Wullie

Best man for the job. Nice to have a skipper too whose selection in the side isn't up for debate, it's been a while (although Nolan managed it in the end).

I'd prefer to wait until we beat them before getting all smug about anything.

I thought Smith was a good signing. That doesn't surprise me.

Wow. I bang the drum every year on here about getting players in before the season starts, should have them in by the start of pre-season as far as I'm concerned. Should never be in a position where you're risking a single point over the issue, especially after the millions of pounds that one point cost us last season, after the one point that saw us relegated. We're playing sunderland in August ffs.

Got no problem with waiting until deadline day and getting him, providing we take 9 points from the games in August that we'd be sacrificing.

Not convinced Long is much of a step up on Best tbh, and though Best looks much older, the difference is 4 months between them.

Gomes £10m, Bentley £15m, Pav £14m, Palacios £14m, VdV £8m, Sandro £6m, Crouch £9m, Bassong £8m, Hutton £9m. To name a few.

They've spent £95m net, £2m less than Chelsea, works out at £19m per season since 2006. And people reckon we operate like them. According to that chart they've made a net profit on transfers every year. Unless I'm reading it wrong. http://i.imgur.com/89DFY.png

They've spent £95m net, £2m less than Chelsea, works out at £19m per season since 2006. And people reckon we operate like them.

So do you see 16 of 20 Premier League clubs going to the wall? Do you think your own Spurs will go bust because you've spent money and bought good players? Your point is perfectly valid, they are running up debt but that's football at the moment and that debt will improve them on the field. If Modric goes will you be happy if that money subsequently vanishes into nowhere and you start scrabbling round for free transfers and release clauses, and the noises out of Spurs are that your aim is to finish 10th? Saying you've got a plan to keep the wage bill down and not be stung for transfers is all very well in isolation but football clubs don't exist in isolation, they exist, in both our cases, in a league with 19 other teams who will all be spending money to achieve success on the pitch. Do you see our "model" as one which is likely to get us back to Europe and back to the Champions League? I'm not sure sunderland's accounts are good to compare with because they're shit as well. At the end of the day, I don't care about finances or figures or accounts, all I care about is success at NUFC, on the field. All the financial stability in the world means nothing to me if we finish 10th every year. It's crazy to take such a casual attitude towards debt. If you continue to run at a loss, your debt will increase and likewise the interest payments. At some stage, you have to start balancing the books. At some stage? We've been doing it for four years now. When do you think our competitors will begin to do it?

So do you see 16 of 20 Premier League clubs going to the wall? Do you think your own Spurs will go bust because you've spent money and bought good players? Your point is perfectly valid, they are running up debt but that's football at the moment and that debt will improve them on the field. If Modric goes will you be happy if that money subsequently vanishes into nowhere and you start scrabbling round for free transfers and release clauses, and the noises out of Spurs are that your aim is to finish 10th? Saying you've got a plan to keep the wage bill down and not be stung for transfers is all very well in isolation but football clubs don't exist in isolation, they exist, in both our cases, in a league with 19 other teams who will all be spending money to achieve success on the pitch. Do you see our "model" as one which is likely to get us back to Europe and back to the Champions League? I'm not sure sunderland's accounts are good to compare with because they're shit as well. At the end of the day, I don't care about finances or figures or accounts, all I care about is success at NUFC, on the field. All the financial stability in the world means nothing to me if we finish 10th every year.

Good post Wallace. I think UV had some facts and figures from the accounts showing our turnover had decreased drastically under Ashley even before relegation, though since that was his fault too it shouldn't really matter. Re: revenue streams, Mike Ashley using NUFC and St James' Park as a free source of advertising for his tatty sports wares is an absolute scandal imo.

Seriously though madras, how much debt must all the other clubs in the world be running up if they're all paying transfer fees on top of all the other standards fees that come with running a club and buying players? You mention Spurs but that's a total nonsense because Spurs spend money i.e. transfer fees. You're advocating selling but not buying, other than for free. Bringing Spurs into it is totally misrepresenting the argument. You talk like we're the only club who pays wages and signing-on fees and like it's a radical new development. How has football survived for this length of time if the standard practice of paying money to other clubs for players is so financially crippling to the clubs and can only lead to more debt? If it's true that we are making a continuous loss despite massive transfer profits and the third biggest stadium in the country, then would you not agree that the club's financial management must in fact be absolutely catastrophically bad under Mike Ashley? Shepherd's NUFC ran in profit year on year if you didn't include the dreaded outgoing transfer fees and the dividends that him and Hall were creaming off the top. His mistake was never spending money - it was letting mugs like Souness spend money on shit. His one attempt at 'keeping the powder dry', we are still suffering from. How can Ashley possibly have managed to turn the finances round so badly, to the point where the only aspect of the business that had us running at a loss is now a massive profit making enterprise, and yet the business is still losing money hand over fist, according to the propaganda. Either they're telling blatant lies or they are astonishingly incompetent at generating revenue, either way it's indefensible that clubs like Stoke and Fulham regularly outspend us. Stoke spend £9m a season on transfer fees alone, Fulham spend £7m, neither generally sell anybody worth anything and you claim Newcastle United, with a British transfer record in our pockets, can't afford a penny?! I honestly can't believe what I'm reading sometimes.

probably yes, and hopefully improve the squad on the back of it. do those free transfers not carry signing on fees,agents, increases in the clubs wages etc ? Yes, and every other club in the league/country/world is prepared to pay transfer fees on top of those standard fees. That's how it works, how it has always worked and how it will always work. You are actually advocating an annual firesale to "improve" the squad? Fucking hell man. What is this financial crisis you've created in your own head?

