toontownman

Where's this from fella? Lad on Skunkers who lives in the same building as him. Been chatting to his missus while Seb's away with Cameroon. Cheers. I'd say that's a very decent offer for a young player in the Championship. Problem is obviously what others will offer him (and for him). This really, think someone will offer him higher wages int he premier league. Wont be Arsenal though IMO.

Not right now. This is absolutely the bloody worst thing to happen. I would welcome investment into the club, yes, we bloody need it! But regardless of whether its true or not it will have dragged up another summer of constant rumours when we need to be focusing on consistency. If the "takeover" happens immediately fantastic, but we are surely looking at 2/3 months for the whole thing to come off, by which stage even if Shearer is in charge we wont have been able to perform the essential preperations for next season. Whilst this could be a good thing long term, its absolutely the worst timing if it drags out.

Just as well Bruce wasnt ever going to leave Wigan for a smaller club than Man Ure. Think we will go for him should Shearer refuse.

Interesting article, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matthew_syed/article6367739.ece Can see where he is trying to come from but for the most part its un-educated bullshit. We have tried it before and people with "no ties" to the club have failed miserably trying to do it their way ie Allardyce/Souness/Gullit. There needs to be a happy medium. Having both Dowie and potentially Carver around him makes up for the inexperience he has, I wouldnt rule out Al bringing in another older head like the mooted appointment of Daglish to DOF (although thats not happening). I certainly wouldnt shed tears if we dont end up with Shearer. There are plenty of other managers that will want the job, the downside is we will be in alot of trouble by that point. If Shearer says no, expect the mong nation to tear the city apart demanding Ashley leave. We would struggle to find a new buyer, probably reinstate kinnear in the interim, sale probably wouldnt happen til the back end of the summer by which stage we will have about 3 players left.

Bruce at the mackems just doesnt seem right. good appointment for them mind. fancy a cheeky last minute bid if shearer turns us down?

Would just really like to see us back to a real quick, direct and pacey side, with a solid, hard as nails, workhorse centre and backline, capable of passing to each other. who it is thats playing for us is irrelevant.

I think he would probably stick two fingers up seeing as we snubbed him earlier in the year. He had offers from several top tier teams in Europe aswell didnt he?

Well that and taking the job to begin with, he was doing a cracking job with the academy iirc.

Bassong will have little say in the matter, he's under contract. We should take a lesson from the way Villa handled Barry last summer, they didn't pander to him and held out for the price they thought was right, when that didn't come along. They told him to suck it up and get on with playing for the club he's contracted too. Didn't seem to do them much harm this season. We are in no need to sell bassong, he's on a low salary, is contracted for 2 more years and is young and talented. Hold out for 10 million, if no one ponies up the money, then he stays, simple as that. I really hope that will happen, only fear is that if they can't cut the wage bill enough because we can't shift the rubbish then sales will have to compensate. Should have been the same for Given though, we had no reason to take the amount we did. Bassong is our most saleable asset, so I'd be hugely suprised if we dont cash in on him at some point over the summer. Fingers crossed we would take the hard line and make him stay at least until January, but I think we will jump on the first offer that comes along.

Setanta showed around one championship match a week, plus a review show in N.America. I dont know if that changes with BBC and Sky having everything next year. I'd imagine Setanta still retained the international rights here. They actually had additional match coverage if you subscribed online. Might be worth checking into. I think they showed around double the amount of championship games in that package alot of them were on demand too. It was cheaper than the TV subscription, but I never went for it in the end. As for Newcastle World... I hope they really push this next year, not least for the overseas fanbase. Obviously we wont be able to show games live, but extended highlights would be good and maybe full reserve games/youth games. Fat chance imo.

5m was quoted in all the papers. 1m would be decent business.

Why does that matter though? As of now we're not in the Premiership. If we do manage to get back up we can consider what to do about our strikers then. Absolutely, if he is good enough to do the job in the Championship and helps us go back up it doesnt matter whether he will make it in the prem or not. Our coaches will know by then, and presumably he would have done well enough that we could easily sell him on to another championship side or fleece a gormless prem team into taking him (hopefully at a profit!)

