Absolutely moronic. Why are Newcastle fans so suicidal around every transfer window? Its embarrassing. We have actually signed a player on loan. We would like a striker but its not world ending if we don't get one.
I know. A lot of people that are not renewing there season tickets. I do not blame them either. This is a smell the coffee. Transfer window.
He doesn't seem to realise this model may have just about kept us up 4 or 5 years ago, but times have massively changed and the cost cutting model just isn't going to work now - with smaller clubs like of Bournemouth, Swansea, Leicester, Brighton etc now regularly paying £15m+ for decent players in attempt to stay up, then us paying £5m for a striker like Joselu and relying on free transfers and loans is obviously gonna send us down. He did the same last time we came up, with minimal investment in the team in our first season back up in 10/11. This team didn't look that great in the championship for a lot of last season, and it's blatantly way below Prem standard. How did fatty become a billionaire with a business mind like this???
At a guess, he was competing with people even stupider and more complacent than he is. See Dave Whelan for a prime example.
This is it. I'm not worried. There will those saying "yes but all those below us and scrambling deals through late". Some will get assistance from it, some won't. You only have to look at that striker we signed in a panic move Doumbia. We have enough to stay up. If the manager ups his game, we should be ok. I'd like a striker and goalkeeper. It would be nice, but its not as if we are relegated without as some would have you believe. I wish they'd just do away with these windows. Have one window in the summer between the end of May and end of July. After that you can't sell or buy anyone. You can release people on a free transfer or sign people on a free transfer but other than that, no business. The coaching in this country would improve as they would have to rely on that rather than a cheque book.
People ask why Ashley as a business man of some considerable success cannot see what NUFC needs from him. They ask questions like “how did he make so much money when he is stupid” etc The answer is in the question, Ashley is a business man end of. If his business is failing and he gives it a cash injection of £50 million, he would expect to see some improvement and problem solved. In football an owner sanctions say £ 50 million of spending on players and the following season the manager says, sorry but we are still struggling, or our striker wasn’t as influential as we had hoped he would be, we need another £xxxxx to buy this player and that player. It happens every window, even at the top clubs. Did Mourinho or Guardiola say, nope don’t want anyone new, perfectly fine as we are, put your money away. That’s what l think Ashley doesn’t get and never will. Money in his world should solve problems not create new ones or perpetuate old ones. He won’t spend enough to effect the slightest change today and so we will continue to fall behind and stagnate.
Keegan said this too, the point is you cannot stand still, you have to invest time and time again just to stand still. Yes, it's ridiculous, but that's just how football is and has always been. The thing that perplexes the most is I know it, you know it, everyone on this board knows it, most in and out of football know it. Ashley - mystifyingly - never 'got it'. One can only summise that he has to be thick, ignorant or both. We're in flux. We need Ashley gone so for the next three months we need Rafa Benitez to have the season of his life. We need him to somehow drop the pre-match substitutions, drop the pointless isolation of Mitrovic, define our structure so we play every week with determination and fight to give us a shot at survival. At least in two days we can just get behind it and leave all this negative bollocks behind.
we are as good as down man ...we have no decent goalscorer ... simple as that .. it has been proved time after time . other teams down there have bought players .
Keegan was a dreamer though. He had no concept of running a business or running a football sensibly. He just demanded more and more money. Every time he didn't get it he threw his toys out the pram and threatened to leave. Don't get me wrong, it was great for fans because he could persuade any ****er to join and persuaded the bosses to spend money they didn't have.
Steady on, mate, it's not exactly doom and gloom. Bournemouth - Lewis Grabban. Brighton - Locadia & Ulloa Hudds - Pritchard & Kongolo Stoke - Niakate, Bauer & Stafylidis Swansea - Nobody West Brom - Sturridge, Gabr West Ham - Mario. Of that entire list, only Sturridge & Joao Mario could be players I'd have liked. I don't know or care about the others!! It may be that all those unknown names are world beaters, but when you look at Lacazette, Batshuayi, Bakayoko, etc., struggling in spite of huge ability and reputations, then I wouldn't bet on it.
