Monday 4th September

Dear tf,

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

God hopes everybody who hits the site reads Beggars Banquet and Shearer's Paradox; two pieces that nail NUFC Ltd to the cross and expose the folly that has seen my heart sink 50 fathoms since Ventspils (h) last Thursday.

The truth is out there at TF (and nufc.com)

Well done.

Big Duke


Dear tf,

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

Spot on article today. Been dying to write in about the transfer window debacle but it's utterly impossible to find the words. I know a lot at TF have their reservations about a takeover and for very valid reasons, but I honestly can't see the situation getting worse. At the moment we have a chairman who is a complete fuckwit and bleeding the club dry in my opinion. How can the situation get worse? In my opinion the chairman isn't satisfied enough with £500,000 a year for total and utter mismanagement of the club - he piles on further rewards in the form of ludicrous dividends that bear no resemblance to our position as either a business (loss making) or a football club (not only not winning anything but not even competing and going backwards).

It's got to the point where the majority of fans, in my opinion, can't take the directionless running of this club any longer - we have to let Shepherd know clearly that we want him out. How we go about doing this without being seen as getting on the team's back, or getting on Roeder's back is difficult, but we have to be vocal and matchday is as good a day as any. Roar the lads on but how about a sustained vocal effort against Shepherd. (Perhaps a few variations on "Sack the Board" can be invented in the coming days to avoid too much repetition.)

No doubt the press and the chairman himself will express that the fans are frustrated at the absence of action in the transfer window, but this is really just another season that has demonstrated piss poor planning and no preparation. It's becoming the norm and we are no longer surprised. How we can't attract a decent manager with our resources is beyond me and the answer is clear to me. In my opinion our chairman is a deeply unpleasant man and anyone with half a brain would worry about the level of interference he has in every aspect of the club. What manager would want the job?

Not wanting to get myself or true faith into bother I would love to say more about the amount of money that leaves the club in the form of wages for the board, dividends for the shareholders and fees for Agents (one in particular) but I think its got to the point where even the most naive fan knows what is happening. The Milner incident sums up the club. It's only because Gareth Southgate is a fuckwit that we haven't traded a promising young English professional for an overweight and injury prone Aussie twat with a shit attitude - another "proper person". How Milner feels after this is anybody's guess!! Roeder is powerless and the only positive action he could take is reveal the complete truth about the budget he had, what say he had in our purchases, etc and the end result is he would lose his job. Take the piss out of Niall Quinn all you want but he's taking more positive action in a few weeks than Shepherd has in ten years. The appointment of Souness was the worst football decision imaginable and every fucker knew it at the time. The list of Freddy's failures is never ending and I can't be arsed to begin. I can't speak for everyone but in my opinion the man doesn't care for anything but his pocket, and our added bonus on top of the drain on resources is to have a complete and utter amateur running our club making one knee-jerk decision after another. It's not rocket science - a bit of long term planning, a proper manager, sensible, well thought out buys, and this club is above all but a handful in this country. We are not "too demanding" and don't "expect trophies" - just passion. commitment, professionalism and honesty throughout the club. Not too much to ask is it? The rot however is at the very core of our club and nothing will change till it's gone. SHEPHERD OUT!

Keep up the good work and keep the pressure on!!

Peter, Edinburgh


Dear tf,

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

I have to agree wholeheartedly with this article with one small exception. Let’s give Obafemi Martins a chance before we brand him this and that. If he scores twenty goals this season, he will be worth every penny. However I am beginning to wonder if Newcastle will score twenty goals this season as a team. One thing is guaranteed, we will ship a damn side more than twenty goals.

So Oliver Bernard has come back to the club. He wasn’t good enough for Rangers, Bolton, etc but he’s good enough for us. Well at least one thing is for sure, he’s better than Babayaro but then so is my mother! Moore is a steady centre back but I’m sick of saying if with Bramble, he’s just not good enough. Taylor has a lot to learn and could have benefited from a sage old pro such Sol Campbell who was practically begging to come here. Carr is not a good defender; he is and always has been a wing back. That’s great going forward but woeful at defending. Ramage needs a lot more time before he’s the finished article.

