Leazes1986

How much we got of the wage bill now then? Owen - £105,000 Viduka - £70,000? Cacapa - £30,000? Edgar - £10,000? Martins - £65,000? Bassong - £6,000 Beye - £50,000? Obviously only speculating from what we read in the papers but its got to be £300,000 at least.

Don't worry lads he didn't say it! He doesn't know anything. He brought the thing up about Moat but theres hardly been any callers on about it really. I repeat, he didn't say its off and he didn't claim to have any inside knowledge at all.

I listened to it and he did not say that I am 99.9% sure. He was certainly not speaking as if he knew him either. Don't think he knows him.

More than good enough for this division. No doubt Coloccini and Enrique will probably be away soon, but that defence would be good enough if we had a half decent midfield. which we dont... Thats stating the obvious, but that defence is still good enough. If we had Man United's defence it would still be exposed with that midfield.

More than good enough for this division. No doubt Coloccini and Enrique will probably be away soon, but that defence would be good enough if we had a half decent midfield.

I bet Ashley, LLambias and Wise will have a few exclusives for the papers if this goes through.

Not wanting to get ahead of ourselves, but if Moat does manage to complete a takeover this weekend you would think that he would have already had long talks with Shearer. Surely Shearer would be in chargeby Tuesday/Wednesday if it happens.

I thought he was injured? I'd start with him definitely if he was fit. He would be the first name on the team sheet actually.

Guthrie is injured. It'll be --------------------Harper---------------- R.Taylor----S.Taylor.......Colo-----Enrique Jonas-------Smith-------Barton----Duff -------------------Nolan-------------------- ---------------Carroll/Ameobi----------- Pretty sure of that

Surely Nolan wouldn't have been playing off the striker if he wasn't going to be playing that role for the West Brom match. Is Beye out? If he is I'd say the team pretty much picks itself apart from a straight choice out of Carroll and Ameobi.

£3m maximum for Nugent like. Him and Beckford would be very good signings as far as Championship strikers go.

If this offer is £80m+ then Ashley would be an indiot not to sell. He has to cut his losses and get out of this club. Can you imagine the reaction if he rejects an offer from someone with the club at heart who has made the highest bid and he takes it off the market. Surely he knows he can't reject this.

Robert critic

Carver just basically said that Nolan and R.Taylor aren't good enough and Shearer wouldn't have signed players on that quality. Also he wouldn't have allowed Milner, N'Zogbia and Given to leave.

I was thinking the other day I quite fancy having a mini league for a small amount of money each match week and I asked a couple of people and they are up for it. It would just be the Premier League website mini league thing with reliable people only. Don't know if anyone would be interested at all like? It would depend on numbers but it would be quite fun paying for 50p-£1 per week (so you would be paying either £19 or £38 over the whole season depending on how much people think is right). If there was loads of players then 50p would make the total at the end of the year a good amount still. The money would have to go in a paypal account or something. Obviously it can only work properly if reliable people enter who will pay the amount each week. Was thinking it could be either winner takes all in May, or winner takes 75% with runner up 25%. Shoot me down if its a shit idea like, i'm going to do it with some mates though so if anyones interested then even better.

7 subs in the Championship as well? ----------------------------Harper----------------------- R.Taylor--------Beye--------------S.Taylor--------Enrique Jonas-----------Barton-----------Guthrie----------Duff ------------------Ameobi----------Carroll-------------- Krul, Coloccini, Kadar, Nolan, Lua Lua, Vuckic, Ranger

You forgot Richardson. I couldn't care at this moment though, its all to much of a fucking mess at our club to worry about them. If we could get this sorted and get promoted at first attempt they could finish in the top 6 for all I care.

This fumed me when I seen this today. If it is true that he offdered him a contract then that obviously means Ashley is giving up hope of selling. Shearer must have said some things he really didn't want to hear back in May for him to resort to this.

If the wage bill is going to be that much of a problem then I can't see many players we can afford to keep in that squad. How much was Martins reported to be on, £65,000? If we're getting rid of one of our better players on that sort of wage then surely that means that we want shot of nearly everyone but our youth players. I would like to see a lot of them leave, but where does this leave us if we're not in the market for players. Coloccini, Smith, Barton, Duff and Geremi must surely be on the priority list to get rod if (although we will be lucky to find any takers for half decent fee). Its likely that Harper, Beye, Enrique, Taylor, Butt, Nolan, and Jonas aren't far of £50,000+ a week as well. Out of that lot I reckon only Harper and Taylor will be spared if bids come in. It seems like we only have Bassong, R.Taylor, Guthrie, Ameobi, Carroll and the kids who are likely to be on manageable wages. I realise i've just stated the obvious but it hits home even more when he's just come out and stated Martins had to go due to his salary, yet he is one of our better players and we have loads of players on £50,000+ a week.

Surely if the worst happens and the fat man can't sell he must decide enoughs enough and invest in at least one striker and a couple of defenders. If we go into this season with this squad minus one, two or all three out of Beye, Bassong and Coloccini we are seriously fucked. We can't compete with such a small squad. We're not even talking about the quality of the squad here, just the size of it.

OMG Keegan is coming back??? wowza Keegan Keegan Keegan please be true x x x

I went this afternoon as well. Was in there for about 45 minutes. I wanted to put my shirt on my old seat higher up in the Leazes where I used to sit when Sir Bobby was manager but they weren't letting people up there. Had a good look around and it was great to see all of the different shirts and tributes from all over the place. I spent quite a bit of time just standing at pitch level looking at the pitch and dugout and thinking about all of the great times under him. I really didn't want to leave. It was easy writing stuff on my toon shirt for him, but when it came to writing a message in the book it was a lot harder. Felt like I should have kept adding more. I'll post some photos soon.

Should try and get permission to get a permanent SBR flag up in SJP.

Is it open all week? I'll go on Monday if its open.

Peter Ramage on the legends