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Gimp's too busy scranning sausage rolls in the server room to do owt useful.

 

:lol: 

 

Nah, I cant keep any personal belongings in their anymore let alone food, after the head Infra guy came up and took photos of my aftershave, moisturiser, shoes and coat hangers. Grassed me up to PG&R.

 

 

 

:lol::lol: worra kernt.

 

Worst of it is, he sent me an email as i was out on lunch saying that he might be back up etc, never once mentioned my personal belongings.  :lol:

 

Poor form that mind. Snide as owt.

 

Oh yes.

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https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/we-come-back-mike-ashley-16489307

 

'We will come back when Mike Ashley is gone' - Wor Flags explain their reasons for stopping displays

Newcastle United fans group Wor Flags have spoken out about the decision to allow Rafa Benitez to leave the club

By Andrew Musgrove

16:00, 26 JUN 2019UPDATED16:26, 26 JUN 2019

 

Fans group Wor Flags says their much-loved displays will not return until Mike Ashley sells Newcastle United.

 

Reacting to the news that Rafa Benitez will leave his role as manager on June 30th, Wor Flags had originally said they were on 'hiatus until further notice' but speaking to ChronicleLive, the group now state that until a new owner is in place, there will be no flags flown on the Gallowgate.

 

Asked what it would take for the displays to return, a spokesman for the group said: "Ashley has to go."

 

"There are people in the group who are cancelling their tickets until Mike Ashley leaves this football club - so it would be fair to say that [the hiatus] is until Mike Ashley goes.

 

"It's gone on too long, and we can't keep pretending that everything's okay.

 

"We know the club like to use the images of the displays that we do but it just seems like we're going along on a ride that says 'Everything is okay', but we just don't feel we can do that anymore.

 

"While Mike Ashley is there we just don't feel it is right to pretend everything is okay."

 

This hasn't been an easy decision for the group who helped boost St James' Park's well known atmosphere and take it up a level.

 

From flags with the faces of legends, a message to Benitez or even a ChronicleLive front-page - the group have shown creativity, flair and a passion for the club.

 

The cost has been astronomical - tens of thousands of pounds - and long hours have been put in by the group to ensure the displays run smoothly.

 

One of the group's proudest moments was the reaction when they unveiled a flag for Miguel Almiron's home debut.

 

It read 'Quiero Contar Contigo' - which roughly translates into 'I want to rely on you, and I want to do this together.' It was a phrase that Almiron had carried throughout his career and his reaction to it was very positive.

 

It was typical of the positive impact the group had on Newcastle United.

 

The research into that flag showed their commitment to the cause. The journey to Poland months later to collect the biggest flag ever flown on a European terrace, re-emphasised their desire to turn the match-day experience into something special.

 

Anyone who watched that game against Liverpool will recognise the emotion that display provoked.

 

The players loved it, the fans who donated knew their hard earned cashed had been put to good use and more importantly Rafa Benitez loved it.

 

Benitez spoke countless times about the displays, and the impact they had on his players but they're no longer his players and he is no longer the manager of Newcastle United.

 

The group began after Benitez agreed to stay on as manager, and spiralled from there with the Spaniard even inviting them to the training ground to meet the volunteers.

 

"He was key, the group started on the back of him staying," the Group's spokesman said.

 

"We met him once, and he told us that we need to keep behind the team - that was last season when people were again getting a bit up about Ashley. Rafa just told us to stay behind the team and that the players love the displays, and they meant a lot to them.

 

"Who were we to ignore that?

 

"It meant a lot when he met us as a group, that he loved the work that we did and it's very sad to see him go.

 

"We wanted Rafa to be the man to build this team, so we were always more than happy to back his word, support the team and do the displays.

 

"We fed off his positivity, and now he is gone, it's difficult for the entire fan base to take. It's a joke of a decision."

 

The group decided shortly after the club confirmed Benitez was leaving to call time, for now, on their displays.

 

As individual fans some have cancelled their season tickets while some will still go to St James' Park. As an organisation, though, there was a united decision to keep the flags locked away.

 

"Everyone was distraught (when they heard the news Rafa Benitez had left)," a spokesman said.

 

"Certain members will continue to go to games but we all agreed that we couldn't continue with the displays; the want to do so is just not there. The enthusiasm just isn't there anymore because it feels fake.

 

"As a group we're not going anywhere, we will come back when Mike Ashley is gone. The flags will return, the big one you saw against Liverpool? That will be used again.

 

"He won't be here forever but it's hard because we have spent all that money, put in all that effort and fans have donated, and it is a difficult decision to take.

 

"But this doesn't feel right - we have members of the group who are cancelling their season tickets, one of them after 43 years.

 

"It's not something we've decided to take lightly, it's hitting people quite hard that we seem to be going through another episode with Mike Ashley as owner.

 

"It feels like we're trying to force something - to the club, and to the players - but it's just not right.

 

"We're still going to back the team but we just don't feel that we can put on displays which portrays everything is okay."

 

The group have been clear that their 'gripe' is not with those 'good people' within the club who have helped with their displays, providing access before the games and storage, but simply with the owner.

 

They'll continue to work with the club pushing the agenda on safe standing, and continuing to back the foodbank and other projects in the community - something Benitez was keen to do.

