Dan Ashworth (on gardening leave)

[SUPERTOON]

1 minute ago, Stifler said:

Man Utd are possibly the weakest club in the current top 6, who do you think are dropping out if we move into it?

 

Long term the ambition will be to win the league etc. We’ll be aiming to leave them behind.

 

 

 

They maybe currently the weakest club in it, but the point is if they sort themselves out they won’t be. 

[Scoot]

13 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Darren Eales talked about us looking to become a top six club which competes for trophies.  That doesn’t sound like leaving Man Utd behind to me. 

 

Whereas the actual chairman of the club spoke about us being number 1.

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, Stifler said:

Man Utd are possibly the weakest club in the current top 6, who do you think are dropping out if we move into it?

Spurs would always be the best chance of overhauling a club.  Man Utd aren’t the ‘weakest club’ - they arguably have the weakest side currently.  Man Utd will be a ‘top six’ club as long as it’s a ‘top six’.  If it was a ‘top three’ they’d be in that too.  
Man Utd’s turnover dwarves Spurs’ turnover.  To catch up we’d have to be as successful as Man City, and somehow make the same dodgy sponsorship deals that they’re being charged with.  Newcastle United will never be a bigger club than Man Utd in my lifetime.  But I’d love to see us be more successful than them for a period - that doesn’t seem impossible.

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, Scoot said:

 

Whereas the actual chairman of the club spoke about us being number 1.

He did, that’s true.  We’re no closer to that than when he said it.

 

I don’t think winning the Premier League or European Cup is impossible.  But overhauling Man Utd to become England’s biggest club?  Not happening. 

[Menace]

Why not? They have been ran to the ground and mostly irrelevant since Fergie retired.

[Dr.Spaceman]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

He did, that’s true.  We’re no closer to that than when he said it.

 

I don’t think winning the Premier League or European Cup is impossible.  But overhauling Man Utd to become England’s biggest club?  Not happening. 

 

I'd much rather be consistently winning trophies than be considered UK TOP DOGS.

[The Prophet]

Depends what you mean by "leave them behind" really.

 

Given time, I fully believe we'll compete with them for and beat them to honours, which would do me. In terms of stature though, it'd take decades of sustained success for us to get near them.

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, Menace said:

Why not? They have been ran to the ground and mostly irrelevant since Fergie retired.

They have, and yet are still generally considered one of if not the biggest club in the world.

[The Prophet]

3 minutes ago, Scoot said:

 

Whereas the actual chairman of the club spoke about us being number 1.

 

We won't do one until we do the other though.

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

I'd much rather be consistently winning trophies than be considered UK TOP DOGS.

Likewise.  Couldn’t give a shite about it - I care about us and want to see us win trophies.  That’s all that matters.

 

It is just when I see NUFC supporters going on about becoming bigger than Man Utd, as if it’s inevitable, it just comes across as delusional. 

[toon25]

2 hours ago, The Bonk said:

 

That's harsh to pin on him.  Out of curiosity, what do you think he could of done better? Had Tonali's phone scanned for gambling apps? Grease and have a network of contacts in the Cosa Nostra, Camorra and Ndrangheta?  

Tbf, it's the type of due diligence I'd expect from a DoF. I dare say a £55m ball dropped will have pissed off most owners of elite football clubs.

[Optimistic Nut]

5 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

They maybe currently the weakest club in it, but the point is if they sort themselves out they won’t be. 

 

 

FFP puts pay to the likes of us or Villa putting their top 6 status in danger anyway. It's corrupt as fuck.

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, toon25 said:

Tbf, it's the type of due diligence I'd expect from a DoF. I dare say a £55m ball dropped will have pissed off most owners of elite football clubs.

If he can’t apparently take any responsibility for the cock-ups, not sure why he should be given any credit for the successes. 

[nufc123]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Spurs would always be the best chance of overhauling a club.  Man Utd aren’t the ‘weakest club’ - they arguably have the weakest side currently.  Man Utd will be a ‘top six’ club as long as it’s a ‘top six’.  If it was a ‘top three’ they’d be in that too.  
Man Utd’s turnover dwarves Spurs’ turnover.  To catch up we’d have to be as successful as Man City, and somehow make the same dodgy sponsorship deals that they’re being charged with.  Newcastle United will never be a bigger club than Man Utd in my lifetime.  But I’d love to see us be more successful than them for a period - that doesn’t seem impossible.

First objectiv has to be finish above them before we are talking about anything.

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

 

 

FFP puts pay to the likes of us or Villa putting their top 6 status in danger anyway. It's corrupt as fuck.

It is, but unless someone has the appetite to fight it properly, it will unfortunately stay that way.

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

 

 

FFP puts pay to the likes of us or Villa putting their top 6 status in danger anyway. It's corrupt as fuck.

Without a brand new 70k stadium with corporate busting out the walls I can’t see how we even catch Spurs based on what we currently have.  Their turnover is pretty much double ours - the commercial deals don’t exist to allow us to catch up

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, nufc123 said:

First objectiv has to be finish above them before we are talking about anything.

Yep, something we’ve never done in my lifetime - and I’m 41. 

[Conjo]

2 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Not fans. People that work in the game.

