madras

Can't say he's ever looked that good to me. Would have taken him on a free the other year but he chased the cash like Sidwell IMO; never stood a chance of getting in before Terry and Carvalho. That´s easy for us to say on the sidelines isn´t it? As a player you just want the chance to prove yourself at the highest level possible and, yes, maybe earn a decent wage while you´re at it. People go on like going to Chelsea is just about the money way too much. It´s not like a top player going to a Middle East club when they´re competing for every trophy around is it..? A cynic would argue players that cho(o)se us over other clubs went for the money rather than for sporting reasons.. As a free transfer from Bolton, if he honestly thought he would get in the Chelsea team ahead of club captain John Terry and £20m Ricardo Carvalho - one of the best defenders in the world - I wouldn't want him as he's clearly a mentalist. doesn't really matter if he's a free transfer ,je was only free through bosman not cos bolton didn't rate him and wanted. ballack was a free aswell. the names are obvious. the van der vaart's,arshavins etc. but i don't mind getting in some lesser known names providing the homework has been done on them. the names of ginola,robert, ,solano wouldn't have appeared on most peoples lists before they signed and i remember a lot of weeping and waling when we signed bellamy and speed.

his point is quite clear and correct. I'm sure most people understand. can anyone remember the last player transfer fee auction ? auction on the players wages yes but i am struggling to remember the last time i saw "club x have bid this ammount..ooohhh club y have bid more..club x wil have to top that" it's a bit pre-bosman. if clubs x bids less than club y but the player wants to go club x then the only decision if for the selling club to decide if it is enough. Owen? we paid was it 16mill. if liverpol had bid 14mill where would owen have moved ? kewell is a better example.

his point is quite clear and correct. I'm sure most people understand. can anyone remember the last player transfer fee auction ? auction on the players wages yes but i am struggling to remember the last time i saw "club x have bid this ammount..ooohhh club y have bid more..club x wil have to top that" it's a bit pre-bosman. if clubs x bids less than club y but the player wants to go club x then the only decision if for the selling club to decide if it is enough.

Agree with the sentiments of that post. I'd much rather have young, hungry players who are desperate to prove themselves than the likes of Duff, Smith, Carr etc who know they've already made it and are on huge wages. If he's good then great, if he's cack then at least he's not cost us much and will still be a good age when his contract runs out. This isn't to say we don't need immediate first-teamers - we do - but to complain at this deal for the supposed £2m is mental. [/NOT A CRITICISM OF THE OLD BOARD] I think a lot of the misunderstanding is due to the fact that people have different views of how we should build a good squad as quickly as possible (which IMHO we do need to as we are losing ground and have been for a few years). There is a camp that look at our current squad and conclude it is both small and not very strong. The best way to get it up to scratch is by buying some (doesn´t even have to be more than 3 or 4) very good players and move current first teamers to be squad players (the likes of Butt, Geremi, Taylor). There seems to be another camp that wants us to build from the ground up and don´t seem too concerned about the timing aspect (doesn´t have to be this upcoming season) as long as we slowly move in the right direction. In my mind, the second approach would suit a club with limited financial means and a good manager. In my opinion we are a club with a good manager that should be able to compete financially, like we have done for years and especially now we have a billionaire owning the club. I just don´t quite understand why we are taking chances on players who haven´t shown as far as I am aware extraordinary potential or quality unless we really need to. Luckily, we all seem agreed we need better quality transfers before the window shuts, so here´s hoping it happens and I can read my own posts back and laugh at my own impatience. For now though, I haven´t seen much to suggest that will happen. You can point at the club keeping its cards close to its chest and claim we don´t know anything, but I will point out that they have played their first two cards on the table already, and I have yet to be impressed. i have a foot in both camps.

sure this has been done before......shearer signing...... ...i was in kardemena with the wife to be when one of a big group of lads from washington announced it round the pool, he was a bit of a joker but something in his voice told me different. grabbed all the change i could muster and off to the phone. rang a couple of mates but both at work, rang my mam who heard nowt, rnag back half an hour later after she'd listened to metro news and then it was only a strong rumour. lad at the pool confirmed it via his source 4pmish,confirmed on the world service sports news at 8pm. stripes on for that night and a party atmosphere was had by all. mates are still pissed off i found out before them from a couple of thousand mile away. listened to the reception thing via the world service sat on the balcony 8pm the following night with echoes of "shearer" ringing from differing parts of the resort.

