Wullie

The media will love this, they'll run with the "Penniless Newcastle" angle while not mentioning the firesale at Spurs including at least one, possibly both, of their best two players when the sheer fact of the matter is you cannot turn down that sort of money for a player of James Milner's quality. He's got plenty going for him, he's not shit as many will make out - genuinely two footed, versatile, works extremely hard, very fit, decent shot from range - but most of those things are window dressing for a winger who can't cross, has no passing ability to speak of, is a poor finisher and is extremely one paced. His previously impressive ability to beat his man seemed to have deserted him last season and all you're left with is genuine hard work. I wonder about Villa too. For a team built around the incredible counter-attacking pace of Agbonlahor and Young, as well as the latter's superb crossing ability, they couldn't have signed a less fitting player. He's the antithesis of Ashley Young and is extremely frustrating on the counter-attack.

I've been watching Hartlepool since my 8th birthday so it wouldn't be a problem... well you know what I mean.

What a waste of an article.

Surely the sentimentality is the point. I think it's bang on the mark.

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We've robbed them. Now we need to move quickly for two players at the very least. No excuses.

I fear a scrappy 1-0 defeat at the Emirates will finish some of our members off.

Paying £12m for players like Milner isn't ambition, it's stupidity.

£12m. Howay, that has to be bollocks.

Fairly fucking obvious we need players in certain areas tbh.

Not sure how much I believe of this stuff and I like Milner but £10m+ is seriously crazy money.

Believe it when I see it.

Almost all his colleagues on at least double his money? Isn't hyperbole brilliant?

You got Cesc back which makes you so much better probably to good You know you can now buy keyboards with punctuation symbols on them?

Michael Gash. mackems.gif

What Milner is earning has got fuck all to do with what the other players at the club are earning. On that basis, Michael Owen can point at Alan Smith and say "if he's on £50k, I want at least £18m a week." and even then we'd be getting a relative bargain. If he wasn't happy with it, he shouldn't have signed it. Also, although it's guesswork, we (and that's 'we' being Freddy Shepherd, who wasn't exactly tight with wages) paid £5m for him and we have given him an improved deal since then - if you think he's on close to £10k a week, you're deluded imo.

Exactly. Taylor was also still on the terms of his academy contract (i.e. a pittance for a Premiership first teamer).

Can't believe some people think we should just have given him a new contract simply because he wanted one. Whatever happened to earning it? When he came back from Villa, he had a really good season and got a new deal out of it... he's just had a woeful season and we should give him another new deal on more pay? Howay.

Barton was one of the most highly rated attacking midfielders in the country twelve months ago. We shouldn't be looking to sign players to compete "physically" either. Apart from the fact that Barton is hardly a shrinking violet when it comes to physicality, how are Barton and Guthrie any less physical than Scholes and Carrick, Fabregas and Rosicky, Mascherano and Alonso, Johnson and Kompany, Reo Coker and Barry? I could go on.

He's signed for Larissa with Dabizas and Nobby. Can we see if they want Smith and Duff?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1050044/Newcastle-sell-Milner-Villa-10m.html Mail speculating as usual. The "Keegan vs Ashley XVII: This Time It's Personal" thing is going to run and run with this news.

I'm sorry but WTF are you talking about I'm making some sence by telling you Milner is being forced out of this club.WTF are you talking about? You make little sense. What are you ranting on about with Wise and his negative attitude towards Milner. Have they 'been at loggerheads'? Just read today's(for you it's tomorrow) Times to see if I make sense here. Oh yeah,I suspect you would say all papers are rubbish. So China gets the Times 24 hours in advance of the UK?

The jammy spawny fucking wankers.

They might not have accepted the transfer request. No point telling the fans he wants to leave then making him stay is there?

We are critically short though, there's no doubt about it. Excluding the indefinitely unavailable Joey Barton, I count two central midfielders and one of them's Nicky Butt. Not good.