Any Ashley apologists on here?

[Howaythelads]

Yup, lack of ambition is what it's all about. I have said lots of times that without ambition a club has no chance at all. I said ages ago that's it's far worse when the club is showing no ambition than when the Board is trying but ultimately falls short due to mistakes. This is the difference between the current lot and the previous lot.

 

Plenty of people reckoned it was impossible for the club to have a worse owner/board than the last one. Mick, tmonkey, sima, omar, macbeth, BigTron, elbee909, baggio, mandiarse, wullie and boo boo to name a handful, though the list could go on and on. People said they were embarrassed at the media ramblings of Fred. Well, what's more embarrassing, idiotic comments of no real significance, or the laughing stock we've been turned into by Ashley and his crew?

 

Many of you wouldn't listen to common sense. Not only that, you poured scorn and vitriol toward people like me for refusing to join your "hate the Board" bandwagon, effectively causing me to lose interest in this forum. It became a forum for whingers. Dave is even having a go at me this morning for saying some are getting what they deserve. Well, they are, though no doubt many of them will remain in denial. The "spin" that I'm in some way happy about this is as pathetic as it comes, given that I've been supporting the club for 41 years through thick and thin...mostly thin.

 

So, what do you people think now? Do you still believe it was impossible for a worse to be in charge of the affairs of the club? Do you still believe the previous Board, despite their mistakes, showed no ambition? Do you still think the previous Board was outright shite, rather than a Board that tried to take the club somewhere?

 

I'll tell you what I think. What we have now is a shite owner/board, it may even be worse than the pathetic efforts prior to John Hall. The evidence is laid out before you and is as stark as it's going to be regardless of what happens next week. Ashley and his crew are 100% at fault for the current desperate plight of the football club and anyone claiming anything different really needs to think again.

 

So, at the end of the day, those people I mentioned at the top of this post, plus others I can't recall, are getting what they deserve. They believe being in the top division and finishing in the top 5 for 3 seasons in a row, something we previously accomplished between 1948-1951 = a Board showing no ambition. You couldn't make up such rubbish.

 

We all want to be the best. We all want to win things but there aren't that many trophies and the competition is fierce. When the club is controlled by a Board that is trying to challenge for those trophies they are showing ambition. When the club is controlled by people who are not, they are showing no ambition. You should appreciate the first when it's happening but many of you didn't, you whinged instead. I don't even feel sorry for you that you didn't enjoy while it was happening. A pathetic bunch, tbh.

 

From where I'm sitting, the worst may still be to come and I'm not talking about relegation next week. Some of you are getting what you deserve.

[Robster]

They are 50% of the reason the best we could come up with was Joe fucking Kinnear.

WUM

 

Terry Venables refused a contract that supposedly offered him £100,000 a game until the end of October. Why do you suppose that was? I'm inclined to believe it's because we were a laughing stock with our cockney vendetta.

Perhaps he didnt want to be seen as a desperate, money hungry ex manager.

Is it also possible that Venables spoke to Keegan to find out his side of things and made a decision based on what he heard from all parties ?

[Guest Heneage]

IF people still think protests were a good way to attract a new buyer then I'm worried.

[Liam Liam Liam O]

There's not one positive came out of the protests.

[Robster]

IF people still think protests were a good way to attract a new buyer then I'm worried.

NUFC is a fucking fantastic place to be if things are on the up.

The passion and the desire of the fans is something that should attract an owner who wants to be the one to bring it back. Ego should have potential owners thinking "I want to be the one that puts them back on the map"

 

EDIT : Thats not me conding the protests by the way. I agree that they have achieved nothing.

[Guest LucaAltieri]

1) Blaming the board "in equal measure" when Ashley appointed all of them.

 

From what I gather Ashley wasn't sat with Llambias on his knee with his hand up his arse. Ashley delegated the running of the club to him. He turned out to be shit. Yes, that's partly Ashley's responsibility but it's also Llambias' responsibility.

 

I've never said Ashley is blameless. Just pointing out that others are equally to blame.

 

Ashley appointed others to sign players. Those they did sign were hit and miss. Colo was a monumental waste whereas Bassong was a bargain. The biggest issue with transfers was not who we signed, but who we failed to sign.

 

Yes, Ashley appointed Wise to handle that task... he failed... Ashley has got rid of him. He put his faith in the wrong place and has now rectified the situation. What more would you like him to do?