Here's the thing. If you could give me a level playing field where everyone had to do it Mike's way, I think football would be absolutely brilliant, back to where it was. I ****ing hate how money-driven its' become, I do, but I just wish Mike had done a few bits more to put us on a level playing field with the likes of Southampton, Stoke, Leicester and Everton. Nobody could deny that should be our place. Pay his way for SD advertising, then investment in the training ground, youth set up and some experience on an executive board would make a MASSIVE difference. He could still stand firm on his "we spend what we make". I personally don't have a particular beef with the model, it's the implementation of it that's been so badly done.
bournemouth = just got king and another player back from injury . will not go down brighton = maybe hudds = strange team , got fight may stay up . stoke = willing to pay 15 mil ,for c mid player , new manager will stay up . swansea = maybe , but will give a fight ,that is for sure . west brom = will not go down ,proved against liverpool ,what they can do . west ham .= no chance will stay up . bearing in mind ,our injury record in the past 20 years , and strikers , that are not good enough at this level. nailed on for me . with all the negative atmosphere , at home , proved with latest results . looks like the championship for me ..not doom and gloom m8 ...reality .
Its the fans who might take us down with the negative approach to being a supporter in my opinion. We've been here before and learnt nothing. Stop wasting our time with unrealistic expectations of a transfer window, getting all "am ganna hing mesel if we divnt get a striker like", get behind the team, the manager and the regime. Together we stay up, divided we get relegated.
Yes but businessmen surely need to be aware of the economy and the environment they operate in? Ashley made said £50m investment on players when we went down (albeit wholly sanctioned by outgoing player sales), went back up and he seems to think it's all well any good nothing more needs to be spent, despite a) us being in a much harder league, and b) prices having recently rocketed in the league, so when we buy a £5m striker, he'll no longer get a good player like when he first took over, but a Stoke reserve. The point of a successful businessman is he knows the market, plans ahead and knows how to cope with change....when Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Swansea and Brighton are putting us to shame in terms of investment, things are very ****ed up.
Good lord, can we please stop referring to Ashley and his money?!?! The. Club. Spends. What. The. Club. Makes. Not Mike, Mike doesn't spend anything, and he doesn't take anything apart from free advertising. Mike Ashley does not feature in anything else. Yes, his structure is poor, his people are awful and his decisions are worse. For an aspiring bunch of optimistic supporters it sucks the life out of everything. But we have to be aware - after 11 years of the same - that the club is simply not allowed to borrow any money. Mike has invested in: 1. The football club itself 11 years ago. 2. Paying off the debt, by way of creating a debt. 3. Adding further loans to the club in exchange for Championship season promotions. He. Does. Not. Do. Anything. Else. What we should have come to terms with by now - and this is why Sky, etc., should stop ****ing talking about NUFC until they bring in George Caulkin or someone who understands - is that all other clubs run "standard" football models, by borrowing and offsetting against future earnings (apart from Chelsea and Man City). But even those two technically "owe" money to their owners, it's just 100% likely their owners won't call the interest-free loans in. We are the only club who don't borrow. What this means is we are probably the best equipped to deal with relegation/failure, but the least likely to challenge for a cup or find some decent talent. Our place is somewhere between 6th in the Champ and 17th in the PL, that's our league. Our aim, our goal, is 17th, but every year we are more likely - until Ashley goes - to finish 18th-20th, or 1st-6th of the division down. We have to accept this. Nothing we can do about it. We need to ignore all of the noise (or lack thereof) above Rafa, and simply support the ****ing **** out of Rafa and below. The only way we are going to see more progressive ownership who might speculate is to survive this season. We then get more TV money, which instead of being offset against the cost of relegation, can then be used to strengthen the team, academy and facilities. Then we either get sold, or we go again. The problem with a lot of this is the internet. It brings tonnes of rambling, negative opinion forward without moderation. It means people can gather in virtual gangs with virtual pitchforks and scream of revolution. But it's all just typing. All that happens is a wave of ill-feeling is created, but the crowd still gather at an actual match, but with a load of negative thoughts and it seeps onto the pitch. One misplaced pass from a low-quality turd like Diame and it's GROOOOOAAAAANNNNN. Sky love it - "the natives are getting restless" they say through waterfalls of drool. "Noocarsew will lose Rafa if they ain't careful" comes the information from Sky's panel of Londoners. If only we could bottle up the away support and make it the home support x 10.
Unfortunately Ashley owns the club so he sanctions the spending and transfers, so you really can't just view them as completely independent entities when Ashley is controlling everything refusing to allow transfers, placing limits on the ages of players we are allowed to sign, putting wage caps on the squad etc.