For a team brimming with midfielders (some of them with a bit of class) we decide to panic buy Sibierski an attacking midfielder unless I am very much mistaken. Possibly he was brought in for his height was one argument, “he’s good in the air!” well standing at 6’2” he’s no giant against Premiership centre backs. Having said that neither was Big Al but one thing is for sure, Sibierski is not another Big Al. The only thing I can say about this buy is at least he didn’t cost £10.5m unlike Souness’ Spanish buy who is and always has been a winger not a striker.

And now to the position of greatest need the striking department. “We need at least two strikers” was the cry. What did we get? An up and coming kid on loan! Wow, we just sold one of those. OK Chopra was never going to tear up trees for us but he was here and bled black and white. Man United doing us a favour? Give over; we are blooding their youngster for them! We’ll be lucky to finish mid table with this lot. We have no strength in depth so any injury crisis will wipe us out. This is why Shepherd appointed Roeder as he was so keen to get the job and he wasn’t going to be too demanding unlike the likes of O’Neill who we should have busted the bank for. At the end of the day there is one person only to blame for this mess. Mr Shepherd!

Shepherd Out!

Terry Hugill


Dear tf,  

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

Have just read the article on the website which is bang on the money. Great to know that the masses are finally boiling and as suspected that things are finally coming to a head. A couple of bad results may be what we need, if you know what I mean. Freddie’s position as I see it is indefensible but he’ll hang on like grim death until the end. All the good work done in establishing the club in the early nineties has been outdone by this waster.

I was going to write something for Everybody’s Talking but I’m far too angry to put together anything coherent at this time. Perhaps best that I’m missing the Fulham game after all,

Cheers

Rod Fraser


Dear tf,  

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

Just to say well done for writing such an excellent article with regards the current malaise at our club. Everybody I have spoken to or contacted is in full agreement with what you have written and even some of the pro Shepherd lot from certain websites are coming around to this way of thinking.

I know Shepherd is well and truly entrenched with his 28% but I believe a concerted effort by yourselves and the other fanzines, would see the pressure grow on him and eventually force him out. Especially with potential bidders waiting in the background. It is not difficult to see which way this club is heading and it is time to act now before this situation goes completely pear shaped.

Cheers,

Dave Ryle

PS:. I would be willing to help your campaign in any way possible.


Dear tf,  

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

I was directed to this article from the Newcastle-Online forums, and was moved to write and congratulate you on articulating the concerns of many fans.

I've not visited your site before but surely will in the future if this is the usual quality of fare!

Shane McNee


Dear tf,  

Please excuse the expletives – I’m not exactly a happy chap.

We’ve signed the Good (Damien Duff), The Bad (Antoine fucking Sibierski - eh???) and the Ugly (Obafemi Martins – he’s no oil painting eh?). We’ve also “secured the services” of Olivier Bernard who in my opinion is a mercenary little twat, and his agent is Willie McKay who also has Sibierski on his books – what, did we get a “buy one get one free deal?” Then there’s this Rossi kid from Man Utd on loan who Ferguson reckons “will come back a better player after his four month loan spell” – Eh? How low can we go? It was made worse by Roeder kissing the Glaswegian piss-head’s arse on the official web site “Thanks Sir Alex” - it made me want to puke – fuck right off.

The club have also well and truly messed with Jimmy Milner’s heed - who for me has at least shown will and determination in his appearances in a black and white shirt so far, unlike some I could mention (Luque, Babayaro, Emre etc etc). Milner must be thinking “Why should I bother” and I wouldn’t blame him. If I was him I’d tell NUFC to fuck right off. One minute he’s being bigged up with talk about developing young English talent, the next he’s being sent to Villa just in case we have an outside chance of signing a fat Aussie pie eater from the beasts. Then he gets recalled at the last minute. One word – embarrassing.

