Newcastle and Norwich

Its been a very interesting week as both a hardened Newcastle supporter and recently adoptee of Norwich City. Interesting in a week were both clubs seemed destined to be affected by the financial side of the game.

With Newcastle and Mike Ashley seemingly forcing the hand of Kevin Keegan out of management instead of giving him the money you need in this league and Norwich City loosing the "golden" couple of Andrew and Sharon Turner so they can [I reckon] mop up their sub-prime company which is no doubt suffering troubles, the parrallels are not too hard to see.

Most Norwich fans are craving a big money person to come in and prop them up, take it over, whereas actions of the Newcastle board mean most of the Toon army are calling for the current Board to sell and move off.

With a similar thing happening at West Ham and Alan Curbishley I cannot help think that even though Norwich may not have a lot of money - the hearts and minds and wills of the current board have a great balance between making money and keeping the club afloat, along with ensuring the supporters feel connected. City fans should heed the warning that West Ham and Newcastle preach, and its going to be interesting to see if Man City make anything of themselves this year, giving their new financial backing.

House Update

Well - finally there. We were meant to exchange contracts on 6th August but it was eventually the 1st of September....

To explain the delay is simple, and sad really. The house we are buying is a repossessed house. We knew this when buying it. When we went to see it, the house essentially had everything still inside, including very personal items. The bank were reluctant to exchange once these goods were still in there.

Unfortunatley the poor woman was in some denial and it was until the estranged husband turned up last week and managed to get 80% of the main house items removed that we could move forward. Even then there was some discussion about locks and access but this was eventually sorted out.

We are now left with a serious tidy up job and a rumble through quite a huge amount of stuff. The house also needs a lot of TLC and tidying but we will get there.
We are due to leave our current house and move into the new house on 18th September.

House Update

There has been some progress with the house and we are hoping to exchange contracts tommorow with a completion on 18th August....

Once we do exchange I can give more detail....

football writer

I read the following article tonight about Norwich City which appeared referenced in NewsNow:

http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com/full_article.asp?i=3980&w=8&a=0&part=1

I think (and have had a drop of wine) that the article is reffering at a high level that as a club moves in the financial side of things, then the sense of community that it has developed could be lossed. Couple this with the fact that Andrew Cullen is leaving (presumably better paid job) who is the Marketing guy at Norwich City, then both arguments compel to this point.

However - not being a "lowwwcul" but from Newcastle, I have witnessed first hand the sense of community that is present with regards to the club, and even though Newcastle run around with Mike Ashley can see the community in there. At the very basic level, supporting a football team whether at the game or not does promote community. It promotes a support, togetherness that is quite frankly missing generally in society nowadays. When I go to see City I sit beside a bunch of guys I would never speak to normally. They are from Hunstanton and they travel to and from there for every game - which is incredibly commendable....

Community is more than mere money, roadshows or local people running the club, it is and always has to be, the core support of the community around the area. Take for example if Newcastle (Lord forbid) they get demoted all the way down to League 2. I still think that there would be hard nosed supporters, locals, community, attending games.

Its a shame Mr Cullen is leaving, I think he will be missed. But as I have learned in my work, people you respect move on, and its how you react and move forward from that is the key to continuous success...

House Update

Still nowhere forward.....

However there is evidence that something could happen this weekend with an exchange of contracts on Monday... I wait with anticipation....

House Update

Still waiting to exchange contracts...
There is a fairly serious issue in the house we are buying, but cannot really go into it on here. Those that know me know what it is...

We are hoping that this weekend will produce a result but will have to wait and see?

Champion

House Update

House update...

Still waiting to exchange contracts. We were due to exchange on Wednesday BUT the numptie solicitor being used by our buyers decided to send the deposit by BACS (three working days) instead of CHAPS ( on the day).

Crazy, wonder how they could get something so wrong....

Hopefully this Friday (Tommorow) will be done...

Bobby Robson

I was really sad to hear the past newcastle manager, Sir Bobby Robson, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Apparently after a bought of kemo the growths remain although have stopped getting any bigger. It effectively means that there is no treatment on their return and is seen as terminal.

Such a great ambassador for sport and football, and a genuine true geordie.