In the piece I ask if they are now in danger of losing their momentum after their first march almost a month ago, which made more of an impact than they might have imagined due to Mike Ashley’s childish and ludicrous overreaction to their little stroll through Newcastle before the game with Liverpool on 19th October.
Will Pardew give Mourinho a good slap?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 2nd Nov, 2013. Kick off: 12.45pm. Referee: Lee Mason. UK TV: BT Sport.
Of course, the Chelsea Pensioners will be huge favourites for this one, just as the Manchester Citizens were in Wednesday evening’s League Cup clash. However the Magpies weren’t too shabby at all in that one for the first hour or so and held the Citizens to a 0-0 draw at the final whistle, finally succumbing in extra time. There’s no extra time today so will the Magpies be able to keep a clean sheet against moneybags Chelsea this time?
Meanwhile off the pitch, there has been talk of another protest, this time at Mike Ashley’s banning of the biggest local media house from the St James’ Park media facilities. After that, they also banned fans organisation the Newcastle United Supporters Trust from the club’s “Fan Forum.” This was allegedly for having the cheek to take their own minutes of the meeting, though we all know, it that it was really for their involvement the recent march before the Liverpool gane back on the 19th October. Fans have been urged to take one of NCJ media’s local titles, The Chronic, the Journal or the Sunday Stun to the game and wave it at Ashley and his acolytes in the director’s box just before the kick off. (more…)
Who is right? Patronising Pardew or revolting fans?As many of you will be aware, a motley collection of fan groups angered by Mike Ashley’s mismanagement, repeated dishonesty, a perceived lack of ambition and Newcastle United’s general underperformance on the pitch will be on the march before Saturday’s early kick-off against Liverpool.
On the other side, Alan Pardew in his recent interview with Sky Sports’ “Goals on Sunday” painted a picture of Newcastle United fans as small town, simple minded football obsessives who actually damage the club with overreactions like this, as well as being too financially unsophisticated to understand that Mike Ashley has put over £200 million into the club.
But who is right?
Pardew has suggested that we’re “not in a bad position” but that the fans have unrealistic expectations that the club should be competing with the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United: (more…)
Kicking off the latest chapter in our one year retrospective of all things Newcastle United and NUFC Blog, we move on where we left off, with an Ashley rant from Hugh de Payen. This one is from November 4th of last year and is called “Random gripe about the random Toon“. The “random” in the second instance referring to Ashley’s seemingly random approach to planning and investment in building up the squad. It also contains a great line about Kevin Keegan (well I thought so anyway) “although it’s quite ironic that Keegan was constructively dismissed for not wanting to spend money on a player”.
Coming next, I am including a trio of stories about the NUST’s “Yes We Can” campaign for fans to buy the club from Mike Ashley, though in the end it a resoundingly a case of “No We Can’t”. The first story, written by Hugh de Payen once again and called “Are you the next Mike Ashley?“, covers the launch of the ill fated campaign and was published on November 11th. It also includes a paragraph I particularly liked about ‘fan owned’ Barcelona’s outgoing President, Joan Laporta: (more…)
SIPP Broker Ltd's Lynn Steele (right).The acronym “SIPP” (Self Invested Personal Pension) has recently become a familiar one to all those who have supported the NUST in their bid to drive owner, Mike Ashley, from St James’s Park. It is one of the primary financial vehicles used to persuade people to invest savings and pensions in the NUST’s Barack Obama inspired “Yes We Can” campaign.
In this story I will be looking at the financial brain behind the NUST, Lynn Steele, and her company, “The SIPP Broker Ltd”, in Halifax. Formed less than two years ago, the SIPP Broker Ltd’s rise has been not far short of meteoric, and it’s business development team includes figures such as ex Chelsea player, David Speedie, and ex ‘Spurs player, Graham Roberts, who were brought in to exploit oppotunities from the highly lucrative world of football.
It was Speedie who caused a huge furore in 2004 after referring to black people as “blackies” and “ni**ers” at a charity function, after agreeing with Ron Atkinson’s comments about black player, Marcel Desailly, who was described as a “lazy thick ni**er” by the veteran manager and pundit. It was Roberts who, in his capacity as a business development advisor for the pension selling firm, also fronted the “Fans 401” bid for Newcastle United some time ago.
On that bid, Lynn Steele said in an interview with the Halifax Courier:
