The end game?

Pardew backed, for now
Pardew backed, for now
The past couple of days have brought various bits of news to our attention.

They concern both manager and owner at United but all of them seem to point towards an exit being on the horizon for the pair of them.

Some reports are suggesting that another poor result against Aston Villa at the weekend could spell the end of Alan Pardew’s reign as manager of Newcastle.

I’ve got to be honest and say that I do feel a bit sorry for Pardew in terms of who he has to work with above him but if you separate that away and look purely at results you’ll have to concede that they’ve not been very good.

Generally I think fans have been patient and he’s survived a run of poor results a few times previously but eventually enough is enough and perhaps the hierarchy are feeling the same way, even though the club were quick to deny (and ban the paper responsible for) these reports?

Speaking of the hierarchy, the man at the very top of it has not been spotted at St James’ Park since September. Has he lost interest in us finally?

A lack of spending anything on transfer fees recently combined with a large amount of TV money incoming and the sale of Yohan Cabaye looks to me like money is being recouped somewhere. Maybe that is part of his exit strategy. We won’t know until it happens.

However rumours have already started circulating about a potential new owner in the for of WWF supremo Vince McMahon who apparently garners some interest in buying us.

The guy is a billionaire in dollars (according to Forbes) but doesn’t reach that figure when you convert it to pounds. It’s also worth noting that he is only a billionaire in terms of net worth and over 10% of that is accounted for with his various houses and his yacht. I doubt he’ll be short for a round at the bar but he is not as rich as some reports make him out to be. It would take someone richer to move us on to the next level in my opinion

The headlines could be interesting though, in the unlikely event that something comes of it…

I doubt very much it will and I’m certain that there was nothing in it to start with. It was circulated ages ago and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that Anil Ambani name mentioned again. However it doesn’t mean to say that we aren’t being lined up for a sale.

I mean the club, so quick to deny any rumours about Pardew, didn’t feel the need to reiterate the owners desire to stay and succeed…

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.

135 thoughts on “The end game?

  1. carnt see ashley going anywhere(not unless a big offer comes in),he bought the club to advertise sd and its doing that with great effect.

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  2. This McMahon fella has already rubbished reports of him buying the Toon and as you say he is unlikely to splash much of his fortune on us.

    I see Ashley’s stake in SD is now worth £3 billion. That’s on top of the £900 million he trousered when SD floated 😯

    The bloke certainly knows how to make money shame he doesn’t know how to run a football club

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  3. I cant see Pardew being sacked for 2 reasons ,he is on a 8 year contract and it would be a big compensation packet Ashley has too fork out and secondly if Ashley is to sell the club in the near future it would not be good for the sale if he had no manager in place .The new owners would want their own man in but would not want too take over a team in desperate need of a new man straight away .

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  4. I think Ash may well have given up on the spiel of “long term strategy” “commitment” “strong for the future” to be honest. He’ll sign off any DoF or MD singing those words but he won’t take ten minutes out of his life to actually outline his plan to us. The projected profit with the cabaye sale and increase in TV money should be something like £40mil come the summer. If that is pocketed then a sale has to be on, surely…

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  5. Mind if Ash does knock the debt off surely he can’t ask for 300 mil or something from any buyers? He bought us for 130 or so didn’t he? It’s not like we’ve had more success while he’s been here, we might be attractive because of the low wage bill but again, surely that is only attractive to owners who aren’t mega rich anyway? And wouldn’t many of them just buy a club for 40 mil and build it themselves rather than pay 300 for us?

    Let’s face it, nobody actually cares about the history, the passion of the fans, the stadium, blah blah blah.

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  6. Ashley may well want to sell and leave but there’s no sign of anyone wanting in. High price. We’re stuck for now. Pardew on the other hand . . .

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  7. There is more chance of Pardew being replaced by a better manager than there is of Mike Ashley selling up this summer.

    £300m is probably a fair price for the club. Perhaps it’s too low?

    You have to remember that the club was pretty self sufficient over the last couple of years. A few million in the red or black was not bad.

    However, now with this new TV deal you’re talking about a stable (in terms of staying in the premier league) club making a nice chunky profit every season.

