Shearergol

Isn't Bramble a perfect example? not really, he came for a big fee after 2 premiership seasons. the young lads we've signed now have little first team experience between them and are going to play with the academy teams and reserves. more comparable to Bernard, or our intentions for N'Zogbia (though he developed quicker than expected), or as Nut pointed out, the likes of Pinas and Gudjohnsen that Dalglish signed. let's hope they turn out more like Robson's duo than Dalglish's. Correct. Recall also that KK plucked Aaron Hughes at a very young age, and he spent quite a while playing youth team football. yeah forgot about Hughes. Emre has 3 assists. Ramage has an assist without even starting a game. You're not counting N'Zogbia's goal at Boro as an assist are you? It's on the stats sheet. Couldn't think which goal it was though Emre has 4 assists. not including that one. Does he? Link?

Emre has 3 assists. Ramage has an assist without even starting a game. You're not counting N'Zogbia's goal at Boro as an assist are you? It's on the stats sheet. Couldn't think which goal it was though

Emre has 3 assists. Ramage has an assist without even starting a game.

Isn't Bramble a perfect example?

Spend big =/= spend well. You HAVE to spend big to attract the players who will be good enough to improve us. Again, the Barnes deal has proved that. would barnes have improved us ? i wouldn't have put him inour starting 11 and derby fans don't reckon he's kicked on since looking good last season in an easier league. i don't even think he has been an auto first choice for them this season so it just maybe that the powers that be didn't judge £3mill a decent price for his potential. as for spending etc and attracting players. man city seemed to do it at the start of this season. Man City had the advantage that although Sven seemed to be hated by England fans, he was still a manager players wanted to play for. Hopefully Keegan will have that still too. Barnes would certainly improve our midfield. Taking Emre, Butt, Barton, Geremi and Smith out of central midfield would improve any team. aye righto Ok, I'll put it another way. He's better than all of those. No disrespect Gol...but that's bullshit. Saying that he MAY turn out to be better is probably a fairer statement. All the players mentioned above (bar Smith) are full internationals (or have been) in that position on the field. Barnes is still a relative unknown in top flight football. Which of them do you currently rate as better players than Barnes? It doesn't matter how good they used to be (Geremi for one used to be fantastic in Spain), if they're shite now, they're shite now, simple as. Butt is useless - I struggle to see what he actually does. Emre needs shipping off ASAP, as he's done nothing for us since signing, other than a couple of wonder goals (sounds a bit like Martins). The only one who I'd keep is Barton, and I'm yet to see any football ability from him since signing (which is strange as he was so good at City). Barnes would get in the team in front of all of those players at the moment. Emre and Barton will offer us more now than Barnes will, the lad can't even get a regular start at Derby although he clearly has the potential to be a good player in the future. The same thing is said about Emre every single time he comes back from injury or suspension. The sad thing is, it's saying much more about how poor our midfield really is than how good Barnes is. Personally I think we should be looking at much better players than him, but if we signed him he'd certainly (in my opinion) be playing.

if he was playing here the fans would be screaming at him for not tracking back, like Ginola and Robert If he was playing here it would mean we're successful, so I doubt that

Spend big =/= spend well. You HAVE to spend big to attract the players who will be good enough to improve us. Again, the Barnes deal has proved that. would barnes have improved us ? i wouldn't have put him inour starting 11 and derby fans don't reckon he's kicked on since looking good last season in an easier league. i don't even think he has been an auto first choice for them this season so it just maybe that the powers that be didn't judge £3mill a decent price for his potential. as for spending etc and attracting players. man city seemed to do it at the start of this season. Man City had the advantage that although Sven seemed to be hated by England fans, he was still a manager players wanted to play for. Hopefully Keegan will have that still too. Barnes would certainly improve our midfield. Taking Emre, Butt, Barton, Geremi and Smith out of central midfield would improve any team. aye righto Ok, I'll put it another way. He's better than all of those. No disrespect Gol...but that's bullshit. Saying that he MAY turn out to be better is probably a fairer statement. All the players mentioned above (bar Smith) are full internationals (or have been) in that position on the field. Barnes is still a relative unknown in top flight football. Which of them do you currently rate as better players than Barnes? It doesn't matter how good they used to be (Geremi for one used to be fantastic in Spain), if they're shite now, they're shite now, simple as. Butt is useless - I struggle to see what he actually does. Emre needs shipping off ASAP, as he's done nothing for us since signing, other than a couple of wonder goals (sounds a bit like Martins). The only one who I'd keep is Barton, and I'm yet to see any football ability from him since signing (which is strange as he was so good at City). Barnes would get in the team in front of all of those players at the moment.

Spend big =/= spend well. You HAVE to spend big to attract the players who will be good enough to improve us. Again, the Barnes deal has proved that. would barnes have improved us ? i wouldn't have put him inour starting 11 and derby fans don't reckon he's kicked on since looking good last season in an easier league. i don't even think he has been an auto first choice for them this season so it just maybe that the powers that be didn't judge £3mill a decent price for his potential. as for spending etc and attracting players. man city seemed to do it at the start of this season. Man City had the advantage that although Sven seemed to be hated by England fans, he was still a manager players wanted to play for. Hopefully Keegan will have that still too. Barnes would certainly improve our midfield. Taking Emre, Butt, Barton, Geremi and Smith out of central midfield would improve any team. aye righto Ok, I'll put it another way. He's better than all of those.