It is a shame and shows what can go wrong when potential deals are made public, all the more reason to keep them quiet. Mick, the point is that you can't tell top players that are being courted by several other clubs to keep it quiet, nor can you make the selling club that is involved shut up about it. It is in bith their interests to forge the best possible deal for themselves, not us. That's why keeping things quiet will not work that well when we (hopefully) move onto bigger targets. Of course, when there's only one club interested and the player is not a high profile character that attracts a lot of media attention, keeping things quiet is far easier, but that in itself doesn't make them better signings. I can't believe I've had to explain this.. I'm not surprised in the slightest you've had to explain it i've read it a few times and can't find where he makes out they are better signings because of it. see the bold. Anything that puts the fat b****** in a bad light is fair game, and must be explained when it isn't necessarily true, as you know. Thats Shepherd BTW, not Ashley. I'm a bit surprised this is still going on to be honest. Some of us have explained it all in such a way that even a child could understand, if they want to of course. yet other clubs can keep it quiet (unless they are attempting to unsettle them). remember the modric talks had been held well before the stroy broke from their end.

I don't think too many, if any are happy with our midfield. Personally I would like to see us bring in a quality replacement for Butt and I would like to see us bring in a midfielder who can split defences with one pass that can put us through on goal. this is my theory which will probably get shot down....but i think most players can play those sort of passes but very few players have the movement and timing to make the runs to make it happen . sometime the absolute slide rule pass is used but a lot less often than to make the player capable a necessity. fire away. In Owen and Martins we have two of the best forwards in the game movement wise, if I was an out of favour attaking midfielder with an eye for a pass then I would be salivating over that potential combination. Don't forget we also need someone who can win the ball and pass it when playing the better sides, hence the desperate need for a quality defensive midfielder. The ammount of times we couldn't keep the ball because Butt was a half step behind the better players in the leauge had me tearing my hair out owen yes martins i aint so sure about. he has great timing for ball from deep through the middle and the control to go with it in that situation however his other movement and control are open to debate. adde to that i'm never sure we play martins correctly or if he could play the way i envisage. Martins has the pace obviously to make darting runs that split defenses. It is just the fact that since he's arrived with the exception of Emre (who hardly played) we have not had a single solitary player, who can look up, instantly spot the run and deliver a perfect pass right on his boot or into space. The number of times last season when I say Martins attempt to move into space and find a pass either behind him or too far in front of him was incredibly frustrating. Movement wise he has the ability, I would actually doubt what you said about his control, he simply cannot at the moment use his pace and dribbling to consistantly beat his man. Mmmmmm not so sure. one of the main criticisms of martins inside the ground is his poor movement when we have the ball in their half. he seems more to react to where the ball is going rather than making the move to give the impetus to the player with the ball. Fair play, but if you had Nicky Butt, Joey Barton and Geremi playing balls to you, and kept making lung busting runs up the middle or into space if nothing came of it following the ball would be the only option. I understand what your saying, but I think once we get a true attacking midfielder in with an eye for a pass who can also keep up with the pace of the game over here will actually reveal whether this is true or not. I still think the biggest weakness in Martins game is the fact that he cannot beat his man and use his breakaway speed when he has the ball effectively enough. i think he is too polite...knows he can do anyone for pace but sees it as unsporting to do so.

It is a shame and shows what can go wrong when potential deals are made public, all the more reason to keep them quiet. Mick, the point is that you can't tell top players that are being courted by several other clubs to keep it quiet, nor can you make the selling club that is involved shut up about it. It is in bith their interests to forge the best possible deal for themselves, not us. That's why keeping things quiet will not work that well when we (hopefully) move onto bigger targets. Of course, when there's only one club interested and the player is not a high profile character that attracts a lot of media attention, keeping things quiet is far easier, but that in itself doesn't make them better signings. I can't believe I've had to explain this.. I'm not surprised in the slightest you've had to explain it i've read it a few times and can't find where he makes out they are better signings because of it.

