ToonTastic

Just pre season is about bonding as well as getting fitness up. The facilities look top class over there so makes you wonder why they didn't just let him stay there, do upper body work while he waits for his ankle to sort itself and yet he can still be bonding with the rest of the new lads rather than sat in Newcastle on his own cause first teamers are in America and rest are in Holland.

Proper name was taken, that's him

I'm guessing people got their hopes up for something bigger than a knock about at Darlo after how it was kept such a big secret. Probably would have made more sense to play the match at Anfield but still wouldn't have made the news as big as it was made to look by stopping any leak till 6pm.

I'm not sure how saying any of that would have ended anything. We'd still be having this question wondering whether he was going now or next summer. The club are saying alot in a bid to try and get some cash for him. He may want to hang on till next summer when a CL club may want be happier to get him for free (even though free transfers actually cost a small fortune now, according to Pardew)

Wouldn't call it a dignified silence. He could have ended all this ages ago with a simple statement. Saying what exactly ?

In public, what he's saying or not saying behind closed doors may be a different matter. He can say what he wants to the chairman and the manager, my point is he isn't doing what alot of players do and coming out in the press and saying stuff or leaking stories. Everything about this story has come from Pardew. He has said he wants CL football and wants to join a club which can give him that. That's fair enough by me.

Crazy how much the club sound like they are flapping over this. Enrique is keeping a dignified silence with the club making all the noises about wanting the move. Sounds more and more like Enrique is happy to hold out another year for a move and fair play to him he's done well for us he's not shouted and screamed to move at any point and he wants his career to progress so wants to move on. Not sure why he's getting called by so many people.

The staff at the bottom of the pile will be lucky to get a £10 bonus. Only full time staff get bonuses and that's paid whether they pass their stock takes or not. Management will be the people picking up this bonus no regular staff will see it.

Which means he has to perform well for us which is why I'd be happy to hang on for another year.

Would you rather we had £5m or Jose for another season ? 5m. At least we could go for M'Bengue now. I'm afraid we cannot find a adequate replacement next season and stuck with Naylor/Kadar/Shane. Fair enough. Was the M'Bengue deal down to transfer cash or him not wanting to sign when we first approached and failed, i dont remember.

Simpson's contract runs till 2013 though not 2012

Would you rather we had £5m or Jose for another season ?

To be fair it makes a change for a player to still perform and see out their whole contract. I think I'd rather he stayed, put in good performances to try and get him a move to a top top club and we get an extra season out of him on what must be relatively low wages still. The club can then spend a full year plus the rest of this window looking for his replacement which might walk in the door for cheap with the guy from Swansea should he make it as a talent. Why should he hand a transfer request in which will lose him his loyalty bonus if he's happy to play another season with us, just like Joey Barton ?

Seeing as Barton has recently been to the USA for his jollies, does that mean he "snuck" in. http://yfrog.com/kf2lvpj Not sure if it's different with a working visa

he was at the club for about 4 years!!! what a record That's not his full record man dafty

Dyer wasn't a SBR signing. It's incredible how often that mistake is made on here. Ruud? Yup, £6m from Ipswich

Woodgate? Stephen Carr? Nicky Butt? Lee Bowyer? Carl Cort? Woodgate was a class purchase. Yup, that's a good one. The others were pure nightmare...I still remember how negatively I react re the Bowyer's transfer. To be fair Carl Cort did ok in terms of scoring it was just he fucked his hamstring and then his knee. He scored something like 5 in 10 I'm sure

Woodgate for one but I was thinking more of the up and coming quality that SBR bought who were making names for themselves even in the lower leagues. I was suggesting the PL quality for Phil Jones. I guess it's what Liverpool are attempting to do now but on a rather more expensive scale.

I kinda agree with this but at the same time to push on to the next level it's a must to spend big cash on the best players, you can't break the top 4 without doing it. I agree, but still the price has to be 'reasonable'. Which top players you think are available at reasonable price? Henderson? Downing? Young? N'Zogbia is excluded because all the figures involved are just speculations. If Phil Jones and Ashley Young play help Man U keep the PL for another season and help push on in the CL I'm sure they'll be worth every penny of the money they have paid for them. Both yet to hit their prime but have talent to make it top notch in the next 2 years. Liverpool is a different story I'm not sure what they are doing other than spending top dollar on young players who might come good before the new rules come in to place. Maybe that's Ashleys plan all along. Hold on to cash till the new rules come in then only clubs breaking even with pots of cash can spend to progress. Nahh Your point is valid - to Man Utd Young and Phil Jones may worth the price. How about to us then? Depends. If it meant buying Phil Jones and only Phil Jones then no he wouldn't be worth it to us. If it meant being able to improve the squad and also buy someone like Phil Jones then damn right. He's a cracking player and it would show that we are happy to spend money on good quality players who have shown their quality in the PL. A lot like we did under SBR really.

I agree but we aren't doing that we're not building on what we've got we're selling to add players to the team whilst not actually increasing squad depth it appears.

I kinda agree with this but at the same time to push on to the next level it's a must to spend big cash on the best players, you can't break the top 4 without doing it. I agree, but still the price has to be 'reasonable'. Which top players you think are available at reasonable price? Henderson? Downing? Young? N'Zogbia is excluded because all the figures involved are just speculations. If Phil Jones and Ashley Young play help Man U keep the PL for another season and help push on in the CL I'm sure they'll be worth every penny of the money they have paid for them. Both yet to hit their prime but have talent to make it top notch in the next 2 years. Liverpool is a different story I'm not sure what they are doing other than spending top dollar on young players who might come good before the new rules come in to place. Maybe that's Ashleys plan all along. Hold on to cash till the new rules come in then only clubs breaking even with pots of cash can spend to progress. Nahh

I kinda agree with this but at the same time to push on to the next level it's a must to spend big cash on the best players, you can't break the top 4 without doing it.

But the majority of the players we appeared to spend big on and were flops were pretty unknown on the international scene or just didn't appear to anyone to be worth the big cash probably apart from one which was Michael Owen.

Seen this in so many places, what's the problem with trying to spend and getting good players like Ferdinand, Shearer, Tino, Bellamy, Robert, Woodgate, Coloccini ? If Carr can find good players from cheap players just think what he could get spending a few quid. I know we also spend decent wedge on other players that summer, But iirc the Cole sale allowed us to bring in Gillespie and Ferdinand for zero net spend. Does that make the sale of Cole unambitious? To be fair at the time it seemed that way yes lol but we also paid for the most expensive defender at the time Warren Barton, David Ginola and Shaka hislop at the same time as we bought Les Ferdinand.

And also don't forget Ashley was happy to top up those huge wages and bad buys when he first started under Fat Sam