Spend big =/= spend well. You HAVE to spend big to attract the players who will be good enough to improve us. Again, the Barnes deal has proved that. would barnes have improved us ? i wouldn't have put him inour starting 11 and derby fans don't reckon he's kicked on since looking good last season in an easier league. i don't even think he has been an auto first choice for them this season so it just maybe that the powers that be didn't judge £3mill a decent price for his potential. as for spending etc and attracting players. man city seemed to do it at the start of this season. Man City had the advantage that although Sven seemed to be hated by England fans, he was still a manager players wanted to play for. Hopefully Keegan will have that still too. Barnes would certainly improve our midfield. Taking Emre, Butt, Barton, Geremi and Smith out of central midfield would improve any team.

Bullshit. They're giving the media the V sign and good on them. They are the media. They're basically saying that they're allowed to criticise the club as much as they want, but nobody else in the media is allowed. yes, because they are one of us. if you have a problem with the ads, turn the images off your browser, if you have a problem with the views, don't read the site.. simple Plenty of Newcastle fans working for other papers though.

Spend big =/= spend well. You HAVE to spend big to attract the players who will be good enough to improve us. Again, the Barnes deal has proved that.

Which is essentially my point when people spout on about "we'll spend big in summer". I'm afraid it won't be any different.

Bullshit. They're giving the media the V sign and good on them. They are the media. They're basically saying that they're allowed to criticise the club as much as they want, but nobody else in the media is allowed.

nail on the head. If it wasn't so sad, I could weep I find it hard to believe that people on here don't actually agree with that fact; they just don't like to admit it. I don't think our lack of signings are anything to do with not being attractive enough. They're to do with there not being enough players AVAILABLE. Vicious circle I'm afraid. If we were able to attract them, they're more likely to be available. Do you actually know that clubs turned us down rather than it being the players? What inside information did you have about the players we enquired about? Well if you read Jewells qoutes, YES, they turned our offer down. If you read the qoutes from the Brno guy about Kalouda, and the Brno fans, their CLUB didn't feel like there was enough time to push through a transfer, and they didn't want to let him go out on trial first for a few days. My post above answers the bit about Barnes, and does indeed show a lack of ambition from the club. As for the Kalouda part; are we relying on ITK information?

We bid for Woodgate. He turned it down. I see no evidence whatsoever for a player we've enquired about and got told "no" by the club, have you? You questioned someone's inside information in order to refute their argument. Unless you have some of your own I can't see the value in that. And then I showed evidence of a player turning us down rather than it being the club. Isn't that what you asked me to do? Sorry, I was specifically meaning the 'do you know who we enquired about?' bit. I could answer it myself by mentioning Barnes, but that would add to the argument that the club isn't showing ambition by spending money on player who can improve the team

We bid for Woodgate. He turned it down. I see no evidence whatsoever for a player we've enquired about and got told "no" by the club, have you? You questioned someone's inside information in order to refute their argument. Unless you have some of your own I can't see the value in that. And then I showed evidence of a player turning us down rather than it being the club. Isn't that what you asked me to do?

Sorry, but that's rubbish. Obviously money is a massive factor, but if a player sees a struggling club heading the wrong way in the division, they're more than likely going to turn the move down. Players want to play in Europe, or get first team football. Our best bet is to find the players from the top clubs who can't get games. However; Spurs, Portsmouth, Villa, Man City and Everton are all better prospects than us at the moment, despite the wages we're able to offer. (having said that, the low bid for Barnes shows me that we're more likely to keep a closer check on the budget now, so we might not be offering big wages anymore either). How did Boro attract Alves? Or any of their players for that matter. Those clubs are in better shape than us because of Allardyce (and their respective managers), not the board IMO. Did we even try for Alves? My personal opinion (which I made clear the day we appointed Keegan) is that we've signed nobody because of the timing of his appointment. Whoever is to blame (this board, the old board, Keegan, Allardyce) I really think we've made a huge huge mistake by not signing some quality (especially to play in midfield). I know people laugh when relegation is mentioned, but it really looks a bit ominous on current form.

Soon got bored of his life long dream to play in midfield. Did he work out that he was shit there too? Awful signing from Allardyce, but no shock there.

We bid for Woodgate. He turned it down. I see no evidence whatsoever for a player we've enquired about and got told "no" by the club, have you?

Sorry, but that's rubbish. Obviously money is a massive factor, but if a player sees a struggling club heading the wrong way in the division, they're more than likely going to turn the move down. Players want to play in Europe, or get first team football. Our best bet is to find the players from the top clubs who can't get games. However; Spurs, Portsmouth, Villa, Man City and Everton are all better prospects than us at the moment, despite the wages we're able to offer. (having said that, the low bid for Barnes shows me that we're more likely to keep a closer check on the budget now, so we might not be offering big wages anymore either).

nail on the head. If it wasn't so sad, I could weep I find it hard to believe that people on here don't actually agree with that fact; they just don't like to admit it. I don't think our lack of signings are anything to do with not being attractive enough. They're to do with there not being enough players AVAILABLE. Vicious circle I'm afraid. If we were able to attract them, they're more likely to be available. Do you actually know that clubs turned us down rather than it being the players? What inside information did you have about the players we enquired about?

nail on the head. If it wasn't so sad, I could weep I find it hard to believe that people on here don't actually agree with that fact; they just don't like to admit it.

That is exactly what people on here are saying.

He hasn't signed yet.

Are there only 13 players in the world? I reckon there might just be a midfielder out there better than the s**** we've got. Well who are you saying we should have signed, realistically? I'm not paid by the club to find players. The manager and his scouts should have found someone. I never said you were did i, but i'm asking who would you have liked to see in then? Without coming out with some totally unrealistic player. And I've already made the point that I'm not a scout, but there MUST be a midfielder out there better than fucking Nicky Butt. He might play in France for all I know. What's your point?