Thumbheed

At a total loss for why they wouldn't be all over this. Do the PL have any legislative power over them? If they're threatening to kick us out the league perhaps they have that on NUST as well? Literally the only explanation I have.

Feel like I could argue this case myself.

That's fair enough I do think NUST need to be more takeover centric rather than anti Ashley at the moment and perhaps need to communicate that support a bit more than they have been doing, but yeh, appreciate the debate.

Will play devil's advocate again and ask whether the Trust's strategy is the correct one if it's proving to be so divisive amongst the demographic it represents? Just my personal opinion, but there is one singular issue that ALL Newcastle fans agree on, and that's the ownership issue. Wouldn't it therefore be of more value to the fans, Trust and the club if the strategy was geared towards ensuring the eventual departure of Ashley? Quite how that's manifests itself into a cohesive plan is up for debate but wouldn't that be the best way to engage the fans - by appealing to their 'needs'?

I definitely think the Trust could afford to be more vocal, especially on the bigger issues which all the fans are united on, but the challenge they'll face and will always face is that any wins they might have are affectively meaningless whilst Ashley is still the owner and that's a theme that runs through the entire club.

That's fair play, Heron. I would say though that the more pertinent question for the trust is why aren't these opportunities being identified and exploited in the first place?

Don't like assuming the worst of them because I can't honestly say I know what's going on behind the scenes, but the consistent failure to amplify their message when opportunity arises is amateurish and self defeating.

I'd like to see NUST release something about the upcoming CAT case. Especially as they've been contributing to the fan led review on football governance. Feels like a perfect opportunity to put some subtle pressure out there about how the CAT case jurisdiction challenge from the PL embodies the lack of transparency that all football fans are craving to see the end of, especially moreso now that UEFA have dropped their case against the remaining ESL clubs.

Oh aye, 100% Jones responsible for that, but I was just replying to the comment saying we hadn't improved, when I think we have.

Nah, I think our attacking play has come on leaps and bounds. We're creating more, getting men forward, seem to have an actual plan, defensively though, we're shite.

We have improved to be fair, we're just still crap though.

Irrespective of the implications of the change, the bottom line seems to be that PIF do appear to still be on board...

Would getting relegated be advantageous to Ashley if the CAT case were to run?

Aye, he's gone from complaining about having an embaressment of riches in a defence which was "too drilled" and blamed Rafa for that(which meant he had to park his signature free flowing football), to now saying it's the personnel of the defence that isn't good enough and that's why we're poor defensively as it couldn't possibly be his shit defensive coaching which he's now responsible for that could be why we're shite. Classic Steve Bruce deflection tactics.

They formed the company the same day they completed the purchase?

I predict we'll see a lot more praise for Shelvey this year and that will be despite his glaring limitations as a player. I dont think that will be because he's suddenly shown himself to be a good player but because the tactics will bring out his best asset. My belief is once you show yourself to be a good player, then you always have that in you and there's only 2 or 3 things which stop you from getting that to those same heights; tactics, mentality and injuries. At 24 I don't think his injury will be the things that's holding him back as much as tactics and confidence. I bet there's a lot of people who advocate selling him who will also be saying that someone like Rafa can get the best out of him, which is a bit of a paradox, no? I honestly hope he gets some game time in the position Shelvey played on Sunday.

He has been poor but I do wonder which midfielder whose main asset is his passing ability would thrive in a team with little movement, direction and positional awareness? A pass is only as good as the movement and the positioning of the players that are receiving the pass and it's fair to say we've had none of that the past 2 seasons. I also don't think it's a coincidence that our most affective midfielders have players who are good ball carriers or players who break up play as neither skills are dependent on the movement of other players so for me it's far too premature to write him off now.

The regression of players has been my go to argument anytime anyone's come back with the "but Bruce has managed the same points as Rafa" shite. I'm yet to hear a reasonable explanation for why the value of the majority of our players has plummeted since Bruce took over and another reason why I don't buy into this 'we have championship standard players' narrative. It's plainly wrong when we had the likes of Lascelles and Shelvey being talked up for an England place by the media of all people. Edit: There's only 3 players in this team that I'd be gutted about leaving and Longstaff would be one of those 3; would absolutely love a homegrown top class CM.

Naaah, defo not. If rumours are true and Rafa wants him he wants him for a reason. Longstaff is suffering from the fact the team lacked any intensity like it had under Rafa. He's was absolutely brillaint when he was working his billocks off and playing forward as much as he could. Thought he suffered the most from Bruce's clearly complacent coaching. Matty on the other hand is tidy bit I don't see anything in him that makes him special, but Sean's got something. I'm sure of it.

Aye exactly. Always surprises me when pundits and fans slate managers for poor results but the players get the brunt of the stick for poor performances as if both of mutually exclusive. Sickens me to see players like Almiron, Longstaff, Lascelles and Schar stagnate when we absolutely know there's quality in all of them with the right set up and coaching.

I still think there's there's top quality player in there and have a feeling he might break through again this year.

Could be wrong but I haven't seen anyone rabidly defend any ITK account, so don't know why there's this narrative that the 'optimists' of this thread are taking everything posted as gospel. Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. I use this thread to escape the reality of supporting this club and lokis posts in the 'what are you eating thread as a totem to get back to reality. Why do we have to have 10 pages of strawman arguments from the same select few posters every 2-3 days?

Well this is nonsense.

It's hard not to be pessimistic with the latest news, but I truly don't think anything the club does is indicative of anything takeover wise. The club will continue to operate as it always has done which is literally how any other business would operate under the same circumstances. You just don't amend you're strategy based on a situation which is totally out of your control. With the arbritation case still active, we have clear indication that the takeover is still alive (literally 0 reason to have this case without PIF) and any notion of Ashley spending money to keep up a fake over ruse is beyond delusional. You are a fucking idiot for thinking that. The optimist in me still thinks there's still good reasons for PIF to still want this takeover and until AS says they're all out, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't wait until something solid comes out the arb case.

I DON'T FUCKING WANT GUITAR LESSONS