I don't think too many, if any are happy with our midfield. Personally I would like to see us bring in a quality replacement for Butt and I would like to see us bring in a midfielder who can split defences with one pass that can put us through on goal. this is my theory which will probably get shot down....but i think most players can play those sort of passes but very few players have the movement and timing to make the runs to make it happen . sometime the absolute slide rule pass is used but a lot less often than to make the player capable a necessity. fire away. In Owen and Martins we have two of the best forwards in the game movement wise, if I was an out of favour attaking midfielder with an eye for a pass then I would be salivating over that potential combination. Don't forget we also need someone who can win the ball and pass it when playing the better sides, hence the desperate need for a quality defensive midfielder. The ammount of times we couldn't keep the ball because Butt was a half step behind the better players in the leauge had me tearing my hair out owen yes martins i aint so sure about. he has great timing for ball from deep through the middle and the control to go with it in that situation however his other movement and control are open to debate. adde to that i'm never sure we play martins correctly or if he could play the way i envisage. Martins has the pace obviously to make darting runs that split defenses. It is just the fact that since he's arrived with the exception of Emre (who hardly played) we have not had a single solitary player, who can look up, instantly spot the run and deliver a perfect pass right on his boot or into space. The number of times last season when I say Martins attempt to move into space and find a pass either behind him or too far in front of him was incredibly frustrating. Movement wise he has the ability, I would actually doubt what you said about his control, he simply cannot at the moment use his pace and dribbling to consistantly beat his man. Mmmmmm not so sure. one of the main criticisms of martins inside the ground is his poor movement when we have the ball in their half. he seems more to react to where the ball is going rather than making the move to give the impetus to the player with the ball.

is ameobi premiership proven ?

I don't think too many, if any are happy with our midfield. Personally I would like to see us bring in a quality replacement for Butt and I would like to see us bring in a midfielder who can split defences with one pass that can put us through on goal. this is my theory which will probably get shot down....but i think most players can play those sort of passes but very few players have the movement and timing to make the runs to make it happen . sometime the absolute slide rule pass is used but a lot less often than to make the player capable a necessity. fire away. In Owen and Martins we have two of the best forwards in the game movement wise, if I was an out of favour attaking midfielder with an eye for a pass then I would be salivating over that potential combination. Don't forget we also need someone who can win the ball and pass it when playing the better sides, hence the desperate need for a quality defensive midfielder. The ammount of times we couldn't keep the ball because Butt was a half step behind the better players in the leauge had me tearing my hair out owen yes martins i aint so sure about. he has great timing for ball from deep through the middle and the control to go with it in that situation however his other movement and control are open to debate. adde to that i'm never sure we play martins correctly or if he could play the way i envisage.

problem is you are talking bollocks mate, the vast majority of players NUFC have signed in the last 15 years have been conducted without undue publicity. The hype and s*** you are taking in here is no different to the hype and s*** that sunday tabloids print. Ironic ? Definitely. If you like I am quite prepared to draw up a long list of players signed that willl show this to be true. And by the way, how long has this Danny Glover rumours be going on ? Laughable. that was the way till robson left for the most part but then when souness came in we had lengthy drawn out and very public transfers (boumsong,emre style),,,,roeder with martins wasn't exactly private either In actual fact, by laying the blame at the manager(s) concerned, you are taking it away from the board, which is exactly the point that I was waiting to make. Well done. Keegan particularly, signed most players with very little if anything leaked to the press, the first time around. Its his style, just like the first time. The only major exception I can think of just now was Les Ferdinand, as everybody knew for months he wanted him and it always looked possible he would come here. Still, as I said earlier, sign a major player like Arshavin and Bentley without anybody finding out until its done, and that is a different kettle of fish to managing to do it when it involves players that not many people even know about, never mind care about. On a slightly different note, Newcastle is a goldfish bowl, people want news coming out of the club. Ashley's PR skills are non existent. When the team is winning, or while Keegan is boss, they will get away with it, but when things go badly, they will get flak for bad and non existent PR, just like Dalglish did when he did precisely that and also started playing negative football. i was using the managers more as a time frame. in my opinion the style changed after woodgate in which fat fred done it very publically and pulled off a bit of a coup and i think he used that as a template from then on. edit... i don't give a toss for PR. whats on thew pitch answers everything. You quite clearly in fact DO give a toss for PR, but only when it suits you to do so. Personally, I don't. But I'm making the point that quite a lot of other people in this city of Newcastle and Tyneside do give a toss for PR. please expand ? Well, if you have never been bothered about PR (gaffes or otherwise) and only bothered about what happens on the pitch, its difficult to see what we have ever disagreed about ? are you saying souness,roeder and allardyce...the direction the club were headed on and off the pitch were PR gaffes ? eh ? Have you never made a remark about our ex pie eating chairman ? Does Ashley eat pies too I wonder i call him fat fred. i'll call ashley "fat mike" if it makes you happy. i also used to call him fat fred when i was defending him.

