#boycottspurs

När Tottenham gästar Newcastle under söndagen stundar något mycket speciellt på Tyneside.

Det har gått ett drygt år sedan vi började klura ut vad som egentligen försiggick innanför väggarna på St. James' Park. Under det året har det blivit svårare och svårare att känna igen Newcastle United, vår klubb, våra skator, våra hjältar, våra segrar, våra förluster, våra mittenplaceringar, våra europeiska äventyr och våra drömmar - idag är de nästan helt bortblåsta.

Nu har dels omvärlden fått upp ögonen. Nu har våra vänner i nordöstra England bestämt sig.

Enough is enough. Efter den femte raka derbyförlusten mot Sunderland stod ashleyout.com redo att lanseras, en kampanjsida av samma personer som låg bakom kampanjen mot Alan Pardew (sackpardew.com) tidigare under säsongen. I samma veva lanserades en idé om att bojkotta matchen mot Tottenham Hotspur på sociala medier. Den ambitionen tog fart rejält. Enligt Newcastle Supporters Trust kommer upp till 16 000 supportrar med säsongskort att stanna borta från St. James' Park för att signalera sitt missnöje när Tottenham och Sky:s kameror besöker Barrack Road imorgon.

Under veckan har ett antal artiklar publicerats som förklarar situationen mer än ur mina och andras supporterperspektiv, de som behandlar misshandeln av den villkorslösa lojaliteten. Här följer ett urval för den som vill förstå mer.

A blog on the state of Newcastle United
George Caulkin, The Times

Newcastle United under Mike Ashley: Billboard for cheapness or empire of hopes and dreams?
David Conn, The Guardian

Where has my beloved Newcastle United gone?
Alistair Machray, redaktör på The Liverpool Echo

We’re at breaking point as Ashley drains life out of our iconic club
Michael Martin, True Faith i The Times

Newcastle United: How a football club lost its soul
CNN

Change has to come, one way or another
Mark Douglas, The Chronicle

AshleyOut.com förklarar sina målsättningar i The Telegraph

AshleyOut.com förklarar sina målsättningar i The Chronicle

Supportermagasinet true faith har också publicerat två vittnesmål i videoformat där supportrar förklarar varför de stannar borta på söndag.

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Känns det övermäktigt med tvåhundrafemtio artiklar i ämnet? Här kommer femtio snabba anledningar till varför inte en kotte borde dyka upp på söndag, sammanställda av Chris Holt i The Mag.

