NJS

Extra £5m or £6m which now won't be spent, might still have to pay that for Jonas. Don't care about money (though it is a measure) but care about numbers/quality.

Transfer 1: - Takeover in May - Mort did all of Allardyce's transfers so plenty time. One or two good buys but Allardyce notes lack of urgency in negotiations which he pits down to lack of football knowledge. No sense of trying to make a mark on a newly acquired business (cf Man City)- more a sense of muddling along. Transfer2: Allardyce was sacked on the 8th iirc = therefore no identification or sounding out of targets were done for when the window opened. If it was intended to not trust him with money then they should have sacked him earlier - amateurish. Transfer 3 - two good buys and a couple of maybes. Balanced by one good and one decent sale. Minimal improvement in squad quality and no improvement in depth or addressing of key areas. Also included attempts to sell remaining decent players with no replacements. No realistic chance of league position improvement beyond one or two places - an absolute fucking disgrace.

I think all the teams in this league below Villa are indistinguishable. The fact that no team will do a Derby and be miles away means there will be lots of positional changes all season imo. Those results don't bother me as Blackburn and Pompey are just as much our rivals as West Brom or Stoke.

But will have a tiny squad with inadequate overall quality and no decent strikers. In the past 7-8 years, when have we ever had a beefed up first team squad with adequate overall quality? We did well because we had players who can change games and they stayed fit for the majority of the time. We qualified for the CL with a defence of Hughes, Dabizas, O'Brien and Bernard. Not exactly stellar, is it? Butt was here during SBR's time and he was that bad that we had to loan him out to a club which eventually got relegated. We had no decent back-up for Robert and whenever Bellamy got injured, we lost steam (could have won a title if Bellamy had stayed fit..). Lua-Lua wasn't an adequate replacement for Bellamy and neither was Ameobi an adequate replacement for Shearer. Being lucky in getting away with it in the past is no reason to do something - the time you mention is also over 5 years ago now.

That assumes none of those you've named leave as well - you always lose one or two - in this case probably Zog and Martins. That leaves 8 "first" team players to sign without adding to the squad numbers - £20m?

Barclays have had no trouble at all finding Middle Eastern investors just this week - if its a good investment (ie pricewise) then theres no reason to think its impossible.

I agree - as I said I think the blame game is pointless - I'm trying to look forward to the future and hope that means a quick sale as I think an Ashley future is bleak. I'm on the 3 year DD scheme and if the current situation lasts till Feb I'll be cancelling and then making another judgement in the summer. As it stands I won't be renewing - there has to be some kind of hope to make it worthwhile.

But will have a tiny squad with inadequate overall quality and no decent strikers.

Not without a rethink of the £20m - it would need a big one-off injection (which is what combined with his blueprint I would have been happy with).

No need for the argument in my view - I've "forgotten" the Keegan saga - now its about judging his actions aside from that which I find very wanting.

http://www.sports-direct-international.com/main.asp?pid=2 There are more underlings in that company to deal with communication and not every release needs a quote from him. It was still a direct criticism by the city of the way he "took the money and ran" and then never answered any questions on it. Surely a business the size of NUFC warrants a PR department which actually speaks?

So what did the people who bought shares in SD do to deserve his noted lack of communication and contempt?

Sorry no - he's a clown in my opinion.

That's where the £20m/young player recruitment would have failed miserably (and still may do). We have to replace our only two decent strikers which would take the £20m as it stands leaving nowt for the rest.

So what the fuck was his excuse when everything was rosy? As has been said its either been laziness or contempt from day one.

So why did you say him staying was fine by you then? Its called the benefit of the doubt. Innocent until proven guilty. Ive looked at whats happened and everything doesnt add up as nicely as you and a lot of people would have me beleive so I'm choosing to keep my mind open. Are you satisfied with the ambition shown in the last 3 transfer windows? Are you satisfied that no football targets have been defined by him at any time? The answers to those two questions means I don't consider him "innocent".

So why did you say him staying was fine by you then?

Get used to 17th as the only target then - the new Bolton/Fulham/Wigan. Oh well, if you know for certain that thats the case i suppose you'll have no need for your season ticket when he decides to stay in charge? Right? Probably not - and I'd guess I've had one a lot longer than you so don't try and play the bigger fan argument. Ashley showed no ambition apart from "steady progress" to nowhere when he was fully committed - how the f*** do you think it will work when he doesn't really care? I'm the one playing the bigger fan argument?? Very ironic. Aye, lets discount everything thats occured this summer and just stick a label on him. You have no idea what exactly went on at the club do you? Simple yes or no will do. You made the ST comment - I responded. I don't give a fuck what the tiny details were - all I know is the bloke lied through his teeth, failed to strengthen the squad and demonstrated even if were true by his parting diatribe that he expected us to accept steady progress with no set target apart from financial security. I don't want him anywhere near my club.

Get used to 17th as the only target then - the new Bolton/Fulham/Wigan. Oh well, if you know for certain that thats the case i suppose you'll have no need for your season ticket when he decides to stay in charge? Right? Probably not - and I'd guess I've had one a lot longer than you so don't try and play the bigger fan argument. Ashley showed no ambition apart from "steady progress" to nowhere when he was fully committed - how the fuck do you think it will work when he doesn't really care?

Get used to 17th as the only target then - the new Bolton/Fulham/Wigan.

Next month is also tomorrow....

I think what nobody saw was how "difficult" the sale would prove - the movement or whatever you want to call it as far as I can see was setup to try and correct the wrong impression of the "sky mong" brigade and try and ensure the relationship with the club was better in the future - be it for times of disagreement or not. Now that we're caught in this no-mans land its position is a bit awkward - it wants to sweep the old regime out so that it can start from scratch with the new with all the good stuff Belios mentions but finds Ashley's contiuning presence to be a problem. I think the best way forward in this light would probably be to sit back and wait for the sale and then take it from there.

No I meant increasing his "pain" in hanging on a bit - nothing violent but affecting SD sales as a fair alternative.

That's why I said the wording was wrong - I think stating that new owners will be judged on actions not words would have been a better way of putting it (though with a possibly more polite slant). "Enemy" implies a threat which is too strong which is why I'd argue that a co-operative and "honest" owner would see benefits from involving a supporter's group rather than emphasising the negative.

I think keeping the pressure on Ashley is correct - he has put the club up for sale but at a set price. If that price is untenable then the pressure may cause him to rethink it. The idea that he has done all he can just by involving SP is crap. Also the "worst enemy" is the wrong words but I took that to mean that any new owners would have to earn respect - again I have no problem with that stance as opposed to the implication on here that supporters should brown nose from the start.