I worry about this Martins signing as well. I may be struck down by other fans for being a bit knee jerk, but it smacks of another Albert Luque style panic buy to me. I hope and pray I’m proved wrong.

The Chairman has to go, and soon before this situation gets any worse. I am sick of reading/ hearing his shit stinking patter (recently trotted out by Roeder) about signings we were never, ever going to make and how “two or three top class signings are I the bag”. I’m sick of seeing his smug face in the papers and web sites, I’m sick of seeing 52,000 people having the piss taken out of them every week. Fuck off Freddy – we’ve been servile mugs for long enough – do the decent thing (stop laughing at the back) and walk.

In decline? We look right in the shit from where I’m sitting and the only way to change is for the fat man to walk.

Shepherd Out!!!

John Hutchinson, Pelaw


Dear tf,  

As the dust settles on another summer of transfer (in)activity I don't know what's more scary - that we're reduced to signing unproven youngsters on loan or that Man Utd now regard us as so insignificant that they're prepared to lend us their players! So who's to blame for the mess we find ourselves in?

It would appear that £35m doesn't get you much in the transfer market these days, in Newcastle's case anyway. We have been unlucky that Owen (Shearer's long-term replacement?) has been almost permanently injured since he signed but the £18m shelled out on panic buys in the form of Boumsong and Luque is appalling business in anyone's book. £15m on Duff and Martins over the summer seems like decent business and makes me wonder what we could have done with another £15m to spend on top of that. Throw in the appalling man-management that led to the departure of Bellamy and we still appear to be suffering from the ineptitude of the Souness era.

It's pretty clear to me that we're skint - I've heard rumours that sponsorship money was paid up front to fund the Owen deal and the fact that we were willing to sell Milner but then changed our minds suggests that we needed the cash from his sale to fund other deals that then failed to materialise.

In my book the Milner fiasco is symptomatic of the haphazard way the club is run. Decent squad players have been allowed to leave for peanuts and haven't been replaced leaving us desperately short of numbers and quality. We're left with 2 centre forwards and of those (Ameobi) has a long-standing hip injury that seems to have flared up again early doors this season - why wasn't it sorted out over the summer? Shola's missed the last two games and we've looked toothless and lacking physical presence up front in his absence.

Shepherd has to take the flak for this as he's the one responsible for the running of the club which should include planning for the future. Instead we seem to stumble on from one mess to the next with no clear direction - I hope that when Roeder said after the Villa game that he was confident of signing 3 more players before the transfer window closed he wasn't referring to Rossi, Sibierski and Bernard! Our transfer targets should have been identified months ago and funds set aside to get those deals done rather than the usual big statements to raise expectations and then last minute bargain-basement signings. We've been in decline since Robson's last season in charge but Shepherd bottled the big decision again - as has been said many times Sir Bobby should have been sacked at the end of the 2003/04 season or the chairman should have had the courage to back him to turn things round (it wasn't the first time we started a season poorly). If Shepherd can't, or won't take the decisive action that's needed to run a football club then he should make way for someone who will.

I think we'll finish around mid-table this season and we'll do well to match last season's 7th place finish with the current squad. As shown last season our first choice XI is a match for anyone outside the top 4 on their day but our squad is very thin and if we suffer a few injuries we'll surely struggle to compete in four competitions.

I have nothing against Roeder at this stage (though he needs to find a spot for N'Zogbia in the starting line-up) as he seems to have a decent job so far with the cards he's been dealt. Would be reasonable to assume that he wasn't the club's first choice but the so-called big name managers haven't worked in the past so he deserves a chance. Strange though that he was only given a 2-year contract when appointed as this is hardly gives him a blueprint to plan for the long-term future. Co-incidentally, 2 years may be just long enough for a recently-retired centre forward to have a break from the game, have a dabble at TV punditry and complete the necessary coaching qualifications. I wonder if that's Shepherd's plan? At least it would be a plan.

