Is Mike Ashley the worst person ever to have been associated with NUFC?

[Yorkie]

Whilst it hasn't much improved under Pardew, home form wasn't 'good enough for our first season back' under Hughton IMO.

 

It's been terrible all season.

 

Terrible's a bit much. Erratic about sums it up, i think. We've absolutely dismantled some good sides up here this season.

[Guest]

Whilst it hasn't much improved under Pardew, home form wasn't 'good enough for our first season back' under Hughton IMO.

 

It's been terrible all season.

 

Terrible's a bit much. Erratic about sums it up, i think. We've absolutely dismantled some good sides up here this season.

 

This is what makes me optimistic for next season. I think we'll learn from mistakes this time out and build on our home form next season.

[fredbob]

I remember Souness saying he'd prepared a list of players for Shep, and that Shep nearly fell off his chair when he saw Owen on it.

 

Fucking topless Toon charvers worshipping Souness at the Owen unveiling was a gob smacking low in this club's history.

 

In hindsight.

 

Definitely at the time. As unlikely as I thought it was at the time, even if it had turned out ok, definitely.

 

You thought signing Owen was a low for the club at the time?

 

Yep, and the 'unveiling' was worse. Only enjoyment I got out of it was upsetting Liverpool, the media, and Owen himself in a cut your nose off kind of way.

 

I'll agree with the unveiling and drama attached to the signing, I also will go as far as saying that his signing came in pretty insulting circumstances but for me it was a very very good signing, even with his dubious injury record he was a great signing.

 

We needed a striker to eventually replace Shearer, I cant see too many reasons beyond his injury record to suggest that he couldn't do the job.

 

It was set up for a fall though, probably most importantly given the insulting circumstances you mention. I agree he'd become a fine striker out in Spain - he went up a lot in my estimation of him as a player out there as I'd never had much time for him beforehand you see - but I still had him down as heartless, and someone who would let us down if less than absolutely everything went perfectly for us. It was like watching your dopey, dewy-eyed mate trying to convince himself he could make the local slut love him and 'stay true'. Painful and embarrassing.

 

Relating to everything going perfectly, it was clear there were problems at the club that were going to be exposed with Souness as a manager, a squad not geared up for Owen's game, and financial problems only worsened by the shit himself's extremely costly acquisition. The whole saga of the move was emblematic of our fall towards being seen as delusional, fur coat no knickers messiah-lovers.

 

With regards Shearer, I suppose I could say a lot of things, but among them would be I don't think we needed a replacement for him insofar as there are other ways of running a team.  Just for the sake of argument, the prospect of a Bellamy-Kluivert partnership had looked half-way promising but it got dashed by the idea there had to be a 'main man' up front, and (at that time) it had to be Shearer.

 

 

Maybe that slut was never going to love us, I can accept that but if that slut had a good record of 'putting out' on a regular basis then I can definintely overcomethe lack of love. Which is how I felt about the whole situation.

 

Again, I agree that we were on a hiding to nothing with Souness in charge, but for me that's purely down to souness' lack of ability as a manager, a completely seperate issue to the merits of signing owen, although i suppose it can be argued that signing owen with souness' style of football was always bound for failre, i'd counter that by saying that most high calibre signings would of been deemed to failure with souness in charge.

 

To be honest I agree with a lot of what you're saying but can;t agree that as a signing that Owen was a bad one, especially not a low for the club. He was a quality player with a proven track record at a good age, as far as im concerned they're good attributes to have in a potential signing - getting the best out of them lies in the abilites of the manager which is a completely different kettle of fish....

[Cronky]

To be fair to the slut, he did say publicly the week before that he did not want to join us on anything but a loan basis, and that Liverpool was his choice for a proper transfer.

 

We responded by putting in a ridiculously inflated offer to Real which made it impossible for them to consider selling him to Liverpool, and then overcame Owen's clear reluctance by offering him a ridiculous amount in wages.

 

So we ended up paying huge amounts of money that we didn't really have, for a player who was past his best and who didn't want to come. Freddie's daftest move ever, and the competition for that accolade is fierce.

[JH]

Whilst it hasn't much improved under Pardew, home form wasn't 'good enough for our first season back' under Hughton IMO.

 

It's been terrible all season.

 

Terrible's a bit much. Erratic about sums it up, i think. We've absolutely dismantled some good sides up here this season.

 

And yet still only won four games.