 

Some of his teammates knew - that much is a fact. I believe decision makers at AC Milan knew too.

 

Giving you the benefit of doubt and say you are right in your assumption that many people outside of those directly involved knew about it - how should Nickson/Ashworth go about getting them to talk about it? Hire a private PI on our transfer targets?

[Kimbo]

I don’t have any real ambitions of competing with the ESL clubs in the long run, the sport is rigged to prevent that sort of chaos. I’m mainly in it for the odd cup run and some entertaining games. Basically the same as before the takeover, except those things are more likely now.

 

Man U will be “back” eventually, but not in the short term. I think their current manager is quite poor and he’ll probably still be there next season.

 

 

Edited February 14 by Kimbo

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

12 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

It would be implausible even with an ability to spend shitloads more.  It’s Man Utd, they’ve been England’s biggest club for pretty much the entire post-war period.  Newcastle chucking money at a few players and winning some trophies isn’t going to change that.  Man City dominate English football at the moment, but they’re not a bigger club than Man Utd, despite Man Utd being hobbled by wasteful incompetence for more than a decade. 

I'm sorry but that’s a touch revisionist, they had a period in the 60’s and then were well placed to capitalise on the explosion in finances and exposure in the 90’s following the creation of the Premier League. But the narrative that’s they've always been the biggest team in the country is as mythological as the Loch Ness Monster. They spent 20 years nowhere near challenging for most of the 70’s and 80’s and have been miles off it for over a decade now. Another decade similar to the last and Manchester will be largely blue as kids won’t want to have the piss ripped every day at school. In exactly the same way as I'm sure the number of Mackem's in traditionally 50/50 areas has diminished over the last few years and will continue to do so, short of some utter disaster

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

I'm sorry but that’s a touch revisionist, they had a period in the 60’s and then were well placed to capitalise on the explosion in finances and exposure in the 90’s following the creation of the Premier League. But the narrative that’s they've always been the biggest team in the country is as mythological as the Loch Ness Monster. They spent 20 years nowhere near challenging for most of the 70’s and 80’s and have been miles off it for over a decade now. Another decade similar to the last and Manchester will be largely blue as kids won’t want to have the piss ripped every day at school. In exactly the same way as I'm sure the number of Mackem's in traditionally 50/50 areas has diminished over the last few years and will continue to do so, short of some utter disaster

Nothing revisionist about it.  Most still thought of Man Utd being England’s biggest club even when Liverpool were winning literally everything.  It’s not all about winning trophies. 

[TheBrownBottle]

4 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

Giving you the benefit of doubt and say you are right in your assumption that many people outside of those directly involved knew about it - how should Nickson/Ashworth go about getting them to talk about it? Hire a private PI on our transfer targets?

Do you honestly think that those involved in scouting players just look at the player’s ability?  Character comes into it.  Clubs were able to find out in the ‘70s what a player’s vices were.

[Stifler]

16 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Spurs would always be the best chance of overhauling a club.  Man Utd aren’t the ‘weakest club’ - they arguably have the weakest side currently.  Man Utd will be a ‘top six’ club as long as it’s a ‘top six’.  If it was a ‘top three’ they’d be in that too.  
Man Utd’s turnover dwarves Spurs’ turnover.  To catch up we’d have to be as successful as Man City, and somehow make the same dodgy sponsorship deals that they’re being charged with.  Newcastle United will never be a bigger club than Man Utd in my lifetime.  But I’d love to see us be more successful than them for a period - that doesn’t seem impossible.

In terms of historic success maybe.

15 years ago no one was picking Man City over Man Utd. Now look at them, who the fuck is picking Man Utd over Man City?

 

Their stadium is falling down. The rich Sheikh who wanted to buy them actually didn’t have the money to do so.

The guy buying them who is the U.K. richest person, who resides in Monaco, and is a self confessed Man Utd fan couldn’t even be fucking arsed to support them as he has a Chelsea season ticket. Look at his other clubs and sporting organisations, hardly the big fucking success.

He was supposed to be funding a new stadium for them, he’s not even handed the cheque over and he’s already half arsing it, weaselling his way out of it by begging the government/FA money for a Wembley of the North.

Their club legend publicly slammed the training facilities, nothing has even been mentioned about improving them.

 

Anyone who thinks they are on their way back is fucking moron, the Glazers, and Radcliffe will milk as much out of them for as long as they can.

 

Irregardless of any of this, they are a rival at the moment for our way up, and we should stay clear of doing any business with them, they will either want the best parts of us, or want to sell us the worst parts of them. Fuck them, and fuck Ashworth if he goes there.

 

 

 

Edited February 14 by Stifler

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

Nothing revisionist about it.  Most still thought of Man Utd being England’s biggest club even when Liverpool were winning literally everything.  It’s not all about winning trophies. 

 I"m a few years older than you and can assure you, no one not even Man Utd fans thought they were bigger than Liverpool in the late 80’s and anyone who even suggested it would have been laughed at.

[lovejoy]

Bored of it already.

 

stay or go, either is fine, but stop the rumours either way asap is my take.

 

if he goes we’ll just get someone else, couldn’t give a shit tbh. Brighton haven’t died, neither will we.