BottledDog

The 'tweets', if accurate, add a bit more of an insight than that article to be fair.

What's bullshit? He's basically saying people are right to criticise the board. Well said Pardew me owld sun. If we did bid for Ruiz mind, I hope he means prior to him winging his way into London, otherwise that's about as terrifyingly knee-jerk as you can get.

Staple gun or hole punch?

He's right. HBA's still knacked, and it's a pisser that Vukic and Abeid are out for a couple of weeks, and yes yes yes we still need a fkn number 9, but just looking at the bench we have mustered this season compared to where we finished last season makes me a good deal happier about the squad to be honest.

Shola, Lovenkrands and Best are among our four current best strikers. How can our B targets not be better options than them? Well any transfer is a gamble, and it's possible to spend a lot of money and not end up with a better option. But I find the way you've put the dilemma quite strange. Instead of looking at the players you don't rate that highly and saying we can find someone better, shouldn't we be aiming to get in the best player that we can possibly land? At the least, better than Ba, who I assume you feel is our best striker at the moment. To put it another way, if all we end up with is someone marginally better than our weaker players (as you define them), would it not be better to wait? Unless what we've seen of Ba is very misleading we are still missing a Bellamy type of player who will run down the channels and play off the big man. The two we have are Ben Arfa possibly, and Lovenkrands who is not fit for this level. Relying on Ben Arfa to be fit for most of this season is optimistic at this time when no one knows how completely he's recovered from a serious setback. So yes we should have brought someone in. Even Bellamy himself if no one else was available. I'm sure he would have preferred first team football here to sitting on Liverpool's bench. Don't forget Obertan was hinting that he hoped to move into a more advanced striking role when we bought him. Not saying that I'd particularly want him there myself on what I've seen (and I can't see him getting many games up front now Barton has gone), but you never know. /If Pards can flick a switch on his lightbulb heed, there may just be a 20 goal a season striker hidden in there somewhere... maybe.

yep. if you want players to be available without release clauses or with 6 months left on their contract, you've got to make them available by bidding higher than the market value. not gonna happen. Aye, Santon this summer, or Tiote (and I suppose Perch) last summer never happened (nor the majority of players we have brought in under Ashley).

We do, but really not a fan of N'Gog at all (possibly unfairly). Just realised that Tuncay was a loan. There probably would have been some grief if we brought him in, but if he was still available late in the window, I'd have been happy to take a punt on him for a few months.

So who was there that teams around us got that would have been 'b' grade upgrades (though obviously some had moved by the time we were struggling)? Yakubu Jordan Slew Tuncay Ngog Orlando Sa Steve Morison DJ Campbell Jay Bothroyd Ji Dong-won Danny Graham Leroy Lita Shaun Maloney Nouha Dicko Hell even some of the 'a' grade players like Peter Crouch at £12m I'd struggle with, and I can't say I'd have been jumping up and down at being stuck with any of those on on 4/5 year contracts (or even Bentner on loan considering he's not that far removed from Best or Shola to a point). It's ridiculous that we didn't get a top striker in, but if we do struggle through and get him in the next window (yes, it's a big if), then I'd prefer to wait.

There's no fooling some.

So he chose QPR above a top 6 club because they offered to pay him more, though that may only last for just the one year? Seems pretty mercenary.

On a more serious, releated note. Did someone not say he's recently invested in some well-known French brand? Probably why tbf, raising profiles and all that. I think the recent one he bought was 'No Fear' (who I think are American). SD though are looking to open stores in France, but I really don't think that relates to us or affects our transfer policy. The very simple reason we are buying players from the French league, or players like Santon and Tiote from other leagues is that with good scouting, we can pick up impressive young(ish) players who are willing to come to us, for relatively reasonable prices. Considering the only players we have actually bought from France under Ashley are Cabaye and Ben Arfa (Abeid, Marveaux were unattached but I guess could also be included), I'd be delighted if we feel we can pick up any more players like that from there. Bullshit. How's that then?

Oh joy. What the ferk is a 'flex faced box'?

On a more serious, releated note. Did someone not say he's recently invested in some well-known French brand? Probably why tbf, raising profiles and all that. I think the recent one he bought was 'No Fear' (who I think are American). SD though are looking to open stores in France, but I really don't think that relates to us or affects our transfer policy. The very simple reason we are buying players from the French league, or players like Santon and Tiote from other leagues is that with good scouting, we can pick up impressive young(ish) players who are willing to come to us, for relatively reasonable prices. Considering the only players we have actually bought from France under Ashley are Cabaye and Ben Arfa (Abeid, Marveaux were unattached but I guess could also be included), I'd be delighted if we feel we can pick up any more players like that from there.

What bollocks.

Sounds like he's happy on the left then, and is not right footed as people were saying. Anyone know what position did he play last night captaining the u21s?

The hell are you people complaining about? Fuck words and sentences and shit, there was a picture of Rihanna in black and white stripes. Two thumbs up! :thup:

Wont be at Basel cum feb 1st. Expect him to be massive Am I right in thinking Pardew was at the game? He was. Cheers. Good to hear.

Wont be at Basel cum feb 1st. Expect him to be massive Am I right in thinking Pardew was at the game?

Abuse you?

It's a choice of who you believe, the board or Andy Carroll, only one version of events is true. How any one can believe the board is beyond me. http://nufc-ashlies.blogspot.com/ Regarding those two quotes you have again repeated in this thread without context. The first is not even a quote from the tribunal, but from Keegan. The second relates only to the clubs claims that the reason it put out conflicting statements in public regarding him having the final say on trasfers was so as to not undermine him. I don't think the tribunal ever got to the bottom of their actual reasoning, in the end simply concluding that the explanation itself was 'profoundly unsatisfactory'. No reason to exaggerate or misrepresent the findings, when the findings themselves are damning enough.

Why? Because diplomatically (which the club has to be) there is not a lot they can say other than what people expect? In no particular order, these answers should pretty much cover most of the questions. 'Obviously a good deal of money has been reinvested already, but the money we have set aside for the right player is still there' 'We are as disappointed (and the manager is disappointed) as everyone else that we didn't get the striker we'd hoped for' 'Nobody lied, we genuinely believed we could get our man, but circumstances changed and we had to accept that' 'Every player at every club has his price and every player that has left chose to leave' 'We have laid down a policy that will increasingly be able to compete financially with other, even larger clubs' 'We have not and cannot change our policy on standing as the law itself has not changed' 'Communication has been complicated by failures in the past and we felt it was best to focus on the team and let the managers communicate where necessary, we may review this decision if we feel it would be welcomed' All pretty fair given the limitations of what can reasonably be said, yet no doubt there will still be much gnashing of teeth and an overall feeling that the words were worse than regurgitated shit recently deposited by Ashley down Llambias' neck.

So you'd rather not believe him (direct quotesare available to be found)over a regime proven in court to deliberately mislead and lie to the fans and it's management? Sup Mike Care to find them?

'Like a new signing'.

You'd have to trust that he is I'd have thought. Our scouts and negotiating team haven't been chasing him half the summer just for the shits and giggles.

Really, how so? His career record is bordering on being pretty damn good imho.