    The only reason Mike would sell would be if somebody wanted to buy. Mike Ashley is not in a difficult position. He has the bargaining power.

    He can keep owning the club for 10 or 15 years & pull his money back out of the club so to him it would he like getting the club for free.

    The alternative for him is for someone to put in an offer he couldn’t refuse. Our problem is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone rich enough that is interested enough at the moment.

    Hopefully as the global economy improves a few billionaires will be vain enough to buy the club of Ashley

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  8. The best alternative is a fans takeover.

    The Glazers bought Man Utd using the money Man Utd make.

    We should be able to buy NUFC by using the money NUFC will make.

    A fans group like NUST should be able to take out loans against the club & stadium to buy the club just as the Glazers did.

    Worst case scenario would be that we’d have to run the club on a tight budget for 10 years to pay off the loan.

    Best case scenario is that we’d boost commercial revenue to a high enough level that we’d finally be abke compete where we should be.

    Either way the fans will own the club (as they should).

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  9. I think we our stuck with Ashley for years to come. Might as well get used to his tacky sports direct billboard’s and his cheap players. We have no ambition and exciting players will not want to come here and our best will leave.

    If Ashley crashed his helicopter into a tree that’s the only way will get rid of him. Not a nice thing to say but that’s the only way we would get a new owner.

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  10. Toonsy good read and good to get back on again as the last post was running the **** outta my phone 😀 I agree with a lot of what you say, and I am surprised Anils name hastnt been mentioned aswell.
    I just cant see Jabba selling up unless he was backed into a corner, by the fans not turning up.
    But until then he will be happy running the club while making a profit and all the free advertisment that he gets for SD and the share holders that have fuk all to do with us.

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  11. “I mean the club, so quick to deny any rumours about Pardew, didn’t feel the need to reiterate the owners desire to stay and succeed… ”

    bloody good point, but I got a feeling maybe we are clutching at straws here.
    A lot of things point to 2020 for me.
    Pardew and his coaches have a contract until then.
    Season tickets have the guaranteed price until then.
    The 5 year plan will have come to fruition by then 😉
    Ashley will have repaid his debt to himself by then and will be ready to make even more money on the sale.
    I honestly don’t feel his is in any rush to sell just yet. It is all working out nicely for him.
    He couldn’t give a rats **** about the fans, or the unrest. He has a plan and he is sticking with it.
    I am certain he will provide the minimum of investment in playing staff to keep us ticking over nicely in mid table. Whatever is needed and no more.
    we will just have to suck it up and play the long game unfortunately.
    Fans staying away en mass would hurt him, but 1) that just won’t ever happen and 2) He knows what strings to pull to keep us all on board.
    i.e. buying the occasional flair player every so often to generate the excitement amongst the fans and also to help sell more shirts and tat.
    We’re suckers for it and fall for the same old tricks time and again.

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  12. This isn’t the ‘end game’ just another blip.
    This summer transfer window will be very interesting tho. 😉

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  13. BB@13 You could be surprised the fans at some point will start staying away in big numbers .It has happened before , way back in Mckeag’s reign and i get the feeling thousands are now at that point again and once it starts their will be no chance of Ashley being abel of stoping it .

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  14. Axel – I am surprised there have been 50k tickets sold already for the villa match, which is actually live on sky sports and in most pubs.
    A good opportunity to make a statement to fatty and the media missed.
    👿

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  15. BB could be a lot of the 50k at the game are going to voice their anger , i reckon its going to be a pretty nasty atmosphere . Certainly if we go an early goal behind the players will hear some nasty noises from the crowd .

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  16. The summer window may well be interesting but for all the wrong reasons as far as we are concerned. First team players leaving (Tiote, Debuchy, who else?), a continued lack of any real enthusiasm or interest by our bizarre owner, a mediocre at best manager (unless we do sack him). It’s the same nightmare over and over again.

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  17. Whether our owner likes it or not I think things are going to come to a head again this summer and early in the new season. There is nowhere left to hide. His last few months in charge have been a complete shambles.

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  18. That Arsenal team reminds me of our current club at home! Similar attitude to the game. Losing 0-3 to Sunderland? Not a problem.