 

It's all well and good sticking 6 past Villa and 5 past Sunderland/West Ham, but if you're losing to Stoke and Blackburn then what's the point?

 

We show up when the top five teams come here. The rest of the time we look toothless. I honestly expect us to get something against Man U and lose to Birmingham.

[Colocho]

Sports Direct has secured a £220m loan to refinance its existing credit facility, sending shares up slightly at the UK’s biggest sporting goods retailer by market share.

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e69c5f26-4a4d-11e0-b802-00144feab49a.html#axzz1GIjqeIY9

[EthiGeordie]

he is in the roll..... I think he is good business man you can't be stupid and be a billionaire starting with one single shop ....

[quayside]

he is in the roll..... I think he is good business man you can't be stupid and be a billionaire starting with one single shop ....

 

Obviously he 's not stupid he knew how to build a chain of downmarket sports shops and float it at a gross overvaluation, and trouser a billion in cash in the process. But his expertise in sports retail and selling his business to the City didn't stop him buying a football club without understanding anything about what he was getting into. Plenty of successful people have been arrogant enough to think they can transfer their skills into another industry only to find they were out of their depth.

[Punk77]

To be fair to the slut, he did say publicly the week before that he did not want to join us on anything but a loan basis, and that Liverpool was his choice for a proper transfer.

 

We responded by putting in a ridiculously inflated offer to Real which made it impossible for them to consider selling him to Liverpool, and then overcame Owen's clear reluctance by offering him a ridiculous amount in wages.

 

So we ended up paying huge amounts of money that we didn't really have, for a player who was past his best and who didn't want to come. Freddie's daftest move ever, and the competition for that accolade is fierce.

 

[EthiGeordie]

he is in the roll..... I think he is good business man you can't be stupid and be a billionaire starting with one single shop ....

 

Obviously he 's not stupid he knew how to build a chain of downmarket sports shops and float it at a gross overvaluation, and trouser a billion in cash in the process. But his expertise in sports retail and selling his business to the City didn't stop him buying a football club without understanding anything about what he was getting into. Plenty of successful people have been arrogant enough to think they can transfer their skills into another industry only to find they were out of their depth.

 

Great post that!

 

[80]

I remember Souness saying he'd prepared a list of players for Shep, and that Shep nearly fell off his chair when he saw Owen on it.

 

Fucking topless Toon charvers worshipping Souness at the Owen unveiling was a gob smacking low in this club's history.

 

In hindsight.

 

Definitely at the time. As unlikely as I thought it was at the time, even if it had turned out ok, definitely.

 

You thought signing Owen was a low for the club at the time?

 

Yep, and the 'unveiling' was worse. Only enjoyment I got out of it was upsetting Liverpool, the media, and Owen himself in a cut your nose off kind of way.

 

I'll agree with the unveiling and drama attached to the signing, I also will go as far as saying that his signing came in pretty insulting circumstances but for me it was a very very good signing, even with his dubious injury record he was a great signing.

 

We needed a striker to eventually replace Shearer, I cant see too many reasons beyond his injury record to suggest that he couldn't do the job.

 

It was set up for a fall though, probably most importantly given the insulting circumstances you mention. I agree he'd become a fine striker out in Spain - he went up a lot in my estimation of him as a player out there as I'd never had much time for him beforehand you see - but I still had him down as heartless, and someone who would let us down if less than absolutely everything went perfectly for us. It was like watching your dopey, dewy-eyed mate trying to convince himself he could make the local slut love him and 'stay true'. Painful and embarrassing.

 

Relating to everything going perfectly, it was clear there were problems at the club that were going to be exposed with Souness as a manager, a squad not geared up for Owen's game, and financial problems only worsened by the shit himself's extremely costly acquisition. The whole saga of the move was emblematic of our fall towards being seen as delusional, fur coat no knickers messiah-lovers.

 

With regards Shearer, I suppose I could say a lot of things, but among them would be I don't think we needed a replacement for him insofar as there are other ways of running a team.  Just for the sake of argument, the prospect of a Bellamy-Kluivert partnership had looked half-way promising but it got dashed by the idea there had to be a 'main man' up front, and (at that time) it had to be Shearer.

 

 

Maybe that slut was never going to love us, I can accept that but if that slut had a good record of 'putting out' on a regular basis then I can definintely overcomethe lack of love.

