NUFC reveal latest financial results

Llambias and Ashley hard at work
Newcastle United have today made available the latest set of accounts for the year ending 30th June 2011.

The headline figure is that is a small loss of £3.9m was recorded during this period – our lowest loss since the days of Champions League football!

Turnover increased from £52.4m to £88.4m largely due to our return to the Premier League and the increase in TV revenue that promotion to the Premier League brings with it. Ticket sales are also up 16% with the club citing an increase corporate hospitality income being the main reason behind this, which figures as season ticket prices were frozen on our return to the Premier League.

Player wages are currently running at about 60% of our turnover (60.6%to be precise) which brings us roughly to what is considered to be a “safe” level of wage commitment. In the Championship wages accounted for 90.5% of our turnover while wages in our relegation season wages accounted for 82.7% of our turnover.

In terms of player sales, which is what most people really want to know, we made a profit of £5.4m.This includes the sale of Andy Carroll, so even after the famous £35m we only made £5.4m by the time we paid for everyone else. The club say that since then they have spent a further £25m on fees and wages for players. We’re also owed £5m from somewhere (Andy Carroll probably) and do all of our buying and selling in cold hard cash, which may explain partially why we get good deal for players as we pay everything up front.

The debt level is the same – £140m owed interest free to one Michael James Wallace Ashley although we have now cleared all third party debts such as the rather large overdraft we had during the Championship season.

I haven’t been able to check this all out by looking at the accounts myself yet. They’ve been submitted to Companies House today and usually take a while to appear as available on their website. Once they are available though I’ll get my £1 out and have a look to see if it all matches up or if there is anything hidden in the detail. In my experience the headline figures usually match, but there are usually some hidden bits that don’t get published, such as any plans for debt repayment. The devil is inevitably in the detail.

Derek Llambias was suitably pleased with the results however. he took time out from kissing Ashley’s rear end to say this to the club website. Please note, it’s quite long-winded and basically says everything that I’ve said anyway.

“The Club’s financial results for the year end June 2011 are extremely strong. We can now count ourselves amongst very few clubs across the UK and Europe who are operating at close to break-even.”

“What is particularly pleasing is that we have achieved this whilst also ensuring we have a strong squad sitting firmly in the top third of the table and currently pushing for a European place.”

“Some of the key financial principles we set in place when Mike bought to the Club back in 2007 are now beginning to reap rewards. Most notably, our adherence to a strict transfer policy which avoids, or limits wherever possible, the acceptance of dated payments for players bought or sold. We believe it is a far healthier financial model to settle full transfer fees for players up front, not dated over a period of years.”

“We have dealt wisely in the transfer market and reinvested the income received from player sales into improving the squad. Our net cash spend on player transfers to June 2011, which includes the sale of Andy Carroll, was a receipt of £5.4 million, with a further £25 million in cash spent on transfers and players’ wages since June 2011.”

“We have also worked hard to address an inherited wages-to-turnover ratio which was unsustainable. Wages now account for just over 60 per cent of turnover and we feel this is a healthy and affordable level.”

“A further significant achievement has been to clear all of the Club’s interest-bearing debt, which in 2006/7 was costing £6.5 million a year just to finance the debt. Mike Ashley continues to provide loans totalling £140 million interest-free, for which we are extraordinarily fortunate. Once again, Mike has not taken any money out of the Club.”

You can say whatever you like about Mike Ashley, but the fact is that he is turning the finances of our club around. He may have done it in a ham-fisted way with a sledgehammer approach, but you could argue that tough approach has been needed. The results speak for themselves. We’ve gone from losing £37.7m a year when he first took over to losing £3.9m now, via a stint in the much less lucrative Championship.

The gutting thing is that our loss would have been less that £1m for the year had we not collapsed against West Brom in the final game of last season! Fine margins…

The promising thing is that next season could be even better. With a new sponsorship deal with Virgin Money to add to the mix, higher gates with more corporate revenue, more TV games, higher prize money for finishing higher in the league and chance of European qualification to boot we could in actual fact reach break even or even better next season.