 

Once more, I'm not saying Ashley is blameless... but there needs to be some personal responsibility from those who were left to do their jobs.

 

Ashley was out losing money on the stock market/roulette table/expensive bars when most of this was going on.

 

He's not running the place, he owns it.

[madras]

Yup, lack of ambition is what it's all about. I have said lots of times that without ambition a club has no chance at all. I said ages ago that's it's far worse when the club is showing no ambition than when the Board is trying but ultimately falls short due to mistakes. This is the difference between the current lot and the previous lot.

 

Plenty of people reckoned it was impossible for the club to have a worse owner/board than the last one. Mick, tmonkey, sima, omar, macbeth, BigTron, elbee909, baggio, mandiarse, wullie and boo boo to name a handful, though the list could go on and on. People said they were embarrassed at the media ramblings of Fred. Well, what's more embarrassing, idiotic comments of no real significance, or the laughing stock we've been turned into by Ashley and his crew?

 

Many of you wouldn't listen to common sense. Not only that, you poured scorn and vitriol toward people like me for refusing to join your "hate the Board" bandwagon, effectively causing me to lose interest in this forum. It became a forum for whingers. Dave is even having a go at me this morning for saying some are getting what they deserve. Well, they are, though no doubt many of them will remain in denial. The "spin" that I'm in some way happy about this is as pathetic as it comes, given that I've been supporting the club for 41 years through thick and thin...mostly thin.

 

So, what do you people think now? Do you still believe it was impossible for a worse to be in charge of the affairs of the club? Do you still believe the previous Board, despite their mistakes, showed no ambition? Do you still think the previous Board was outright s****, rather than a Board that tried to take the club somewhere?

 

I'll tell you what I think. What we have now is a s**** owner/board, it may even be worse than the pathetic efforts prior to John Hall. The evidence is laid out before you and is as stark as it's going to be regardless of what happens next week. Ashley and his crew are 100% at fault for the current desperate plight of the football club and anyone claiming anything different really needs to think again.

 

So, at the end of the day, those people I mentioned at the top of this post, plus others I can't recall, are getting what they deserve. They believe being in the top division and finishing in the top 5 for 3 seasons in a row, something we previously accomplished between 1948-1951 = a Board showing no ambition. You couldn't make up such rubbish.

 

We all want to be the best. We all want to win things but there aren't that many trophies and the competition is fierce. When the club is controlled by a Board that is trying to challenge for those trophies they are showing ambition. When the club is controlled by people who are not, they are showing no ambition. You should appreciate the first when it's happening but many of you didn't, you whinged instead. I don't even feel sorry for you that you didn't enjoy while it was happening. A pathetic bunch, tbh.

 

From where I'm sitting, the worst may still be to come and I'm not talking about relegation next week. Some of you are getting what you deserve.

getting what we deserve for saying we couldn't keep on going the way fred was and having to take a risk on ashley ?

[Guest Wally_McFool]

 

From where I'm sitting, the worst may still be to come and I'm not talking about relegation next week. Some of you are getting what you deserve.

 

Ahhh, you mean this dont yer?

 

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/newcastle-utd/newcastle-utd-news/2009/05/17/freddy-shepherd-plans-newcastle-united-return-79310-23640520/

[TRon]

Yup, lack of ambition is what it's all about. I have said lots of times that without ambition a club has no chance at all. I said ages ago that's it's far worse when the club is showing no ambition than when the Board is trying but ultimately falls short due to mistakes. This is the difference between the current lot and the previous lot.

 

Plenty of people reckoned it was impossible for the club to have a worse owner/board than the last one. Mick, tmonkey, sima, omar, macbeth, BigTron, elbee909, baggio, mandiarse, wullie and boo boo to name a handful, though the list could go on and on. People said they were embarrassed at the media ramblings of Fred. Well, what's more embarrassing, idiotic comments of no real significance, or the laughing stock we've been turned into by Ashley and his crew?

 

Many of you wouldn't listen to common sense. Not only that, you poured scorn and vitriol toward people like me for refusing to join your "hate the Board" bandwagon, effectively causing me to lose interest in this forum. It became a forum for whingers. Dave is even having a go at me this morning for saying some are getting what they deserve. Well, they are, though no doubt many of them will remain in denial. The "spin" that I'm in some way happy about this is as pathetic as it comes, given that I've been supporting the club for 41 years through thick and thin...mostly thin.