If he really wants to stay we would be insane to let him leave, regardless of the price (which we will not receive a penny more than a million with his age and coming into the last year of his contract) As previously mentioned keeping Beye/Taylor/Enrique would be huge, somehow add Bassong into that equation then even better. I dont think its outrageous thinking either, bar Bassong Im confident the rest would be willing to stick it out at least until January.

I really have seen nothing of him although I know he has a big reputation. Is he really different to the likes of Lee Trundel? who was prolific in the lower leagues. Would he be capable of making the step up, he is 25 now right? So best time to start blossoming. Would he bring us anything different to what we will have (hopefully goals)?

Was going to write about us getting him in about a week ago. Unfortunately as mentioned its wildly ambitious a signing, even at his age I think wages would be a stumbling block and he could easily live the last days of his career in the premiership for more pennies. He would be the type of experienced CB we need though.

His experience in the championship (as mentioned) will be invaluable, as will his brothers if the reports are true. Add in Carvers experience and Rob Lee's apparent tactical nouse (I dont know where this assumption has come from but it sounded good) and the coaching should have very decent depth and quality.

I guess that depends if he goes to a club with a quality manager and set of coaches that can knock some intelligence into him. I know where you coming from, we wont be losing out greatly with him gone, but he is with alot of players that have gone backwards and will never improve here. I think a big waste of money is a bit far fetched. His goal return wasnt really that shabby and we might have already been in the championship without his goals under a limp Roeder team (whether that means much now I dont know!), i'd not return the memories of his goals at Bolton/Blackburn away or especially Spurs amongst others for anything.

Didnt some report today say July 1st for players reporting back? seems a bit late.

Not really what everyone wants to consider right now I'm sure, but it did pop into my mind when contemplating following Martins next year possibly in another Premier League team. Will you be supporting any sides in the Premier League next year? A surreal and quite ironic scenario given the lovely time period when this thread was created (by the looks of it we were just as suicidal then to be fair). Personally I dont know if I could cope with watching the premier league to begin with, I might just try and ignore it?

What if Kinnear decideds to leave and Shearer declines to take over? Who do you want? Who would come? Sorry to start another potential downer with every other depressing scenario becoming apparent. I think we would still attract alot of names, possibly a few that might even be as good if not a better bet than Shearer. Do the people that fancied Bruce still think he would entertain the possibility now we actually are relegated? I think he should be number 1 priority if Shearer does decline, although I doubt there would be much point asking seeing as he and Shearer would demand similar things. Martinez would be amoung the top of the pops for up and comers.

Regardless of how well he did for us, it will hurt seeing him playing for someone else, especially if its an english club. Wish him all the best though, one of the few exiting players i will look out for in the future.

We definitely need some sort of brick shithouse (or, alternatively, someone who is capable of defending) in the midfield... but i mean, wouldn't signing a load of cloggers - like you've suggested - simply be succumbing to the league we're in? I know i'm in danger of contradicting my previous post, but surely it's a bit of flair and 'magic' that shoots teams up the Championship? A la Swansea (i think ). It's a physically tough league and our pampered little fannies would get rolled over every week. Gutierrez et al will get kicked to bits every week and we need to be strong and organised just to compete, let alone push on up the league. An extra 8 games this season and no room for passengers mean the emphasis is on graft over guile. Completely, we need a new killer kilcline, we really havent had one since. Barton takes the role too seriously.

The likes of Doyle, Hunt and Andre Bikey at Reading might be worth taking a look at. I think they would all do as squad players in the Prem too. Surely not a return for Gary Speed? He would still proably to better than Butt.

Havent you been watching man? We can't pass!

What a load of tosh, wildly exaggerated wages surely! Harsh on Enrique aswell, all the better if he is hard to shift I'd keep him in a heartbeat. He will have no shortage of buyer IMO, granted we wont recoup 6m for him though. Think its reality Nicky Butt will stay with us unfortunatley. Still I'd hope we at least give him a wage slash or leave ultimatum. I'd think he would be a good pro to have around the younger players next year and would be a solid player in the championship, unfortunatley I have been watching him play which contradicts that notion.