Wullie

It would be nice to be able to sign a blank cheque to keep everyone on long extended contracts and buy lots more expensive players at the same time. Unfortunately that doesn't happen anywhere without arab/russian billionaire owners. If there's a limit on the spending how do you propose we recruit new players at the same time as handing out long contracts to the likes of Nolan and Barton? Don't bid for Gervinho and bid for someone £4m cheaper so we can hand that money to the players already here? Why is there a limit on spending when we've just sold the family silver for £35m? Keeping your main first team players and buying new ones doesn't happen anywhere else? Righto.

I suspect it would be fairly easy to negotiate a contract which will suit both parties. You can speculate on figures until the cows come home but Nolan doesn't strike me as the type to go upsetting the apple cart because he's not getting 60 grand a week - I can't imagine he came from huge wedge at Bolton for a start. My view is that any decision is based on personalities rather than footballing sense, as usual.

Taking the p*ss I hope? No not at all........... why is Nolan even being offered a new deal ? Him and his best mate are both important players but not irreplaceable, both getting on in footballing years and are lucky to be here. I am sick to fkn death of this "rejects new contract offer" bollocks. Transfer list them then, they don't want to be here then fine, if we signed the players we want Nolan should not even be in the starting 11 anyway. Why are you having a go at Nolan for being offered a new deal? f***s sake Basically bullshit from start to end this. Barton, and especially Nolan, mean a lot for the club and the spirit in the dressing room. As well as being great/decent footballers of course. We know nowt about what the new contracts say, but you can't blame them for not wanting to sign contracts which will give them less money than they have now. And yes, they do want to be here. Which is why they're being offered new deals...but you get the feeling that they're after similar wages to the likes of Ben Arfa, Tiote, Cabaye, etc. which they shouldn't be on imo. That would be the Ben Arfa that's played four games for us in this league and Cabaye who hasn't even signed, right? Hope we only give him a three year deal too cos once he gets to 28, it's the knackers yard for you mate.

Man Utd are at the top so can do that. We're on our way up so have to evolve to improve. Tell me, do you think in the early and mid 90s we'd have pushed Man Utd so close for the title with Sellars, Venison and Bracewell, or do you think adding something different and replacing them with the likes of Ginola & Albert had something to do with getting to the next level? Nut man that's one of the most ridiculous things you've ever posted. NUFC under KK had heart and soul running right through the squad - Watson, Clark, Howey, Beardsley, Elliott, Lee. It would not have worked otherwise. You need two things to succeed as a football team - grit, togetherness, bottle, whatever you want to call it and ability. Coming back to Ferguson again, since he's the greatest manager any of us will ever see, sometimes you have both and that's great, Rooney, Giggs, Scholes, Keane and yes, foreign players like Vidic, sometimes you have just the talent, Nani, Ronaldo, Berbatov and sometimes you just have the heart - Brown, Fletcher, O'Shea, Scholes for the last two years. The squad will not work without all three if you want continuous progress. I never said it boiled down to foreigners vs English, which should be fairly fucking obvious. Players who have a clear affiliation for the club, whether it be Barton, Nolan or Solano are more likely to put their foot in, chase down a lost cause in the last minute, inspire the other players and that makes these players absolutely essential. Do you trust Cabaye to drag us out of a rut when the chips are down? Personally I wouldn't know because I've never seen a second of him in action and therefore replacing Barton or Nolan with him is a massive gamble. It shouldn't be him in and them out, he should be coming in to compliment, not replace and the amount of people happy to see the latter happen is frightening. The idea of a Man Utd squad under Ferguson built mainly on foreign players or flair players is absolutely laughable. Arsenal's squad is supremely talented but until they get some spine and bottle in there, they will not win anything, their goal is not like ours at the moment, it is to win and they are failing miserably since Campbell, Vieira, Seaman, Parlour, Keown have left. I can't believe I'm having to explain this again, it really is astonishingly simple stuff. Letting Barton and Nolan go this summer would be yet another ridiculous gamble.

