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Belfast Mags

Belfast Mags

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So Wife asks me earlier about Newcastle and what's happen with the club etc so I start into a long winded assessment of where we are, blah blah blah and she just stops me and says "can you just break this down into a simple analogy so I can get the drift of it?"

 

Fair enough

 

"OK, lets assume that football is space, so basically, NUFC was the Starship Enterprise, a pretty cool ship manned by some interesting characters, cruising the galaxy doing neat things, all individual and shit and then out of blue the Borg (Sports Direct) turn up with their "resistance is futile" bollocks and take us over.

Basically we've been assimilated love, we're just a faceless, corporate void now bereft of any independent function, we're completely and utter "owned" by a entity that cares only for itself"

 

Was just met by total silence like  :lol:

 

Women, they know shite all about anything

 

 

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Mick

Mick

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I don't know if this link has been posted.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2419156/Alan-Shearer-Andy-Cole-Rob-Lee-slam-Newcastle-owner-Mike-Ashley-Joe-Kinnear.html

 

Look what they've done to our club! Ashley and Kinnear taken to task by trio of former Toon greats

 

By Sam Cunningham

 

PUBLISHED: 22:40, 12 September 2013  | UPDATED: 22:40, 12 September 2013 

 

 

Newcastle United legends have slammed club owner Mike Ashley and  his sidekick Joe  Kinnear for the way the club is being run into the ground.

 

Fans turned out in droves for Steve Harper’s testimonial on Wednesday — the sell-out 50,793 crowd at St James’ Park was their highest this season.

 

There were 4,000 more than at their previous home game against Fulham, which said as much about their love of former goalkeeper Harper as it did their hatred for Ashley and Kinnear.

 

Gone are the days of competing for the Premier League title and glorious Champions League nights; of record transfer fees and regular England internationals turning out every weekend in front of an  adoring Geordie faithful.

 

After they had pulled on the black-and-white strip once again this week to play for a Newcastle Legends side, former greats Alan Shearer, Rob Lee and Andy Cole, stars of that golden spell in the 1990s, spoke out about the current plight of the club.

 

They fear no-one wants to play for Newcastle any more, claim the club are going backwards and believe Ashley should step aside.

 

Alan Shearer

 

The Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer joined Newcastle in July 1996 for a world record £15m and spent the rest of his career at St James’ Park. He scored 206 goals in 404 games and until recently had a bar at the ground named after him. Even his time as manager, when Newcastle were relegated in 2009, did nothing to tarnish his legendary status among fans. 

 

Andy Cole

 

Though only at the club for a relatively brief period, Cole made his mark. He joined from Bristol City in February 1993 and immediately helped Newcastle win promotion to the Premier League. In his next season he scored an incredible 41 goals in all competitions — which remains a club record for most goals in a season — before joining Manchester United.

 

Lee said: ‘Kevin Keegan sold this club to me when I joined. If Joe Kinnear was speaking to you, are you going to join this football club? I’m not so sure. Players don’t want to join Newcastle any more.

 

‘It’s not going to be a short-term fix. It’s not a case of the club only needing a couple of players and then they’ll be very good. It’s more long-term than that. There aren’t the kids coming through the academy any more. Since I left we’ve had Steven Taylor, Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi.’

 

The club broke the bank and the world-record transfer fee when they signed Shearer for £15million from Blackburn Rovers in 1996. Does he think those days are over? ‘I would say so and so would the 52,000 fans as well and a lot more,’ the former England striker said.

 

They played such good attacking football under Keegan they were labelled ‘The Entertainers’. In  successive seasons from 1995 to 1997 they finished runners-up in the Premier League. Had they not thrown away a 12-point lead over Manchester United in 1996, they would have won the title.

 

 

This season it took them until the 86th minute of their third league game to score a Premier League goal.

 

Rob Lee

 

Joined Newcastle in 1992 from Charlton and spent the next 10 years playing in the North East. In that time he helped Newcastle win promotion to the Premier League and was also a key member of Kevin Keegan’s side who challenged for the title. During his time at the club, Lee played more than 380 games.

.