 

So, what do you people think now? Do you still believe it was impossible for a worse to be in charge of the affairs of the club? Do you still believe the previous Board, despite their mistakes, showed no ambition? Do you still think the previous Board was outright s****, rather than a Board that tried to take the club somewhere?

 

I'll tell you what I think. What we have now is a s**** owner/board, it may even be worse than the pathetic efforts prior to John Hall. The evidence is laid out before you and is as stark as it's going to be regardless of what happens next week. Ashley and his crew are 100% at fault for the current desperate plight of the football club and anyone claiming anything different really needs to think again.

 

So, at the end of the day, those people I mentioned at the top of this post, plus others I can't recall, are getting what they deserve. They believe being in the top division and finishing in the top 5 for 3 seasons in a row, something we previously accomplished between 1948-1951 = a Board showing no ambition. You couldn't make up such rubbish.

 

We all want to be the best. We all want to win things but there aren't that many trophies and the competition is fierce. When the club is controlled by a Board that is trying to challenge for those trophies they are showing ambition. When the club is controlled by people who are not, they are showing no ambition. You should appreciate the first when it's happening but many of you didn't, you whinged instead. I don't even feel sorry for you that you didn't enjoy while it was happening. A pathetic bunch, tbh.

 

From where I'm sitting, the worst may still be to come and I'm not talking about relegation next week. Some of you are getting what you deserve.

getting what we deserve for saying we couldn't keep on going the way fred was and having to take a risk on ashley ?

 

I think the last comment "Some of you are getting what you deserve" gives the game away. As if getting relegated is only going to affect the anti-Shepherd brigade.

 

Ashley has proven to be a terrible owner, so if HTL and others want congratulating for being right...well done. Without Ashley we'd still need an owner though. Shepherd and Hall sold out and took the money, so what were the alternatives?

 

 

[Guest Phil K]

They are 50% of the reason the best we could come up with was Joe f***ing Kinnear.

WUM

Terry Venables refused a contract that supposedly offered him £100,000 a game until the end of October. Why do you suppose that was? I'm inclined to believe it's because we were a laughing stock with our cockney vendetta.

No, it was because, he said nothing could be done in two months. He wanted at LEAST to the end of the season.

What was actually given in the end to Kinnear.

Ridiculously bad management

If he was going to give it to a manager who had not managed for years and couldn't get Venables, why not George Graham ?

Why a man who couldn't get any team in Div 1 or 2 to take him FFS ? The same applies to those other dead weights - the coaches.

 

There's not one positive came out of the protests.

None whatsoever - all it gave was making us look morons on TV - I said so at the time.

People with Newcastle shirts on with brains the size of peas not being able to string three words together properly who made me squirm.

But how the hell does that make the rest of us "deserve what we get" FFS

We ALL get it not just the peabrains who have now disappeared

[Teasy]

it's amazing to think that arsenal have a wage bill similar to ours, and just look at the two teams, it makes me sick

 

errr, according to what source? Deloitte always have Arsenal and Man U level on around 85m and us 20-30m behind.

 

Old figures, our wage bill is £70m, Arsenal's is £100m and Manures is £121m.  Most other clubs outside the top 4 have wages around £30 to £40 million, our wage bill is insane!

[Guest Phil K]

it's amazing to think that arsenal have a wage bill similar to ours, and just look at the two teams, it makes me sick

 

errr, according to what source? Deloitte always have Arsenal and Man U level on around 85m and us 20-30m behind.

 

Old figures, our wage bill is £70m, Arsenal's is £100m and Manures is £121m.  Most other clubs outside the top 4 have wages around £30 to £40 million, our wage bill is insane!

 

If we get rid of all the big earners, will we be any worse in the Championship next year ?

I doubt it.

[Teasy]

You mean any worse as a team?  Maybe a little bit but not by much..  We wouldn't be worse off financially either really as losing those players would drop our wage bill into the £25-£30 million range (thats if we could keep the likes of Guthrie, Beye, Bassong, S. Taylor and Lovenkrands, even less otherwise).  Not trying to say relegation isn't a fucking disaster mind you!  As if we stay up we could get rid of a lot of the same players without losing £30 to £40 million in revenue

[The Prophet]

What a fantastic thread because petty point scoring will make all our troubles go away. You can't defend Ashley, but there again you can't defend Llambias, Wise, Shepherd, Keegan, Kinnear, Hughton, the players and in part the fans. This season has led us from one nightmare to the next and everyone has to take a share of the blame.

