Zero

Btw, just to clarify, seems like he is not "released", but allowed to leave for free. Same case as Smith.

f*** off, man The correct decision to release one of our best bloody players because he dares to criticise the bucknuts in charge? We're a bloody shambles yet again. To be honest, the correct decision is to sell him earlier. You gotta think again about Barton's case. The root of the problem is his contract renewal. Does he worth a 2 year extension with the same level of wages? If your answer is yes, no problem. If your answer is no, then just like what's happening now - Barton refused to sign and start "twittering". After so many damages the only way is to release him. I know this is a big IF but, would Barton do the same even if it's not Ashley/Llambias in charge? My guess is yes, he would do the same, given his glorious record.

You have to be f***ing kidding me. I thought you were one who said Ashley is all about the money. You think they'll be laughing at releasing a player on a free? Think of the wages we'll save. Unless that's a mutual termination, we gotta pay him his remaining wages.

So we have to pay compensation to him instead?

Some rich Qataris hopefully. I'm perfectly willing to gamble on a new mystery owner rather than continuing down this road with Ashley knowing that at best we'll tread water in the premier league for another season and that we're perpetually one season away from possible disaster. See Birmingham.

Just know that Lee Chung Yong is out of the rest of the season due to broken leg. Poor lad.

I have had enough, all of these troubles. All of these motherfuckers, including Barton, Enrique, Routledge, Ashley, Llambias, should just fuck off from this club asap. ALL.

Right decision, wrong method.

So what should they do back in January?

No, the problem is he treats Newcastle United as if it's his company.

May be the club wants to wait until Erdinc's deal is completed. If we couldn't get Erdinc, we may end up having just one new striker. In that case Ranger would be our 4th choice.

Next.

Carston Yeung borrowed the money to pay for the club, they issued new shares last season just to keep afloat and now he's got all of his assets frozen and technically can't run the club so the club is losing money with no credit to pay it off. They'll be in administration in the next few months imo. In a way it's even worse than Portsmouth.

Except, Bassong was the standout player. He was f***ing alone that season and had we had 10 players like him we'd have finished top half of the table. But I get what you're saying. But getting Bassong for £4million then sell him on for £10m in two years would be like something Ashley dreams off like someone said earlier. Agree that he was the standout player, so I am not opposed to have him back, I just don't feel comfortable.

And couldnt wait to get away afterwards. I admit that's part of the reason why I wanna get rid of Nolan. If he plays like that season again we will be in deep, deep trouble again.

I don't feel comfortable to have players back - the players that contributes to part of our relegation.

He is correct this time.

There is a study suggesting that a player's peak years are limited, some where around 10-12 years during his lifetime. What I am saying is nowadays the players tends to train very hard before 20 and already triggered his peak period. That's why they start to deteriorate when they just reach 30. Giggs and Scholes are just exceptional case, fucking exceptional I would say. Even Ronaldinho, a player excelled in all technical aspects, cannot escape from this rule. In contrast, Sir Les Ferdinand is able to perform after 30's because he started his career relatively later than others.

Sad to think that we wouldn't sign a 32 year old Beardsley now because he wouldn't be worth much in 2 or 3 years. To be fair, a 32 years old player 10 years before is a lot from a 32 years old player now. Look at Joe Cole and Owen, you can't imagine a player can deteriorate so much when they just reach 30.

Did Tevernier play well last night? I had high hopes on him.

That's the same for Real Madrid, hilariously.

You said we couldn't wait for N'Zogbia yet it looks like he's going after a chain of events which we wouldn't have needed before bidding. No, we have to wait and there is risk involved. Who can guarantee N'Zogbia will sign for us if Wigan accept several bids? The worst scenario is we missed out both Marveaux and N'Zogbia. Thus at that time you have to decide either wrap up the Marveaux deal or face a bidding war for N'Zogbia. I can understand why the club choose Marveaux. What the club could do, at that time, was to submit an offer of 10m to Wigan, saying this is the last offer and if you did not respond before midnight then that's it because we would sign a replacement tomorrow. This might be done already, I don't know, but it didn't materialize. It's debatable whether we should sign both players, but if it's mutually exclusive, then I couldn't blame the club for choosing Marveaux. I could only blame Wigan for being too greedy.

Well in a way that remains to be seen, Marveaux might have a really good season. I know what you're saying though, but the problem is that Marveaux was cheap and Zoggy costs money. Thus if you're worried about expenditure he's a less attractive option. FWIW I would rather have had Zog because he is proven. Same here. I would prefer N'Zogbia over Marveaux if I can conclude both deals at the same time.

We didn't have to wait, we already knew that N'Zogbia was going to be sold. I don't see what Liverpool going for Marveaux ahead of Downing has to do with anything as we don't know how they came about prioritising targets. We knew N'Zogbia was going to be sold, but the negotiation could drag on and on for a long time if there's a bidding war. Actually that could have been happened already (there were rumours that Wigan received several bids even though they denied). In the end Newcastle went for Marveaux, Liverpool then went for Downing, and Villa becomes the last bidder. The key point is, Villa only made the bid after the Downing deal. That means before Villa's bid, all the other clubs didn't make a bid or failed to agree a price with Wigan. Is this just a coincidence that no club made a bid before Villa for N'Zogbia, a deal that now everyone thinks a good deal? My guess is Wigan was asking for too much before and forced to lower the price because Villa is the only one left in the market. In other words, Spurs, Arsenal and other top clubs are not interested in N'Zogbia.

There's nothing retrospective about it. If you go back earlier in the thread, myself and others were making the case for signing him back then. There was no need to wait for N'Zogbia, he's been available all summer. As many pointed out earlier in the thread, if you wait he will sign for a rival and that's what's happening now. Wigan only issue the 10m quoted price after the Marveaux and Downing deal. I don't think they were asking for the same price before. They were inviting a bidding war which didn't materialized, and end up selling on a cheap to Villa. Well that's just my thought. I have no evidence to support.