Why did more people turn up to watch an exhibition match than a top-flight game? ‘It’s probably a break from the monotony of watching the team play,’ Lee said. ‘Against West Ham it was 0-0 . . . I couldn’t remember playing in a 0-0.’

 

Shearer added: ‘That 1996 team which just missed out on the title may be the best any Newcastle fan sees in his lifetime. But that is why they turned out on Wednesday night because that’s an era they loved and enjoyed. They enjoyed being entertained and that is just what that team did. It could be a long time before that happens again.’

 

 

Since Ashley bought the club  in May 2007 they have had six  managers, one executive director of football, two directors of football, an attempted name change of St James’ Park and a new sponsorship deal with payday lenders Wonga. They have been relegated to the Championship and finished in the top 10 only once.

 

‘They seem to get themselves on the right track and all of a sudden someone here derails them,’ said Cole. ‘The punters were fairly  happy a couple of years ago, the team were moving in the right direction and then decisions are made at the top which throw a spanner in the works.

 

‘It’s almost as if somebody running the club wants to upset the punters and I find that very strange. If you keep the punters on board here, it’s half the battle. If you upset them, they’re going to eventually vote with their feet because there is only so much they can take.’

 

 

Should Ashley leave? ‘In an ideal world, he should,’ Lee said. ‘But it isn’t an ideal world.’

 

 

Ashley and Kinnear have done themselves no favours by their  dismal performance in the transfer window. When he was appointed director of football in June, Kinnear boasted about his endless list of contacts, about having Sir Alex  Ferguson and Arsene Wenger on speed dial and that he was going to be the best director of football the world had seen.

 

New role: Joe Kinnear was appointed as director of football, but Rob Lee is not convinced he can attract the big names to St James' Park

New role: Joe Kinnear was appointed as director of football, but Rob Lee is not convinced he can attract the big names to St James' Park

 

When the transfer window shut they had signed a player on loan who turned them down in January — striker Loic Remy — and a little- known teenager on a free.

 

Yesterday manager Alan Pardew, speaking at a press conference about the lack of transfer activity, said: ‘I hope it doesn’t affect us. When the fans see how we play over the next eight games, if we keep everybody fit, I think they will feel a lot better than they did on deadline day.

 

 

‘Over the past 10 or so years since I’ve become a manager, I’ve said the first 10 games really and truly give you a clear indication about where you are at.’

 

 

The fans are going to take a lot of convincing. They have already accused Ashley and Kinnear of turning Newcastle into the laughing stock of football. Getting relegated would be no laughing matter.

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Kanj

Kanj

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Pretty salient stuff from Andy Cole in particular.

 

It all adds pressure.

not really, main issue is still the same, no one wants to buy the club.

 

Nobody wants to the buy club at the price Mike wants. I'm sure there would be a ton of interested parties if the price wasn't so outrageous.

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Belfast Mags

Belfast Mags

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Pretty salient stuff from Andy Cole in particular.

 

It all adds pressure.

not really, main issue is still the same, no one wants to buy the club.

 

Nobody wants to the buy club at the price Mike wants. I'm sure there would be a ton of interested parties if the price wasn't so outrageous.

 

Basically when Mike want to buy someone, he wants to rape the selling club, if anybody wants to but NUFC he'll want to rape them as well, he's a serial metaphorical rapist  :lol:

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jdckelly

jdckelly

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Posted

Pretty salient stuff from Andy Cole in particular.

 

It all adds pressure.

not really, main issue is still the same, no one wants to buy the club.

 

Nobody wants to the buy club at the price Mike wants. I'm sure there would be a ton of interested parties if the price wasn't so outrageous.

there wasn't a load of people breaking down the door when it was for sale in the championship was there? Only one guy who couldn't afford a knock down price for it. The price isn't going to change. He will want at least to break even or perhaps even to make a profit.

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Kanj

Kanj

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Pretty salient stuff from Andy Cole in particular.

 

It all adds pressure.

not really, main issue is still the same, no one wants to buy the club.

 

Nobody wants to the buy club at the price Mike wants. I'm sure there would be a ton of interested parties if the price wasn't so outrageous.

there wasn't a load of people breaking down the door when it was for sale in the championship was there? Only one guy who couldn't afford a knock down price for it. The price isn't going to change. He will want at least to break even or perhaps even to make a profit.

 

Think you are forgetting about the global economy meltdown when we went down too though mate.

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Disco

Disco

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Spiralling TV deal was pretty much the worst thing that could happen from the fan majority opinion of this tosspot.

 

Revenue goes up without any necessary change to cost. Even more reason to exist rather than compete.

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thomas

thomas

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Spiralling TV deal was pretty much the worst thing that could happen from the fan majority opinion of this tosspot.

 

Revenue goes up without any necessary change to cost. Even more reason to exist rather than compete.

And as it makes up a larger and larger %age of income for a club, and as gate receipts will plateau and take up less and less, fan power is reduced year on year. If anyone thinks a protest/whatever is worthless now, I can't imagine how pointless the idea will be in 10 years time.
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jdckelly

jdckelly

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Spiralling TV deal was pretty much the worst thing that could happen from the fan majority opinion of this tosspot.

 

Revenue goes up without any necessary change to cost. Even more reason to exist rather than compete.

Also really good argument to put up the asking price when you take into account the guaranteed income from staying up. Will also negate to a degree any potential boycotts effect on his wallet with the sheer amount of cash on offer.

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Disco

Disco

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Spiralling TV deal was pretty much the worst thing that could happen from the fan majority opinion of this tosspot.

 

Revenue goes up without any necessary change to cost. Even more reason to exist rather than compete.

And as it makes up a larger and larger %age of income, and as gate receipts can only make up so much, fan power is reduced year on year. If anyone thinks a protest/whatever is worthless now, I can't imagine how pointless the idea will be in 10 years time.

 

:thup: it's shite (and that's not just because of Ashley/NUFC). The PL has literally become overwhelmingly big in comparison to nearly everything else without "the product" improving. IMO it's got worse and fans likewise have become passive because they're blinding by the glitz, glamour and alleged money on offer from the PL.

 

This and the CL have unflattened European football to such a degree it's sad as fuck. Bring back the early 90s.

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merlin

merlin

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What Lee and Shearer are really saying - if you read between the lines - is that the club is finished as a major player in English football...and European football at that.

 

Both of them imply by their comments, that Ashley is there for many years and that people are getting disillusioned...Andy Cole also hinted at that with his comments. They all cannot see the club ever returning to what it was in the 90s and it is hard to disagree with that.

 

If Ashley remains at the club for another 3 years it will be very hard for anyone to improve it once he goes because there will be too much of a gap between NUFC and probably 10 other clubs ; football does not stand still and we are getting left further behind all the time - supporters are becoming more and more fed up which will eventually mean falling interest so I agree with what the former stars have said. Lee's point about players not wanting to join the club is especially important because the team will never improve if better players are not interested....not that Ashley is interested in competing for top players.....

 

People are just going to have to be satisfied with being a non-entity as far as the PL is concerned if the status quo remains. If attendances start to fall in a meaningful way - which they will if there are further humiliations by the owner and management - the club will head down the same road as Sheffield Wednesday, once a major force , but now unlikely ever to regain their former status.

 

All empires eventually fall and in the footballing sense, NUFC is just as subject to that reality as any country was or is......the club has been very fortunate to retain the loyalty and forbearance of so many fans for so long.

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TheHoob

TheHoob

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As much as I'd like to think comments from players like those would add pressure to Ashley I really don't think he gives a single fuck. You could fly the pope to the moon to unveil an Ashley out banner visible from earth and he still wouldn't give a flying fart.

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Dr Colossus

Dr Colossus

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As much as I'd like to think comments from players like those would add pressure to Ashley I really don't think he gives a single f***. You could fly the pope to the moon to unveil an Ashley out banner visible from earth and he still wouldn't give a flying fart.

 

How much do you estimate this would cost?

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Willow

Willow

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serz if posted

 

.com

 

Currently doing the rounds, one toon fan's slightly inelegant solution to the dilemma of wanting a current toon shirt but not wanting to promote payday loans.

 

This is most definitely not available in the shops....

 

http://i.imgur.com/sz042pQ.png

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