 

Ashley's problem? His inexperience of the game. If we believe what we read he was advised to create a "system" for scouting and raising young players multiplying their sell on value. He allegedly modelled this on Arsenal, this is mealy allegation but if of course true he foolishly didn't take into account the Arsenal system is flawed. First and foremost Arsenal already had a strong title winning side from the George Graham era when they put their system into place. The other point to note is Arsenal are beginning to struggle in the current climate. For a large part of this season they looked like dropping out of the top four with Wenger finally admitting he'll have to splash the cash in the summer.

 

So OK he puts this scouting network in place I can live with that. But for the board, including himself, to appoint Keegan was an utter disaster. Keegan was never, ever going to work with the system in place. From the off no one was sure who was buying the players and it all came to a head on deadline day. From that moment on the club has lurched from one bad appointment to the next.

 

So Ashley's inexperience in the game has cost us but there again so has his stupidity. Shepherd bled the club dry financially, but for Ashley to not even bother with due diligence before taking over is just utter foolishness. Surely such a successful bloke in his field would see such a process as common sense?

 

So yeah Ashley has made many a mistake since he took over, but there again so have those listed in the opening paragraph. Of course being at the top of the tree Ashley will understandably take most of the flak but I'm unsure what finger pointing and playing the blame game is going to achieve. What's done is done, we've already taken the damage. Ashley will leave on his own terms, not because of the want of the fans. So no I'm not an Ashley apologist but at the same time I don't pin all of the blame on him alone.

 

[Guest elbee909]

Yup, lack of ambition is what it's all about. I have said lots of times that without ambition a club has no chance at all. I said ages ago that's it's far worse when the club is showing no ambition than when the Board is trying but ultimately falls short due to mistakes. This is the difference between the current lot and the previous lot.

 

Plenty of people reckoned it was impossible for the club to have a worse owner/board than the last one. Mick, tmonkey, sima, omar, macbeth, BigTron, elbee909, baggio, mandiarse, wullie and boo boo to name a handful, though the list could go on and on. People said they were embarrassed at the media ramblings of Fred. Well, what's more embarrassing, idiotic comments of no real significance, or the laughing stock we've been turned into by Ashley and his crew?

 

Many of you wouldn't listen to common sense. Not only that, you poured scorn and vitriol toward people like me for refusing to join your "hate the Board" bandwagon, effectively causing me to lose interest in this forum. It became a forum for whingers. Dave is even having a go at me this morning for saying some are getting what they deserve. Well, they are, though no doubt many of them will remain in denial. The "spin" that I'm in some way happy about this is as pathetic as it comes, given that I've been supporting the club for 41 years through thick and thin...mostly thin.

 

So, what do you people think now? Do you still believe it was impossible for a worse to be in charge of the affairs of the club? Do you still believe the previous Board, despite their mistakes, showed no ambition? Do you still think the previous Board was outright shite, rather than a Board that tried to take the club somewhere?

 

I'll tell you what I think. What we have now is a shite owner/board, it may even be worse than the pathetic efforts prior to John Hall. The evidence is laid out before you and is as stark as it's going to be regardless of what happens next week. Ashley and his crew are 100% at fault for the current desperate plight of the football club and anyone claiming anything different really needs to think again.

 

So, at the end of the day, those people I mentioned at the top of this post, plus others I can't recall, are getting what they deserve. They believe being in the top division and finishing in the top 5 for 3 seasons in a row, something we previously accomplished between 1948-1951 = a Board showing no ambition. You couldn't make up such rubbish.

 

We all want to be the best. We all want to win things but there aren't that many trophies and the competition is fierce. When the club is controlled by a Board that is trying to challenge for those trophies they are showing ambition. When the club is controlled by people who are not, they are showing no ambition. You should appreciate the first when it's happening but many of you didn't, you whinged instead. I don't even feel sorry for you that you didn't enjoy while it was happening. A pathetic bunch, tbh.

 

From where I'm sitting, the worst may still be to come and I'm not talking about relegation next week. Some of you are getting what you deserve.

 

Pile of inductive bollocks, but thanks for trying.  Was the club in general decline prior to being bought by Ashley?  Yes.  Ah well.

