[Jaspersharpe]

To stop Fiend from spontaneously combusting (and knocking over his little army of painted orcs) let's shift the discussion on all things football (and in particular Newcastle's demise) to a new thread? Perhaps a Mod could copy the last few posts on The Works thread over?

[Teaboy]

[..........following on from the other thread] Obviously NUFC are far and away the biggest basket case but I'd have thought anyone left holding a Premier League club at the moment is shitting themselves. Hardly any of them have ever turned a profit and the inflated prices people were paying for clubs was because there was a speculative bubble - it was always assumed there'd be another, richer, stupider buyer to come along and buy the club at an even more inflated price. If that stream of wealthy buyers dries up then a loss making club with huge liabilities is essentially worthless. People talk about the the brand of a football club but you have essentially got a finite market and your biggest money making opportunity (TV) is restricted by the PL cartel, besides, lets face it NUFC were not attracting crowds of 50k when they were last in the lower divisions (maybe towards the end).

Setanta going bust means that next time the TV rights are negotiated Sky may be the only gig in town so without competition they can force down the price they pay for matches. Be interesting to see how Sky subscriptions weather the down turn, lucky for the PL there are still a few years to run on the deal.

[Jaspersharpe]

Aye. It can only be a good thing too as the sensibly run clubs without ridiculous levels of debt will be fine. As ever, it's those who try to punch above their weight who will get hurt the most but I wouldn't be surprised to see some "big clubs" in serious trouble. Chelsea are forever on a knife edge as if Abromovich ever decides he wants his money back, they're screwed.

[GraemeA]

Good work Jasper 

I wonder if Gav will show his face

[Sloper]

Not being an association football fan I'd say that the situation at Liverpool could be interesting what with the need to refinance a shit load of debt......

Personally I'd like to see all the teams bought because rich twats couldn't afford / find a new trophy wife going to the wall and the gfame returning to something that reflects the Corinthian spirit, jumpers as goal posts, off the field violence and petty racisim.

[Jaspersharpe]

Good work Jasper  

I wonder if Gav will show his face

Unlikely.

[Falling Down]

Taxi for Tevez?

[Jaspersharpe]

Looks like it. The scum supporters will be livid.

[philo]

as a sunderland fan id still rather see hull go down over newcastle after watching phil brown sing after their last game

[Moo]

Back when I was a wee lad living a mere stones throw from the metro centre, my dad and bro went to get the nufc badge tattooed on their arms and they offered me to go along and get it done too, I was never massively into football and now I'm really really really glad. Still give it a few years and we may have a football team again.

[moose]

To me, NUFC's problems largely stem from the media creation and encouragement of the Toon army: ultra-passionate, replica-top clad morons, obsessed with the coming of the next Geordie messiah.   From my own experience of living in the North East, these people were a minority.  The great majority of fans I met in the pubs of Newcastle were a phlegmatic bunch: hoping for the best but generally resigned to mediocrity.  At the most hoping that the vast income they generated for the club might result in some halfway entertaining football and a cup run. 

Unfortunately for the club, the vocal minority, people who seemingly spend all-day everyday outside St James's eating Gregg's pasties waiting for a transfer story to break, appear to have the exclusive ear of the local / national media and set the tone for the perception of the club ("best fans in the World", utterly obsessed with attacking football etc).  It seems that every Chairman for years has spent millions pandering to these people: vainly attempting to appease a tiny number of people who wouldn't be satisfied if NUFC won the league with a team of homegrown miners and shipbuilders playing in a ten-up-front formation. 

The result: no stability and a litany of players and managers bought solely for short-term gains and back-page headlines.  NUFC supposedly have at least 15 players on wages of >£50k per week.  Pretty much none of these have any transfer value, being either old, injury-prone, rubbish, having a bad attitude or all four (Owen, Viduka, Duff, Barton, Colloccini... ).  They'll all be content to see out their contracts in the Championship - pretending that they are sticking with the club out of a sense of loyalty whilst continuing to draw full salaries (Ashley supposedly didn't know to insist on relegation clauses).

Still.... all part of life's rich pageant - the Premier league will be duller without them (although it might give the Championship some much need coverage).  And the perception of them as a big club, too good to go down, made me some money.  I won a few hundred quid betting against them in the final days: the odds on teams to beat them (and the other bottom clubs) were ridiculously generous  - seemingly based on their need rather than their ability - the myth that relegation threatened teams play better when desperate.

[tomtom]

Great idea Jasper, have some waddage...
All we need now is a fake tan Phil Brown style emoticon. Why oh why did someone give him the microphone.... thats almost as bad an idea as when Ashley asked Keegan to come back. When that happened you knew the writing was on the wall...

[GraemeA]

as a sunderland fan id still rather see hull go down over newcastle after watching phil brown sing after their last game

Wash your mouth out young man. For 2 reasons

1) The Skunks never gave us any sympathy. They deserve no one elses sympathy
2) There is a chance, just a chance, that Phil Brown was laughing at the Barcodes. After all, he is a born and bred Sunderland fan 

[Jaspersharpe]

Yes good points Moose. This article is pretty much spot on about what's happened to Newcastle over recent years.

