Who's backing Ashley again then?

Waaaah Waaaah Waaaah Joey left and now we're doomed!

Carroll, Nolan, Enrique and Barton left for one reason and one reason only. MONEY. They clocked onto the fact that the club isn't run by people who will throw money away on player wages. Carroll saw the money and was off after promising us the fans and the club that he was here for life and wanted to wear #9 blah blah blah bullccrap. Nolan wanted get his last big payout and retirement fund, why would we pay a guy £50k a week until he was 33 when he would probably struggle to make the 1st team this season. Enrique again claimed he wanted European football etc . . . . . . then joined a club that wasn't in Europe but happened to be paying £30k a week more, Barton much the same except he joined a club that are more likely to be playing Championship football than European football next season. I think some fans find it easier to blame Ashley than admit the players we've supported over the last few years and have claimed to love the club have left us for a bigger pay day.
Keegan was more deluded than a lot of fans if he thought we had the money to bring in Beckham, Lampard etc the days of big spending were plainly long gone the only one who couldn't see that was Kev
Ashley's biggest mistake, when we're near the bottom of the league, facing relegation. Does he bring in someone with managerial credentials? Any sort of management experience? No he brings in Alan Shearer, to appease us the fans. God love him, he's my favourite player of all time but had absolutely no clue how to manage a football club. The players didn't play for him, he couldn't motivate them and we went down.

 

I told you all didn't I

 

Alfie, it's not just Barton leaving, it's all of our best players leaving. Enrique left as we have no ambition, Carroll was forced to an extent, Nolan was treated like ****, as was Barton.

If this is the mentality of our owner then yes, we are doomed. Sell our best players, replace them with unproven, unknown players from Europe.

It wouldn't surprise me if we went down.

 

It would surprise and disappoint me if we went down. I honestly don't think it will happen though.

 

Hate to rain on your parade, but mentioning him by name probably increased the chances that he would respond.

I'd also add that I expected him to as well and as usual he has hit the nail on the head. Alfie is too smart to fall into the Carroll, Nolan, Barton and Enrique are the hapless and oppressed victims of the evil boss club. Negotiations are a two way street and just because they couldn't agree doesn't make one party the victim and the other the villain. There is no need to apportion blame. Those four chose money and/or ambition over loyalty for the club so they left. Simple as.

 

No mate, they left for more money elsewhere. Blame Ashley for it if you wish but because he wouldn't meet their pay demands they left.
Unproven? Isn't there 2 full French internationals, haven't they all played internationally at various levels? Remember those young lads Wenger brought in? We knew very little about them. Think their names were Thierry Henry & Nicholas Anelka, not to mention Fabregas, Flamini, Viera, Overmars & Petit, perhaps we should give up entirely and just play our kids, no one ever won anything with kids right?

 

So... you'e saying those Newcastle fans who actually think Ashley is damaging the club are not too smart? Hmmm.

Alfie you never let me down with your spinning my little cockney sparra.

 

**** Ashley. **** Shepard. **** Hall. **** everyone who has monitored NUFC in our best interests.

I've supported our rabble for over 25 years and as long as we can compete and few players make me stand up and shout in excitement then this club hast support.

We've been mismanaged for ever; from our current benefactor to a one eyed bloody pirate and we are still here.

We'll be here after Ashley and numerous other piratical incumbents and still playing football.

**** em all.

 

You don't have to be that smart to understand how contract negotiations work..you just need to understand what negotiation means Everyone is just angry that Barton walked out on us like a women who's been told to clean. If people can't handle that, they shouldn't be in this game..

 

They will be on more money elsewhere, but if NUFC wanted to keep them, they could have done. £6m for Enrique??? £0 for Barton.

Ambition for Enrique, Carroll was clearly told to go, Barton and Nolan not wanted. Our owners show no ambition at all, why should they stay just for mid table football because of the fans? Sorry, doesn't work. If MA had shown some ambition and wanted to progress then all of those players would still be here.

Money does talk, but Carroll and Enrique will go places. West Ham will come back up and QPR are spending money. Ambition.

God I wish we had some.

 

Remind me, how are your club doing so far this season? How will they do when the new financial rules come in? Can't fill your ground and have to bring 10 players each season, now that's some damn fine financial planning.

 

That's a moronic thing to say.

The club is in very little danger of going down compared to the other teams in this league. For example Blackburn are a team likely for relegation, we're far far stronger than them. We've got a few French Internationals in our side..France has one of the best national teams in the world, they don't pick lightly.. So I don't think you can say they're unproven. How can you be so pessimistic. Barton if anything is overrated, he often got caught out and had to rush back and help Simpson who's left in a **** position due to his mistakes. Yet people wont mention this, since Carroll left his crosses haven't lit the world alight either..

 

From the outside it looks like Ashley is butt-****ing the club and Alfie and his pals insist on telling you all not to worry - it's just a prostate exam to make sure you're helathy.

As for my club - what can I say; I trust Naill Quinn... he hasn't shown any signs of butt-****ing us so far.

 

If we don't buy, who is going to score to keep us up? Honestly?? Did you watch Best, Ba and Lovenkrands last night? Makes me cringe.

 

Sorry but Alfie is right. Alot of blame has been apportioned against MA because he hasn't caved in to all the financial demands from these players. I'm sorry but it cuts both ways. Why aren't the players blamed for asking for too much and in the case of Nolan and Barton throwing their toys out of the pram when they didn't get their own way?

I haven't enjoyed seeing them leave either (except Barton for reasons i've stated many times) but I don't go looking to blame anybody. I agree with the wage cap as a necessary step in securing our financial future and therefore accept that players who want more than that just have to move on. I see no point in taking it personally or apportioning blame. It is just one of those things.

