BottledDog

Fair call, and I would have said the same had we still had Shepherd and the Halls in charge. But I don't think it is to much to ask (After Abramovic immediately wiped out Chelsea's debts, or when we see West Ham and Man City significantly boost their squads despite (certainly Man City) having significant debt issues) to not have supporters still feel the need to worry for the clubs financial health rather than the squad on the pitch post takeover. Jaysus, Man U have spent big again and they have 3 times our debt, but they can service the interest on that debt comfortably, primarily due to it not amounting to any more than they had previously payed out in dividends and corporation tax as a publicly quoted company. That is surely something we should also be benifiting from.

And what, for Ashley, is this 'manageable level' exactly? I'm finding it difficult to believe that servicing Ashleys debt is concerning anybody more than the club investing in our absurdly small squad which, to make matters worse, is seemingly inherently prone to injuries. Or am I right in thinking that this thread is ultimately just trying to find yet another excuse for the boards misjudged lack of backing for their manager.

City are increasingly putting the willys up me.

"But the chairman he appointed at Newcastle, Chris Mort, does not intend to relocate to the north-east" That's pretty piss poor if true. There is a limit to how far I can travel with eggs in my pockets.

People who boo their own are indeed tossers. Pantomime cunts only able to vocalise sounds that have no greater amount of syllables than their comedy IQs. Utterly embarrassing.

How does 7 not look bad to anyone? That is including the kids, yet still does not give us cover in each position. I said 7 doesn't look too bad numerically, I didn't mean that 7, that's why I mentioned the 3 that I thought was good enough. If we have 7 good defenders then I think we'll have enough. I agree. Not just the defence needs improving , but the squad as a whole. Numbers mean dick when you are effectively including the juniors. Especially compared with more robusts squads in the premiership where you can count seasoned proffesionals into the 30's squad number wise.

I really disagree with the statement that you are 'NUFC's finest supporter.' NUFC's finest supporter wouldn't need to spend so much time trying to discredit others support. Oh, fucking hell.

Seen it before, and again, whichever miserable cunt made that needs a fucking fist to their head.

How does 7 not look bad to anyone? That is including the kids, yet still does not give us cover in each position.

Indeed.

Le Havre have now taken the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and have been rewarded with compensation from both Newcastle and N'Zogbia. The player must pay the Ligue 2 club €650,000 (£440,000), while Newcastle must pay €300,000 (£200,000). http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=477621&CPID=8&clid=4&lid=&title=Le+Havre+win+N

The same is going on over here mate. If you question the wisdom of certain signings, people come out with the same old tired responses ("so we should go out and buy Kaka should we?"). Allardyce came out to the press a few days ago and said the new owners don't really know what they're doing in the transfer market, started quoting how much clubs like Fulham are spending and said we're getting left behind while targets are getting nailed every day. He said he needs to get across to them the importance of moving quickly so he can get the defenders he needs. It was a plea via the media to Ashley and co for money. I'm not even sure Allardyce has met Ashley yet, but a good number of fans were concerned he's using the media to ask for funds and fast. However, come on here and voice that and you get the sarcy "let's sign Kaka then" brigade saying there's ages left in the transfer window so shut up. Clearly this internal review is slowing things down, and nobody has any idea when it'll finish, but if it's concerning Allardyce then it should concern the fans. If he knows more than us and he's concerned then something's not right, and if he doesn't know more than us then what the hell is going on? I don't like to see my manager looking for funds via the media, it suggests communication behind the scenes is limited and it doesn't look very professional. On the previous page somebody made the comparison to the Emperor's new clothes and that's exactly what's going on. I imagine things are similar over at your end, though I must admit I haven't been following your summer at all. Bingo. Three weeks till the Bolton game. Time is indeed running out if we are looking to field a defence that has at least a few games under their belt together.

NEWCASTLE United have announced their squad numbers for the forthcoming 2007/08 season. Czech defender David Rozehnal takes over the No.4 shirt, while fellow new boy Joey Barton will be wearing No.7. Mark Viduka, who was Big Sam's first signing as Toon boss, will don the No.36, and most recent arrival Geremi will be sporting the No.20 jersey. Elsewhere in the squad there are new numbers for Nobby Solano (15) and Albert Luque (19). Here is the list in full; 1 - Shay GIVEN 2 - Stephen CARR 3 - Jose ENRIQUE 4 - David ROZEHNAL 5 - EMRE 6 - Claudio CACAPA 7 - Joey BARTON 8 - 9 - Obafemi MARTINS 10 - Michael OWEN 11 - Damien DUFF 12 13 - Steve HARPER 14 - Charles N'ZOGBIA 15 - 16 - James MILNER 17 - Alan SMITH 18 - 19 - 20 - GEREMI 21 - Habib BEYE 22 - Nicky BUTT 23 - Shola AMEOBI 24 - 25 - Abdoulaye FAYE 26 - Peter RAMAGE 27 - Steven TAYLOR 28 - 29 - 30 - David EDGAR 31 - 32 - 33 - Celestine BABAYARO 34 - Fraser FORSTER 35 - Matthew PATTISON 36 - Mark VIDUKA 37 - James TROISI 38 - 39 - Andy CARROLL 40 - Tim KRUL

