madras

mourinho left because it started to go bad and his way round it was to go all FM08 and just try and buy his way out of trouble. all managers have limited authority in the transfer market (even keegan under the halls, when they wouldn't but him beppe signori). if wenger or ferguson go to their boards and say they want to compete with citeh for kaka....what do you think they'll be told ? But Wenger or Ferguson wouldn't even say that so the point is mute. because they know what the answer would be ? they work within their means and maybe rafa wants to push too far. By having more control of transfer policy and the youth team? Isn't that what being a manager is, having control over these things? but a manager must also be aware of his constraints. maybe his board don't think rafa is too aware of his ?

mourinho left because it started to go bad and his way round it was to go all FM08 and just try and buy his way out of trouble. all managers have limited authority in the transfer market (even keegan under the halls, when they wouldn't but him beppe signori). if wenger or ferguson go to their boards and say they want to compete with citeh for kaka....what do you think they'll be told ? But Wenger or Ferguson wouldn't even say that so the point is mute. because they know what the answer would be ? they work within their means and maybe rafa wants to push too far.

about a quarter of the system. half the thing with getting in talented kids is improving them and bringing them through....something we have been very,very bad at for years.

any source ?

What position does he play? Striker ok I remember him from the Euros. Plays for Germany although he didn't do much in that tournament. he was terrible in the tournament but looked very good last season domestically. out of our reach though.

mourinho left because it started to go bad and his way round it was to go all FM08 and just try and buy his way out of trouble. all managers have limited authority in the transfer market (even keegan under the halls, when they wouldn't but him beppe signori). if wenger or ferguson go to their boards and say they want to compete with citeh for kaka....what do you think they'll be told ?

wigan signed him 1 year ago for £770,000. steve bruce Arsene Wenger knows how to find a bargain. either way, he signed valencia in the same window and he's possibly off for an inflated fee. twas good window for wigan. only if it is reinvested well in the playing side. They are likely to have a couple of south americans lined up no doubt. doesn't mean they'll be as succesful as the two going.

wigan signed him 1 year ago for £770,000. steve bruce Arsene Wenger knows how to find a bargain. either way, he signed valencia in the same window and he's possibly off for an inflated fee. twas good window for wigan. only if it is reinvested well in the playing side.

i agree. "nixon" is a name asking for a punch

Without wanting to switch this into something else - it does show some signs of long term planning which can only be good for the club. Lets just hope they dont forget about the present. The entire thing is just a total contradiction. Whilst it's blatantly obvious that Ashley has got no interests in pursuing his life as the owner of Newcastle United (today's news merely confirms that)... yet he's still got Wise and his minions on the payroll. I guess it'd just just be too much of a pisstake if he were to get rid of Wise now, given the events that led to Keegan's exit. Wise et al anit doing a bad job to be fair. A bum loan doesn't change that. we can't really say as we don't klnow who is doing what.

Without wanting to switch this into something else - it does show some signs of long term planning which can only be good for the club. Lets just hope they dont forget about the present. you mean the bung ?

i'll bet we set out to sign vic harris from carshalton.

or the third choice.....let his contract run out and use from now til then to find someone else.

I still don't understand the stick Sir John Hall gets. I don't dislike him for what he did - more so because I don't think he was completely honest. I disliked his claim that the club would have gone bust without his intervention and I dislike the way he underplayed how much money he made out of the club despite frequently claiming otherwise. I also found his "Geordie nation" stuff patronising (though not to the same degree as Shepherd's). I just think plenty of other people had the opportunity to put their money into the club (including the supporters) and passed that opportunity up. The Halls (like them or not) put their money in when no one else would & probably only made the sort of return you'd expect in any sort of venture capital investment, which is pretty much what putting money into the club equated to at the time in terms of risk. i wonder how much of the halls money was actually at risk pre-floating ?

doesn't matter. we is in double figure pages now man.

I seem to remember people on here finding it pretty funny at the time...kind of like it was some sort of poetic justice for his mismanagement of the club...and everyone was in thrall to our new moneybags saviour. Aye, we had very little if any sympathy for Shepherd at a time. Perhaps a bit unfair on him. Argh, let's stop this. A few more posts down this road and we're all going to be jumping out of our seats screaming "OMFG NE5 WAS RIGHT!" ne5 has always been partially right

Exactly. So, logically... If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood. And therefore? A witch! Then I dub you 'Sir Bedevere, Knight of the Round Table'. ;D

they thought they got one in zokora.

An injured Finnan is still better than a fully fit Edgar or Taylor stupid How so? The injury is obviously not stopping him playing so he'd be available for selection, in which case (given his obvious ability as a footballer) he would indeed be a better option than Taylor or Edgar.... he's not injured,he has a problem that could make him more prone to injury. better a fit taylor than finnan on the treatment table. lets hope our medicos get it right ( ) regarding this if it is all true.

Whats a thing muscle? When you're older a girl might tell you what it's for. very quick. you're learning.

for those conspracy minded............finnan failed a medical at hull,so naturally we agree a deal with espanyol,in order to pull the club after his medical so the club can say we agreed a deal,we tried etc.

just to sit in and find out how to conclude a deal ?

An injured Finnan is still better than a fully fit Edgar or Taylor stupid

I never rated him that highly myself but I for one didn't expect Smith to be as abysmal as he has turned out to be. So in that sense he has been a disappointment. When he first came here he was still fairly well rated by a lot of people (including Ferguson), so I don't hold anything against those who supported him in the early days. It's a very petty and trivial way of getting at Ashley if you ask me. i go along withn that. i thought the money could have been better spent and he was a player we didn't particularly need but i didn't thiink he'd be as bad as he has been.

Apart from the fact that even Ashley wants to watch entertaining football. I'm not convinced. You need good players for that. Yeah, I'm sure he spent all this money on the club (in the first place at least before you start on about transfers) to watch a dull side. No he bought it to make more money. The football played is irrelevant as long as it's cheap. Ah OK. And you know this how? From his actions since he bought the club. It's fairly obvious if you don't take every opportunity to stuff yourself up his hoop. you could make the argument that his actions since taking over have drove the value of the club down,less incoming monies, making it less likely he'll make money on his investment. Less incoming money how? The Sky money is the same for everyone and he's already got most people's season ticket money. how many do you think would have renewed had we been top 6 as opposed too how many already have ? i'll bet if we do make an operating profit it will be minimal.