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

[ponsaelius]

I'm not going to derail the thread by discussing every sale of the last 10 years, every club sells players, it's a ridiculous argument. We also got relegated in that time, in case anybody has forgotten.

 

Maybe if we had Milner and Given (proven solid performers) rather than Xisco (untested in Premier League, 5 year deal) and Nancho (1 million quid to have a holiday for a year in the Toon) we'd have got that extra point?

 

Didn't selling Milner help to fund the signings of Coloccini and Gutierrez who have since gone on to be very good/good players for the club? Trying to pin the relegation on those sales (particular the Milner one since it was re-invested) is ridiculous. The writing had been on the wall for years.

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

Who reckons Alan Pardew made Colo captain just to make it harder for Ashley to sell him this window should a bid come in?

 

(Not that it made any difference with Nolan).

[Guest Rob 1988]

Pardew hoping for investment - sky sports 

 

http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,16426_7037563,00.html

[Guest Chubby Jason]

He still "hoping". Fucking pathetic.

[Colocho]

Pardew hoping for investment - sky sports 

 

http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,16426_7037563,00.html

 

Ah man...

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

Didn't selling Milner help to fund the signings of Coloccini and Gutierrez who have since gone on to be very good/good players for the club? Trying to pin the relegation on those sales (particular the Milner one since it was re-invested) is ridiculous. The writing had been on the wall for years.

 

We'd bought those two players before Milner was sold (against the wishes of the manager). He was our best player in his final games for us. Given was worth ten points a season the amount of impossible saves he pulled off. Those two would have kept us up and saved us a fortune in relegation.

 

But, looking forward... we are in better shape for having gone down and come straight back up. And I'm excited by the new signings (I always am). I wish we'd kept Carroll and Nolan though. And I wish for Enrique, Barton and Colo to stay.

 

Build on what you've got rather than gambling on unproven (and possibly injury-prone) replacements before they've proven their worth. Then sell what you don't need.

[ponsaelius]

Who reckons Alan Pardew made Colo captain just to make it harder for Ashley to sell him this window should a bid come in?

 

(Not that it made any difference with Nolan).

 

Personally, reading between the lines on some of his comments, I think Pardew endorsed the sale of Nolan. Rightly or wrongly.

[ponsaelius]

I'm not going to derail the thread by discussing every sale of the last 10 years, every club sells players, it's a ridiculous argument. We also got relegated in that time, in case anybody has forgotten.

 

Maybe if we had Milner and Given (proven solid performers) rather than Xisco (untested in Premier League, 5 year deal) and Nancho (1 million quid to have a holiday for a year in the Toon) we'd have got that extra point?

 

Didn't selling Milner help to fund the signings of Coloccini and Gutierrez who have since gone on to be very good/good players for the club? Trying to pin the relegation on those sales (particular the Milner one since it was re-invested) is ridiculous. The writing had been on the wall for years.

 

We'd bought those two players before Milner was sold (against the wishes of the manager). He was our best player in his last 2 games for us. Given was worth ten points a season the amount of impossible saves he pulled off. Those two would have kept us iup and saved us a fortune in relegation.

 

But, looking forward... we are in better shape for having gone down and come straight back up. And I'm excited by the new signings (I always am). I wish we'd kept Carroll and Nolan though. And I wish for Enrique, Barton and Colo to stay.

 

Build on what you've got rather than gambling on unproven (and possibly injury-prone) replacements before they've proven their worth. Then sell what you don't need.

 

I don't think Given was worth 10 points a season. He's a good keeper but I think he was very overrated amongst our support. Milner was average, £12 million seemed ludicrous at the time. Infact, I still think that's more than he's worth today.

 

I agree with your general points after that though.

[High Five o]

Pardew hoping for investment - sky sports 

 

http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,16426_7037563,00.html

 

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

As I've said elsewhere, I'm happy for Ashley to keep his 20m a season after the abuse he got... as long as he doesn't take any money out of the club for himself - much less hundreds of millions like the Halls and Shepherds did. However, I'm not happy at us having to pay for his expensive mistakes.

 

 

And those mistakes add up to a pretty penny:

 

paying over the odds from not doing due diligence;

2m paid to KK instead of 2m from him for quiting as per his contract - purely because of Ashley dicking him around;

Dennis Wise; Xisco; Nancho;

Kinnear  ;

selling our best keeper in my lifetime to the richest club in the land for peanuts on a pay-later deal;

selling one of our best young players for much less than he was worth a couple of seasons later;

relegation, and all the money that cost us;

further reduced income from fans and sponsors because of the contempt Ashley shows us and some of our most trusted (KK, Shearer, Hughton);

 

and some yet to be properly evaluated that could well go tits up:

sacking the man who saved his bacon and appointing a reject from the 3rd division;

selling our two top scorers;

not having enough strength in depth for the later stages of a Premier League campaign...

