BottledDog

So let me get this straight. We bought part of Gomis, then sold his shoulder to 5 different agents for an instant profit, but at the same time agreed to buy the lower half of his body because a mystery party (let's assume Trabzonspor) forced us to by offering a lucrative bung for no apparent reason. This means at some point we'll own a large chunk of Gomis, will be forced to buy the rest of his body for the sake of decency, and we'll have secured him on a 5 1/2 year contract once we pay his agent enough money to give Trabzonspor first option on his other players? Fuck me, no wonder we have trouble signing people.

I duno I think people see him for what he is, a player that keeps things simple and can unlock the door, but who disappears way too often Apparently disappears way too often in training too... It's disappointing that we don't see more of him, but equally there has to be some onus on the player himself to give the manager less choice in the matter. How hard do you have to train to sit on the bench? About as hard as he has been doing apparently. Maybe he can stop being so irrepressibly 'but i am le tired' and one day force his way back onto the pitch.

Wasn't the club up for sale unofficially regardless? I'm pretty sure there were a few others who had a look at the books and decided against buying. If Hall and Shepherd didn't want to sell the club, Ashley could never have bought it. The club spent £6 Million (I believe it was iirc) in the financial year previous to Ashley buying it in activities related to trying to sell it. Dividends were drying up/had dried up, they wanted out. Hall did, Shepherd didn't IIRC What difference does it make? He still sold at the end of the day. As a minority shareholder he had no choice once Ashley acquired a certain percentage if memory serves. He certainly didn't want to sell to Ashley. Well we don't really know that do we, although he certainly publicly gave the impression he didn't want to sell. He certainly knew that other interested parties had looked over the books with a view to buying the club so it's not like he can claim to have not been a party to the club being sold. He was unhappy to sell as he wanted to buy the club outright at somepoint. I'm sure he did. Would struggle to imagine how he thought he would he would have gone about doing that though.

I duno I think people see him for what he is, a player that keeps things simple and can unlock the door, but who disappears way too often Apparently disappears way too often in training too... It's disappointing that we don't see more of him, but equally there has to be some onus on the player himself to give the manager less choice in the matter.

Staggering that this still needs explaining considering all the evidence. Most shining example of this is when we replaced Ba with Sissoko, which Pardew even admitted. I seem to recall him making up some bullshit about Sissoko being a "modern number 10 that we've been missing" as well, to try and justify the way he was deploying him at the time. Got any quotes? The only one I can find is this... "You lose great players - you lose Andy Cole, you lose Alan Shearer, Gary Speed, people like that," he said. "They come through the door, you love them and unfortunately for whatever reason, money or the end of their career, they drift away. "But new stars emerge. Demba was one for us - he has gone away now and Sissoko has announced his arrival. He's not saying Sissoko was a replacement for Ba on the pitch, just that while we may have lost a great player, Sissoko had the chance to become a hero too. "I've been saying for a long time since I arrived at this club that we've never really had a natural No. 10 because in the modern game, you need to have that," Pardew said. "Moussa came in and is much better at that [than Ba]." When we didn't get Rémy, we turned to Sissoko and pretended we'd signed a replacement for Ba. Christ. That experiment didn't last long.

Staggering that this still needs explaining considering all the evidence. Most shining example of this is when we replaced Ba with Sissoko, which Pardew even admitted. I seem to recall him making up some bullshit about Sissoko being a "modern number 10 that we've been missing" as well, to try and justify the way he was deploying him at the time. Got any quotes? The only one I can find is this... "You lose great players - you lose Andy Cole, you lose Alan Shearer, Gary Speed, people like that," he said. "They come through the door, you love them and unfortunately for whatever reason, money or the end of their career, they drift away. "But new stars emerge. Demba was one for us - he has gone away now and Sissoko has announced his arrival. He's not saying Sissoko was a replacement for Ba on the pitch, just that while we may have lost a great player, Sissoko had the chance to become a hero too.