Mark Balmbra


Dear tf,  

Is that it? All the talk about 3 or 4 signings and we get a kid from Man U reserves, a guy from Man City reserves and Olivier bloody Bernard. A man so shit that he couldn't make a go of it defending in the SPL. I mean how hard is it to be a successful defender at Rangers when most games the other side puts 11 men behind the ball and plays like the Rangers half is a minefield to be avoided at all costs!

I mean fuck's sake. Do you remember when we used to compete with Man U for top quality players? When we were a club of enough stature that the world's best striker chose us over them? When we sold them Andy Cole and brought in Sir Les? And now this - their bloody reserves. Newcastle United acting like some lower division feeder club, only there to help the "big boys" nurture talent.

And losing out on players to fucking Boro! How embarrassing is that? This is what years of FFS has done. I feel we're as likely to win trophies as we were under Willie McFaul (hmm - ex player who takes over as caretaker and then does well initially so gets the job. And remember how that turned out).

Only one course of action remains. Those of us who went to St James' in the 80s need to dust off the 'Sack the Board' t shirts and educate the newer fans as to how it works. Organised campaigns, leaflets, picketing matches, signs at match days, the whole shebang. FFS does not have what it takes to run the club. And the Halls - where's our community owned shares? I can't wait to see the back of the lot of them.

SHEPHERD OUT. QUICKLY. AND THEN GET AN ASBO THAT PREVENTS HIM FROM BEING ANYWHERE NEAR THE CLUB.

Chris, Edinburgh


Dear tf,

I have to say that I am really p….d off with the way the Club has handled the transfer window and the opportunity to strengthen a depleted squad. There has to be something seriously wrong with a club when the likes of Huth would prefer to go to a club like the smoggies with support of 20,000 fans on a good day than NUFC with its fan base!

Why is it that we can’t seem to find the hidden gems (Prince Charles the Z excepted) like other clubs? What are the scouts doing?

Frankly we are made to look like amateurs who don’t seem to have any game plan and what the hell are we doing with a 32 year old has been that a club we would expect to beat regularly wants no part of?

Players (or at least the right sort) don’t want to come to Newcastle (I accept there are exceptions like Parker and Duff) and it is certainly not because of the support. I suspect it is because they know there is something very wrong with the club from the top down. I have a lot of time for Glenn and this is not of his making. Frankly the sooner we can get rid of Fat Freddie the better and if that means a take over then so be it.

I am not optimistic about this season at all. I feel it is mediocrity here we come.

Keep the faith!

Graham Ritchie


Dear tf,

How embarrassing has it been for this club ( I hesitate to use the word great as we haven't been that for a long time) over the summer.

Words from the manager about the kind of class players we are about to bring in and after a good start, we bring in a kid to help Man U, some bloke who is in Man City reserves and tubby Bernard. What a joke!!!!

I was looking forward to welcoming back Woodgate, saying hello to both Huth, Bridge and hopefully someone like Defoe and what we get is an embarrassing piss take of signings. Who is to blame, FFS!! Good bloke though he is, Roeder isn't the man to take us forward. What does Villa have that we don't that could attract Martin O'Neill.

We are two league games into the season and I haven't felt so low at the start of the season since, well... since last season.

I would love to be proved wrong and that we will have a great season, but we all know it will be a struggle and I feel that a relegation fight could be on the cards. I don't think we will go down, but I can see us struggling. God how depressing, anyone got the Samaritans number???

Paul Rushton, Northern Ireland


Dear tf,

Damien Duff:

Duff is a talented, whole-hearted performer and one who would easily get into the first-team of many of Europe's top clubs. His acquisition is a definite benefit. But every silver lining has a cloud (or something like that) and the cloud is that N'Zogbia seems to be frozen out and Charlie was one of our best players last year.

Antoine Sibierski:

Just what we needed: another midfielder. He may prove me wrong (and like most fans, I hope he does) but I genuinely can see only one reason why we have bought him: so Fat Fred can say, "I always back my managers."

Francis Rossi:

Have we sunk so low that we will take a reserve striker from Scum just so he can get first-team experience, which will only benefit Scum in the long run? A year's loan or a purchase I could understand, but just to help out the whining Jock - I don't bloody think so.

