Newcastle will only try to sign 2 players and have NO interest in Ince nor Eder.

In pards we trust (get's coat)

 

Wish he would get his.

 

Sadly it's more about the owner than the manager. The owner's primary concern is to have his marketing engine in the premier league, preferably not attracting too much lofty ambition, whilst turning over a profit where possible. Mr. Ashley is not "high risk", he does not come from a background of cash in suitcases and kalshnikovs, he did not fight in a pit for some land with oil in it. Mr. Ashley opened a shop. When it turned out British folk wanted cheap sh*t to wear and it turned a profit, he opened another. And so on. He doesn't spend more than he has, he doesn't throw money away, he doesn't love Newcastle United and doesn't want to cheer on his team in a Champions League match.

Alan Pardew fits a very succinct bill - he is cheap, he knows he's lucky to have the job and if Ash/Llamb tell him to sell everyone, he'll sell everyone. He's not KK, he doesn't have a morale compass. I've not really seen a manager as undermined as this guy since KK stormed out with Dennis Wise gawping in his wake. Ashley is not a populist owner either, anything but - he is an arrogant man with no regard for others' opinion, save maybe Llambias. Why not? He's worth £1.6bn on this philosophy, and if more of us were like that, more of us would be richer than Tulisa.

So all in all it's a bit of a desperate situation; doesn't really matter what we think of St Alan, he's going nowhere. Doesn't really matter what we think of the owner, ditto. I'm pretty sure Ashley bought this club because of the captive audience - because it doesn't really matter how crap it is, at least 45,000 will rock up at church the next week believing it will get better. I don't think another club in the country boasts such blind, sweet folly.

 

I don't understand why people have this preoccupation that one of the most successful businessmen in Britain would adopt the worst marketing plan imaginable as is so often suggested. Ashley will have realised after last seasons brush with relegation - as the panic pocket dipping in January proved - premier league survival is essential. Setting yourself up to survive poses a risk to his business and own pocket not worth taking.

Add to this the fact that surely it is in his interests to expand his branding beyond the same, relatively small captive few and the notion that he would purposefully stunt what could be a very cost effective marketing campaign for the sake of a few million quid is quite bizarre. What was the first thing we were greeted with at SJP during European nights sportsdirect.pt, sportsdirect.fr and sportsdirect.ru - a truly captive global market, particularly in France where the clubs stock is high. Contrary to the ill founded belief that nufc is simply free advertising space, surely it is far more likely such a successful and ruthless entrepreneur would want to extend the reach of his brand as a bi-product of spreading the clubs name across Europe? It's just a thought, but considering he will make zero money from the club itself as a business he will understand that a successful and popular club makes for a far more marketable asset which in turn spreads the name of sports direct in a far more effective fashion. It's not rocket science, just marketing basics, don't tie your brand in with a unfavourable partner, bad for business.

 

I understand your theory but we have already been relagated once and he has not learned from there

 

So when he says one defender does that mean colo will stay as if not we are screwed look at last year


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Sounds sensible.

And Ashlye has learned vast amounts since we were relegated. He made the same mistake the club made with Sir Bobby after the season wefinished 3rd: only bring in one senoir player. And they learned from that.

If one starts from the relegation season, I would rate Aashley as one of the better owners in the Prem. Before that, of course, he was awful

 

Your comments are rational, but the facts do not lie. Can you explain, if Ashley indeed adopts this relatively straightforward approach, why we had a situation like last Summer in terms of player recruitment? If it is so important to succeed on the pitch, why would you approach a season with Mike Williamson as your first choice CB? No disrespect, but that there was not one fit CB behind him when your team is about to play 30 games or so before your next transfer window smacks of ignorance, stupidity or just simply not really being interested enough. We sold in January our ONLY goalscorer. Cisse had limited chances before, granted, but Ba had bagged something like 13 or 14 goals into the New Year and then mystifyingly wasn't replaced.

You seem like you understand marketing, so I'll throw this at you - any business will adopt strategies and campaigns to improve their value, their turnover and so on. Mike Ashley maybe attributes, in part, some growth within SportsDirect to his NUFC investment. He would almost certainly look at the p&l sheet in terms of what benefits did the club see in campaigning through the Europa League, for the CapEx involved in getting to the Europa League, what are the benefits vs. the simple sums of paying JUST enough to stay in the Premier League. It's entirely feasible that Pardew has been given similar KPI's - that is to say a cup run is just not important enough, there is no return on that investment, vs staying in the Premier League. Indeed I think that rising just two places in the league is worth more, monetarily, than winning the FA Cup. I think the problem isn't that Ashley doesn't adopt business acumen in dealing with NUFC - quite the opposite. I think the problem is that he adopts TOO MUCH of his business stance within the club and we are being run as a series of balance sheets, profit & loss reports and managed through KPI's, ROI and MBO's. What other club refers to first team players as "purples", for chrissakes?!

 

I am not sure how you made that assumption, but I was talking about Ashley's ambitions to get the club into the Top 4. I don't recall ever once been dismayed a couple of seasons ago when European qualification was obtained.

Just because I have an opinion on how an organisation is run does not mean that I subscribe to that point of view, as my previous postings will show. I have constantly been concerned about Ashley taking over the club and if you recall I mentioned that two page article on him in the FT when the announcement broke which must be one of the first comments about Ashley on the boards. So, I fail to understand how you would gather such a thing about me.

 

We wont buy anyone that will improve us and we are on the slide and it will get worse before it gets better i.e once Pardews excuses run dry and hes gone we might see our best players playing well again.

 

Jesus Christ

 

hahah,

we don't need another left back tho surly? Santon, Hadiara, MYM as cover?

2 CB is Colo leaves i would agree, and hughes would be sweet.

I wouldn't expect many players in tho!

 

I would consider Santon a winger and MYM a centre back personally. I think we could do with a first left back or at least some cover if we feel Haidara is ready to make the grade.

 

I think that is a bit over the top but he certainly is a top man and great manager

 

I like your shout for Rose. Tottenham will probably ask for too much though. Especially after he did so well last season.

 

He would be ideal. Loads of problems of course. Cost, Spurs selling to us, Mackems being his preferred choice if he was going, not to mention they'll probably want to keep him. He would be perfect for us though. Young, English, talented!

 

This. Spurs do owe us. For the '80's.

 

The reason I say that is that I understood you to be expressing the opinion that Ashley should cause the Club to spend meavily in the transfer market so as to get the club into hte top 4 rather than concentrate on balancing the books.

If that is what you were saying, it would mean breaching the FFP rules.

 

One out of left field. What about Wayne Bridge on a free if we are desperate to keep costs down? Got his game on track at Brighton following his troubles at Man C. 32 yr old but could be a good influence for young Haidara and you'd get 2 or 3 years out of him. Bit of experience and Pards could shag his missus. Not someone I've ever really rated that highly to be honest.

 

I feel a bit of a Judas saying this but that's not a bad shout if Pardew get's the bullet after a few games next season, he's got a poor record on crosses but has performed miracles in other areas.