 

Aye, but she's the sort who'll lay back if matey makes all the running, but he won't get any of her specials because she's just not into him...

 

I guess I can't see it outside of it's context, which is the important thing for me. Yes he was theoretically a good signing if we'd been a different club at the time but we weren't, basically. Running with the analogy, if we had confidence, a big wallet and a bigger cock, and were just looking for an easy lay between more valuable girlfriends, then Michael Owen would make a good hole.

 

With luck, gay rapists will take note of my advice.

[Ronaldo]

he is in the roll..... I think he is good business man you can't be stupid and be a billionaire starting with one single shop ....

 

It was only a few months back that you said you wanted to see him back drinking beer amongst the fans. Funny how you call folk c***s when they assert that sacking Hughton has turned out for the best, yet you praise the man responsible for it.

[ToonTastic]

Still don't understand what difference the few people who think AP is doing a good job compared to CH are seeing ? Is much really changed ? I can't see CH would have got many different results to what AP has. I even read some nonsense somewhere that AP was employed to improve the home form, that's the home form where we were unbeaten at home last year and although wasn't great this year was good enough for our first year back in the PL.

 

Pardew is benefitting from the team Hughton has put together. Personally think Hughton is a mediocre manager at best with his overly cautious approach, and that he sort of stumbled into a good thing with the midfield of Jonas/Nolan/Tiote/Barton somehow gelling into a quality unit for a newly promoted side, but even so we shouldn't overlook how fortunate we've been to again start the season on paper looking like we'd struggle immensely for goals/creativity/etc with limited transfers in, but finding things to be alot better than anticipated - all thanks to Hughton. He also had the balls to stick with something that worked after temporarily stumbling upon it, which in the past previous managers have failed to do. E.g. one time when we had Zog, Emre and Solano playing directly behind a lone striker (Martins?) with two midfielders in behind holding, we looked a pretty slick team because they kept the ball well and the team was forced to pass it on the deck - it only lasted 2 games because whoever our manager was at the time (Roeder?) decided to change things as soon as a second striker was fit again and we went back to pumping long balls and bypassing the midfield. Similarly, don't think Kinnear ever tried the system that Keegan found some joy with (Owen in midifled). At least with Hughton this didn't seem to be a problem, and once he did make a change for the better he usually stuck with it.

 

Would Pardew have put this team together if it wasn't already in place? Would he have thought about trying Barton out wide, or stuck with him there if he hadn't already established himself as an excellent deep-winger of sorts? Would he have signed Tiote, or would he have gone for a reject from his West Ham days? What will Pardew do if we have to sell a few players and he has to rebuild the team?

 

On the one hand, I don't think there's much to criticise about Pardew at present, given our lack of squad depth. On the other, I don't think there's much to praise him for either as he's just putting a team that Hughton built/discovered out on the pitch. But given his track record, I'm certainly a bit worried that when he starts shaping this team into his own we're going to be worse off for it.

 

Agree with everything you've written

[EthiGeordie]

he is in the roll..... I think he is good business man you can't be stupid and be a billionaire starting with one single shop ....

 

It was only a few months back that you said you wanted to see him back drinking beer amongst the fans. Funny how you call folk c***s when they assert that sacking Hughton has turned out for the best, yet you praise the man responsible for it.

 

I am not praising him how he run the club.... I said he is good business person. You are the only one who thinks Hughton sacing was good.

[quayside]

Still don't understand what difference the few people who think AP is doing a good job compared to CH are seeing ? Is much really changed ? I can't see CH would have got many different results to what AP has. I even read some nonsense somewhere that AP was employed to improve the home form, that's the home form where we were unbeaten at home last year and although wasn't great this year was good enough for our first year back in the PL.

 

Pardew is benefitting from the team Hughton has put together. Personally think Hughton is a mediocre manager at best with his overly cautious approach, and that he sort of stumbled into a good thing with the midfield of Jonas/Nolan/Tiote/Barton somehow gelling into a quality unit for a newly promoted side, but even so we shouldn't overlook how fortunate we've been to again start the season on paper looking like we'd struggle immensely for goals/creativity/etc with limited transfers in, but finding things to be alot better than anticipated - all thanks to Hughton. He also had the balls to stick with something that worked after temporarily stumbling upon it, which in the past previous managers have failed to do. E.g. one time when we had Zog, Emre and Solano playing directly behind a lone striker (Martins?) with two midfielders in behind holding, we looked a pretty slick team because they kept the ball well and the team was forced to pass it on the deck - it only lasted 2 games because whoever our manager was at the time (Roeder?) decided to change things as soon as a second striker was fit again and we went back to pumping long balls and bypassing the midfield. Similarly, don't think Kinnear ever tried the system that Keegan found some joy with (Owen in midifled). At least with Hughton this didn't seem to be a problem, and once he did make a change for the better he usually stuck with it.