Olivier Bernard:

He should never have left. He is a far better left back than Babayaro (the Nigerian Boumsong). If his arrival hastens Babayaro's departure, I'll drive to Glasgow and pick him up myself.

James Milner:

Here is where I upset a lot of people. Nobby should be playing second fiddle to Milner. In terms of the future of NUFC, Solano is 30, Milner is 20 - you work it out. In less than two seasons he has been told "You don't win anything with a team full of James Milners", then farmed out to Villa, subsequently used to warm our bench and then nearly sold to Villa. Well, James, I for one appreciate you and I think there should be some en masse fans show of support for the lad.

John Gilbert


Dear tf,  

Loving issue 52 but nee poster? Howay! Keep up the great work lads!

Matty Cameron


Dear tf,  

What can you say? Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, West Ham and even Middlesbrough have put their money where their mouth is and stated their intent before the new season started. Where were The Toon? Look at our defence, Bernard in..... what a joke, he couldn't wait to leave St James, Huth and Woodgate to Boro, good business for them! Sibierski, who is he? Surplus to requirement at Man City, now there's an accolade! I'm not convinced with Martins, I watched Dirk Kuyt play for Liverpool, now that was a good bit of business for them and we stood back and let them have him! It wasn't all about deadline day, The Toon should have been active in the transfer market well before the sorry arrival of the new boys. I like Glenn Roeder, he is a loyal and dedicated manager but have we missed a trick in not tempting Martin O'Neil away from Villa when we had the chance? Mid table? We're certainly not going to take The Premiership by storm this year. Again.

Rick Star


Dear tf,

What a joke the Sibierski signing is. They'd have been better off trying to get The Lion back out of retirement!

Langy


Dear tf,

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

What a great piece, the most honest assessment of NUFC for years - lets hand out SHEPHERD OUT SCARFS at a future home game.

Jam in Berwick


Dear tf,

After reading with interest FFS article/press release on Saturday morning I could literally feel my blood boiling. It seems that Freddy has taken issue with the way the Premiership clubs are forced to do business during the two pre-agreed transfer windows. I think Freddy is expecting the Toon faithful to agree with his statement that the current management structure have noting to be concerned about or reproached about.

I couldn’t agree less you arrogant, self promoting excuse for a human being. If for a second you feel that by not throwing our hard earned money at a problem and allowing it to accumulate interest and dividends for the majority shareholders that any issues or problems will go away until January…. you couldn’t be any more wrong if you tried. The comedy of errors that you have been making time after time at the helm of the good ship HMS Newcastle United has to stop, action needs to be taken against someone whom I feel has for too long been allowed to engineer the downfall of Newcastle. Your blinkered view Freddy that 7th or 8th best is good enough is again not even in the same ballpark as reality. Freddy you need to do the only honourable thing and step down before we reach the point of no return.

In the words of our illustrious Editor....

Shepherd OUT!!!!

Ewan Stephenson


Dear tf,

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

Excellent article. In total agreement with everything you said. Need to keep up the pressure with the Shepherd Out carry on. All the best, love the site. Keep up the good work.

Trevor Skills

PS: As a Geordie living in Northern Ireland, you would not believe how people over here now see The Toon. Years ago we were loved and any non-Man Utd fans (not many mind you) loved us. But now they see us a bad joke, as we continually get a wrong with signings, and you no what, there all bloody right.


Dear tf,

Once again the window has slammed shut on the somewhat meagre attempts to form a decent team at SJP, the gossip will have to calm down a bit until January and us supporters are left to consider what impact (if any) the spending of our hard earned cash will have on the team this season.

Worryingly, for the third season in a row, I'm struggling to be optimistic. Last summer that was due to the strategically shaved ape we'd tried to pass off as a manager- at least we've taken care of that one.

This time, however, I think the most disappointing aspect of the summer's transfer dealings was how limited our scope was. While I believe in finding the right man and going all out to get him I think it was foolish of us to leave so much hanging on the signing of so few individuals.