 

 

I'm also to be convinced that Sports Direct are paying the going rate for making our proud stadium look like Nettos.

[Guest north shields lad]

paid clarke 2 million for his open win, has agreed with his agent for wearing dunlop.

[quayside]

As I've said elsewhere, I'm happy for Ashley to keep his 20m a season after the abuse he got... as long as he doesn't take any money out of the club for himself - much less hundreds of millions like the Halls and Shepherds did. However, I'm not happy at us having to pay for his expensive mistakes.

 

 

And those mistakes add up to a pretty penny:

 

paying over the odds from not doing due diligence;

2m paid to KK instead of 2m from him for quiting as per his contract - purely because of Ashley dicking him around;

Dennis Wise; Xisco; Nancho;

Kinnear  ;

selling our best keeper in my lifetime to the richest club in the land for peanuts on a pay-later deal;

selling one of our best young players for much less than he was worth a couple of seasons later;

relegation, and all the money that cost us;

further reduced income from fans and sponsors because of the contempt Ashley shows us and some of our most trusted (KK, Shearer, Hughton);

 

and some yet to be properly evaluated that could well go tits up:

sacking the man who saved his bacon and appointing a reject from the 3rd division;

selling our two top scorers;

not having enough strength in depth for the later stages of a Premier League campaign...

 

 

I'm also to be convinced that Sports Direct are paying the going rate for making our proud stadium look like Nettos.

 

Some undisputable stuff in there and you make some good points.

 

But are you saying Carroll was worth more than £35m?

 

And the "reject from the 3rd division" has taken a Premiership side to the FA Cup Final (he lost the final but iirc he came very close to winning said cup). We've had a few managers in recent years including "the man who saved his (Ashley's) bacon" who haven't done that. I really liked Hughton and respected how he got stuck in to the job but has a manager in the Championship ever had a better squad?

 

Finally can I ask if you would have been quite happpy to give Nolan a 5 year contract at around £50k a week? And consider that question in the light of what effect deals like that have done to Premiership clubs (us and West Ham included) in recent years.

[Ronaldo]

I got the impression he was on about Milner or N'zogbia, but his perception of time is well off.

[Guest]

 

As I've said elsewhere, I'm happy for Ashley to keep his 20m a season after the abuse he got... as long as he doesn't take any money out of the club for himself - much less hundreds of millions like the Halls and Shepherds did. However, I'm not happy at us having to pay for his expensive mistakes.

 

 

And those mistakes add up to a pretty penny:

 

paying over the odds from not doing due diligence;

 

 

Out of interest, where do you think this club would have been had this not happened, given we were already £70m in debt and losing another £30m each year?

[quayside]

I got the impression he was on about Milner or N'zogbia, but his perception of time is well off.

 

Yeah thanks  .   I can now see how you could read what he said as referring to Zog or Milner.

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

are you saying Carroll was worth more than £35m?

 

Time will tell.

 

He is improving rapidly - dominating in the air like no-one else I can think of, good on the ground, and mad keen tackling back and getting about the pitch. Dalglish was laughed at for paying a record fee of £3m+ for a young Geordie striker that we later paid 5x that amount for (after he won Blackburn the title). As all teams need to have at least 4 home grown players in their 25 man squad, good young English players are at a premium. How many top flight goals will the bore hole score?

 

And the "reject from the 3rd division" has taken a Premiership side to the FA Cup Final (he lost the final but iirc he came very close to winning said cup). We've had a few managers in recent years including "the man who saved his (Ashley's) bacon" who haven't done that. I really liked Hughton and respected how he got stuck in to the job but has a manager in the Championship ever had a better squad?

 

After that 6-1 at Orient I could only see us doing a Leeds. Many relegated sides have their best players bought and are left with all the underperformers on far too much cash, which is why you have to get straight back up or you're f****d. Hughton did great. Pardew I'll give time to but Hughton deserved better. (And he was an honourable man which I've yet to be convinced of with Pardew).

 

Finally can I ask if you would have been quite happpy to give Nolan a 5 year contract at around £50k a week? And consider that question in the light of what effect deals like that have done to Premiership clubs (us and West Ham included) in recent years.