Things, financially, are looking up!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

92 thoughts on “NUFC reveal latest financial results

  1. great set of results. Interesting Ashley hasn’t taken any money back as in the last accounts it said he was due to take £12 million by August 2010 a further £16 million by no sooner than August 2011 and £13.25 million still owed on players sales prior to Carroll sale.
    No doubt we are in a much better place than most clubs and that should help us keep our decent players (Colo and Krul contracts recently) and attract new talent.
    Well done Ashley

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  2. Ashley and Lamerarses statements that all of the Carroll money would be invested back into the club appears to be happening. The full accounts will be revealing but it looks that way.

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  3. The club sold players worth £36.7m – which included the £35m transfer of Andy Carroll to Liverpool in January 2011 – but spent more than £25m on bringing talent to Tyneside.
    Since the end of the financial year the club has spent a further £25m in cash on players and wages, although this does not yet appear on the club accounts. 😯 😯
    Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2012/03/08/newcastle-united-reveal-annual-accounts-for-2010-11-72703-30490016/#ixzz1oXRsxREF

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  4. Just shows, when people say ‘where’s the £35m.’ Well if this is to be believed then they have spent £29.6m of it already on players and wages and non of it has really gone in Mike Ashley’s back pocket has it. In fact it’s as absurd to think that as it is to think George Osborne sits on a big mountain of £50 notes.

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  5. 3HW – Maybe Ashley has taken that money back but its gone on paying thr 30m overdraft off? Just a thought 😉

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  6. nah,i just discuss with a financial guy and we both have the same thought that is,only once newcastle start breaking even and earning profits by itself substantially,then Mike Ashely will start re-collecting back his loan money.

    cause atm,even he wants to re-collect,the club doesn’t have enough to repay him yet. 😆 140m for goodness sake. 😯

    Which also means,he is gonna be here for long long time. Unless there is a rich *** guy willing to buy the club+paying mike ashley 140m. 😯

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  7. Anyway, 3.9m losses is seriously in football terms,peanuts.

    The moment we end this season higher position than last season,and if we get into europa,the club will definitely for the first team,start earning profits by itself. 😉

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  8. The previous accounts showed he was owed about £140 million from memory and looks like he is still owed that so don’t see how he can have taken anything back unless he took it back and then re-lent it to the club to pay off the overdraft – is that’s what you mean Toonsy?

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  9. Aof D at 8&9 – that’s spot on. The £3.9 million loss was due to player amortisation so in fact without this the club made a profit. Writing the value of players down is sensible practice and also means the small profit is now a loss on paper and therefore won’t pick up any tax liability (at least I think that’s how it works)

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  10. I’m very pleased with this ,we are in a very healthy position compared to some. You only need to look at Rangers and take a big intake of breath and say there but for the grace of god go we. Portsmouth too another big mess and only the other day i heard on the radio Manure are 750mil in the red!!! now that’s scary figures even for the mighty Manure. All in all i think we are going in the right direction with fees and wages ,under the old regime we would most likely be doing a Rangers /Portsmouth by now. Mark my words they are the tip of the ice berg many more will follow i’m sure ,i’m just so glad that the Toon don’t look like being one of them.

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  11. Is that 3.9mill not incluing players ‘Depreceating’ as well though, so we may in fact have made a cash profit?

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  12. RORYCN – yes made a profit after player depreciation:

    Mike Ashley’s Magpies finished the financial year – which ended on June 30, 2011 – with an operating profit of £13.3m.

    Figures also revealed that the value of playing staff dropped by £17.2m in the period, but this is a standard accountancy tool.

    This meant the club made an operational loss of £3.9m.

    Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2012/03/08/newcastle-united-reveal-annual-accounts-for-2010-11-72703-30490016/#ixzz1oXfVZzfw

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  13. We’re still owed 5 million on transfers apparantly so we in fact made a small profit, we’re currently on track to make a 10 – 12 million profit for this year

    Fair play to Ashley and co, should shut up the people saying he’s taking money out the club (although I doubt it)

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  14. So much for Ashley pocketing the Carroll cash.. There should be more than a few out there with red faces after reading these figures….

    Pretty crazy couple of seasons. The Board has us practically breaking even with a reasonable wage bill AND and we’re 6th in theleague. Quite remarkable considering where we ended under FFS or where we were with relegation.

