Various: N-O has lost the plot over potential end of Mike Ashley's tenure

[J7]

Go on Stevie.

 

As I said earlier, I'm at a bit of a loss as to why he's saying this to the media when surely, if he wants to know, he just needs to ring Charnley or Ashley and ask them. I can only summise that Ashley is not telling anyone inside the club a single thing.

 

I thought that was understood anyway.

[Stifler]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

[Magpie]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

All in for that.

[Judge Holden]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

I've got 2 family members in the Northumbria Police and none of them have heard this.

[nemtizz]

Love a good notice about a notice.

[marki]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

      Going to be 100% bullshit?

[Stifler]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

I've got 2 family members in the Northumbria Police and none of them have heard this.

Like I said, I highly doubt it myself, it doesn’t add up.

[Robster]

He's asking the PL to hurry up and make their decision, no? Charnley and Ashley can't give Bruce that answer.

He's asking for clarity. If he wants it, he asks Ashley to ask the PL. That's the only way the information flows. I don't know what is gained by him mentioning it to the media unless Ashley, via him, is trying to put pressure on by becoming publicly vocal.

[Whitley mag]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

You sold that well from the off but fair play.

[Stifler]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

You sold that well from the off but fair play.

I thought to mention it for those who are eternally optimistic, but doubt the story or aspects of the story. It would make sense if the club had mentioned it to the police force, but I doubt the Premier League would, as I doubt they will be making an announcement.

[James]

He's asking the PL to hurry up and make their decision, no? Charnley and Ashley can't give Bruce that answer.

He's asking for clarity. If he wants it, he asks Ashley to ask the PL. That's the only way the information flows. I don't know what is gained by him mentioning it to the media unless Ashley, via him, is trying to put pressure on by becoming publicly vocal.

 

Bruce and Shearer coordinating tonight in my opinion. It’s a very consistent, public message that will be hard to ignore

[Scoot]

He's asking the PL to hurry up and make their decision, no? Charnley and Ashley can't give Bruce that answer.

He's asking for clarity. If he wants it, he asks Ashley to ask the PL. That's the only way the information flows. I don't know what is gained by him mentioning it to the media unless Ashley, via him, is trying to put pressure on by becoming publicly vocal.

 

He's just asked the premier league to hurry up. There's nothing more to it. Not really sure why you're making an issue out of it.

[Whitley mag]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

You sold that well from the off but fair play.

I thought to mention it for those who are eternally optimistic, but doubt the story or aspects of the story. It would make sense if the club had mentioned it to the police force, but I doubt the Premier League would, as I doubt they will be making an announcement.

 

I don’t think they would usually, but their seems some doubt in this case due to high profile nature of it.

 

I personally think they will have to say something, even if it’s a very bland statement.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Shearer said he wants it (a takeover/Ashley gone) to happen and is like every fan agreeing needing it to be done and dusted sooner rather than later with for the sake of the club going forward because it’s in limbo right now, that’s how I interpreted his comments anyway? Could he have been more unequivocal, of course, but I’m sure like many, he’s just as uncertain about all of this right now and where he sits on things and will be careful in what to say and what not to say for all manner of reasons too.

 

I want it to happen (a takeover/Ashley gone), but I’m conflicted on a whole number of issues regarding every aspect of it and I’ll probably never again feel the same way or have the same kind of emotional attachment to NUFC ever again regardless of the owner/s or any success.

 

For me the whole sport is corrupt and something I personally feel as a NUFC supporter, as a fan of football, as a follower of the game, alienated and at odds with most of everything about it all. Basically I’ve fallen out of love with it all, feel bitter, hatred even at times and totally anti this that and the other and in some kind of conflict with my club and the game, from the top down, bottom up.

 

Part of me wants this takeover to fail and the whole club and game to crash and burn, I detest what it’s become, is all about and now means and more so because it’s made me hate something that despite all of that, when two teams take to the pitch for 90 minutes, still remains pure in form in that anyone can beat anyone and anything can happen. If only now and then.

 

The other part of me hopes it does happen so NUFC can be successful and anything and anyone that rids our club and the game of Ashley. Who has turned me so bitter and hateful I hope everything he’s involved with and those with him crash and burn too. That’s the level of my hatred because he and others like him have killed in me something that money can’t buy, success can’t buy, that I find or did find pure and real and in my club, our club, something that only could have existed, survived and remained because of us fans, our love for the game and this purity that playing and watching football evens the playing field for all of us on and off the stands during those 90 minutes. A game our city and people formed their own club to have enter to support, watch, dream of playing for and which we could pass on to our own kids who could pass on to them. A club that is ours and only ours who win and lose in our name and when they do win do so to honour its fans, people and city or town and whose glory such victories belong to.