[Guest]

Ashley's mistake has that he's not been good enough to reverse the downward spiral that had been going on for 2-3 years before he bought the club. Nothing from 04-07 suggested to me that something like this wouldn't have happened had Shepherd stayed, Ashley hadn't bought the club, etc.

[TRon]

Ashley's mistake has that he's not been good enough to reverse the downward spiral that had been going on for 2-3 years before he bought the club. Nothing from 04-07 suggested to me that something like this wouldn't have happened had Shepherd stayed, Ashley hadn't bought the club, etc.

 

Ashley has fucked up monumentally, he obviously hasn't got a clue about football and he's made terrible decisions. Our awful squad which was assembled at a high cost was partly inherited though. The previous owners have a lot to answer for as well, this is what is not being acknowledged by the Shepherd cheerleaders.

[Tooj]

Ashley's mistake has that he's not been good enough to reverse the downward spiral that had been going on for 2-3 years before he bought the club. Nothing from 04-07 suggested to me that something like this wouldn't have happened had Shepherd stayed, Ashley hadn't bought the club, etc.

 

Ashley has fucked up monumentally, he obviously hasn't got a clue about football and he's made terrible decisions. Our awful squad which was assembled at a high cost was partly inherited though. The previous owners have a lot to answer for as well, this is what is not being acknowledged by the Shepherd cheerleaders.

 

The one thing that annoys me is Ashley and his spin doctors keep on telling us they have to trim the wage bill down due to mistakes from the previous régime yet they were the ones themselves who signed Viduka, Geremi, Barton & Smith on extremely lucrative contracts.

[stozo]

Ashley's mistake has that he's not been good enough to reverse the downward spiral that had been going on for 2-3 years before he bought the club. Nothing from 04-07 suggested to me that something like this wouldn't have happened had Shepherd stayed, Ashley hadn't bought the club, etc.

 

Ashley has fucked up monumentally, he obviously hasn't got a clue about football and he's made terrible decisions. Our awful squad which was assembled at a high cost was partly inherited though. The previous owners have a lot to answer for as well, this is what is not being acknowledged by the Shepherd cheerleaders.

 

The one thing that annoys me is Ashley and his spin doctors keep on telling us they have to trim the wage bill down due to mistakes from the previous régime yet they were the ones themselves who signed Viduka, Geremi, Barton & Smith on extremely lucrative contracts.

If I'm correct at the very least Viduka was signed before Ashley took control. And I'd have to check when Barton was signed, think that ay have been before he took control as well.

[TRon]

Ashley's mistake has that he's not been good enough to reverse the downward spiral that had been going on for 2-3 years before he bought the club. Nothing from 04-07 suggested to me that something like this wouldn't have happened had Shepherd stayed, Ashley hadn't bought the club, etc.

 

Ashley has fucked up monumentally, he obviously hasn't got a clue about football and he's made terrible decisions. Our awful squad which was assembled at a high cost was partly inherited though. The previous owners have a lot to answer for as well, this is what is not being acknowledged by the Shepherd cheerleaders.

 

The one thing that annoys me is Ashley and his spin doctors keep on telling us they have to trim the wage bill down due to mistakes from the previous régime yet they were the ones themselves who signed Viduka, Geremi, Barton & Smith on extremely lucrative contracts.

 

They were all Allardyce signings and that structure was in place before Ashley arrived. Realistically he had to back the manager, he could hardly sack him without giving him a fair shot.

[Mr Logic]

Ashley has made his mistakes, as have many.

 

It's one thing to say "he's the owner so he's ultimately responsible." Which is fair enough really. At the same time, he came into this knowing nowt about football. His forte (and the bit he's got spot on) are the finances.

 

In order to aid him in getting the finances in order he decided it made good financial and footballing sense to buy young talent and develop them - a philosophy that most on here would agree with.

 

To get the most out of our squad of has-beens and cast-offs (that we couldn't afford to replace) he hired a motivator as manager - the exact same thing I (and many others) would have done.

 

On paper he got a lot of it right. The approach is exactly what we needed. The problem came with the execution.

 

His first big mistake.

Given his lack of football knowledge he really should have appointed boards members who knew what the fuck they were doing. When there were rumours of us bringing in David Dein we REALLY should have been bending over backwards to bring him (or someone like him) into the club in order to put Mike's game plan into action.