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  15. good to hear, hopefully with a return to Europe/more succes in other competitions, more will be interested in the club and then we can be like liverpool with a massive fan base, who without them would be in a similar position to rangers and portsmouth as they are stupid with their money. Imagine if we had their world-wide fan support with Ashley’s finacial structure and Graham Carr’s scouting prowess, we’d dominate transfer markets and still be finacially sound, pushing our way up the league :mrgreen: “SNAP OUT OF IT ANDREW” 🙁 😆

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  16. Looks Like lovekrands is out of the season,and out of the club.

    All the best. 😐

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  17. It makes me wonder where we would get to if we qualify for the champions league for say 2 seasons running . These results are fantastic considering the present financial climate and when we consider the quality signings that have been made you have too say well done Ashley credit where its due he has shut a lot of us up and put our club into a healthy position both on the playing field and in the accounts .

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  18. AOD
    sucks for him, he was talking the other day about wanting to get his 100th career goal with NUFC before he leaves in the summer 🙁

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  19. Tiote talking up NUFC earlier saying why would he want to sign for a big club when he was already at one 🙂 but he knows himself that CLUBS DON’T SIGN CHEICK TIOTE, TIOTE SIGNS CLUBS! 😆

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  20. 3HW – No what I meant is that the 30-whatever million to be repaid over the last two seasons was to repay the 30-whatever million we took out as an overdraft during the Championship campaign.

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  21. Brilliant set of figures these, and I’d have no problem with Ashley starting to cream off any profit to pay back his loans… once there is profit.

    Just one niggle left: If Ashley and Llamearse (sorry, I still have to call him that even with good news!) would just be honest with us about the naming, I think I’d go along with it. If they just said something like, “look – Mike’s bankrolled the club, kept it afloat and turned it around out of his own money, and he’s still foregoing about £1m a month in loan interest. All he wants in return is to get some free advertising for his other company by calling SJP after it while he owns the club.”

    I honestly think that would do the trick, wouldn’t it? Just a bit of honesty, and an acknowledgement that it’s temporary?

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  22. The way I see it is if we can increas the turnover from £88m by say £10m then £6m goes on squad wages which equates to over £100k per week, 2 or 3 good players. 😆

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  23. @Whumpie – yeah I think I’d go for that, fair do’s to him for loaning the club 140 million interest free

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  24. Jeez – with Lovenkrands and Best out for season and Ranger being a complete tw@t we only have Shola the mackem slayer as backup – the only problem with that is that we don’t play the mackems every week !!

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  25. Does this £3.9m loss include £178 the club had to fork out to clean the graffiti off the west wall?

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  26. Much as i hate the name change and it will always be SJP to me ,i think it’s only fair he gets something for a 140m interest free loan . Thing is how much is the advertising worth in real terms (club name rights i mean ) anyone know?. Once he has his money back will he then start paying for the right to use his company name on the stadium or will he get his money back when and if he sells as part of the sell price,does anyone know how it works? .The Ashley era has been a bit like medicine ,leaves a bad taste in the mouth but ultimately makes things better/healthier it would seem.

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  27. Stevep @ 16, the 5m owed will count as profit in the year the sale took place (presumably this year – probably related to Carroll), so its included in the 13m 3HW mentioned at 15. We just dont have the cash yet

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  28. It makes for interesting reading. Some of us predicted a break even point by last season so we were pretty close. I would think a 5-10 M pound profit is in order for this season. Ashley has spent more than I thought he would. No details on what Colo’s new deal is worth but he has proven himself over the last few seasons. A partnership with Saylor will be brilliant for us. Nothing more to complain about with the owner except the naming of the ground but that will keep for another day. More concerned now about the team’s recent performances which have been very sub-par. Still a good news day for us! 😀

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  29. i love mike ashley 🙂 , ill have his and dereks babies anyday 😀 😀 (if it was medically, possible!) 😀 😀 as long as he keeps our club from doing a rangers/portsmouth/leeds etc:-
    the figures do look really good, considering our relegation, so with a bit of luck, european competition next season, and the figures should make very good reading this time next year 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉

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  30. Premandup says:
    March 8, 2012 at 17:11
    The way I see it is if we can increas the turnover from £88m by say £10m then £6m goes on squad wages which equates to over £100k per week, 2 or 3 good players.
    ———————————-
    With the Virgin Atlantic deal, an addtional 750K for every table position above last year, and 500K for every TV appearance above 10, we should be approaching 100M I would think

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  31. Whumpie – reading the article I actually thought that. The interest saved would be about £1m per month, so you could even look at it as it’s costing him £12m a year for that advertising.
    I’m sure some won’t see it like that, and I have to be honest that the name change still doesn’t sit well with me like.