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  19. @G2 @23

    thats what I meant mate, totally fannying around having tab and cake breaks 😆

    classic comedy all the same, so was the youtube vid 😆

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  20. Wor lads remind me of other Monty Python skits as well:
    We cut down trees, we skip and jump,
    We like to press wild flowers.
    We put on women’s clothing,
    And hang around in bars

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  21. The footy has been poor in recent weeks. The team looks dispirited. Pardew hasn’t had the answer for a while. Certainly losing Cabaye has hurt us. Our lack of good depth has been exposed again. The need to play Saylor with Colo injured has been a problem. Mbiwa doesn’t seem to be faring well under Pardew, nor does Santon. Overall Ashley is counting on the points we already have to keep us up. A very poor attitude for an owner.

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  22. The 2 stories don’t add up!. One says that Ashley doesn’t give a **** and the other says that Pardew will be sacked if we loose again against Villa?!.
    Neither Ashley or Pardew is going anywhere in my opinion. We are safe this season (pretty much) so he isn’t going to get rid of Pardew before the end of the season – if he does at all.
    I also don’t see Mr WWF buying us either.
    The only story I saw this week that may come off is the return of Owl heed – but only coz that would be the easy option.

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  23. I meant to post on the last article but was distracted with my sons 5th birthday 😯

    I read Hazels post (Kimtoons daughter). Hope Kim is ok, I haven’t seen her or Hazel post since and it sounded pretty serious – so fingers crossed for a speedy recovery and she’ll be back posting with us again very soon

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  24. A new. ploy from jabba I see those that stopped their DD for season tickets have got a letter from the box office offering them another two season on the lower rate if they keep their season tickets,IMO it must be getting to jabba to do that,hope more fans do it

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  25. Good to see him panicking ice mate. This is only just the beginning. His own incompetence is kicking him where it hurts.

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  26. We didn’t have a game last weekend which could explain why a lot of fans are keen to go to the game.

    We need our football fix even if it’s rubbish that we see.

    I agree with Sharpy17 – i don’t see Pardew or Mike going anywhere before the end of the season at the very latest.

    Both of them are holding the club back.

    Ashley will be the hardest to get rid of but getting rid of Pardew will be tough too.

    It would take some serious fan pressure for Pardew to be sacked. It would take £300m+ to get rid of Ashley.

    At the moment we don’t have either so we should just expect more of the same midtable mediocre **** football.

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  27. Ice – I agree, I think it’s the best way to let the fat **** know we aren’t happy with his leadership of our great club. I know some people’s thought will be that team support would suffer but I don’t think it would. I think those season tickets or seats not taken up would be sold off for each game but at a reduce amount to make sure it’s sold – Ashley would rather sell it at a tenner than have an empty seat.

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  28. Interesting viewpoint from Steve Harper.

    I think it can be summed up as:

    ‘stick with Pardew because he’s been here longer than a new manager’.

    There is some logic to that if the comment was made last season about keeping him on this season – ‘don’t sack Pardew, he did well in his first season & bad in his second season so deserves a 3rd season’. Fair enough.

    You can’t use that argument to justify Pardew staying here for a 4th season!

    He’s had enough time. More time than most premier league managers & he has no good track record before us.

    Whether you like Pardew or not, he has taken us as far as he can. Nobody expects Pardew will ever be better than Martinez or Rodgers.

    Pardew is at the peak of his career by managing us. Any job he takes after us will be a step down.

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  29. This is what Harper might as well have said about Mike Ashley:

    ‘However, for me Mike Ashley has earned the opportunity to be given the chance to be at the helm for the, hopefully, very hectic summer that lies ahead.

    After the very impressive fifth-place finish a couple of years ago and the top-10 finish this season no one more than him knows which personnel can play a part in taking the club forward.’

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  30. Geordie – Kim is a miss mate. I don’t know her but she seems a very kind and caring person and a very big family person. She’s a good egg and hopefully will be back amongst us very soon.

    Newkie – Interesting words from Harper. He’s know better than any of us what goes on behind closed doors. It’s funny coz we all go on about Pardews treatment of Willo, Anita, Cisse, Benny and Marv and he let Harper and Shola go (Shola at the end of the season) – yet I don’t remember many players slagging Pardew off at all.

