BottledDog

This is starting to get silly. These are things you will never find out. No. No we really don't. If we have a better team next season. If not. Simples!

there isn't really a contradiction in the reporting.

Todays Chronicle: They do their very best to shoot down any credibility they build up, like. Boelcke_Jasta2 Oswald Boelcke @ @MsiDouglas Todays Chronicle.. Sources close to Charles N’Zogbia have also re-iterated wages are not the issue. Howay Mark whats going on??? @MsiDouglas Mark Douglas @Boelcke_Jasta2 It is what it is. Probably speaking to different ppl. Transfers are a complicated business! They certainly are Mark, they certainly are. Fuck me.

Massive twats though they were with Keegan, utter liars may be a little strong when you look at the findings. /And of course I'd wager if you stick every single bunch in charge stretching back in front of a tribunal, similar shit could be stuck on them.

There's no reason to be frustrated though, that's the thing I don't understand. We've made some good moves and are obviously working on others. There's no way our squad could be described as threadbare at the moment IMO. We obviously lack quality up front, but not numbers. I don't know what kind of summer people were expecting, if what has happened so far seems negative to them. It just baffles me. Couldn't agree more. The only minor frustration for me has been that we were clearly in for Gamiero, and missed out. Other than that it's the Enrique issue, but then that is completely out of our hands. Oh, and regarding Long, I might be way off, but get a Bellamy vibe from the few games I've seen him play (and yeah, youtube too ). Fast, hard working, calm and intelligent - seems decent.

How many strikers did you think we were going to sign this summer, 3? Think that's a bit optimistic for one transfer window. If we get one more to go with Ba I'll be satisified with that. Obviously I'd rather have more, but come on, it was never likely we'd sign 3 strikers. If we're playing one up front, I can't exactly see where all these strikers you guys would like would fit in. They might be shite but we still have Best, Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Ranger, Airey and Xisco behind Ba as strikers. Unless we miraculously get shot of a raft of those, I couldn't see any reason to get more than one in, and he'll have to be fairly adaptable striker cum midfielder who can also fulfil the HBA role occasionally if he doesn't want to be primerily a bench warmer. /on a side note, I'm really looking forward to seeing where Lua2, Vukic and Ameobi2 fit in this year too. They are at the stage where they need to get some games, especially Vukic.

I think it's already clear that that will not be the case. I can't remember anyone disputing that this summer would be the ultimate test of his ambition for the club, and yet we're already seeing the excuses being rolled out in preparation. Even though there's ages to go yet, as we are all reminded daily. Not only that, but we've had 5 months to look at strikers after the January window, and it seems fairly obvious that we don't have a f***ing clue who to bid for. abit early to say that with almost two months of the transfer window remaining.... If we'd been a bit smarter and taken advantage of the time we had, then we'd probably have a striker in, or at least a few more capable strikers in our sights by now instead of dishing out the excuses we all know and hate. Shane long is decent, and I'll admit I know nothing about this Erdinc bloke so that one could have been alright if it had came off, but I'd like to think we can aim at least a little bit higher than Shane Long with 30-odd million to spend. We have brought a striker in, haven't we? /tempted to class HBA as one too to a degree

@MsiDouglas Mark Douglas @Dharrisafc It's interesting though: no-one is exactly beating down Wigan's door despite lots of interest.. V.expensive. jamiehird jamie hird @MsiDouglas Is n'zogbia more likley to villa are #NUFC ? @MsiDouglas Mark Douglas @jamiehird Neither at current price/wages

Hatem: 'I'm Back To 100 Per Cent' 'I'm really happy that now it's all over and I can get cracking' http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20110706/hatem-im-back-to-100-per-cent_2281670_2387607

Christ on a bike, Nike.

we don't need a squad, if they're not starting every week get them off the wage bill :facepalm: :facepalm: Did you read it? Genuine question, because that is not what is being reported. Pardew - "It is about accepting your role in the squad. We have players like Joey Barton and Fabricio Coloccini who will be expecting to play every game. But we also need players who will need to make competition for places below that group. Some may not see a lot of football. It is up to them if they are prepared to stay and be in that role – or move on." noises that these players were available for sale have been around for weeks now, dont you think pardew would have had the conversation with them BEFORE these leaks if those comments were genuine? can you read that? I can read 'the Chronicle understands', and would happily dismiss it more often than not. In this case though it has been fairly clear for the past 6 months or more that that was the case with Routledge, and I would tend to say that I don't believe he should have a long term future at the club either. Nevertheless, Pardew is clearly stating he wants squad depth, not as you suggest, if 'they're not starting every week get them off the wage bill'. There's no point keeping a backup squad player if they are expecting a game every week. That is all he seems to be saying. If those players are happy to stay under those conditions, great. If they want first team football, then they may have to move on. Neither scenario negates Pardews quote saying that we need competition below the first team.

we don't need a squad, if they're not starting every week get them off the wage bill :facepalm: :facepalm: Did you read it? Genuine question, because that is not what is being reported. Pardew - "It is about accepting your role in the squad. We have players like Joey Barton and Fabricio Coloccini who will be expecting to play every game. But we also need players who will need to make competition for places below that group. Some may not see a lot of football. It is up to them if they are prepared to stay and be in that role – or move on."