problem is you are talking bollocks mate, the vast majority of players NUFC have signed in the last 15 years have been conducted without undue publicity. The hype and s*** you are taking in here is no different to the hype and s*** that sunday tabloids print. Ironic ? Definitely. If you like I am quite prepared to draw up a long list of players signed that willl show this to be true. And by the way, how long has this Danny Glover rumours be going on ? Laughable. that was the way till robson left for the most part but then when souness came in we had lengthy drawn out and very public transfers (boumsong,emre style),,,,roeder with martins wasn't exactly private either In actual fact, by laying the blame at the manager(s) concerned, you are taking it away from the board, which is exactly the point that I was waiting to make. Well done. Keegan particularly, signed most players with very little if anything leaked to the press, the first time around. Its his style, just like the first time. The only major exception I can think of just now was Les Ferdinand, as everybody knew for months he wanted him and it always looked possible he would come here. Still, as I said earlier, sign a major player like Arshavin and Bentley without anybody finding out until its done, and that is a different kettle of fish to managing to do it when it involves players that not many people even know about, never mind care about. On a slightly different note, Newcastle is a goldfish bowl, people want news coming out of the club. Ashley's PR skills are non existent. When the team is winning, or while Keegan is boss, they will get away with it, but when things go badly, they will get flak for bad and non existent PR, just like Dalglish did when he did precisely that and also started playing negative football. i was using the managers more as a time frame. in my opinion the style changed after woodgate in which fat fred done it very publically and pulled off a bit of a coup and i think he used that as a template from then on. edit... i don't give a toss for PR. whats on thew pitch answers everything. You quite clearly in fact DO give a toss for PR, but only when it suits you to do so. Personally, I don't. But I'm making the point that quite a lot of other people in this city of Newcastle and Tyneside do give a toss for PR. please expand ? Well, if you have never been bothered about PR (gaffes or otherwise) and only bothered about what happens on the pitch, its difficult to see what we have ever disagreed about ? are you saying souness,roeder and allardyce...the direction the club were headed on and off the pitch were PR gaffes ?

I don't think too many, if any are happy with our midfield. Personally I would like to see us bring in a quality replacement for Butt and I would like to see us bring in a midfielder who can split defences with one pass that can put us through on goal. this is my theory which will probably get shot down....but i think most players can play those sort of passes but very few players have the movement and timing to make the runs to make it happen . sometime the absolute slide rule pass is used but a lot less often than to make the player capable a necessity. fire away.

problem is you are talking bollocks mate, the vast majority of players NUFC have signed in the last 15 years have been conducted without undue publicity. The hype and s*** you are taking in here is no different to the hype and s*** that sunday tabloids print. Ironic ? Definitely. If you like I am quite prepared to draw up a long list of players signed that willl show this to be true. And by the way, how long has this Danny Glover rumours be going on ? Laughable. that was the way till robson left for the most part but then when souness came in we had lengthy drawn out and very public transfers (boumsong,emre style),,,,roeder with martins wasn't exactly private either In actual fact, by laying the blame at the manager(s) concerned, you are taking it away from the board, which is exactly the point that I was waiting to make. Well done. Keegan particularly, signed most players with very little if anything leaked to the press, the first time around. Its his style, just like the first time. The only major exception I can think of just now was Les Ferdinand, as everybody knew for months he wanted him and it always looked possible he would come here. Still, as I said earlier, sign a major player like Arshavin and Bentley without anybody finding out until its done, and that is a different kettle of fish to managing to do it when it involves players that not many people even know about, never mind care about. On a slightly different note, Newcastle is a goldfish bowl, people want news coming out of the club. Ashley's PR skills are non existent. When the team is winning, or while Keegan is boss, they will get away with it, but when things go badly, they will get flak for bad and non existent PR, just like Dalglish did when he did precisely that and also started playing negative football. i was using the managers more as a time frame. in my opinion the style changed after woodgate in which fat fred done it very publically and pulled off a bit of a coup and i think he used that as a template from then on. edit... i don't give a toss for PR. whats on thew pitch answers everything. You quite clearly in fact DO give a toss for PR, but only when it suits you to do so. Personally, I don't. But I'm making the point that quite a lot of other people in this city of Newcastle and Tyneside do give a toss for PR. please expand ?