I obviously didn't mean that. I'm not positive about the results, but I'm positive that we're trying for some decent players. We can't make NUFC any more successful and appealing than it is, and we won't pay over the odds in wages. Therefore if we go for top players they are quite likely to reject us. It's all part of the process. No wonder you're happy with the running of the club if you really believe that. Come on, that's obviously not what I meant either. I mean we can't make NUFC a Champions League club right now in order to appeal to those players who want that, so we have to accept some might turn us down. Clearly in the future we can make the club more successful and appealing, didn't think I would need to explain that TBH. So now top players only go to Champions League clubs? Did Andy Carroll? Did Luis Suarez? Did Luka Modric? Did Darren Bent? This defeatist attitude is embarrassing. If you pay good money, good players will come, and that's how you improve. Simple as that. We have the fanbase to be in amongst the best teams in the country and I for one will never accept less than that. You're a good bloke Ian but you talk in contradictions. You claim we can't compete with the clubs at the top because they spend loads of money but you say we shouldn't spend money because that's not the way to improve the team. Surely even you can see that the current management of the club is not going to get us back into the top six? You must have been awfully depressed over the last 50 years then.. Very, it got so bad that I wasn't even alive for half of it.

I obviously didn't mean that. I'm not positive about the results, but I'm positive that we're trying for some decent players. We can't make NUFC any more successful and appealing than it is, and we won't pay over the odds in wages. Therefore if we go for top players they are quite likely to reject us. It's all part of the process. No wonder you're happy with the running of the club if you really believe that. Come on, that's obviously not what I meant either. I mean we can't make NUFC a Champions League club right now in order to appeal to those players who want that, so we have to accept some might turn us down. Clearly in the future we can make the club more successful and appealing, didn't think I would need to explain that TBH. So now top players only go to Champions League clubs? Did Andy Carroll? Did Luis Suarez? Did Luka Modric? Did Darren Bent? This defeatist attitude is embarrassing. If you pay good money, good players will come, and that's how you improve. Simple as that. We have the fanbase to be in amongst the best teams in the country and I for one will never accept less than that. You're a good bloke Ian but you talk in contradictions. You claim we can't compete with the clubs at the top because they spend loads of money but you say we shouldn't spend money because that's not the way to improve the team. Surely even you can see that the current management of the club is not going to get us back into the top six? this current management, but for an awful WBA defeat would have had us top 10. IF, they find more tiote's, ben arfa's and enriques, then they will have us top 6. If we sign good players, we'll improve. That's what I just said. Ben Arfa's played two games btw.

I don't believe that two free transfers is a large chunk madras, I will simply not accept that. What were we going to spend if we'd not sold Carroll in your eyes? Yet another sale of top players?

I obviously didn't mean that. I'm not positive about the results, but I'm positive that we're trying for some decent players. We can't make NUFC any more successful and appealing than it is, and we won't pay over the odds in wages. Therefore if we go for top players they are quite likely to reject us. It's all part of the process. No wonder you're happy with the running of the club if you really believe that. Come on, that's obviously not what I meant either. I mean we can't make NUFC a Champions League club right now in order to appeal to those players who want that, so we have to accept some might turn us down. Clearly in the future we can make the club more successful and appealing, didn't think I would need to explain that TBH. So now top players only go to Champions League clubs? Did Andy Carroll? Did Luis Suarez? Did Luka Modric? Did Darren Bent? This defeatist attitude is embarrassing. If you pay good money, good players will come, and that's how you improve. Simple as that. We have the fanbase to be in amongst the best teams in the country and I for one will never accept less than that. You're a good bloke Ian but you talk in contradictions. You claim we can't compete with the clubs at the top because they spend loads of money but you say we shouldn't spend money because that's not the way to improve the team. Surely even you can see that the current management of the club is not going to get us back into the top six?

I obviously didn't mean that. I'm not positive about the results, but I'm positive that we're trying for some decent players. We can't make NUFC any more successful and appealing than it is, and we won't pay over the odds in wages. Therefore if we go for top players they are quite likely to reject us. It's all part of the process. No wonder you're happy with the running of the club if you really believe that.

Funny how the general consensus now seems to be that nobody's bothered about investing that money ' as long as we improve'. I don't remember that being the case in February when the patter from the usual suspects was how much this money would improve the team. Just goes to show how much certain people will contradict themselves to defend every decision the club makes. If we're not bothered about the money, could we not have kept our centre forward?

Not particularly. At one point he mentioned the positives of waiting to buy players until after the start of the season, waiting to see who isn't getting a game and may become available... Christ almighty.

I was hoping it was because his brother had called him a wall pushing cunt.

Doesn't Warren Barton's Centre Parting off here work with Carroll's half brother?

:lol:

Not much of a habit if you can think of five in twenty years. I'd dispute several of those too.