Mike Ashley has taken the debt at NUFC from £70m to £129m.
Mike Ashley has taken the commercial income at NUFC from £27.6m to £25.6m, the only club to drop commercial income in that time.
Mike Ashley has therefore overseen a 7% drop in Commercial income while the other clubs to have remained in the league saw an average 194% Increase.
Mike Ashley has taken the match day income at NUFC from £33.6m to £25.9m.
Mike Ashley has therefore overseen a 23% drop in match day income while the other clubs to have remained in the league saw an average 45% Increase.
Mike Ashley has increased season ticket prices at NUFC an average of 9%.
Mike Ashley has made buying single tickets all season cheaper than season tickets for many seats.
Mike Ashley named a 23 man squad (after January 2015 window) and stated that the 25 man limit precluded adding more men to it.
Mike Ashley claimed he can’t get value in January despite signing top goal scorer Papisse Cisse, trebling his money on Leon Best, doubling his money on Matthieu Debuchy and signing one of our current biggest assets, Moussa Sissoko for just £2.2m, all in January windows.
Mike Ashley claimed to have the cheapest standard adult tickets in the Premier league for 14/15 at £15 each, but these have never been available.
Mike Ashley sells junior memberships that promise a 5% discount on all tickets and then sells member tickets at the same price as public tickets.
Mike Ashley pays nothing to advertise any of his multitudes of brands at St James Park.
Mike Ashley removed the St James’ Park name and replaced it with that of his shop.
Mike Ashley claimed that handing the stadium name to his shop for free was a short term measure for 6 months to encourage others to pay for the privilege. It remained for 3 years.
Mike Ashley scrapped complimentary tickets for staff to cut costs, despite giving away free advertising to his other companies.
Mike Ashley constructively dismissed Kevin Keegan to the fans dismay while the club were in 9th place.
Mike Ashley sacked Chris Hughton to the fans dismay while the club were in 11th place.
Mike Ashley refused to sack Alan Pardew despite 12th and 16th place finishes.
Mike Ashley refused to appoint a better manager than John Carver preferring to let the club drop down the table to 13th place with 9 points from 13 games.
Mike Ashley has presided over NUFC winning just 3 games in the FA cup from 14 attempts over 8 years.
Mike Ashley has never managed to take Newcastle beyond the 4th round of the FA cup.
Mike Ashley has seen his Newcastle side knocked out of the FA cup by Stoke, Hull, West Brom, Stevenage, Brighton, Cardiff and Leicester.
Mike Ashley has overseen £901m of revenues generated at NUFC up to June 2014.
Mike Ashley provided players to the head coach such that the best team that could be put out against Liverpool in their last game cost a combined £31.3m.
Mike Ashley performed research into Premier League clubs in relation to domestic cup competitions to show that in a five year period Swansea City were the only club outside the traditional top six to win a domestic cup and not be relegated in the same season. This was to justify not trying to win a cup. The research was shown to be flawed.
Mike Ashley hired Joe Kinnear.
Mike Ashley hired Joe Kinnear again.
Mike Ashley hired Alan Pardew.
Mike Ashley says he doesn’t take a penny out of the club, but has had £11m of loans repaid to him.
Mike Ashley guaranteed to reinvest the £35m Andy Carroll was sold for. When he failed to do so he denied that he had been beholden to spend it all in one summer.
Mike Ashley remains in transfer profit 4 years after selling Carroll.
Mike Ashley has set his manager the target of a top ten finish every year he’s been at Newcastle, even after a fifth place finish.
Mike Ashley implemented a singing section to improve the atmosphere at the ground and then broke it up because they sang nasty songs about him.
Mike Ashley says he will not sell NUFC to anyone without a commitment from them to buy an executive box for 5 years before negotiations begin.
Mike Ashley went drinking rather than speak to the people who later bought Manchester City. This was while he claimed to have the club up for sale.
Mike Ashley said he couldn’t take his kids to games because they would be assaulted by Newcastle fans. Northumbria police confirmed there was no threat whatsoever.
Mike Ashley appointed Dennis Wise above Kevin Keegan.
Mike Ashley told Keegan he had control of transfers when he didn’t.
Mike Ashley would not sanction a move by Keegan to take Bastian Schweinsteiger to St James’ Park for just £3m and £30,000 a week. Later claiming the wage demands were £70,000.
Mike Ashley really DID give Joe Kinnear final say though.
Mike Ashley admitted to an employment tribunal that he repeatedly and intentionally misled the press, public and the fans of Newcastle United.
Mike Ashley had NUFC pay £1m in wages to a loan player (Ignacio Gonzalez) he knew would not play for the first team as a favour to an agent.
Mike Ashley hasn’t put any money into Newcastle in 5 years.
Mike Ashley banned The Chronicle, The Journal, The Sunday Sun and The Telegraph for reporting on events at the club.
Mike Ashley has presided over 4 of the 6 of the lowest points winning seasons NUFC have had in the past 30 years.
Mike Ashley sold shirt sponsorship rights at NUFC to a payday lender that charges 5,853% interest rates.
Mike Ashley’s previous Chief Exec at NUFC, Derek Llambias, is quoted as saying “You guys don’t understand how fucking horrible we can be”.
Mike Ashley was fined by the SFA for a rules breach in relation to dual interest in Rangers and NUFC.
Mike Ashley asked Jonas Gutierrez to find another club during his battle with cancer.
Mike Ashley is pushing NUFC in the opposite direction to everyone else with an interest in the club. He is going in whichever direction benefits his shop.