 

Instead our chairmen have been a lawyer and a smug cunt both with no knowledge or experience of the game. To remedy that Ashley appointed Dennis the Menace as a football executive... a role in which he had no experience and has never shown any qualities that might suggest he'd be any good at it. A year and a bit on and Wise, surprise surprise, is no longer with us.

 

If we had hired someone like David Dein instead of the three stooges you'd imagine that some situations would never have arisen eg. Milner being allowed to leave before a replacement was signed and sealed - that was a schoolboy error of epic proportions. (Same goes for allowing other players to leave)

 

His second big mistake.

Hiring Kevin Keegan was both a master stroke and a disaster. There's no doubt that we needed a motivator to get the most out of our players and someone likeable to take the heat off us in the media. Keegan ticked both boxes. There's also no doubt that Kevin saved us in his first season.

 

That said, from the second Keegan was appointed the speculation was that he wouldn't see out the rest of his contract. Whether you would describe him as 'flaky' or 'principled' is all down to your own personal opinion of the man but he was always going to leave. The amount of times he's talked about the pressure of the game it was obvious - and they don't come with much more pressure than being a tyneside hero and the fans expecting you to work miracles.

 

Given that he was always going to be a short-term measure there were only two ways Ashley could play it: 1) Bend over backwards to keep him as happy as possible for as long as possible. 2) Have a replacement lined up for when the shit hits.

 

As it happened he did neither. Again this is a problem which could have been avoided had he hired a director who had a fucking clue.

 

His third big mistake.

There was always going to be trouble when Keegan left. We still don't know the true story behind Keegan leaving and we probably never will but there was only ever going to be one man winning the PR battle that followed and it wasn't Ashley. From then on it should have been a damage limitation exercise for Ashley. He should have kept coming to the matches. He should have been sympathetic and tried to work towards a strong replacement. But again, he did none of those things and bowed to the initial fan kneejerk responses and he put the club up for sale.

 

This has two negative impacts: 1) The fans felt empowered meaning the protests went on far longer than they should have, which in turn disrupted the harmony at the club. 2) Nobody wanted to come and manage a team that was up for sale, on a temporary contract, with the transfer window closed.

 

Yes, appointing Kinnear was a farce but by that time Ashley had backed himself into a corner. Nobody else of any stature wanted the job and once again, he had nobody around him with any footballing knowledge who might have spotted Kinnear's bullshit from a mile off.

 

His fourth big mistake.

This sort of stems from the other mistakes and that is to do with the time it has taken to replace both Keegan and Kinnear. It's simply ridiculous that even after the disaster earlier in the season when Hughton took over as manager he still took several weeks to find a replacement for Kinnear leaving Hughton in charge a second time. Again this is down to lack of interest in the job and the board's football naivety.

 

The positives

Amongst the catastrophe people have ignored the positives. It's easy to see why. It is hard to see Ashley as anything other than a 2d cartoon villain at times... but you have to give him this; he appears to be learning from his mistakes. Once again he has appointed a media-friendly and fan-friendly motivator in Alan Shearer. Only this time he is bending over backwards to keep him. He's given Wise and medical staff the boot and allowed Shearer to hire what you can only assume is a fairly expensive assistant in Iain Dowie. If we continue down this path we should see a long-term improvement at the club.

 

While we have been selling-off some of our players (rightly or wrongly) we have been getting fantastic money for them. This has no doubt increased our stability and based on Ashley's projections in terms of spending we should now be able to go out and spend some money this summer for the much needed rebuilding of the squad. This will be the key as to whether or not he has my support. He has seen enough of the first time now to know that we're struggling. Even as a novice he will be able to see it plain as day. He's done well backing Shearer so far but he needs to follow that through with financial backing in the summer.

 

I have given Ashley the benefit of the doubt so far with regards to spending. He has said he was only willing to put x amount into the club every year and according to what our smug cunt chairman said recently that means that this year we should see the majority of it going on transfers (as debt has now decreased and top earners will be leaving).

 

Hopefully Ashley has learned the error of his ways and will no longer neglect the first team. In the summer we need to buy and we need to buy quality. I don't care if they're 18 or 28, we need to bring in the right kind of players.