 

Your manager has though

 

He once bought and donated a state-of-the-art team bus to Newcastle United but took it back when Kevin Keegan quit as manager.

Some details given to the Privy Council were released with information on the salaries of the Sultan's staff: His badmington instructor was paid 1.8 million euros (similar salary to masagists), the staff in charge of his exotic birds were paid 70,000 euros, residence personnel in his residences were paid around 6.4 and 10.5 million euros, and his 5 public relations assistants were given 8.3 million euros each.

His official residence is the Istana Nurul Iman.

Family feud
In February 2006 the sultan's legal feud with his brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah (in the media known as the 'Playboy Prince', because of his lavish lifestyle), was settled in London's High Court. In a surprise move, the sultan agreed to drop all charges against Jefri, whom he in 2000 sued for embezzling £8 billion ($15.4 billion) from the Brunei Investment Authority (BIA).

In 2007, a disgraced British barrister and his wife are due to stand trial in New York over allegations they swindled the Sultan's brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, out of approximately $40 million (£20 million). Thomas Derbyshire, 40, and his wife Faryshta Zaman, 30, who live in Hampstead, London, failed in December 2006 to overturn an injunction granted to Prince Jefri freezing all their worldwide assets. Derbyshire was once a very successful London barrister. His wife's claims to be a qualified barrister have been questioned in the court hearings and both have been labeled confidence tricksters by the prince.

Court documents filed by the billionaire prince in New York in November 2006 claim the couple, as his legal advisers, created numerous lucrative fake business deals concerning his New York Palace hotel, and sold valuable land and property owned by Jefri to themselves and diverted the proceeds into their own bank accounts in a multi-million dollar fraud and embezzlement scandal, allegedly using cloned companies and with the assistance of Zaman's mother Sam and brother Arzie. The couple also allegedly spent more than $5 million on jewelry, tattoos, motorbikes, parties, furniture and beauty treatments using corporate credit cards-even after their alleged crimes had been discovered and they had been sacked. The trial is due to begin in 2007. (sources: www.dailymail.co.uk ; www.timesonline.co.uk; www.nytimes.com)

Controversies
In 1997, former Miss USA Shannon Marketic filed a lawsuit against the ruling family of Brunei for $90 million. In the case, Shannon alleged that she and 6 other young women were paid $127,200 each for a modeling job in Brunei (whereas on the ABC news program '20/20', Marketic said she was supposed to provide 'intellectual conversations' with visiting guests of the royal family). These other women include former Miss Teen USA and future Miss USA Brandi Sherwood, who was invited along by Shannon, and Miss United Kingdom runner up Paula Bradbury.

Marketic maintained that she and the women were held as 'sex slaves' and were 'intimidated and coerced into performing physically and morally repulsive acts of prostitution.' They were apparently ordered to dance for 5-6 hours every night at parties during which their bodies and private parts were groped and grabbed by men. During the dances Shannon was also allegedly abused verbally with comments made about her bare breasts. The women were often told to go with a man to have 'tea' with him and then had sex with him. In her interview on '20/20', Marketic said that after 32 days of being held against her will, she managed to smuggle a letter out to the US Embassy; shortly afterwards, she was allegedly paid $10,000 and forced to fly back to the United States alone. The case was thrown out due to the immunity of the ruling family as heads of state. There has been no further investigation into this case although there are allegations both supporting and refuting her claims. Paula Bradbury separately sued the Sultan and won 500,000 pounds in settlement.

The king of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf spoke well about the Sultan to the Swedish press after a meeting the two have had, creating a minor controversy in Sweden.

Honorary titles
The Sultan holds an honorary commission in the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom as an Air Chief Marshal.

He is also an Honorary Admiral of the Fleet of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, a title given to him by Queen Elizabeth II when he took the salute at the passing out parade of the 2001 summer term at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, the Royal Navy's officer-training school in the United Kingdom.

60th Birthday
The Sultan celebrated his 60th birthday in July 2006. Hong Kong actor Eric Tsang was invited to attend his Royal birthday party in Istana Nurul Iman during his visit to Brunei for taking the Hong Kong TVB Documentary "On the Road" zh:?????) which is aired in Hong Kong TVB in March 2007. It is worthy to be noted that the Sultan is a fan of Eric Tsang. TVB is the only Hong Kong television station being permitted to take this documentary.

Other celebrations includes the Sultan visiting citizens with causal wears.

External links
The prince, the lawyer and his wife lose out in court (Jan 26 2007) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1296187.ece - article regarding Thomas Derbyshire and Faith Zaman losing appeal against freezing of assets in multi-million dollar fraud case

(Government of Brunei)

(Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People 1997)

(Brunei's Battle Royal) - "Business Week" article.

(Unofficial website about the sultan) - linked 17 February 2006

(Article from 11 February 2006, about his legal fight with his brother) - linked 17 February 2006

(Sultan of Brunei- New Internationalist magazine article, May 2000)

(Brunei, a Shellfare State- A report of a visit to Brunei)

Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei.

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Hmmmm, can't even spell the name of his own beloved Chairman. I don't think Niall would be too pleased about that!

 

You're my boss, I call you a twat in public and tell them you can't run your business, you're not going to sack me?

We got rid of guys (2 who's best years are probably behind them)with a grand total on what 4 international caps between them and brought in guys with more caps and we lack ambition? Interesting use of the word ambition. Routledge better than Obertan? Nolan better than HBA? Barton better than Cabaye?

 

Time will tell of course but at least he isn't the gambling partner of our owner, nor was he brought in by the shamefull sacking of a thoroughly decent guy.