Ba. And Lallana if that dick Carr didn't veto it...

The players we signed in January were brought forward because we looked like going down, we still had them arranged to sign the following summer anyway. We certainly did have a transfer policy, of course we're yet to see if its still functioning since Kinnear arrived So Pardew, Llambias have told us but as we all know they're liars. Would not surprise me in the least if we hadn't have brought those in the summer if Ashley felt it wasn't required. Our current way of thinking is do not sign anyone if they're valued at over 5mil, only look for players on the scrap heap, or loan deals. Less a policy imo more a cheap way of running a top flight club. You only need to see Joe Kinnears program notes to realise they're practically making it up as they go along. Scrap heap? What the hell are you blithering about. Practically all recent signings have been young internationals including 3 club captains, one of which had just won a league and cup double. Scrap heap ffs.

Apparently the Wonga kit has sold a metric shitload and commercial revenue has increased significantly in the last year. Sounds fanciful to me, but guess we'll get to find out either way soon enough.

Please, not Jigsaw. He's turned into a right miserable get at Hud/Birmingham.

Are you replying to the article above? It doesnt mention us paying enough Oh yeah, sorry Rog. The one above that about the £1m loan fee and then £6m permanent. When we were willing to pay £12m 18 months ago. We were willing to pay £10.6million for Bryan Ruiz at one point. ...as for Maiga. Christ I'm not even sure we'd get more than £7m for Cisse these days.

"We are told the main obstacle is whether cover is brought in by Monchengladbach to let him go"

Think Cisse was about on a par with Martins, but tbh, I was more excited at signing a £10m comedy haired centre back than Owen for a start. Ben Arfa felt like an unbelievable coup at the time. I suspect Debuchy/Mbiwa/Sissoko would have felt a lot better as well if circumstances were different (at least on a par with the arrival of Cabaye).

Is he worth considerably more than £7m then?

You what?

How do you balance us being bled dry with your assetion that we have the 'best squad in living memory'? Good luck with your new team btw.

The harsh truth of it? We know now that the club is only going to spend what it can generate. Start boycotting and you will be hurting the team and the club long before you hurt Ashley to the point he wants to sell up.

It either pays off part of a loan, or goes back into the club to spend (on a a new borehole, pa system, Suarez, whatever). I know you're being flippant, but course it makes a difference if we get a fee for him. Sad to see him go, but he's barely been getting near the bench at the moment. Wish him all the best if he does leave. It's great to have another that you'd genuinely look forward to seeing again whether that be as an opposition player, pundit, or sticking around to open a creperie. While not always my first choice for the first team, think he's represented the club brilliantly. /but ffs don't score againts us anytime soon.

Er, no. Pretty sure it's not like. Yeah, it is. Source?

He seems perfect for our bidding team. Fuck up negotiations first time round, pick up the pieces if the player is still vaguely interesting a year or so later.

Er, no. Pretty sure it's not like.

Balls. Not that anyone really knows but it was reported at the time that one of the main reasons, beyond the closeness to relegation, for Pardew getting dragged in for the inquest in the summer was Ashleys annoyance at the shit football we were producing last season.

You'd like to think that with such a staggeringly long contract he could allow himself a more cavalier swagger (and see it reflected in the team). There just seems to be a constant paper thin confidence in almost every department.

When apparently sane people believe we have built a squad capable of challenging the top six (or top 4 with a Robson or Keegan), then surely 'adequate' (able to barely fulfil a need or requirement without being outstanding) is conservative if anything. Hard pushed to argue it being 'absolute rubbish' that Ashley has done an adequate job in that respect, though it would certainly be a stretch to say much positive about the direction he is taking the club. I don't believe the squad is particularly capable of challenging the top six over a season so give Pardew considerably more leeway in the table than most seem to as it stands.

Bah, too late. Earmarked as a Walcott replacement.