Ollie putting down roots

Love this fella.
He's clearly fallen in love with the region.

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/newc...-and-chairman-of-non-league-durham-city.html?

please log in to view this image

As of yesterday afternoon, former Newcastle left-back Olivier Bernard has become the new owner and chairman of non-league Durham City after agreeing to buy the amateur club, who currently play on an artificial pitch in Northern League Division One, i.e, the ninth tier of English football.

Bernard, who played for Newcastle for five years between 2000 and 2005, stills lives in the Tyneside area and is hoping to establish Durham (who spent seven seasons as a Football League club in the 1920s) as one of the region’s top feeder clubs.

“I want to make Durham one of the best feeder clubs in the north east,” the Frenchman told BBC Sport. “At the moment, I don’t think the area develops enough youngsters.”

The first obstable Bernard will face is the fact that Durham’s plaggy pitch will prevent them from being promoted from the Northern League into the Football Conference as teams’ home grounds are required to adhere to certain standards, with a real grass pitch being one of many stipulations.

“At the moment, I am not thinking about the problem of the pitch because that is a few promotions away,” Bernard said.

“I want to raise the profile of the club and get links with Sunderland, Newcastle and Middlesbrough.

“Look at the England team, how many of them are from around here? I’ll do everything I can to get players to Durham and help develop them.”

Smashing stuff! Bloody good luck to him.

 

he definitely considers the place to be his club.
Also notice Ginola comes across as seeing us the same way
it's always good when the fans and the area leave a lasting impression on players who probably weren't aware of exactly who we were when he joined us.
remember reading somewhere Bernard has some serious B.O. problems, so right then lads. Let's start the real discussion, what do you think certain players smell of??

 

How many of the England are from around here ?

Carroll
Carrick (granted he went thro w/ham)
Henderson
Johnson

However I do think it's a great idea always liked him

 

Ferdinand is the best when it comes to his effective for the club,he still says us
In his interview when talking about us
Legend

 

that's actually rather impressive from a guy raised in London and played for QPR, Spurs and West Ham.
It felt like he was with us much longer than he really was

 

Cabaye will smell exquisite.. better than any Armani Privee.
Jonas will smell of spiced beef.
Colo will smell of conditioner
Krul will smell 'herbal'
Tiote doesn't smell of a thing... odours are scared to go near him
Gouff smells of sweat as he's always active
Willo smells of iron
SAnton smells of Pizza
Debuchy smells of freshly tattooed ink

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/12653538

I would have thought he would have gone for somewhere in a more NUFCy area. Nevertheless, as a perosn from Durham and a football fan, best of luck to him.

I used to live on the same street as a certain S.Parnaby.

 

His dad is still a coach at boro ?

 

Wouldn't have any idea.

 

Obertan smells of "old space".

 

Love em! How about eau DE FEAT for the whole Sunderland team!

 

Bernard buggered off because he thought he could do better

 

If I remember rightly he came on a relatively low weekly wage and, after a few good performances other teams started to sniff round.
He eventually went for more money as I or you would probably do... and players like Nolan have done since.
What I deffo know is that whenever he wore our colours he gave 100% and fair play to him for that.

 

Quality! REP,

 

The wittiest thing I've read on here for a while.

 

low weekly wage being?

 

I think he wanted 25k-30k which was lower than other first teamers but a significant jump for him, he was only on 15k. I think we wouldn't go above 22k or something like that. He probably had a point as he was one of better performers at the time. Surprising we played hardball as we were so irresponsible with cash before and after!

 

Hacky is correct.
In real terms Ollie didn't ask for the earth. Freddie would rather spend cash on the likes of Kluivert, Boum and Luque.

 

Not sure if it was the same period but we did cough up truckloads and boatloads of cash for the poison dwarf.

 

Are you insinuating that the standards are pretty low here ?