 

We didn't need to - he had 2 years of his contract left. Both Given and Milner have said that it wouldn't have taken much to persuade them to stay but no-one bothered. And with Carroll we went through the flimsiest of pretences that we didn't want him to go. I'd have kept Nolan for another year 'til it was obvious that we no longer needed him, yes.

 

Out of interest, where do you think this club would have been had this not happened, given we were already £70m in debt and losing another £30m each year?

 

We're more in debt now (to Ashley). And our earning ability has dropped somewhat.

 

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

Btw - "selling one of our best young players for much less than he was worth a couple of seasons later" meant Milner, who was on fire for us as he was sold and was utilised by Martin O'Neil in the more central position that his strengths always suggested would suit him.

 

But yeah, Zogs would now be worth a lot more (if he wasn't on the last year of his contract) and is a more exciting player.

 

Though Milner's attitude is much better - when we messed him about as he was there to put pen to paper the first time for Villa he came back and did no complaining.

[madras]

Btw - "selling one of our best young players for much less than he was worth a couple of seasons later" meant Milner, who was on fire for us as he was sold. But yeah, Zogs would now be worth a lot more if he wasn't on the last year of his contract and is a more exciting player (though Milner's attitude is much better - when we messed him about as he was there to put pen to paper the first time for Villa he came back and did no complaining).

you sure ? nearly everyone, even those who liked him and to be fair there didn't seem to be many, thought 12million for him was too good to turn down.

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

I got the impression he was on about Milner or N'zogbia, but his perception of time is well off.

 

That happens when you get old!

 

On checking though -

Milner signed for Villa 29 August 2008 for £12m

then for Citeh on 17 August 2010 for £26m.

 

- "A couple of seasons later". How am I so off?

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

you sure ? nearly everyone, even those who liked him and to be fair there didn't seem to be many, thought 12million for him was too good to turn down.

 

Can I ask - which players from the last 5 years who are no longer on our books are you really fond of?

[madras]

you sure ? nearly everyone, even those who liked him and to be fair there didn't seem to be many, thought 12million for him was too good to turn down.

 

Can I ask - which players from the last 5 years who are no longer on our books are you really fond of?

i was one of the fans of milner who constantly defended him from the 'no speed,can't cross' majority on here and that shay given should have been player of the year the season he left for his performances in his last half season here. what was your point though ?

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

Who knows?

 

In other news...

 

Away ticket limit on Magpies fans after pitch invasions (BBC)

 

 

Newcastle United is to restrict the sale of away match tickets after its pre-season friendly against Darlington was marred by pitch invasions.

 

The Darlington pitch was invaded twice after Newcastle went 2-0 up on 15 July. Three people have been charged.

 

The club said tickets would be limited to season ticket holders and members.

 

Some fans have accused the club of over-reacting. Season tickets range in price from £100 to £865 at the premium end.

 

In a statement, the club said: "In order to combat any possible trouble at future away fixtures, a new policy will be implemented by the club which will see ticket sales restricted to season ticket holders and members only.

 

"As such the buyer will be held accountable for any trouble associated with the puchase/use of a ticket."

'Backward step'

 

It said anyone identified as being involved in criminal or anti-social behaviour could be banned from matches.

 

Mark Jensen, editor of independent fanzine The Mag, said it was a "sledgehammer to crack a nut".

 

He said: "It's a backward step. It's well documented how many Newcastle fans travel to away games, as is the good behaviour of the vast majority at those games.

 

"There was a problem at Darlington, but why disadvantage the majority just because a couple of people were arrested?

 

"I fail to see how, if all those people at Darlington had been season ticket holders and/or members, that would guarantee they would behave."

 

A Newcastle man, 21, a Gateshead man, 22, and a 17-year-old from Darlington, have been charged with entering a playing field during a designated football match.

 

The 21-year-old is also charged with disorder and the 22-year-old with a public order offence.

 

More members fees. Kerching!

[Guest neesy111]

Milner for £12M was a steal of a deal for NUFC, he was worth half of that at the time and is still one of the most overrated players in the history of football.

[toontownman]

Milner for £12M was a steal of a deal for NUFC, he was worth half of that at the time and is still one of the most overrated players in the history of football.

 

Meh, true but Woodgate and Dyer deals were much better, all three go part way to making up for Michael Owen and Alan Smith. Surprised we didnt get more for N'Zobia, he did have the tantrum, hard to hand tag on him though at the time.

[Guest TheSummerOf69]

Milner for £12M was a steal of a deal for NUFC, he was worth half of that at the time and is still one of the most overrated players in the history of football.

 

Who are your most valued ex-Toon players from the last 5 years then?