I'm not sure whether it's arrogance on the part of club officials or just an unswerving belief in our just and righteous cause, but when there are several teams all going for the same player surely we would be wise to have backup targets who aren't on the shopping lists of our rivals, especially where our defence is concerned.

We've missed out on Huth and Woodgate because the Smoggies got in there first and tabled a better offer while we still waited on Bridge. It was a massive gamble that we lost and poor Shay must be wondering about that new 5 year contract he's just signed..

Meanwhile look at Spurs. They brought in Chimbonda (who noone else seemed to be too fussed over strangely) and Dervite - a youngster who, again, noone seemed to be looking at but has bags of talent. This was just to bolster what is already a pretty solid defence anyway.

For all Glenn's "searching far and wide for the right players to bring to this club" we seem to have looked no further than the Chelsea subs bench, Inter and Real Madrid followed by the last minute signing of an ex-player and some messy dealings with Villa. Not entirely disimilar to last summer then.

So basically we've managed to spend close to £20m (I'm including the pay-off we had to give Souness in there) and aside from now having a real manager we've not moved forward at all. The buck has to stop at the door with all the pies stacked up outside it. With some genuine investors sniffing around the club for the first time in a few years it really does seem to be our only chance at getting shot of Fred before our stationary status begins to turn into a decline.

Shepherd Out!

Tom Barker, Lincs


Dear tf,

After a long farcical summer of bumbling ineptitude in the transfer market has finally drawn to a close, leaving us with a woefully deficient squad, certain questions demand to be answered.

What happened to the three players we were supposedly in "pole position" for after the Villa game?

Why did we wait eleven weeks into the window before making our first move for a player?

Why did we spend a third of our transfer budget on a player who plays in the position that least needed strengthening?

Did we make the first move for Duff, or did Chelsea offer him to us because they didn't want him to go to Liverpool or Spurs?

When the likes of Bolton and Wigan can buy multi million Pound strikers, why are we reduced to signing a reserve on a four month loan?

Why did Robert Huth turn us down to join a club that finished 8 places below us in the League, with no European football, and for less money?

Were we unable to attract players because of Roeder's lack of stature as a manager and his track record of relegating clubs?

Why did we show less ambition in the transfer market than the likes of Bolton, Wigan, Portsmouth, Charlton and Middlesbrough?

Why were we still scouting Dirk Kuyt after he had opened talks with Liverpool?

Why after Shepherd and Roeder had stated all summer long that there would be no panic buys, did we sign a 32 year old journeyman from Man City's reserves 2 hours before the deadline?

Gerry Lynch, Doncaster


Dear tf,

With Newcastle United’s support absolutely seething at the monumental fuck up in the transfer market this summer I looked to see what The Chronicle’s top NUFC reporter, Alan Oliver would have to say about it all in The Chronicle tonight (Saturday 2/Sep/06). Well, the whole back page is given over to an “exclusive” interview with Shepherd (exclusive in that it was all on the club’s official website from that morning) and it’s just basically a repeat of the rubbish spouted on the site. Not a word of criticism against Shepherd from Oliver, who in my opinion has zero credibility as a serious football journalist, given this kiss-arse has his tongue so far up Shepherd’s arse-hole he better tie a plank across his arse to stop the bastard falling in its untrue. Yes, Macdonald criticised the quality of the squad as did John Gibson but all were careful to couch their words in terms which avoided criticism of the Chairman – the man who is in charge of the whole show. Every supporter I know is blaming Shepherd and calling for his resignation. Every pub I’ve been in, in the last few days is buzzing with talk of what a useless piece of shite are chairman is but the only place where Shepherd is given a wide berth is in the local papers.

Arse-lickers with no credibility – I’ll be sticking with the people who tell it like it is from now on – true faith and NUFC.COM. God knows where we’d be without you!

