Owned. (Part 2)

Owned. (Part 2)

Source: nufc.com
From the Mirror, the thoughts of Brian McNally - a local journalist of long-standing whom we've not always been in agreement with. This time though he's on the money:
The bare-faced cheek of Newcastle United managing director Derek Llambias and his boss Mike Ashley regularly attracts unflattering comparisons on Tyneside with Peckham brothers Del Boy and Rodney.
More front than Brighton is an expression coined by the Toon Army long before the Tyneside comedy double act's little wager that ended with Llambias cavorting around St. James' Park in his birthday suit during a private party.
Once they were branded as "Cockney Mafia"- geographically inaccurate I should point out - by protesting Geordie fans in the wake of Kevin Keegan's departure in September 2008 it seemed their days on Tyneside were decidedly numbered.
But, incredibly, almost a year on from Keegan's departure two of the most despised football men in British football still own and run Newcastle United.
That, despite, twice putting the club up for sale, isolating Geordie legends Keegan and Alan Shearer, selling a raft of star players including fans' hero Shay Given, making hundreds of staff redundant, and, in the process, suffering scathing and unrelenting criticism over the course of the most depressing 12 months in Newcastle's 117-year history.
Survival in this hostile climate is possibly the most noteworthy feat of their troubled time at St. James' Park.
A play lampooning the Ashley-Llambias axis "You Couldn't Make It Up" perfectly captured the mood of farcical chaos that surrounds the two men.
In trying to sell the club they have issued more deadlines than a 24-hour rolling news channel and broken every one of them. They have made public statements that don't even stand up to the flimsiest of examinations.

Take the strange case of the Shearer snub. At the end of last season Llambias said: "We want him to be the manager 110%," while Ashley insisted that making Shearer interim manager was his "best decision." They then completely ignored both Shearer and their previous statements to leave the club in limbo.
Then there is the mystery of the disappearing buyers. Ashley and co are still unable to find a purchaser for the club, despite Llambias publicly claiming in July that "more than two" bidders had matched the £100 million asking price. So if Llambias' claim was correct seven weeks ago they there had at least three buyers-where are they now?
And why is he still asking £100m after selling nearly £25m worth of stock in the shape of Oba Martins, Sebastien Bassong, Damien Duff and Habib Beye?
We now find that Newcastle have been talking to Tyneside businessman Barry Moat, Graham Roberts Fanbase 410 outfit and Geoff Sheard, whose attempts to buy Sheffield Wednesday came to naught last season, none of whom had the necessary funds ready available.
A proud club has been made a laughing stock by a clueless, spineless administration that seems incapable of getting the simplest decision right or providing fans with even the most basic level of communication.
It saddens me that a club with such passionate and loyal supporters is run with an ineptitude that would be embarrassing even at Sunday League level. The Toon army deserve far better.
Even Ashley has admitted to a catalogue of basic errors that painfully illustrate that both he and Llambias don't have a clue how to run a professional football club. Ashley may know how to pile his sports goods high and sell them cheaply, while Llambias can spin a roulette wheel and run a casino.
But the horrendous mess they have made of "running" Newcastle United over the last two years has plummeted the club into an unparallelled decline.
Never in all my time in football I have never encountered a club so chaotically and pathetically run as Ashley's Newcastle United. Is it any wonder that potential buyers question a club that is put up for sale by email, where the owner swigs beer in the stands and challenges his MD to streak around an empty stadium.
The only streak the Toon Army are dreaming of now, apart from a winning one, is the sight of a pair of rather portly backsides disappearing over the Tyne Bridge never to be seen again in Geordieland. It can't happen soon enough for me and 50,000 disenchanted Geordies.

I dont even support Newcastle but that is spot on like, its a total shambles.

Definitely, it's a harsh reality brought to light perfectly in this article.

he's proper hopeless like but the fans are shocking. Coming up with names like cockney mafia and that only makes players from down south not wanna play up here.

Thats one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard you say.

We've played teams over the years that we've had whole songs for (let along nick names) whilst having players on our books from that particular area?
I think the £20/30k + a week would be enough for anyone to be able to handle it.

If i was a player from london and i had a choice from going to a club whos fans appear to hate londoners or a club that doesnt, id choose the latter.

or imagine there was a london club who did it about geordies. you's would be livid.

Steven Taylor & Nile Ranger are both from London.

I dont think the fans hate Cockneys in general, it's those particular 2 cockney's.

They might not but theyve painted a good enough picture.

i hope you've written this whilst pissed.

The hate cockneys crack has been around before ashley, llambias and wise.

Chris mort is a cockney and everyone thought he was canny, same for les ferdinand, ruel fox, and others.

nice write up there...

when is he going to sell up? i think if you carry on like you have this season he'll be the owner come next may.

if results stop going your way i think he's GOT to sell!

Haha To be fair when ever any northern teams plays a london club the we hate cockneys chants come out

They have been totally destroyed there like, not sure on the history between McNally and NUFC though for a national journalist covering the NE hes better than a lot and he's never afraid to say what he thinks - like he has here without any holding back whatsoever.

Did a canny piece at the end of last season too that i remember reading, on the state of north east football with all of Sunderland, NUFC and the boro in the bottom 4 or 5, and praising the support of Newcastle and Sunderland while the clubs have struggled for years for still turning in 40k plus gates every week.

Another player out on loan too they really are trying to destroy nufc, granted Xisco's dun nout for us but we barely have a squad as it is, what good is there from a footballing point of view in sending him out on loan, pure cocks.

I can only imagine Santander are paying a percentage of his wages

We have one fully fit striker who has come on as a sub 3 times & played his first 90 minutes in midweek

Crazy IMO, unless we have someone lined up

One of the most embarrassing things I seen on sky sports was about 5 old fat geordies walking around the top of St James' with a massive homemade banner saying "get the cockney mafia out". hahaha i think some people take it a bit too far and it's usually newcastle fans. Did they not realise he owns the fucking club, he cant just be chucked out hahaha.