Teasy

That hadn't been quoted when I went to write that post. Seems likely, though still leaves it open to what the agreement was.

Could have been the financial sacrifice of being asked to pay his own agent fees or give up his loyalty bonus? Could be wages of course but we didn't hear much about that being a problem at the time. Also wonder what he's think of the financial sacrifice he could be taking soon if those 75% taxes come into force over there. EDIT: Didn't see the comment above.

Quite a few players we've signed don't fit that filter, the player you just mentioned for instance. I know what you mean, we do seem to look for expiring contract players in France a lot of the time, but its not our entire policy. I also think its more about bargains than cheap players, for instance we paid £9m for Cisse, not that cheap but we considered it a bargain. We seem to go looking for the best players we can find at bargain prices and sometimes they aren't the kind of player we need, sometimes they are.

Also the signings like Cabaye and Ba that summer all had some sort of catch (clause / contract expired etc). Cisse was a surprising deal to say the least and it was done as apparently Freiburg lowered their price from what they initially wanted which put us off initially (over 10mil). Cisse was a belated replacement for Carroll, if we'd got champions league that season i'm not at all convinced we'd have gone on some spending spree or Ashley's mindset would be shifted. The more money we'd have got the more he'd have pocketed imo. I agree its questionable that a boost in revenue would change his mindset on getting value for money/bargains when signing players. Though as people have said many times before theirs no evidence that he's pocketed anything.

We'll probably try to agree a pre contract with Gomis in January, if he signs that we'll offer Lyon a couple of million to release him immediately.

Despite the fuckwit in charge I just cant see relegation being a serious worry this year. I do agree that the next few games are important in that they could either give us the confidence to go on a run of results or turn us back into a panicky long ball side (courtesy of mr fuckwit and his tiny testicles). But either way it seems unlikely we'll be in a relegation scrap. No idea how well we'll do overall. Ben Arfa's the key to that really, if he stays fit and the side grows in confidence who knows what they can achieve. Just give me one full season of Ben Arfa, please baby Jebus

To be fair we paid £6m for Yanga-mbiwa even though he had only 6 months left. The summer before they were wanting more than twice that which understandably put clubs off.

Its not an acceptable argument, I don't know if anyones saying it is (I wasn't but I haven't read everyone's posts). Think people are just answering the claims that he's racking money in from the club and will have his initial spend back in no time. He isn't, but at the same time there should be some money available to invest in new players.

Definitely, though the new sponsorship this year and increased TV money next year really changes everything. At the moment its hard to believe he can be taking anything significant from the club despite no net spend on players. But should the £0 net spend continue into 2014 and beyond the questions of "where's the money going" will really start to be justified. Does that mean that we are treading water this season while we wait for next years tv cash windfall to hit our accounts? I suppose that all depends on if Ashley's approach to signings changes depending on available funds. Does he stay to the same value for money/bargain approach or does he become a bit looser with the purse strings once their's plenty of excess money at the club? I have no idea. All we can say for certain is that at the moment he isn't making his money back. But next year is the best opportunity he's ever had to start doing that.

Definitely, though the new sponsorship this year and increased TV money next year really changes everything. As you say at the moment its hard to believe he can be taking anything at all significant from the club despite no net spend on players overall over the last few years. But should the £0 net spend continue into 2014 and beyond the questions of "where's the money going" will really start to be justified.

Apparently not, also I'd expect commercial revenue to increase significantly soon due to the new sponsorship deal with Wonga. Obviously the last accounts we have still included the sponsorship deal we negotiated while in the Championship.

I'm sure the Sports Direct signs have brought him some financial advantages, but you can't hope to quantify it. Also worth noting that a big part of our reduced commercial revenue is down to outsourcing catering.

Continues taking money at what rate? As of the last accounts he hadn't taken any of his original investment back and we have no reason to believe we suddenly have massive excesses of money for him to take. That obviously could change next year when the improved TV money starts.

Don't believe he'll ever make a profit, but he'll start to recoup what he spent in a major way soon if we keep spending £0 net on players (as in just spending what we bring in from sales). At the moment we're basically breaking even financially every year, but once the increased TV money starts in 2014 we should be making at least £20-£25m profit (that's without taking the new Wonga deal into account as I'm unsure what its worth). Its one thing not spending anything net on players when you can at least release accounts showing you aren't pocketing club money. But what happens if he releases an account showing the club made a £25m profit and he just took it out? People are talking about protests now.

Not sure if you're serious here, but you're very wrong if you believe that. Same goes for the people who think Ashley's had what he spent back already, not even close to being close to true. Still should have money available to invest in players though, there's no excuse for that not happening.

Nah just most of the last several hundred pages

You mean why is nobody still saying "its too early to complain their's still time"?, maybe because its now not to early and their isn't time. Now its simply a fact that they've fucked up our transfer window.

As well as to keep his loyalty bonus, totally right as well, he's desperate to go after all.

Yeah looked like that was is plan on Saturday like.. He'll get on with it and try to show he should be at the world cup next year and or get the move he wants in January.

right someone explain those rules to Spurs and Sunderland as they would have massively increased their wage bill Tottenham had a lower wage to revenue ratio than us as of 2012, 63% of Spurs revenue spent on wages vs 69% for us. Since then ours will certainly have increased, I don't know enough about all of Tottenham's incomings and outcomings to say if there's has for sure but it probably has as well. Still the fact is we do spend quite a high amount of our turnover on wages, our wage bill was 8th highest in the league by 2012 (only 13th though if you go on percentage of turnover spent on wages). Really our problem is revenue, they just aren't expanding it. Of course by 2014 our turnover will increase very significantly from the increased TV money, but Ashley ect should also be increasing our revenue in other ways, which they haven't done at all. I think Gold is talking about the Premier League's own financial fair play rules by the way, not the UEFA ones.

Who is he like and what's he actually worth?

He doesn't seem to score goals anymore though.

What a fucking creep.

Me too like, sad reflection of our ambitions though He's not bad at all as a backup.

Stoke have taken Stephen Ireland on a season long loan, are they pissed?