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  31. SHARPY@37. Aye mate to try and get more for villa game club have offered villa extra tickets for the game,never known them do that,they normally get a set number and that’s it

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  32. Ice – I wonder if he’s offered Randy Lerner HIS seat for the game coz I don’t suppose the fat **** will both his **** to make the journey North again – especially with it being on Sky!

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  33. Ashley isn’t going anywhere unless he can make a killing over-and-above what he forked out for the club. He certainly won’t be going because we want him to go.

    And Pardew won’t be going because Ashley won’t fire him – not only would he have to pay him off for the rest of that ridiculous contract, but where else is he going to get a such a willing stooge? Any other manager I can think of would have walked at the obvious provocation of JFK’s re-appointment at the club, never mind having their best player sold in the middle of a season without a like-for-like replacement.

    I reckon we’ll finish three or four places above the dropzone. Ashley gets the EPL gravy for another year which means job done as far as he’s concerned.

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  34. Sharpy-exactly. And while i’m sure Harper would struggle to badmouth many people, I can’t exactly see him doing his piece just to ingratiate himself with Ashley or Pardew or anyone else for that matter. Doesn’t strike me as the kind of bloke to write/talk for no reason either, like Shearer or KK perhaps ahem….

    KK-Except he didn’t say that did he? Please try not to rewrite history or invent quotes for anyone else 😉

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  35. Toby-it doesn’t appear the protests are taking a hold so i’m not sure *not* renewing will make much of a difference to Ashley’s ownership of the club 😕

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  36. @Newkie

    He didn’t say anything about Ashley but Ashley is responsible for Pardew still being manager.

    Pardew being sacked or Ashley selling up is the same argument. Both are part of the regime. Both should not be at the club.

    The same credit that can be given to Pardew for finishing 5th or 10th should also be given to Ashley.

    Surely the fans that have argued in favour of Pardew staying have to give credit to Mike Ashley for not sacking him?

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  37. Toby – if we get beat at the weekend you could run to the dugout and sling the ****** at Pard and his numpties 😆
    I say you do what you think is right. But the 2 most sacred things to a Geordie is his season ticket and his club cards 😆 I had to give my season ticket up a good while ago now 🙁 But still have the old club card 😉
    How gutted would you be if come next season you weren’t at the match week in week out?

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  38. KK – “Surely the fans that have argued in favour of Pardew staying have to give credit to Mike Ashley for not sacking him?

    Why – what reason has Pardew given Ashley to sack him?. I’m not talking about what reason has he given you or anyone else who doesn’t like or rate Pardew – I’m asking if you were Ashley.
    He’s maintained PL status with little to no resources at all. He’s made no stupid demands. He’s never kicked up a stink and even dedicated the Chelsea win to Mike!. What reason has Ashley had to sack him?.

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  39. KK-Are you honestly asking that question?

    Ashley hasn’t sacked Pardew because he’s too tight to hire a good manager to take us forward. He has no ambition and seeks to keep us afloat but isn’t bothered about anything else. He even seems happy to self sabotage to keep expectations down and maintain PL security in the long run.

    Pardew has, to the best of his (debated) ability attempted to get us up the league and win any matches he can, without causing any dressing room dramas among some very questionable characters. He has consistently seen his top performers sold from under him or even shown the door and has still got on with the job. He seems to have been allowed very little leeway in terms of adding specific players or coaches so that he can right wrongs, he clearly knows improvement is needed but is not allowed to address them.

    Please tell me how these situations are the same.

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  40. I actually always wondered about that “dedication”- isn’t Mike himself a Chelsea fan? Wonder if that was to take the **** a bit 😆

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  41. Newkie – I’m not sure if he is mate, but I remember watch the interview after the Chelsea game and it didnt come across as a tongue in cheek comment to me like. Pardew was saying that Ashley had came in for alot of criticism lately and he was actually a supporter of NUFC so the win was dedicated to him – there was nee rinsed smile as if he was taking the **** that I could see like.

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  42. For those wanting comedy about Newcastle, here is a blog from the website of WWE wrestler John “Bradshaw” Layfield about the rumours of Vince McMahon buying Newcastle.

    It’s funny if you like wrestling, I guess.