 

If he keeps his word and backs Shearer (or whoever is in charge) then he will have my support. If he has played us all for fools yet again then I'm done with him. That doesn't mean you'll see me walking around with anti-Ashley messages written on bed sheets but I certainly won't be shedding any tears if/when he decides to sell up.

 

I think that's a cracking post and I can find nothing to disagree with.

[Spider Jerusalem]

Not the time or place for I-told-you-so's to be honest.

 

[Dinho lad]

Yup, lack of ambition is what it's all about. I have said lots of times that without ambition a club has no chance at all. I said ages ago that's it's far worse when the club is showing no ambition than when the Board is trying but ultimately falls short due to mistakes. This is the difference between the current lot and the previous lot.

 

Plenty of people reckoned it was impossible for the club to have a worse owner/board than the last one. Mick, tmonkey, sima, omar, macbeth, BigTron, elbee909, baggio, mandiarse, wullie and boo boo to name a handful, though the list could go on and on. People said they were embarrassed at the media ramblings of Fred. Well, what's more embarrassing, idiotic comments of no real significance, or the laughing stock we've been turned into by Ashley and his crew?

 

Many of you wouldn't listen to common sense. Not only that, you poured scorn and vitriol toward people like me for refusing to join your "hate the Board" bandwagon, effectively causing me to lose interest in this forum. It became a forum for whingers. Dave is even having a go at me this morning for saying some are getting what they deserve. Well, they are, though no doubt many of them will remain in denial. The "spin" that I'm in some way happy about this is as pathetic as it comes, given that I've been supporting the club for 41 years through thick and thin...mostly thin.

 

So, what do you people think now? Do you still believe it was impossible for a worse to be in charge of the affairs of the club? Do you still believe the previous Board, despite their mistakes, showed no ambition? Do you still think the previous Board was outright shite, rather than a Board that tried to take the club somewhere?

 

I'll tell you what I think. What we have now is a shite owner/board, it may even be worse than the pathetic efforts prior to John Hall. The evidence is laid out before you and is as stark as it's going to be regardless of what happens next week. Ashley and his crew are 100% at fault for the current desperate plight of the football club and anyone claiming anything different really needs to think again.

 

So, at the end of the day, those people I mentioned at the top of this post, plus others I can't recall, are getting what they deserve. They believe being in the top division and finishing in the top 5 for 3 seasons in a row, something we previously accomplished between 1948-1951 = a Board showing no ambition. You couldn't make up such rubbish.

 

We all want to be the best. We all want to win things but there aren't that many trophies and the competition is fierce. When the club is controlled by a Board that is trying to challenge for those trophies they are showing ambition. When the club is controlled by people who are not, they are showing no ambition. You should appreciate the first when it's happening but many of you didn't, you whinged instead. I don't even feel sorry for you that you didn't enjoy while it was happening. A pathetic bunch, tbh.

 

From where I'm sitting, the worst may still be to come and I'm not talking about relegation next week. Some of you are getting what you deserve.

 

 

You mean those are simply members that you didn't get on with, huh?

 

HTL, you stupid old fool, I knew you would be back to post this drivel… after all; you are that sad and pathetic.

 

I wanted FS out because I wasn't happy at the direction the club were taking. If you were happy enough to see SBR sacked for taking us from 3rd to 5th, then why weren't you happy to see FS go? Are you saying all of SBR's successors, appointed by the mighty Shepherd, worked out for us? Nah.... they obviously didn't. So how much longer were you preparing to wait on FS?

You were demanding Sir Bobby Robson’s head on these message boards as frequently as the Shepherd haters were demanding for FS to go. You eventually got your wish. What came next?? Oh yeah.. I remember. Graeme bloody Souness!! Now, tell me something... what’s the difference between us wanting FS out and you demanding for SBR to be sacked? Graeme Souness is exactly what you deserved, if you want me to use your logic. And that’s were everything started going horribly wrong for the club. (Not falling from 3rd to 5th, HTL. )

 

BTW, Ashley gave you something that you wanted for a very long time- Kevin Keegan.

 

That worked out great, didn’t it?

 

Just go back to your hole, cunt.

 

[Guest elbee909]

Remember, there was a point when we were definitely faced with relegation under FS...

[GM]

Remember, there was a point when we were definitely faced with relegation under FS...

 

I seem to remember more than just ONE point when we were faced with relegation under FS...during the tenures of Dalglish, Gullitt, Souness...but we didn't actually get relegated then. This time it may be rather different.