BottledDog

Interesting that he doesn't know whether the striker coming will be worthy of the number 9 yet. Guessing that the probably not would be Long, and also guessing he's far from first choice. Hope whoever the mystery striker worthy of the number 9 comes off.

Only thing I can get from that backpage is that we should definitely sound out Rapid Solicitor to be our next manager.

That's gotta be good news, right?

Press conference at 3pm! /maybe not.

Fair enough. Still, the discussion was reacting to Wullie saying 8th would be a failure (not the degree of progress particularly), a pretty astounding view in my opinion.

You seem to be putting words in peoples mouths there. I believe Ian said it would be steady progression, not massive progression (personally anywhere top 10 after a second season rebuild would do me at this stage). Do you side more with Wullie in thinking that 8th would instead be an absolute failure?

Quite. Has been pretty standard to pay a premium to get decent players to the north east for starters. He'd take £50k p/w like a shot if Arsenal were in for him imho. Think he'd be happy to come to us for somewhere between the two.

8th, an absolute failure? Feck me. Looks like you'll not be having much fun again next season.

Yeah, it's nearly July, time to give up, they'll be no more money spent.

Disappointing.

I know a bloke who did signwork on it, will ask what it was/ask for a photo if i can Signwork? Assumed there'd just be a monster SD sticker on top of it?

Well, indeed.

It's very similar to when Ashley first arrived, actually. We brought in quite a few players in the first window under Allardyce but in reality all he was doing was recycling the Parker, Dyer and Solano fees. We only spent net like £30,000 or something. I don't think that's true. Barton, Smith, and Enrique alone cost a total of something like 20m if I'm recalling correctly. Dyer and Parker alone cost 7m each whilst the three named above were 18 million in total. Cannot remember who else left but I know Faye, Beye, Viduka, Geremi only cost about 3 million between them. Just checked again, Under Allardye, We spent 18.9K but we got 18.2K back in. Net deficit of700K Checked where? Not that it matters but rough guestimate is he spent around the £25m mark. Barton £5.8m, Rozehnal £3.1m, Smith £6m, Jose Enrique £6m, Faye £2m, Beye £2m. Viduka, Geremi, Cacapa were frees, but were far from on a pitence either.

Why didn't he just lock his office then? Difficult to lock a door that has been knocked, banged, and bashed as much as Pardews has.

And if an offer of £5m comes in for Forster, you think we'd say no? Guess not, but then I would find that very tough to turn down considering the Celtic message boards reaction to even spending £1.5m on him.

If we still had carroll.

Because I don't think a CL club will come in for him offering more money than he's getting from us. He'll end up running down his contract and leaving on a Bosman, as Barton also clearly intends to do. I hope you're right and a quality player spends at least another season with us. Considering that quality though I would be very surprised if Ashley is content for the club to let him leave for free. I can imagine us being willing to accept a lower bid at the end of the transfer window of around £5m. Like Joey, I imagine the club would rather get something for both of them and reinvest, especially in Enriques case as M'Bengue isn't going to hang around forever, and if he doesn't extend, then rather than last minute, I could see him going for sub £5m sooner rather than later tbh. Enrique has stated he is happy to see out his contract though which complicates things, but we would be mugs to let it drag on and face further upheaval in the Jan transfer window when he can start talking to clubs.

I think Colocho may be projecting onto this scenario, suppressed bad memories of his first day at big school. /Pop Psycology 101. /I jest Big C. I jest.

Pardews treatment of Nile during the season was pretty spot on as I saw it. A fair bit of arm around the shoulder, some warnings, some praise, some cold facts, followed by encouragement. Nile himself at least twice came out and thanked Pardew for the way he had been with him and how it was now up to him to repay the faith. After any number of chances Ranger has apparently fallen short on that promise, and I find little to blame Pardew for for that. /That being said, hope this is the final kick he needs, and he stays and turns it around. Still like the lad.

I don't think that will have any baring on Forster's future tbh. It's what happens with Krul what will though. We can accommodate two similar level keepers battling it out for no1 slot, both would be very happy with that and we will reap the benefits. The only spanner in that is Harper, It would be criminal to let him hold these two back. I could see in a couple of years the 2nd fiddle keeper wanting to leave to have his own no1 spot, but until then neither keeper is in any position to be demanding it and taking a huff if they have to fight for it. Couldn't disagree more. Forster's just played a full season for one of the biggest clubs in Britain and Krul just made his debut for one of the best national sides in the world. No way are either going to be happy without regular first team football next season, and it'd be bonkers on our part to keep chopping and changing. Bang on.

Apart from when someone questions Ashley over it. So you disagree with my point? Or what?

And I was supposed to know that how? The comment was in reaction to having to post all of the Sunday Sun articles this week tbf. Calm down, it's sunday and not monday. Where I come from, it's very much frowned upon (this posting of full articles); Effectively stealing someones advertising revenue like some horrific, jumped up, meth addled dole waller. For shame.

To be fair, every story bar the Ben Afra one just appears to be the usual speculative bollocks. Case in point - "Sources in the North West last night suggested that should Newcastle fail in their bid to re-sign N’Zogbia, they may turn their attention to cut-price alternative Keith Treacy." What Tripe.

Woohoo! Back on the radar! http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/06/26/stephen-ireland-is-back-on-the-radar-of-alan-pardew-79310-28942398/