I don't think that's what most people feel. For myself, I think that SA, pending Ashley's review, is proceeding with the kind of budget he would have had under Shepherd. More money will probably materialise, and some kind of "trophy signing" may be on the cards. Or not. If Oba's release clause gets triggered, for example, I imagine enough cash will materialise to buy a top-quality replacement. We may well splash out on a fancy playmaker. And more money will definitely be spent on the defence. What he said. I like the idea that we aren't running round with our cocks in our hands, throwing money at crap like we used to. I just wish we could get a true top class player to partner Owen long term, instead of the fat convict, and stop pretending that Babayaro is anything other than a big heap of jizz. Just going on the poll. Most people believe we have £10-15 million to spend. By my reckoning that is at best no more than most would have expected from the old regime, which strikes me as a little odd.

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcastleunited/chroniclesport/tm_headline=sam-eyes-top-stopper-andrea%26method=full%26objectid=19462432%26siteid=50081-name_page.html

So most people feel the takeover means sod all in terms of transfer funds? Interesting.

But surely the money they're spending year on year isn't sustainable without decent money coming in. Everybody else is getting this money too but you don't see them spending over 30M on Bent, Bale and Kaboul. The only other side going around like that are West Ham who have wealthy new owners. I get the impression Spurs are speculating to accumulate as they feel they are not far off the Champions League so they have taken their chances spending big to try and make it. Unlike ourselves they manage to get a good return on their players though. Having the ability to make massive profits on the likes of Carrick, Chimbonda or Berbatov must make a considerable difference.

Not saying it is a remotely similar situation, but that kind of comment just brings back memories of some peoples reaction to the Blackburn fans warnings about Souness.

Standing as a kid in the Clock stand at Roker Park after we scored and just seeing brawls errupt as folks celebrated all around the stands. For the next ten minutes the odd fella would pipe up and get dragged out, it was great as it was like we had infiltrated every part of the ground. I kept my head down and kept quiet, but just couldn't get rid of the smile on my face for the rest of the day.

Could deserve it's own thread maybe. A more concise report can be found here - http://www.newcastle.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=71866

No surprise, but as Wullie say's it's shameful, the whole saga has been shambolic.

Source please. Club records, Chronicle, Times, Guardian. I've provided the source on Babayaro so many times to you, totally ignored, that it is not worth taking the time to find it again. Are the Chronicle, Times and Guardian not classed as the media? I should probably rephrase that. Shortly before a good player signs for us, the tabloids increase the offered wage by £20,000. Then,when these players are signed, we discover that it is all exaggeration from London/Top4 biased press. Then, as soon as a player starts underperforming, people seem to remember the prespeculated wage, and not the wage reported shortly after the player had signed. You wait, we'll get told if Edmilson signs that he is on £60K, then after an injury setback, he'llsuddenly find himself back on £120K. I have provided the Chronicle source regarding Babayaro also many times which is just as reliable or not (or maybe more so considering it was repaeted more than once) as any other figures you pull from the media. It is all very well saying that the media will more than likely overestimate wages occasionally for a story, the idea may well have some substance to it (though I can't remember any paper putting Baba on £50k or dropping Owen down £80k and you keep using them as examples). But to come out and say that this players wage is 'actually' this, or Owens is 'actually' that is just as absurd when you have as little access to the true figures as the rest of us.

Source please.

Perfectly summed up. And, that is the thing that excites me (personally) the most. We are obviously building a squad of VERY GOOD players / professionals, before we go on to dip into (probably) the 'Ashley' money, for the really TOP players, as the 'cream on the coffee'! The very high-quality squad building (almost an entire defence and reserve defenders needed, for example) will go on for a while yet. T H E N . . . . . . !!!! Smacks of Allardyces usual scattergun approach to me. Bring in a lot of cheap/free players. Some work, some disappear after a couple of games.

Have faith in our new Owner, our new Deputy Chairman, and our new Manager. They will be every bit as aware, as we are, about the 'last day of the transfer window' type of possibilities. They will be dealing with it - right now! We are a club in a different world, to that of the recent past. A totally different world. Can't emphasise that enough. So it seems. But however often you say it though, it doesn't stop it from coming accross as being based on very little other than blind optimism. We all have our hopes for our new owner getting it right, but come on.