Nucasol

Good letter from a bloke in York on Football365. Sums a lot of it up well, including “paid schills”: Big old Newcastle sadness ahoy I’d like to think I’m a fairly level-headed fan most of the time, and able to balance my inner 12-year-old superfan with the now considerably older, mature rational thought. But us football fans are generally irrational and this summer has made my head spin I must admit. I’ll preface this by saying I expect absolute zero sympathy from all who read this distinguished mailbox I’ve been reading for 20 years, especially given my club is owned by the Saudi investment fund (no whataboutery here). I’ll also preface this by saying I have one life to live as a football fan and I am desperate for there to be more joy than sorrow in it – and I’ve only seen that balance really start to shift again in the past 3 years. This isn’t a rant about PSR (yet). My biggest frustration with Newcastle this summer is that our USP/advantage these past 3 seasons has been COMPETENCE. Botman, Tonali, Bruno, Hall, Tino, Isak, Gordon were such unbelievably shrewd signings. Even the ones that felt less so – Wood, Barnes, Targett etc – haven’t exactly been bad. We seemed to be smartly run, but that only now extends to the playing and coaching staff, the rest is an absolute mess: Backroom staff: A CEO who has been serving notice for 12 months. A commercial director who doesn’t do much commercial, a Sporting Director who left with so many question marks. Failure to do commercial deals: the assumption is we’re waiting for the City court case to resolve but we could have milked the interim timeframe with smaller deals. Training ground: I lived in Newcastle for 25 years of my life and there’s an abundance of land. We keep saying this is a priority, but we keep redeveloping the existing instead. Retail: All we do is shift tat, it’s incredible. Stadium: Just delaying the inevitable, it’s obvious you want to move. Come out and say it. Even our social graphics were hilariously bad the summer we had supersavers and county cricket clubs rinsing us – deservedly so. But recruitment and on-the-pitch was always the saving grace. Instead we’ve abandoned this approach and it seems to be a mishmash of major un-gettable European talent or Premier League premium deals only. We needed first teamers yes but we also needed competitive depth – we move from one target at a time and at snail’s pace. Accept where we stand in the food chain now and act accordingly, unearth the next Bruno. I love Eddie and everything he’s done but he also shouldn’t be the voice of authority on transfers, neither should his nephew. I’ve never witnessed a self-implosion like it. On to Isak, I think it’s pretty disgraceful that a player on 120k a week can effectively down tools, refuse to come on an important, profile-boosting pre-season tour and simply abandon all goodwill. He never felt the type. And the concerted, cold-war style campaign Liverpool have run through paid shills like Romano, whilst incredibly modern and clever, are designed to systematically destabilise a club/potential rival and unsettle a player. I really hope we dig in… I’d quite happily see Isak sit the first couple of months out without his move. He’s making the entire situation worse, and creating a dark cloud heading into the season. They haven’t even bid! And then there’s the system. Rules brought in post-takeover that stop us growing. Yes we need to drive commercial revenue. In order to do that, we need to keep spending to balance the Champions League and cup runs: but spending is stifled, PSR spreadsheets amortisation bla bla bla. We can’t pay the wages, fees are too high, progress is stifled, back to square one and suddenly your prospective sponsorship deal disappears. Fine, we’ll use one of the PIF brands (regrettably), nope, we’ll make that hard for you too (though as I’ve said before, we should rinse it). I’m sick of hearing Liverpool saying they used the Coutinho money to get to where they are now, using it as a comparison. You are LIVERPOOL. We will take decades, if at all, to get to that level. I’m not asking for a Chelsea-style free-for-all, just a bit more leeway. How to move forward? Can’t believe I’m saying this but I’d be abusing the system to it’s every inch now. I’ve seen other teams do it. We should too. Everyone thought we would. Accept the governance is here to slow us down, now fight dirty against the governance. But will we? Can’t see it, because we’ve lost the ability to function competently. What was the point of this email? I’ve lost it. Just wanted to rant. Harry, York (PS. Fully expect us to still be an excellent team, but right now we are hollow at CB and have prolific wingers supplying William Osula only

He’d be next out of the door for me but I don’t have the faith in the current back office set up to appropriately replace him.

Preparing to do additional monitoring?

They look like they’re playing for big moves and we’re at it like the post-season game in Australia. Nowt to be worried about, I’d be more concerned if they were this idealess vs Espanyol or Atletico Madrid.

They also weaponise their history for their own interests better than any other club, even Man Utr. Years and years of glory supporters now embedded across media, potential sponsors and administration bodies. The Masters soft interview pre-appointment is an example of the sway they hold.

Fuck the Jota stuff, we shouldn’t be playing nice anymore.

Not really, any cunt could make that up.

Never heard of them. More fake ITK guesswork.

Get in the bin Ryder and your gang of cretins. “United”.

The mighty Liverpool, those bastions of integrity and football purity, joining the multi club model that the “ruiners of football” Man City and Chelsea have implemented? Well knock me down with a feather that these horrible pricks are complete heel turning hypocrites.

Other than the formatting AIDS, just the construct is pure Ryder in full “10,000 monkeys typing for 10,000 years could write the Bible” mode.

Like a Waugh monologue on Pod on the Tyne. Tedious reading.

That’s been overblown. From what the likes of Mark Douglas were saying yesterday, the fee is fine, it’s now Brentford sourcing his replacement that’s become the blocker.

Cheers @Bunk Moreland, helpful summary spares us having to engage with the Fusilli fiddling fuckwit.

Lingard. They quoted us a £10m loan fee for someone out of contract in 6 months.

Don’t think they’ll have Hoijlund, Jackson and Sesko.

Premium. We’re not monsters.

Only hiccup seems to be the wages that Hackson would want.

Which would be funny seeing Parish have to keep a player going for nothing for a year.

Ragebandit.

Doubt their US owners give a shit. Get the feeling we might see one of the established order go down the plug hole this season - Brentford, West Ham or Wolves being the most likely candidates unless their transfer business improves.

Media talking about a Garnacho-Jackson swap deal between the Rent Boys and Amorim Jobs.

From NUFC fan sites or the odd YouTube tactics blogger, not the UK’s supposedly impartial broadcaster.

Fair play to them, they’re going full on Forest mode to stay up. It would be such a shame if that approach crashed and burned…