 

Today I fucking hate my club, football, everything about it and it is so painful to feel this way about something I naturally love and feel so passionately and emotionally about and my club which belongs to me, us, and my kids and their kids which my ancestors, yours, our city, past greats like Wor Jackie, Wee Hugie, KK, Shearer, Sir Bobby et al gave their best and worst even to be part of and help to sustain.

 

If it all ended tomorrow and there was nothing left I’d be less unhappy than I am right now or feel right now. Ideally every club would be fan owned, every penny would stay within the club, game and go on sustaining it all and every single club had an equal sporting chance based on an even sporting merit where if a club had bigger gates and generated more money through ticket sales, shirt sales etc. and therefore could pay more than a rival for better players or managers or whatever, and had an advantage over others as a result, at least it would be justified and pure.

 

Our existence and early success was bankrolled by fans, achieved by skills, acumen, talent, ability, where money only bought the signature of players, coaches, managers, trainers etc.

 

And then advertisers, sponsors and wealthy people got on board, the wealthy people never spending their own money, just acting as guarantors, underwriting cheques and providing fledgling clubs with a credit line and a cash flow. In return they got the keys to the castle in our club’s case and profited massively.

 

In the way Ashley has, who has taken the club’s own money out as his own while never putting a penny of his own money in, the money he pad for the club went to the Halls, the Shepherds, banks, shareholders. Money he put in to pay off this and that went to banks, creditors, financiers. The club’s own money which we as fans, which our club generated as a business through TV, sponsors, advertisers, sales etc. paid for or was paying for, Ashley paid off with his own money and then doubled up on taking back out of the club which he (legally I might add) did which in doing so made our club 100% financially dependent to one man and he turned into his own personal ATM removing its ability to pay back any debt owed to others through money it generated transferring any money it did generate into paying him back. Something he ensured as long as the club could do that and did so above anything else any other money generated on top would pay for the running of the club which given 50K + gates, regular guaranteed TV money/or parachute payments if worse case scenario struck was more than enough to do both, especially if the club could sell a player or too for big profits. Carroll. Sissoko. Cabaye. Etc.

 

That’s why I won’t hear a bad word said against SJH who from the start, got involved in the club out of a benevolent con ion even as a Geordie, as a fan, as a person who was in a position to help and secure the club’s future. He spent some 6m of his own money to by shares in order to take complete control and his original plan was to split his shares up onto a trust where fans would own a majority/most of the shareholding, he would get his money back commercially through construction, commercial deals with contacts etc. That never happened so he was left with selling them on for a loss or keeping them which if he was to do, he’d have to run the club as if it was a business and eventually he’d get his money back if he turned it around. From the outset he told everyone, if he was to be the owner/chairman, this would be a business deal and he’d want to be compensated financially and well for his investment. But he guaranteed any money the club made was the club’s and would remain with the club and his shares were stock shares only, he never drew a salary and for all the stick his son and the Shepherd’s got, they earned less for their role and what they did than they would have at any other similar sided commercial business. Indeed Freddie Fletcher was brought in on a lower wage than he was on at S&N or could get given his skills, experience and CV. SJH said the club couldn’t afford to pay him more or even the same as S&N could and he wasn’t gonna pay him so much more out of his own pocket, but he could have some shares. KK was on less than half the league managers, but was given shares, Terry Mac KK had to pay his wages out of his own pocket for the first year and a half and refused money out of the club to pay him back, instead he made sure Terry Mac and all his staff had long contracts, bonus schemes, company cars, their homes were paid for by the club and they would get some shares too. Which KK got as well and returned before floating on the stock market. That’s why the club give him a ten year contract and why Terry Mac remained under Dalglish who didn’t want him.

 

SJH thought the more money the club made remained in the club to pay for the stadium, players, wages, facilities etc, the better and so did KK and everyone else. Even the players. Sir Les could have earned more at Villa or whoever in wages, Shearer too, who like with KK when he joined as a player, S&N made the deal affordable, and all thanks to Fletcher and KK in the main.

 

Eventually SJH made a fortune in his initial 6m share buying when he sold to ??????, but that money come out of Ashley’s pocket, not the club’s. His son and the Shepherds’ moneh come out of Ashley’s picket, but they had pocketed a fortune from the club over the years with a salary, dividends etc. FS though spent his money on shares, which of course went in the pockets of shareholders and not the club, but he was reinvesting back into the club and whatever he paid himself and he got the club to pay up to his brother and sons and associates, you can say he deserved it because of what he achieved, what he helped the club bring in, just like Shearer’s salary he deserved for his service, 206 goals etc.

 

Ashley, however, deserves full all, not even his money to but the club back, because NUFC as a business, it’s revenues, it’s growth, it’s value, everything, has went down and like it or not, the Saudis are more SJH than anything in that they don’t expect a financial return from NUF and see the real value on what our club represents and that’s what it is as an asset.