    These figures are incredible really when you consider where we were 2 seasons ago, really great work and they have really taken some stick during that time, making some really tough decision which they knew would upset the Geordie nation. But, it would appear that it was all done for the greater good.
    I’ve said in the past, you don’t become a billionaire just by luck or not upsetting afew on the way.

    Forgive my stupidity, but what period do these figures actually cover. Does this cover Jan gone as well?

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  32. Sorry for Lovenkrands.

    More often than not, he got goals when we needed them and he and Leon Best had a good partnership we never exploited as much as we should at times. I hope he signs for a good club since I doubt we will re-sign.

    I know most will come out with the “good riddance, we will get better” stuff but he was vital in our promotion year and his coming back to play – and score – the day before his father’s funeral should never be forgotten. Top man who can still help a team who play to his strengths, which we didn’t.

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  33. More proof that just vindicates my view regarding how the club is being run….properly!

    Anyone see Mark Jensens comments about Ashley has only just started to get it right in the journal….the fact & what a lot of people do not realise is that the reason it’s right now is due to decisions made in the past, decisions that had to be made & were always going to **** people off!
    it doesn’t just happen overnight!

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  34. Funky@36- Got to agree Lovenkrands has always given his all for Toon and people forget how soon after his fathers death he resumed playing as well. I think he has a genuine love for the club ,sadly he’s not at the level to hold down a starting place now we are in the PL ,but i wish him well what ever he does next.

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  35. It’ll be interesting to see how .org, worky & his propaganda (broken) machine spin this… 🙄

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  36. Witters, I read comment 40 and went to look at the other place… and I saw a comment of yours but now it is deleted 😀

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  37. Regarding Loven – agree with comments made, he has been a good servant to the club and I wish him well in his recovery and whatever his future holds.
    From a Newcastle point of view, with him and best out it may make Pardews decision to play Benny off Ba or Cisse abit easier and I’d hope to see someone like Campbell or Hooper benefit

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  38. This is the thing Susan…for all their self righteous bullshit they’re just hypocritical fascists, suppressors of free speech, you can only give opinions on that site that adhere to the party line yet they compare ashley & co to adolf hitler & the he (hitler) way brainwashed a nation. A horrible website, ran by a horrible **** with very little following thank god!

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  39. Andymag@42 &18- Nothing wrong with daydreams i thrive on em 😉 .Yours is as good as any i reckon. 😀

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  40. Richie…it looks that way! Can’t even even log in now…but I’m sure I’ll get round that :mrgreen:

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  41. TOONSY @49 aye mate,i just think of it as a scum site,and why would you want to join that simples 😆 😆

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  42. Pleased with the figures – all they have to do to make my year is get Colo signed up to a new deal, we can’t afford to lose him for free next year

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  43. STARDUST where you been in troys bin,he signed a 4yr one,and krul5yr or are you takeing the water 😉

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  44. Andymag – Your daydream at 18 mirrors what life could be like for us if this FFP thingy actually works.

    A lot of people are under the illusion that it starts next season and that thisvsummer will be a flagship year for spending. They are wrong of course as that ship has sailed already and THIS CURRENT season is the start of the accounting period.

    If it takes effect properly it will allow clubs with organically high incomes such as ourselves to establish at or near the top again as, simply put, we’ll have more self generated cash than all bar five or six clubs in the league but even then they won’t be able to significantly outspend us anyway.

