BirtleyMag

WBA will beat us, without a doubt. Nailed on to get beat. They’ll probably play a weakened team as well. Never been one to actively want us to lose, but a loss against a lower league team would increase the pressure massively on Bruce, as compared to the certain defeat we’d get against one of big 6 in the quarters.

But but but 6 points better off than last season and into the 5th round of the FA cup, what more do we expect?

Staveley claimed to have had 3 bids I think. There was one which was £250m up front, then the others were £300/£350m in staged payments but included relegation clauses and a clause if we were punished heavily from HMRC. There might have been another payment due if we got into champions league in 5 years or something too. On that point regarding the investigation, it’s gone very quiet on that. Wonder if it still is a stumbling block in any negotiations? Ashley being the biggest stumbling block obviously.

Our run of games after Arsenal gives us enough opportunities to get safe. Of course, any club with a bit of ambition would look at our position and think that Europa league is a possibility. Instead, we’re still wary of being dragged back into the relegation scrap because of how dogsh*t we are.

Going to be class when the takeover falls through and Bruce is given an 8 year contract

I wouldn’t say I’m confident of this happening but these things don’t happen overnight. After the initial story being released last week, it’s very unlikely that everything would have been done and dusted by now. I’d bet there’s now been extra efforts made to keep this from the public eye, which is why there’s been no new information. We’re not going to get a step by step walkthrough of each stage. The next thing we’ll hear is that it’s done (), or that’s its off .

They’d get rid end of the season imo.

We all know Ashley is a deceptive fat c*nt but why would he leak another take over story now? He’s arguably under the least amount of pressure to sell the club than he ever has been. The ground is full again with no dissenting voices against him to be heard. The club is sat in mid table and unlikely to be relegated and now has a manager who won’t criticise him. If these talks are true, then there is absolutely no way that the excuse of ‘no proof of funds’ can be used again. If the Saudi’s are serious about this then it’s only good ol’ Mike who can f*ck this up. Obviously, this is the most likely outcome.

I think it’s similar for the whole fan base tbh. Look at the fans that were getting grief from other fans when trying to convince everyone to boycott. Match going fans happy enough to abuse former players like Perez for having the audacity to score and celebrate against us, but failing to see the bigger picture as to why he left in the first place. Too many are just there to see a ‘Premier League’ team imo and not arsed about processing as long as we stay up.

Still think it’s going need around 42 points to be absolutely sure of it. Think Norwich are still gone despite their win today. Villa will be too unless they sign a striker. Bournemouth look the next most likely to go but can see them sacking Howe and picking up somewhat. The rest will pick up enough points to get near enough 40. 12th - 18th will be very close imo.

Suspect it'll be when he tries to do something to have some identity on the team. Agreed, we’ve already seen this at the beginning of the season when Bruce tried his way and we know how that went...

Don’t know how we keep managing to pull this sh*t off but I’ll take the 3 points. I think most people can tolerate playing this way against the top teams, but we play like this against everyone and somehow keep getting away with it. There will be a point where it all falls apart. I thought it might have been the beginning after those games over Christmas but we’ve picked up some good results since then.

We were bailed out by Dubravka again. We played ‘well’ in comparison to the last 4 games based on the fact wolves weren’t that good either... but were wasteful. Another point on the board but 2 more injuries to deal with. But the media won’t bother looking into why this is happening as they won’t dare question Bruce or the club. Meh, another point closer to safety so we can do it again next year.

3/4 more wins and we’ll stay up to try and do the same next year. What a time to support NUFC!

So is this the only official engagement the fans have with the club now? The fans forum was hardly doing much to put any pressure on the club but f*ck me, this just looks like NUST aren’t bothered one bit about getting rid of Ashley.

Wonder what sort of team we would put out in the 5th round if we get dragged into relegation trouble by that time. As this is Ashley’s NUFC, it’s obviously not a given we’ll beat Rochdale and Oxford anyway.

Rochdale were one of the worst teams I have ever seen us play and even we couldn’t beat them

The away end was honking yesterday like. It’s the first game I’ve been to since cancelling after last season and will be probably be the last. Ole’ing when we were only 1-0 up then booing our own players within 20 minutes of each other just about sums up our support atm. If only they spent as much effort directing their anger the main problem... How anyone can justify going to watch this sh*te is beyond me. The problem is though, the more we criticise (and rightly so) the match going fans, the more they’ll dig in and continue going. In the end, the only person who wins from a divided fanbase is Ashley.

:lol:

After being 10 points clear of the bottom 3 at Christmas we could well find ourselves back there after the Arsenal game. Villa, Bournemouth, West Ham & Brighton all seem to be playing to each other in the next few weeks so have decent chances of gaining some ground on us. Us and Burnley have a horrific set of fixtures so expect both of us to drop down the table.

The club will probably keep the 10 year deal running for those still on it, then offer an additional season ticket at a discounted rate for current season ticket holders. I’ve seen a few fans say they won’t cancel their season ticket because of being on the 10 year deal which I don’t understand at all.

Naaaah. I remember when people said that about West Ham but one team had 19, another mid 20s so naturally 3rd bottom would be expected to have a few more points than normal. Anyone know the year West Ham got relegated? I’d be quite interested to see that league table. Don’t bother, it’s too depressing to look at compared to now.

I can’t see us signing anyone even with all of our injuries. We’ve been in similar/better positions in Jan 2014 and 2015 and ended up selling players and not buying any. This resulted in spectacular collapses in the 2nd half of both seasons. There is also the issue of getting rid of players who are not fancied/not up to scratch but taking up space in the 25 man squad (Ki, Gayle, Muto & Atsu). Then you’ve got the likes of Colback and Saivet who are nowhere to be seen. It looks like Colback is out for the season so we can’t even ship him out on loan.

Going down on 40+ points would not be unlucky at all. If there are 17 other teams who have gained more points, then you deserve to be relegated. I can see the table being really tight this season across the whole of the bottom half to be honest.There may only be 10 points between 11th and 18th. Good job our goal difference has been preserved so well isn’t it?

:lol: