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Guest Roger Kint

Lee Ryder thinks this will have all the fans singing Pardews name now in support of him over JFK  :lol:

 

 

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I'm kind of not surprised to see Llambias go - but it's still a shock. I think Pardew will walk next and in the coming days. He's been very quiet and I imagine is seeking legal advice. It's Keegan v Wise all over again (although not to the same extent) Ashley must be laughing his tits off.

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The post that was quoted was rough around the edges, but the content was correct. Ashley knows people will turn up regardless, which is why he pleases himself. A bigger message would be if people started staying away from games, but unfortunately I think there is too much apathy inside St James. In that people will be unhappy, but won't vent their displeasure - probably for fear of what happened at the Hull game, after Keegan walked. Civil war almost broke out amongst our ranks after that game.

 

Could always be that Ashley has worn people down and that the more vocal (in the main) are the ones who don't go to games, such as myself.

 

I think you'll find, BG, that the fans over 45 will be the ones most likely to boycott - a large proportion have witnessed both bad and good times before SJH and KK took over the club and then afterwards.

A large percentage of younger fans will not remember those days and in any case, Ashley has been very successful in brainwashing quite a few fans into thinking a mid-table place is where we should be - no better.

It has always been this way really, because fans who went in the 50s when we were FA Cup kings stopped going after the shenanigans with Eastham etc at the start of the 60s and the usual board interference at that time.

Noticeable that many of those posting in the Chron and Journal, vowing to scrap their STs, were older fans.

 

Agreed. Like you, I lived through the 'board wars' and when I speak to others (particularly the younger supporters) about the danger we have found ourselves in during Ashley's tenure, I get called a Keeganite and an old fuddy-duddy. They will find out the hard way.

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Guest expat in the pool

i've turned the corner now, it's sunk in that we are the comedy sitcom club, you couldn't write this shite

 

We are never going to win anything under any of this regime, thats owner to players, so i'm going to embrace this for what it is and have a good laugh.

 

    honestly if you are looking in from afar at our club, it's funny as fuck, its unbeliveable, its quality viewing its a nightmare we should be on jeremy kyle.

 

  all i know is i'm waiting for the next press conference with baited breath, god knows whats going to happen

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@LeeMarshall9

Off to meet the @nufctrust to discuss the last 48hrs before another to discuss the next @NUFCFansUtd meeting. No hiding. Lots to talk about.

 

Fair play.

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it looks like it's going to be a death by a thousand cuts. the percentage of revenue created by the fans gets less every season (more coming from TV, sponsorship and corporate stuff) so for those that stop away there will probably be enough assets to sell to make up the shortfall.

 

the main worry is that there isn't a sniff of someone willing to take over so don't think for a second that purely getting rid of ashley will change things as even if he wanted out it might not happen.

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A typically perceptive piece by Henry Winter in today's Telegraph:

 

 

Even SportsDirect’s annual report trumpets Ashley’s business as the “consumers’ champion”. So why such current disregard for the customers and consumers otherwise known as Newcastle supporters?

 

Ashley’s appointment of Joe Kinnear as director of football on a three-year contract has been greeted with inevitable dismay by the majority of them. Their anger understandably intensified when Kinnear made derogatory remarks about them, questioning their intelligence in a radio interview. A SportsDirect employee showing such a lack of respect to customers would not last long.

 

Since it emerged that Kinnear was returning to St James’ Park, the spotlight has primarily shone on the ebullient, often foul-mouthed, always opinionated Dubliner with the gift of the gaffe. After four years out of the game, Kinnear was hardly going to turn down the opportunity of such an influential role at such a prominent club. Three years’ money? Thank you very much.

It is pointless blaming Kinnear. The real question is why Ashley has rolled this 66-year-old human hand grenade through St James’ Park (unless it is an elaborate plan to try the patience of Alan Pardew to the point where the manager walks).

Ashley knows that Newcastle fans themselves will not walk away, that they are not like SportsDirect customers who can switch to another store if the service or goods are poor. Newcastle fans are loyal.

 

St James’ Park dominates the city landscape figuratively and emotionally. Season‑tickets are a laminated show of faith. Deciding not to renew is a huge and painful step. Ashley understands that. So why push some towards considering cutting bonds made at birth? At the very least, some fans may simply record their dissent by limiting expenditure at the club shop, at the catering outlets, affecting Ashley’s profits.

 

Ashley is a brilliant businessman, an entrepreneur who incentivises his SportsDirect workforce to deliver impressive returns. I have only ever had five minutes in his company but even during that fleeting period it was impossible not to admire his sharp analytical mind. He took a couple of the footballing issues of the day, dismantled them and then put them back together, suggesting possible solutions. So his alienating of Newcastle fans defies the logic he applies to his working life.

 

So where to go from here? First, Ashley needs to remind Kinnear of some of the principles that make SportsDirect so successful. The new director of football has to show more respect to fans, staff and players. Creative tension may work in rock bands and theatrical troupes but teams and clubs need unity. Togetherness was one of the key ingredients of Wimbledon under Kinnear in the Nineties. There were some feisty characters in the dressing-room but they usually stood shoulder to shoulder when it counted, when the opposition threatened most.

 

At Wimbledon, some of the players would talk positively about Kinnear’s man-management qualities, the way he challenged them to do better. Marcus Gayle improved under Kinnear’s constant coaxing. When Gayle suffered a dip in form for the then Premier League side, Kinnear would shout: “Do you want to go back to where you come from?” Back to the third tier.

 

If Ashley’s gamble is to pay off, he needs Kinnear to appreciate that the game has changed, that motivating modern millionaires requires more subtlety than his Wimbledon rhetoric. Footballers now are far more sensitive than the old Crazy Gang. If Kinnear wants to keep Newcastle’s best players, he cannot refer to Yohan Cabaye as Yohan Kebab. He called Charles N’Zogbia Charles Insomnia in 2009 and the winger left. It is disrespectful. I have interviewed Kinnear down the years and he is a far shrewder individual than the circus act currently filling bulletins and headlines. He must know this aggressive stance is dangerous. Ashley might want Kinnear to shake Newcastle up, avoiding a repeat of last season’s wobble, but not to the extent of civil war.

 

It is hard to imagine Ashley allowing one of his executives to belittle those business reporters who help to shape the image of SportsDirect. Kinnear should urgently rethink his denigrating of what he calls the “snidey press”, who are actually individuals who care about the club and spend their life chronicling its importance to so many. Deliberately fostering a stressful environment is also hardly sensible for somebody who suffered a heart attack in 1999 and underwent heart bypass surgery in 2009. Kinnear should calm down and make some friends in one of the country’s friendliest cities.

 

Ashley also needs to advise Kinnear that his old recruiting grounds, lower leagues and non-League, are not as fertile as before. Newcastle have enjoyed success bringing in players from France. Ashley needs Kinnear to work well with the chief scout, Graham Carr, whose talent-spotting skills are much admired by other chairmen. Newcastle’s statement must have made painful reading for Carr and Pardew, saying they “will report into Joe”. Kinnear is in charge. The new director of football insists he will not pick the team but he’s above the man who does. Pardew has effectively been downgraded to first-team coach, unfair on a decent manager.

 

This is no way to run a club or a business.

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Guest Spark

How can everyone see this, except Ashley?  Beyond belief.

 

He can see it. That's why he's probably sat at home giggling like the fucking cunt he is.

 

I don't believe that. If we get relegated, then it affects him, too. It makes no sense for him to deliberately fuck with us. He just hasn't got a clue about football.

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How can everyone see this, except Ashley?  Beyond belief.

 

He can see it. That's why he's probably sat at home giggling like the fucking cunt he is.

 

I don't believe that. If we get relegated, then it affects him, too. It makes no sense for him to deliberately fuck with us. He just hasn't got a clue about football.

 

I'm past the point of 'he's naive'. The man just doesn't give a shit.

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