 

Would Pardew have put this team together if it wasn't already in place? Would he have thought about trying Barton out wide, or stuck with him there if he hadn't already established himself as an excellent deep-winger of sorts? Would he have signed Tiote, or would he have gone for a reject from his West Ham days? What will Pardew do if we have to sell a few players and he has to rebuild the team?

 

On the one hand, I don't think there's much to criticise about Pardew at present, given our lack of squad depth. On the other, I don't think there's much to praise him for either as he's just putting a team that Hughton built/discovered out on the pitch. But given his track record, I'm certainly a bit worried that when he starts shaping this team into his own we're going to be worse off for it.

 

That is a good post. Any discussion on results that Hughton got v Pardew's results will inevitably turn unto a pissing contest. As I've said before it is a judgement call at this stage. The comeback against the Arse was cool but so was beating them at The Emirates etc etc etc. For my money the most impressive thing AP has done was think on his feet and set the side up the way he did when we went down to 10 men against Bolton.

 

I don't have a problem with AP working in the market when the time comes. I think the sheer ethic of getting value for money that our owner lives by will provide a check on anything daft being done And I have some faith in our ability to pick up players that will improve the squad even if not much money changes hands.

 

If AP was going to be a step up from Hughton it was in getting results when key players are missing. He's done ok at that (we got good results without Carroll before he left and we picked up some points without Tiote) but I have to say I am slightly more concerned about where we are now and the fact that we have A LOT of key players missing. Early doors I put us down as finishing 15th, obviously if you reckon thats the end result you are going to expect some nervous moments - but lets get 42 points and think ahead then.

[Ronaldo]

he is in the roll..... I think he is good business man you can't be stupid and be a billionaire starting with one single shop ....

 

It was only a few months back that you said you wanted to see him back drinking beer amongst the fans. Funny how you call folk c***s when they assert that sacking Hughton has turned out for the best, yet you praise the man responsible for it.

 

I am not praising him how he run the club.... I said he is good business person. You are the only one who thinks Hughton sacing was good.

 

No i'm not, though.

[Wil]

Does he want out? Could always be bollocks.

Not sure if this is the right place but.....

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Exclusive-A-billionaire-Indian-business-man-is-ready-to-offer-Mike-Ashley-200-million-plus-to-takeover-Newcastle-article713116.html

[Anderson]

Anil Ambani, been a while since he was last mentioned.

[Punk77]

Does he want out? Could always be bollocks.

Not sure if this is the right place but.....

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Exclusive-A-billionaire-Indian-business-man-is-ready-to-offer-Mike-Ashley-200-million-plus-to-takeover-Newcastle-article713116.html

 

I'm not sure I want a takeover. I like the current development with focus on youth, finding promising players in europe with a desire to play for the club etc. The way City and Chelsea are run is ruining PL: inflated ticket prices, ludicrous salaries, highly owner-dependent, players that only think of salary but have no feeling for the club. When they score goal, they celebrate as if it was a matter of course. The joy is gone.

 

I could be pro a takeover if the new owner is interested in continue the work laid down by MA. That mean not getting world stars on idiotic pay, but buying the best talents out there. With a wealthier owner we could  simultaneously purchase talents such as Gervinhio, Gameiro and Eriksen . If we then have the competence to further develop those players, we could win a trophy without being run like City or Chelsea.

[madras]

neesy received any mentions for this yet ?

[BlueStar]

When they score goal, they celebrate as if it was a matter of course. The joy is gone.

 

Uh-huh, better to have a load of miserable players who want out I suppose.

[mrmojorisin75]

Gervinhio, Gameiro and Eriksen

just looked him up on Wiki, born in Middlefart

 

snigger

[Jack Flash]

neesy received any mentions for this yet ?

 

He ruins everything for everyone.

[Colocho]

Nee's a fool, not as bad as wor Mike though.

[Guest neesy111]

Nee's a fool, not as bad as wor Mike though.

 

Your a bigger fool tbf.