As a confirmed hater of Man U The Scum, when Newcastle nearly beat them to the title (and then imploded when KK lost the plot) I had a soft spot for them for a while. They were entertaining to watch and (despite the fact that you always had the nagging feeling that they would fuck it up) very nearly prevented yet another title getting into the hands of old red face. It was all downhill from there of course. The litany of fuck ups since then is truly amazing especially when you look at the number of previously successful managers who have failed miserably there.

The talk is of relegation being a good wake up call for the club but I think the financial situation makes it a hell of a lot more serious than that.

On a lighter note.......



 

[tomtom]

 

Oh dear... being a Hull city season pass holder I unfortunately feel its my duty responsibility to respond...

What a cock!
Brown divides opinions amongst fans... personally I like the fact he wears his heart upon his sleeve, but a little PR management could go a long way: e.g. ditch the fake tan  (I know its de-rigeur in parts of Hull but he should know better) and keep away from the Mic.
Some have questioned his team selections and sometimes odd substitutions... but you have to remember that he's only been there 2 1/2 years - and when he came in he stopped us being relegated from the fizzy pop league and then through a mixture of good fortune and endeavour won us promotion. He has since secured managed to achieve a 2nd season in the top flight. Thats with easily the weakest squad in the BPL. I recon 5 or 6 of Hulls regular (not crocked) squad are of BPL quality.. the rest are still left over from (significantly) lower leagues.

I wasn't there on the last day to witness celebrate our historic defeat by Man U. I watched if from a hotel room in Toronto. Torture (and that was the game). Regarding Browns singing, at first I thought it was a bit disrespectful to the other relegated teams  - what appeared to be gloating. But having been at similarly momentous occasions (inc. Play off final) I think it was Brown getting caught up in what was real joy at managing to survive! It means alot to the city (reputation and income) and to the fans - and watching Hulls descent into the drop zone since Xmas was a real finger nail destroyer and this was (I think) letting off all that steam.

But he's still a cock and should learn to shut up a bit every now and then.

Looking forward to Mid August when the roller coaster starts up again!

[Jaspersharpe]

It's a shame Bullard got crocked straight after you signed him as he would have made a big difference. As in, you'd have been safe with games to spare.

[tomtom]

It's a shame Bullard got crocked straight after you signed him as he would have made a big difference. As in, you'd have been safe with games to spare.

I think so - our midfield was then Boetang (great player but not mr creative) and Ashby (played in every league - a real warrior but dubious BPL quality).. LOts of press talk to the Man City dressing down as being the turning point, but amongst HCC fans our downturn was linked to the departure of Marlon King. Glad he went after a row with the manager (and was nicked for hitting a woman in club immediately after) but when he was gone we didnt have a hold up figure to knock the ball down to the 'scamperers' (Giovanni, Barmby - anyone else with legs who could get there..). THat and the lack of barn door hitting strikers! Still, for next season Fraizer Campbell is in the offing and Kevins Davis and Nolan would be useful Boltonesque grafters...

[Zods Beard]

Some good stuff from the BBC website

Chants of the season:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/funny_old_game/8077666.stm

And some of the more humorous stories of the season:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chrischarles/2009/06/comedy_awards_of_the_season.html

The personal highlights for me is the Wycombe fan who managed to get on as the fourth official by pretending he was qualified, only to celebrate when they scored. Get in.

[Jaspersharpe]

"You don't know what you're doing!"

 

[tomtom]

"You don't know what you're doing!"

Its 'traditional' for Hull fans to sing 'you're going home to a shit hole' to the away fans in the closing mins of a game. Sadly, its not even ironic (which would make it a bit better...) Anyway, the Chelsea fans were good value this year and responded with a loud chorus of 'we're going home to our mansions' complete with loadsamoney wad waving gestures   

[nai]

More newcastle mockery

[GraemeA]

Fantastic. Have some waddage.

[Jovial Geordie]

Well I suppose we have to take it all now. We have given out enough over the past.

What our relegation does show though is how mismanagement can severely fuck up a club, no matter what size support they have. The majority of other toon fans came to the conclusion we were going down shortly after Christmas, so why none of the management team could is beyond me. The squandering of natural resources by the management, it it had occurred in any other environment would have had Greenpeace holding a protest outside. One of the more suitable examples is instead of buying some quick players and a left back we ended up with Kevin Nolan and Ryan Taylor, who it seems the only reason for buying was to stop him scoring goals against us. Wigan must have pissing there pants laughing at swapping Taylor for N'Zogbia.

But it still means I now have an excuse to do down to Sheffield at least twice a year and I have always like Bristol so here is looking forward to the new season. Although it is still debatable if we have a team at all as Ashley seems intent in selling off all our players in a move obviously taken the Sports Direct school of marketing.

[Jaspersharpe]

What our relegation does show though is how mismanagement can severely fuck up a club, no matter what size support they have.

Like Leeds you mean? 

[Dolly]

Ronaldo finally off to Real then ..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/default.stm