HaydnNUFC

Over a curry? Pleased some (relatively) positive info is out though. Believable as well, due to Caulkin.

Fucking love this bloke.

Oh yeah, loved that. "You cannot leave these people."

That's a right shitter. I quite like the change, should help the atmosphere further, extra drinking time and the like. Glad that BT picked it tbh, Sky shifting it off the 9th would make the 125th year celebrations a bit less meaningful IYAM. So, glad that they got it.

Big turning points and moments. Last FA Cup win and Fairs Cup win probably, Keegan arriving as player and as manager, Shearer signing, SBR appointment etc. The appointment of Rafa ended an awful, execrable period of apathy for many supporters, some on here can admit to that. He's made us feel like a living, breathing football club and to do that under Ashley has put him up there with the greatest managers we've had for me, not even counting his past honours.

They said that some flags will be iconic newspaper headlines in the club's history. Would you have preferred The Sun?

Needs to replace Lejeune. Aye. Lascelles/Clark has been our best CB pairing this season. Lejeune is a good player but we seem to be a worse defensive unit when he's playing. Hopefully it's just him being new to the league and needing to adapt.

Hope he's fit for Saturday. It'll be f***ing freezing at the match, like.

Napoli finished 3rd.

Napoli finished 3rd.

Hope they bum rape Everton.

Is the 40 days/month long process not the Premier League's Fit and Proper Owner's test or something?

STFU dude, what do you know of me ? I was perhaps the first on here to be openly critical of Ashley while others were still sucking on him for saving us from Shephard and Hall. Rafa is fanstastic but not perfect, if he was he wouldn't be managing us right now that's for sure. He is not above critic, you're right he's not been supported anywhere near well enough, his work last year with transfers was excellent by in large for the short term, but a lot of those signings seem to have one thing in common (great for the champo, just not good enough for the PL), he's also spent the ridiculously limited amount of money poorly his summer signings have be poor and he's focused on the wrong areas. Give the man 40 million or so and we'll survive, 20 million is much more of a gamble based on his record so far finding PL quality for us. He signed the players last summer to get us out of the Championship, which they did. He then expected another similar summer, ship out the players he doesn't need, want or whatever and replace them with PL calibre equivalents. The fat bastard who owns us thought he knew better, or wanted to limit spending to the bare minimum as he doesn't want to make any more investment into the club he's been trying to flog. You can't give any manager £20m and find PL quality players. Wages also played a key in the summer. Merino is the exception.

TBF to Manquillo he was bought as a reserve RB and has had to play LB since Yedlin came back from injury. My only slight gripe this season is his refusal to start Mitrovic, but Rafa knows what he's doing. Hate to think where or what we'd be if he hadn't came here.

Would be fantastic if Simon Jordan keeled over and died.

Would be a dream, atmosphere I think on Saturday will already be class but that being announced beforehand and the place would be something to behold. Heavily doubt it though. Hardy seems to have made "formal due diligence" up like. They'll enter a exclusivity period and then sign contracts et cetera, literally a case of crossing the t's and dotting the i's.

If it'll be done it'll probably be the summer if we're still a Premier League club. Money has to be available next month to ensure that though. Rafa may be able to work with the figure Craig Hope has been told he'll get if Ashley still owns the club next month and will be able to garner more from sales, which will be Mitrovic and hopefully plodders taking up a wage such as Colback.

What's this myth about our fans "spat at Sir Bobby Robson"? What the fuck? Do they literally make up shite to comfort themselves? Weird cunts.

Is there any games with anything riding on them? This is the only relatively interesting permutation I could find. Roma will go through with a win, or if Atlético fail to win. If Roma win and Chelsea do not, Roma win the group. Atlético need to win and hope Roma do not to finish second (if they both finish on nine points, Atlético have the superior head-to-head).

The fact that he has openly put out a statement saying the club is for sale, negotiations have been going on for weeks and the Sky "interview" was practically an advert saying "please come and take this club off of my hands", suggest that he does have intention of selling it. The risk of relegation coupled with the current squad that we have put the club miles away from his £380m valuation or whatever it is. He won't get a better deal for it than a bid in the range of £250m-£320m. He openly put out a statement in 2008 to say the club was up for sale as well, only it wasn't really. Plus his interview was a way of sticking 2 fingers up to Rafa and the fans. Can't fully recall the 2008 statement or whenever it was, but this must seem different to then. The Sky interview was that, but journalists and fans alike managed to encapsulate it as an advert for the club. The whole thing was staged, there is a reason why he chose to say 'if someone wants to take this seat and fund NUFC' et cetera in it. He wants out. It makes financial sense for him to do so, as well as just sense in general. If you want to sell a football club I don't think the way to advertise the fact is to go on TV. It would be done through business channels etc. It's not like billionaires would be watching his interview and get a brainwave from it. Similar to him putting a public email address out there last time Everyone seemed to agree that the interview was what it was; a response to Rafa's press leaks and to garner interest. Might not be the most orthodox method, but has he ever been normal? Can't remember anything takeover related in the aftermath of 08/09 so can't really comment on the email or any patter to do with that. It's universally agreed amongst respected NE journalists that he wants a sale. Good enough for me tbh. And that's not taking into account the factors that point towards him wanting out. It's just his valuation is fucking stupid.

Guillotined in front of the Monument on Eldon Square hopefully.