SWP has scored 4 in 81 for Chelsea in the Premiership btw... He on the otherhand is premiership-proven btw. Surely his record at Man City, where he was a starter and likewise had a regular role within the team's on-field structure as opposed to being more of a utility/substitute type at Cheslea, holds weight. Of course there was going to be drop off in numbers, when compared to his career at City. no he's premiership experienced. i wouldn't say he is premiership proven as he hasn't played consistently well since man city even when given a run a chelsea.

thats my thoughts. i see guthrie as a squad player with time to improve (very keeganesque signing actually,eatock,jeffrey,guppy,holland,robinson) and hopefully more proven quality will be through the doors before ther end of august.

Maybe because the press knowing about our transfer dealings and the quality of the players involved are logically related? Do you really think we will sign top quality, high profile players without the press having a clue until it happens? A relatively unknown Argentinian and a low profile Liverpool youth/squad player yes, but somebody being courted by other big clubs? If so, what went wrong in the Modric (no) deal? he won't answer this. Unbelievable's point is the best one yet on our transfers this summer - when we sign a 10m+ player this summer under the noses of the press i'll listen and doff my cap accordingly, til then i'm finding it unlikely there are reams of journalists hanging about liverpools training ground to see who their reserves are signing for, and we managed to keep it from them more likely no-one gives a flying f*** whether danny guthrie signs for bolton or newcastle (his reported choices) 'cause it's not newsworthy Precisely comparing like for like....i'll compare benayoun (winger we'd never heard of playing in spain) with jonas....the press were al over the benayoun thing for weeks

problem is you are talking bollocks mate, the vast majority of players NUFC have signed in the last 15 years have been conducted without undue publicity. The hype and s*** you are taking in here is no different to the hype and s*** that sunday tabloids print. Ironic ? Definitely. If you like I am quite prepared to draw up a long list of players signed that willl show this to be true. And by the way, how long has this Danny Glover rumours be going on ? Laughable. that was the way till robson left for the most part but then when souness came in we had lengthy drawn out and very public transfers (boumsong,emre style),,,,roeder with martins wasn't exactly private either In actual fact, by laying the blame at the manager(s) concerned, you are taking it away from the board, which is exactly the point that I was waiting to make. Well done. Keegan particularly, signed most players with very little if anything leaked to the press, the first time around. Its his style, just like the first time. The only major exception I can think of just now was Les Ferdinand, as everybody knew for months he wanted him and it always looked possible he would come here. Still, as I said earlier, sign a major player like Arshavin and Bentley without anybody finding out until its done, and that is a different kettle of fish to managing to do it when it involves players that not many people even know about, never mind care about. On a slightly different note, Newcastle is a goldfish bowl, people want news coming out of the club. Ashley's PR skills are non existent. When the team is winning, or while Keegan is boss, they will get away with it, but when things go badly, they will get flak for bad and non existent PR, just like Dalglish did when he did precisely that and also started playing negative football. i was using the managers more as a time frame. in my opinion the style changed after woodgate in which fat fred done it very publically and pulled off a bit of a coup and i think he used that as a template from then on. edit... i don't give a toss for PR. whats on thew pitch answers everything.

but according to whom ?

problem is you are talking bollocks mate, the vast majority of players NUFC have signed in the last 15 years have been conducted without undue publicity. The hype and s*** you are taking in here is no different to the hype and s*** that sunday tabloids print. Ironic ? Definitely. If you like I am quite prepared to draw up a long list of players signed that willl show this to be true. And by the way, how long has this Danny Glover rumours be going on ? Laughable. that was the way till robson left for the most part but then when souness came in we had lengthy drawn out and very public transfers (boumsong,emre style),,,,roeder with martins wasn't exactly private either there shouldn't be any reason to list these playes tbh. Anyboyy who has actually supported the club, will know its true and wouldnt dispute it what ?

who says we are "telling him"?

who says we are ?

problem is you are talking bollocks mate, the vast majority of players NUFC have signed in the last 15 years have been conducted without undue publicity. The hype and s*** you are taking in here is no different to the hype and s*** that sunday tabloids print. Ironic ? Definitely. If you like I am quite prepared to draw up a long list of players signed that willl show this to be true. And by the way, how long has this Danny Glover rumours be going on ? Laughable. that was the way till robson left for the most part but then when souness came in we had lengthy drawn out and very public transfers (boumsong,emre style),,,,roeder with martins wasn't exactly private either

it's in the mail