 

The Group said: "Benitez 'got it' - that can be interpreted in different ways but he made himself very much part of the community from day one.

 

"From the foodbank to bringing fans into the training ground, he did all sort of things and did everything right.

 

"He wanted more from the football club because he saw the potential - and he's just been let down.

 

"I think the majority of people are singing off the same hymn sheet that something has to change - this is just that one step too far.

 

"They will try and get someone in who will try to live up to the name of Rafa Benitez. They will try, whether they will succeed who knows.

 

"But the issue is that the fans wishes are constantly be ignored, and the fans wishes were quite clear - Rafa Benitez was to remain as manager. They've just let him walk, it is devastating."

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Guest singintheastand

Don’t buy any shirts sanctioned under the Ashley regime. Retro shirts only, protest outside the ground on match days before, during and after the games. Sponsors will soon pull out and starve the cunt.

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Guest covmag

Respect what wor flags have  done.

Amazing.

Are they boycotting the games anarl?

 

Not read it?

 

Not In  full.yes I'm a tool...respect lads .sorry  O0

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Well done Wor Flags, hopefully the news will sway some to rethink there attendance.

 

seconded. those fellas have done themselves proud

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Guest covmag

Respect what wor flags have  done.

Amazing.

Are they boycotting the games anarl?

 

Not read it?

 

 

twitter says only "some" members are not renewing , this is not all of them, they have said some of them are still going 

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Could someone copy that article here? My ipad crashes when i try opening the page..

 

Mike Ashley could have had it all at Newcastle, but will go down as a mean loser

Brian Reade

4-5 minutes

 

The most insulting part of Mike Ashley’s latest kick to Newcastle fans’ teeth was the words used to justify it.

 

“We have worked hard to extend Rafa Benitez’s contract over a significant period of time,” was his explanation for the Spaniard no longer being their manager.

 

And if you believe that, you’ll believe Ashley was genuinely shocked to hear a Commons Select Committee tell him one of his Sports Direct warehouses was more like a “Victorian workhouse” or “a gulag” than a modern place of work.

 

He was clearly happy to let the club’s most talented and best-loved manager since Bobby Robson walk away, because any boss wanting to keep a world-class employee doesn’t offer them the same wage on a one-year deal and refuse to back him with enough money to compete. And you don’t cut off all communication with him. It makes no business sense.

 

But then, neither does treating your loyal customer base with a sadistic contempt.

 

Benitez gave Newcastle's long-suffering fans hope but has been effectively forced out (Image: Getty)

 

Yet in the 12 years since Ashley picked up Newcastle for £135million, on a whim, he has messed with their heads on such an illogical, unparalleled scale that a psychiatrist would surely conclude he gets off on it.

 

He sacked well-loved managers Kevin Keegan, Alan Shearer and Chris Hughton, and imposed Joe Kinnear, Dennis Wise and John Carver on them.

 

He renamed their hallowed ground after his sports-gear firm and sold their iconic shirts to Wonga.

 

He wrote off all cup competitions, gave Alan Pardew an eight-year contract and has just priced the new replica home shirt at £65, making it the most expensive in English football.

 

Ashley has treated the Newcastle fans so poorly you'd think he gets off on it (Image: PA Wire)

 

And through all those bizarre decisions, he imposed a Stalinist black-out on all information about the goings-on at St James’ Park.

 

It’s seemed deliberately vindictive.

 

As Keegan revealed last year, he was hurt at being “treated like dirt” by Ashley and his henchmen, and was appalled at their “disregard for people”.

 

Fans get that hurt in spades. But nothing appears to have hurt them as much as Benitez being effectively forced out, because he offered them genuine hope of a revival. He was the real deal. A talisman who could lure a rich owner with the prospect of building something special in a proper football city.

 

The supporters have wanted shot of Ashley for years... (Image: PA Wire)

 

...instead, it's beloved manager Benitez who is leaving Newcastle (Image: Getty)

 

Benitez can be a political animal, but the motives behind his grandstanding are nearly always to take his team to the next level. All he wanted under Ashley was the chance to buy quality players, enabling him to compete with those clubs trying to break into the top six.

 

But buying quality and ceding control runs contrary to Ashley’s autocratic pile ‘em high, flog ‘em cheap business model — one he still believes can work in top-flight football despite 12 years of evidence to the contrary.

 

Take the £50million budget he offered Benitez to re-build a squad, which has had a minus £11.2m net spend for the three years he’s been there. Newly-promoted Aston Villa have already agreed a £22m deal with Bruges for striker Wesley Moraes, who Newcastle had been scouting for months.

 

Newcastle are a huge club who had a world-class manager but Ashley refused to show true ambition (Image: Getty)

 

The real puzzle about Ashley is how a businessmen worth £2.5 billion failed to grasp the possibilities offered by owning a huge club with a world-class manager in an era when football success guarantees colossal financial reward.

 

Potentially he has a Jaguar dealership on his hands but runs it like a spivvish second-hand car-salesman.

 

If he’d possessed more courage and vision, with a bit of luck he could have had it all — a club worth four times what he paid for it, the love and gratitude of a city, and respect as a shrewd business operator rather that a rag trade hustler.

 

Instead he’ll go down as a mean loser who refused to seek the silver lining lurking behind the Tyneside clouds.

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