    If it works of course, which I have my doubts about…

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  45. wonder if its right some makem posted hes at the reserve game and the toon fans are going mental smashing the place up ????????

    anyways thats the gossip on the jungle drums night lads and lasses

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  46. haha Newcastle united fans at the reserve game against Sunderland r kicking off and tearing down all the Sportsdirect signs n throwing them on the pitch Hahah

    thats all iv seen dont know if its true?? ON facebook so prob *****

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  47. Is it me or are things going alittle too well for this to be NUFC?
    We have just signed up Colo, Krul and Raylor and Tiote has came out saying he isn’t planning on going anyway as he’s already at a big club. These figures prove we are a really stable club now. We start winning games as the season draws to an end and players are going to be desperate to join us in the summer I would have thought.

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  48. Left me line in the water, popped to the fridge for a beer and when I got back I had a little tiddler on the line 😆 cheers Ice – only a nibble I accept but Im taking it! 😆

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  49. What the **** is all this about ripping down SD signs. Ashley may have made mistakes but the club are doing fantastic on the pitch and asw e have seen today are doing well financially and you get mindless idiots doing this. Shameful moronic vandalism 👿 👿

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  50. STARDUST used to know a fishermen or two,they ended up like the fish,a blood bad smell to be around

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  51. Hopefully these ‘fans’ are hit with huge bans. Need to make an example, not a £20 fine and slap on the wrist.

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  52. If that’s true about the signs then I’m utterly disgusted. It’s something you would expect from the dirty inbreeds down the road, not from our lot.

    Hope they are banned for life the idiotic cunts.

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  53. Canny set of results it has to be said.

    Hopefully this will allow us to push forward again next season.

    Important summer I reckon.

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  54. Great, on the day we get some good news about the club a bunch of moronic dickheads decide to drag us through the dirt by ripping down signs . Well that’s really going to endear MA to the fans isn’t it. Just when it might be possible to build some bridges between board and fans this happens typical. 👿

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  55. Actually, Kim, I wonder if it will help the MA image. I think there may be a degree of sympathy for the owner and board in this case. I can see the fan base at large really being pissed off at this, ESPECIALLY, with the good financial news, and perhaps supporting Ashley in all of this. I think the book should be thrown at these fools…no excuse for vandalism.

    And of course, there go the good feelings that seemed to be building. Stupid unneeded drama.

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  56. Don’t generally have anything against lee ryder but he’s coming out with tweets insisting that the game was already stopped and the ref didn’t have to stop the game for this because a free kick was waiting to be taken. Yes, that’s the issue, not that fans were ripping down parts of the stadium (albeit unwanted parts) 🙄 🙄 🙄

    idiot clutching at straws. I don’t want to see a big deal made of it or the clubs name dragged through the mud but don’t get pedantic and use a london rioter’s excuse: But the window was already broken, i thought that meant it was ok to go in and take anything i wanted 🙄 👿

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  57. Fantastic news .. vamos MASH …. with MASH the news gets better and better … lets go lets go .. just a little further to go so that the remaining nonbelievers accept the name change (fact that we’ll always call it st james means it aint really a big problemo) and we’ll be flllllyyyyyyying … TOON TOON

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  58. @NorCal Toonfan:

    I think the problem is as much about endearing the Toon fans to MA. Without doubt he did a lot wrong at the beginning and many fans will never forget that, but even before this incident a lot of fans are just plain stupid. The endless demands for big-money signings when you’re trying to do things in a more sustainable way must get pretty grating. If fans ran the finances we would be in the **** with Rangers and Portsmouth.

    I do care about the name-change, but it will always be St James no matter what a few signs say. I think he’s doing well and i’d much rather he stay and continue to build the club up slowly. At the end of the day it’s in everyone’s interests to just get along, and **** like this doesn’t help 😈

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  59. I agree, Jon R. Still can’t believe that Rangers seem to be on the verge of disappearing. At least that’s the impression I get. I am very thankful that we have seemingly strict financial guidelines in place to insure the viability and survivability (not really a word) of NUFC.

    You have to think that the mistakes that MA has made are so minor compared to the ones that the owners of Rangers and Portsmouth ( and a few others) have made. Seriously in the grand scheme of things a name change to hallowed ground sucks…but at least you can go there every other weekend and watch the team you love play, and play well.

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  60. Belta articles in the times .. its all coming together nicely .. told you hitman we’d be sweet and you booby .. toot sweet man

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