FFS! So now if we hadn't sold our No 9 then not only would we have had no budget this summer but none next January either. Ha, Llambias clearly taking notes from my post earlier. Hold some back to allow us to be first in line if someone unexpectedly comes on the market. Good lad.

Hopefully France. Bothe really good goals tonight.

It's what I'd do. Considering it looks like we'll be playing one up front, any striker has to be good enough and mobile enough to interchange with other attacking players, otherwise we'll need to bring in a lesser player happy to sit on the bench and wait for Ba to break down.

It's difficult to spin that positively. /though... at least we were in for them.

Ultimately we've had six months to decide what to do with at least £30m of allegedly unexpected income, with the benefit of what some seem to say is the world's best scout and a manager who apparently has the full backing of his manager and the club owner. And yet here we are, with people happy to 'hope it allows us the ability to react to opportunities, if there are any'. If we're so hard up that we needed to sell our best striker and most promising talent for big money just to pay wages and to afford to bring in couple of free transfers, it makes you wonder if they'd fully intended on flogging Carroll all along. And if that is the case, who's next out of the door? Why are you taking the 'hope it allows us the ability to react to opportunities, if there are any' quote to task? Do you disagree with it? Do you disagree that having an influx of money might allow us to jump on unanticipated oportunities if they come up towards the end of a window, that we might not ordinarily be able to stretch to? If we've had a significant amount of money to spend for 8 months I'd have expected us to be finished our spending by the first game. Sounds great, and we are clearly trying to do that with players tied up before the window even opened, and the next signing in hopefully before we hit America according to Pards. But if we're prudent and a domino of transfers means a top player becomes available to us late in the window and we're able to stretch to him, that woldn't be a bad thing, right? It would be a good thing if he was a good player/good price etc, but I'd have hoped we wouldn't need to be doing this. We start with some hard games and ideally we should have our best players signed and ready for those games. I don't think we will be in a position to 'need' to do it (unless there is an unexpected departure), as Pardew says, we hope for two more attackers, one before the tour, one after. But I'm hoping the windfall means a greater flexibility, especially if it allows us to hold some back to move quicky if an opportunity arrives when the general scramble happens late on.

Ultimately we've had six months to decide what to do with at least £30m of allegedly unexpected income, with the benefit of what some seem to say is the world's best scout and a manager who apparently has the full backing of his manager and the club owner. And yet here we are, with people happy to 'hope it allows us the ability to react to opportunities, if there are any'. If we're so hard up that we needed to sell our best striker and most promising talent for big money just to pay wages and to afford to bring in couple of free transfers, it makes you wonder if they'd fully intended on flogging Carroll all along. And if that is the case, who's next out of the door? Why are you taking the 'hope it allows us the ability to react to opportunities, if there are any' quote to task? Do you disagree with it? Do you disagree that having an influx of money might allow us to jump on unanticipated oportunities if they come up towards the end of a window, that we might not ordinarily be able to stretch to? If we've had a significant amount of money to spend for 8 months I'd have expected us to be finished our spending by the first game. Sounds great, and we are clearly trying to do that with players tied up before the window even opened, and the next signing in hopefully before we hit America according to Pards. But I don't know outside of that what you're getting at. If we're prudent and a domino of transfers means a top player becomes available to us late in the window and we're able to stretch to him, that wouldn't be a bad thing, right?

They work them too hard.

Because we seemingly are using the money of his sale to pay off other players wages. Simple. Not really what I was going at though. This on the other hand: "And yet here we are, with people happy to 'hope it allows us the ability to react to opportunities, if there are any'. Honesty man, what is wrong with my quote? We have done our planning and played the window well, but having the extra cash also might allow us take advantage of players coming onto the market we might not have anticipated.

If we are a stronger, better team next season, how will it resonate with you? i'll be very happy if we're a stronger and better team, i try my best to separate this sort of thing from my actual enjoyment of watching the team play and i'm as positive as the rest when it come to the actual football. tends to irk me when i think someone's taking libs though Fair enough then. I still am pissed off with losing Carroll, but that's me being pretty sentimental. I think the only way to judge losing a player like him (and Nolan of course) is on the state of the team the following seasons. If we don't go backwards, and hell, the team actually not only goes in a different direction stylistically, but also moves forwards, then yes whatever money they brought in (or was ultimately spent), it was a good decision. If Ashley is cutting and running, it's all a fire sale and we end up in the shits, then there will rightly be hell on.

Ultimately we've had six months to decide what to do with at least £30m of allegedly unexpected income, with the benefit of what some seem to say is the world's best scout and a manager who apparently has the full backing of his manager and the club owner. And yet here we are, with people happy to 'hope it allows us the ability to react to opportunities, if there are any'. If we're so hard up that we needed to sell our best striker and most promising talent for big money just to pay wages and to afford to bring in couple of free transfers, it makes you wonder if they'd fully intended on flogging Carroll all along. And if that is the case, who's next out of the door? Why are you taking the 'hope it allows us the ability to react to opportunities, if there are any' quote to task? Do you disagree with it? Do you disagree that having an influx of money might allow us to jump on unanticipated oportunities if they come up towards the end of a window, that we might not ordinarily be able to stretch to?

If we are a stronger, better team next season, how will it resonate with you?

Would be lovely, can't see it though. /Smith OOT please!!!