Anyone who thinks some random foreigners with equal talent to Barton and Nolan would have dragged us to a point against Arsenal has a fucking screw loose. One of Arsenal's main problems now is the lack of grit and bottle that these players have in spades. Fair enough, don't keep well meaning shite but we're talking about our captain, leading goalscorer and main creative midfielder!

Man United have the most together squad in the country because they keep so many players for long spells and create a solid base. Too many people think football works like a computer game, in a vacuum without the need for management of actual human beings who behave like everyone else.

Hope all these lads from France won't be asking for the wages their value suggests or they'll get short shrift from this lot, especially if Ashley's heard the rumours about Yeovil's number 9 having a buyout clause.

Eh, is this tongue in cheek? I know we like to criticise whenever possible but surely the club's hands are tied if the guy is away on international duty? Aye, I just mean I wish it was all sorted, hate stuff dragging on and wondering whether it's going to go tits up and Stephen Ireland's going to come hobbling back.

Wish they'd fucking get on with it.

It's very tedious. On topic, it's pretty shitty of NUFC to do this.

For an example Wolves. Hughton 1 - 1 Draw. Pardew 4 - 1 Win. While at the same time still putting in creditable performances (and getting some sort of result) against the top teams. Not meaning to criticise Hughton who did a good job, but I think people are trying to spin things to justify an unjustifiable stance on Alan Pardew. A 1-1 away from home is a "problem"? What about beating Arsenal, Everton, sunderland and Villa, all of whom Pardew failed to win against? Your argument's a nonsense. The only side he beat that CH didn't was Wigan - and if we'd played them without N'Zogbia at home, we'd have won that too.

Which teams are these we turned over?

Find it hilarious that you think you can judge a defender on a season in Scottish football. I've seen Enrique go up against some of the best players in the world and come out on top. Who has really tested the Celtic lad defensively this season, Jock McTaggart at Dunfermline or Hamish C. Nesbitt at St Johnstone?

The lad at Celtic is better and a lot younger than Jose, Dave. I am sure that you will find a lot of younger better players than Jose around europe if you looked hard enough., Anyway, judging by his recent performances for the club, he hasnt really pulled up any trees, has he? Also, if WHU came along and offered 4 million for Nolan, I would bite their hands off. Wouildnt you? 3 months.

Sure you'd want another manager who goes to sleep looking longingly at his Robbie Fowler posters and humming YNWA?

What? Discounting Liverpool for obvious reasons, Pardew hasn't beaten any team that wasn't still in danger of going down on the final day. Hughton on the other hand beat four of the top ten (two on their own patch) plus Chelsea in the cup, yet he's the one that's tactically inept. Yet Hughton's failed to get results against so called 'home bankers', they're both average managers for different reasons. I think sensible people would recognize that a) Hughton was still learning as a manager and b) he's already shown that he can get results against poorer sides and do it at home by losing only four games in the Championship and staying undefeated at SJP.

A story about Enrique staying wouldn't really count as transfer news - again, could be a poor choice of words, although why I'm spending my Saturday night pondering the semantics of some bullshit on Twitter is beyond me.

He didn't say we 'beat' them though. Draws against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United (and arguably Spurs) are good results. Er... but 80 did? He said we won't "beat" bigger teams but will just bully relegation candidates and James said he was wrong when in fact he was spot on. Fact remains that Pardew is too negative, doesn't win enough matches and hasn't got the first idea how to send a team out that will beat anything better than the worst the league has to offer.

What? Discounting Liverpool for obvious reasons, Pardew hasn't beaten any team that wasn't still in danger of going down on the final day. Hughton on the other hand beat four of the top ten (two on their own patch) plus Chelsea in the cup, yet he's the one that's tactically inept.

Chopra. More chance of us signing Rocky Balboa.

Sunday Sun editor says good. I read it as good "scoop", rather than good news.

Useless smoggie arsehole. Fucking sitter that.

Keeper nearly had it, Lampard's nee Shola like.