John Thompson, Hexham


Dear tf,

Just let me get my head round what Newcastle United club had planned on Thursday. Shepherd (no-one really believes Roeder is anything other than Shepherd’s pussy-bitch – a total puppet manager) was going to sell a good, young English player with a good record and excellent attitude, with loads of potential to Villa. With the money from that sale Shepherd was going to buy a 30-yeard old, Australian striker, with a bad injury record and a questionable attitude to say the least. A player who has never fulfilled his potential and never will. Have I got that right? The club was going to do that before Boro pulled the plug? Totally unbelievable.

Pete, Carlisle


Dear tf,

I wonder if the reason Shepherd has failed to bring in players over the transfer window (Duff and Martins were the bare minimum in my opinion) is because he wants to get the wage bill down to make the club more attractive to buyers? Just a thought. Keep up the good work – true faith is the only place to go to get some sense about how the club is being grossly mismanaged in my opinion.

Tom, Chester-le-St


Dear tf,

Ref: Thru Black & White Eyes – BEGGARS BANQUET! – 1/Sep/06

Excellent article…right o the heart of the matter. I can add little to the sentiments expressed in the article. FS’s ego bigger than his ability and as you say no future strategy leading to panic tactics. A takeover cannot come too soon for me.

Again great article.

Keith


Dear tf,

I’ve got a lot of time for TF but throwing a strop because this summer’s transfer activity didn’t pan out the way we would have liked is counter productive. Our PL season is two games old - why not see how things pan out before casting judgement?

Mr Shepherd isn’t the perfect chairman, but then who is? And more importantly are they interested in buying NUFC?

Matt


Dear tf,  

Ref: Stop The World I Want To Get Off – 2/Sep/06

Your response to Freddie's statement was EXACTLY the same mine. I've pretty much defended old shep in the past but I think now is the time for HONEST answers.

Where has our season ticket money gone? Why get in Sibierski when he plays in the one position where we have strength in depth? Our defence has always been shit, but if injuries to Moore and Taylor occur we really are in shit. Why cant they suspend Luque's wages as he's breached the terms of his contract as he's meant to be a footballer?

I've had enough

Anthony McIvor


Dear tf,

Ref: Stop The World I Want To Get Off – 2/Sep/06

Great article on Shepherd.

I have long been of the opinion that he's a corrupt and evil man.

Shepherd out!

Matthew Farmer


Dear tf,

It is evident that the level of hostility towards our chairman has intensified over the last few days with good reason. There has always been a division in the judgment of our supporters however what we have witnessed recently is enough to make anybody’s blood curdle. Within 24 hours the standards of our club were indefensibly lowered. Can someone remind me at what point we became a club where a young player from a rival club came to learn his trade, and instead of treating this transfer for what it was (a fucking insult to our stature) we hear that Roeder could not hide his delight. I think someone needs to pinch his arse and remind him who he is in charge of.

The signing of Sibierski is unjustifiable and marks the changing in the way many of us perceive our club. This signing was completely unnecessary and has done no good to our standing within football, it simply makes us look like one big joke. Olivier Bernard coming back could go either way, if this lad can be the kind of player he was in his previous spell then at least it will get Babayaro out of the side. However I have serious doubts on what sort of player is coming back. When speaking to a Rangers fan earlier this year who frequently makes the journey to Ibrox I was told that Bernard is one of the worst defenders he has ever seen play for his club. Therefore I was not surprised to then see the likes of Sheffield United and Bolton send him packing. Good luck to Roeder in getting the best out of him.

Hearing some of Shepherds comments recently regarding the clubs transfer policy has again had many of us shaking our heads. We are reminded that we have spent 15m over the summer however I recall reading of a new T.V deal worth up to 15m not to mention the 5m income from transfer sales and the input from supporters in terms of finances which we all know of. For the level of rebuilding which the club itself said was needed the amount of business done can only be described as appalling. We are even left with the very same defence left from the Robson/Souness era – not good enough.

After recent events if there was any dignity left at Newcastle United then the clubs next publicity stunt would involve a 15 ft spike being erected inside St James’ on match day and forcing Shepherd to do a belly flop onto it, I’m sure we’d all wave our Black & White scarves if this was the case.

Daniel Urwin


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