Whatever happened to the NUST?

Remember them? The Newcastle United Supporters Trust? Well where are they now? There was once a time where you couldn't get away from them, so what happened?

Well in short they are still ticking along, no doubt awaiting the next chance they have to steal a bit of the limelight.

They didn't quite achieve their mission of owning the club outright, in fact they never really got anywhere near it despite taking membership fees with the aim of doing so. Fair play to them for trying though, but the practice of it was never going to work.

The whole introduction of the NUST was one monumental balls up, and I am sure they will admit that. They lacked a strategy and tried to run before they could walk whilst dishing out ridiculous claims over how the club was being run, including claiming Mike Ashley was making £7 million a month from the club.

Fair play to them and all that, as they appear to have taken a step back and had a bit of a reshuffle, but their diminishing presence is something that seems to have gone un-noticed.

Anyway, and I'm getting to the point now, bear with me, would it have ever worked? If they had pulled it off, do you think we would have the club we all want, the club we all yearn for, a club that is competing towards the top of the table? Or would have it ended in disaster?

I realise that this is probably a bit deep, and maybe a bit of a random thing, to be thinking about as we prepare for the derby match on Sunday, but it's one of those 'what if' things that regularly float through my head.

I personally feel that the club would have failed had NUST taken control in the height of all the troubles of two years ago. They displayed a naivety that would have been hurtful to the club in the long run. I realise that the notion was born out of a love for the club, but in this instance, and as the song title goes, love will tear us apart.

Mike Ashley is not everyones cup of tea, and still isn't, and probably never will be. But in some cases you have to say that it is a case of better the devil you know. We'd have gone from one clueless owner to a group of clueless owners who would have run the club with their hearts rather than heads.

It's all done now of course, and the NUST seems to have settled down a bit since then, but what do you think would have happened if they somehow got in?

Would fan ownership really have worked at Newcastle?