 

As fans we could have gotten rid of Ashley years ago by boycotting and this pandemic has proved that without fans and our income, there is no club, game or business. Empty stadiums, zero food and beverage sales. Club shop sales. Stadium betting, programmes etc. And then an owner either has to actually put his own money in to keep it going because once the TV and sponsorship money runs out which it will with an empty stadium every week, and of course no money coming in from fans, there is no money.

 

That’s why Ashley wants out, because he can’t afford to put his own money in and can justify keeping it if he can’t take some out for himself on the sly.

 

For us, we will be owned by a country, by some of the wealthiest and morally corrupt people on earth and there is nothing we can do about it, we either welcome them and take part or don’t and walk away.

 

What we must never give up on though, as KK said, this is our club, no-one else's, and belongs to us, without us there is no club. Me, I can walk away, say no, because my club, my NUFC, is in my blood, my heart, my memories, it won’t die or disappear and I’ll always be able to have that club in me for me which is better than, well no club or another club.

 

 

[marki]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

            bland will do for me as long as its a go

 

You sold that well from the off but fair play.

I thought to mention it for those who are eternally optimistic, but doubt the story or aspects of the story. It would make sense if the club had mentioned it to the police force, but I doubt the Premier League would, as I doubt they will be making an announcement.

 

I don’t think they would usually, but their seems some doubt in this case due to high profile nature of it.

 

I personally think they will have to say something, even if it’s a very bland statement.

[FloydianMag]

Going to be 100% bullshit, but someone I know who knows people in Northumbria police force says that apparently they have been told from the Premier League that there will be an announcement this week and that they (the Premier League) will give them 30 minutes notice in order to get officers ready to prevent people gathering around SJP and in town.

 

I questioned why the Premier League would warm the police, and also that it would be NUFC making an announcement, not the Premier League.

Maybe the Premier League will make an exception in this case because of attention it has got, but I doubt the story in anyway.

 

You sold that well from the off but fair play.

I thought to mention it for those who are eternally optimistic, but doubt the story or aspects of the story. It would make sense if the club had mentioned it to the police force, but I doubt the Premier League would, as I doubt they will be making an announcement.

 

I don’t think they would usually, but their seems some doubt in this case due to high profile nature of it.

 

I personally think they will have to say something, even if it’s a very bland statement.

 

Something like “there’s no timescale to conducting the O&D tests” Don’t we know it.

[Shak]

Jesus man, how long did that take?

[Guest reefatoon]

Jesus man, how long did that take?

 

A split second to zoom past.

[Scotty66]

You know the PL are taking the piss when they still haven't made an announcement before HTT finishes writing.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Jesus man, how long did that take?

 

By the time you’ve read it all, our takeover will still be weeks/months away from being done and dusted.

[prefabtoon]

Think the takeover has stalled, so stuck between the in and out tray at the premier leagues office. 

[Collage]

So, HTT, do you just hit reply and post or do you have a bunch of Word documents saved that you ”publish” when you feel the time is right? Always wondered.

[Robster]

He's asking the PL to hurry up and make their decision, no? Charnley and Ashley can't give Bruce that answer.

He's asking for clarity. If he wants it, he asks Ashley to ask the PL. That's the only way the information flows. I don't know what is gained by him mentioning it to the media unless Ashley, via him, is trying to put pressure on by becoming publicly vocal.

He's just asked the premier league to hurry up. There's nothing more to it. Not really sure why you're making an issue out of it.

I didn't realise that I was making an issue out of it.

Just though I would pass comment as I find it intriguing that Bruce is asking the PL via the media when his boss has a direct line to them.

[Guest godzilla]

He's asking the PL to hurry up and make their decision, no? Charnley and Ashley can't give Bruce that answer.

He's asking for clarity. If he wants it, he asks Ashley to ask the PL. That's the only way the information flows. I don't know what is gained by him mentioning it to the media unless Ashley, via him, is trying to put pressure on by becoming publicly vocal.

He's just asked the premier league to hurry up. There's nothing more to it. Not really sure why you're making an issue out of it.

I didn't realise that I was making an issue out of it.

Just though I would pass comment as I find it intriguing that Bruce is asking the PL via the media when his boss has a direct line to them.

 

I Imagine he is desperate to know whether he stays or goes. If he goes he will want to know as soon as possible in order to find other employment as his stack will be high with a lot of Championship clubs after keeping us up (how he has I still don't know to this day mind).

[Guest Howaythetoon]

So, HTT, do you just hit reply and post or do you have a bunch of Word documents saved that you ”publish” when you feel the time is right? Always wondered.

 

Word count generator tool. You don’t think I type all that out myself do you?!