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  43. Sharpy-Aye, he’s defo a Chelsea fan mate. It was weird, I guess Pardew was trying to do the PR given that he could barely do a worse job than Kinnear, although it definitely pissed a lot of people off.

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  44. Funky – that’s canny funny that like mate. I don’t follow wrestle personally so have no clue who that bloke is but good craic. Maybe they could pull off some of those moves on the fat man!.

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  45. I think it’ll be a long time before Ashley sells. SD and the Toon are very similar in a way. No one can beat SD on price, or anywhere near it. So with zero advertising he has a captive audience who can’t help but shop there.
    The Toon are the same – captive audience who can’t resist going.
    Now he’s got the day to day running the same. Admin people stripped to bare minimum. Low wages, managers in name only. He doesn’t want ambition, flair, innovation, improvement. Just stay open and continue. That’s it.

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  46. “From manager Alan Pardew down to their players and fans, Newcastle just look completely unsettled at the moment. The Magpies’ rhythm and form has gone out of the window.
    They are in a similar position to Southampton in that they are not going down and not going to climb much further up the league but, since selling Yohan Cabaye in January and failing to replace him, they have lost pretty much all of their forward momentum.”

    Lawro on Newcastle.
    Not a fan of the guy but I think this echos what most reporters and opposition fans probably feel.

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  47. Good words from Harper.
    Another former player that doesn’t have a bad word to say against Pardew.
    One of his major pluses is that despite turmoil – Colo wanting to go home, Cisse and the sponsors, Joey Barton in general, HBA at previous clubs – he holds together the dressing room just about enough. He’s brought the players back from low points before, and I believe he’ll do it again.

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  48. Come on, did anyone think that after the Liverpool/Sunderland results last year, and only one loan signing this summer, that we’d be in the hunt for a Champions League spot at Xmas this season?
    For all his flaws, Pardew is by far and away the best of a bad bunch.

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  49. @Newkie

    You are really wasting your time explaining the Pardew & Ashley scenario to him.

    He simply doesn’t grasp the simplest explainations no matter how many times you try.

    Seriously, you are wasting your time.

    It’s totally lost on him. I don’t know if he’s a WUM or plain dumb. 🙄

    I have no issue with someone understanding but disagreeing with a point of view but not to understand it and then disagree is frustrating. 😉

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  50. ST – that’s probably the most intelligent thing the bloke has ever said!.
    He’s dead right, and for me a way of rectifying that a little bit would be for Ashley to address the things he can now – which would be to replace JFK and WD now. Pardew has made mention of a busy summer and will need help from a DoF or similar role, so get it sorted now so everyone knows what’s expected of them rather than leaving it last minute.

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  51. Gorgio’s nailed it, sadly. I think Ashley has things exactly as he wants them. A famous club with lots of TV coverage, which is now ticking along between 17th and 8th without costing much. A manager who seems to be able to sustain that with minimal grumbling, no matter how much you **** him about and sell his best players with no replacements. The free loan costs a few mill a year in lost interest, but the free advertising has helped put several hundred mill on SD shares.

    Our club is a glorified ad hoarding.

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  52. Here’s a trick the Toon shouldn’t miss – they probably will. San Lorenzo have the currently hottest striker prospect in Argentina. Correa I think he’s called. Only 20.

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  53. Two things come to mind if my theory above is correct:

    1. How giant a turd of a human being do you have to be to rip the soul out of an entire region just to get yourself from super-rich to even-more-super-rich? This is a whole new level of weapons-grade ****.

    2. The only reason this shitty scheme of Mike’s works is that the Toon Army behave like lab mice whenever required. They’ve sold 50,000 seats again for Sunday, which to me means that there’s no chance off a change. We complain about not having enough influence and power with the club, but we have all of it. The truth is that we just don’t have the guts to pull the lever. I’ll be honest – I think it’s a bit pathetic now.

    Stay the hell away. The season’s dead anyway, and SO WILL EVERY SEASON BE until we just stop spending and attending. Take our money out of the equation and the club becomes a liability for him. He’ll start looking to sell the moment he sees that happening.

    Fooks me off. 👿

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  54. Not gonna happen Whumpie. We’re addicted worse than smack in that it travels through the generations!

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