much has changed there. He’s never been owner material. Ashley might very well be playing some last minute asshole moves with BZG, or maybe it’s the other way around.. There’s a reason the Bishop machine sprung to life this week. Why? Maybe it’s all good to go and the reports about them wanting Mourinho are true? So they wait and let Benítez walk and Ashley gets all the flack.

he just seems to be in these deals for the stock no? buy them for a fraction of the cost, lie about rejuvenating them and then flogging the stock off He’s buying to sell shit that nobody wants any more. Well games are fine but why would you go to a shop when you can stay home and download a game in a few minutes. MS shares are about 130/40 now, in dollars. They were about 100 just earlier this year. If he’d put 292 million (which is what he’s squandered on HoF, Debenhams and Game combined) into that, he’d have gotten close to 3 million shares. The quarterly dividend alone ($0.46 per share) would pocket him $1.5 million.. every couple of months if he left it there. Or if he’d just bought the shares earlier in the year and sold them now he’d have pocketed $100m in profit.

I think Mike Ashley is living 10-20 years ago in his head. Why on earth would you buy a game shop when the new generation of consoles are about to come out as mostly streaming boxes. Sure the PS5 and Next Xbox will have a disc drive but that will be for Blu Ray movies and even that’s not the strongest market anymore. If he’d put all that money he wasted on Debenhams, Game and HoF into Microsoft instead, he’d be on the pigs back right now. Total fuckwit

Let you in on a secret. There is no "it". Nothing is happening If it does happen will you leave and go and support another club? Since you're so sure. Yes I will leave and support someone else. Not happening man. I was laughing at Odin[/member] yesterday afternoon saying they are definitely at this stage or that. Deep in negotiations etc Don’t misquote me. I said it was fairly safe to assume it would be at the virtual data room stage, you know, the bit where the lawyers go and have a look at things, the bit that takes a while..

Cafe Noir often goes overlooked. A solid performer.

Love a viscount. They’re very cheap now too. You can get double packs for a quid. My missus hates mint so I can leave them in the press knowing full well they won’t be touched ?

I agree. He must walk into work each day wondering what sort of shit storm his bosses will throw at him today. With a little hope, this won’t last for much longer.