James

Has anyone read Nathaniel's comment that the club must sustain itself? What do people think about that considering Ashley said the same.

Not one comment about asking the fans to show their support for the team and the players during the course of the game

I was under the impression that all the selling was due to the massive wage bill they have from signing players like Lucas Neill on insane wages to save them from relegation. Add to that the wages of players like Dyer & Ljungberg (Ljungberg's contract having been payed up to get him off the payroll). The previous chairman was supposed to have been forced out by the owning consortium due to the financial mess that he'd left them in. Perhaps this will be £30m on top of that existing financial mess that will cause them to go into free fall. That was my impression. It was well reportedby West Ham sources that Curbs was told he had to sell 15 players over the summer.

So much for the manager being in charge of who comes in and out, eh? I have doubts about whether this bid is genuine, but if it is, these investors might well want to bring in Nigerian players to make the club more popular in Nigeria, and to add some extra excitement and interest for themselves. "Might" being the operative word. The Nigerian investors are likely to be no different than their European or Arabian counterparts. The only reason why the majority of people on here are anxious is because their understanding of global business is limited to Europe and The Gulf. What strikes me as different about this story is that it's not about a single owner or a pre-existing investment group. It sounds like a consortium of businessmen are being put together specifically for the purpose of buying the club. It's a bit like the Magpie group that Sir John Hall put together many years ago, only with Nigerians instead of Geordies. Now what is actually attracting these businessmen to the idea? I doubt if it's about making money. It's more likely the emotional idea about having a team in the English Premiership with a Nigerian identity. You occasionally hear of these attempts at putting a coalition of smaller businessmen together and they don't seem to come off. I suspect this is actually a very tentative idea at the moment which will struggle when people really have to hand their money over. That's if the story has any substance in the first place. Pretty much sums up my thoughts.

yep, defensive negative football,sideways passing like in the old Dalglish days at NUFC.....we played some of the most boring negative football I`ve witnessed when that muppet was in charge (when he brought in his own players) Sigh..... he completely destroyed that team when all that was needed was 2 decent centre halves :'( If only Sir Bobby hadn`t turned us down that time for his loyalty to Barca how things might have turned out different I was talking about Bernard and his watch.

Just think at how he would solve all our defensive problems.

Thinking about it, this guy would make a brilliant manager: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf3cMPCSB5U

If I was able to rewind time (in case things go badly wrong), I'd love to give the job to Ketsbaia and see how that panned out.

I never insinuated anything of the sort.

I think it is time for Martinez. What is a unworthwhile risk for most could be a brilliant opportunity for him, and at least he has potential.

Hughton could do with all the help he can get. I know Sir Bobby's health isn't great, but would it be worth arranging for him to be on the end of the telephone as some sort of mentor/tactical assistant? Perhaps he could even come into the training ground once a week to talk to the players, try and get their confidence up?

Shit.

The World radio stream is the Terry Mac of all radio streams today.

We could be 5th by the end of the day.

Indi, you are my new hero.

Do you seriously think Ashley will be bothered about how our debt is paid off or how much we spend on transfers? Well his statement did say that he'd only sell to someone who had the resources to give us what we want. Whether true or not we have to wait and see, but Ken Bates did something similar with Abramovich for Chelsea's debt iirc. Although for now, no-one knows anything about anyones motives, so I'll just speculate on the speculation.

SSN just had the Arabian News businessman on the phone, so i'm guessing that's more up to date. Anil Bhoyrul? He usually has inside info: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4507448.stm Thanks for the link. This story should definitely be filed amongst the dodgy.

No, it's not possible. And you would know that how? No-one knows anything.

Fact is that a fans consortium couldn't afford the club, let alone afford to subsidise the operating costs that fans take for granted, let alone transfers and wages.

What about the other £1 million? Dennis Wise's payoff.

Is it at all possible that the 481m fee is 300m for the club, 80m to guarantee club debts, and a further 100m pledge towards transfers to make us lot accept them?

I stand corrected (again).

Beye is back according to the same link you sent. Why go with Lough when you got Edgar and Tozer? According to dotcom Beye is out for 10 weeks. Edgar went off injured on saturday and i was under the impression Tozer was crocked as well. Hughton has said that he expects Martins and Duff to be available for selection. I'd believe him over physioroom.com.

Blow Chris Mort's socls off.

A few did, but you just came back with... "It is a possibility" It may be unlikely, but it's still very possible, and by the looks of things quite common (granted more-so in smaller Private companies). I'd counter that with a view that is LESS likely in smaller private companies. In my experience (and as an auditor for 4 and a bit years I worked with a different company every couple of weeks of all sizes) the smaller the company the more direct control the owner has. Conversly, the larger the company the more diluted the ownership and the more delegated the control So what are your views on my original post, that he may have stripped himself of some of the say on matters regarding the day to day running of the club, with the employment of a Managing Director and Executive Directors. Bearing in mind that I'm basing this on A level economics so I don't, neither do I profess, to know the ins and outs. I'm just working off the way I understood it. The reality is halfway between your argument and other people's arguments. The board have some contractual protection from Ashley's interference, but if Ashley really wanted to change things, he could hand out the compo.