Teasy

If he's done it I hope he gets locked up for years, the repercussions would be incredible. Of course if he didn't then I hope the girl gets locked up, but either way they could at least have kept him longer for questioning so he couldn't play today.

£18 million for a average midfielder who would be available for £2.5 million in the summer. £14 million for a 29 year old who has only been able to play 20 games n the last two seasons through injury. £12 million for a reserve left back who's played less then 15 games a season for the last 6 years.. but they're wary of getting fleeced? What the fuck would they have spent on those players if they weren't wary?.. You know this is fucking idiotic, one of if not the best keeper in the league and they're trying to low ball us after paying 3 or 4 times over the odds for the rest of the players they've bought so far. I honestly hope we just tell them to go and fuck themselves. I actually want the transfer to go through if we get good money because we could spend that extra cash on some much needed players. But I'm not willing to sell our best player off cheap, even though I believe Harper is an excellent replacement, especially to a club who seem not to care what they spend until it comes to us, what are we fucking mugs?

Crouch - £11 million Defoe - £9 million Muntari - £7.1 million Utaka - £7 million Nugent - £6 million Doesn't matter if they're not all proven in the league, that's over £40 million spent on 5 players.. Apparently now he's finally got money to spend at the Spuds though...

I don't get it.... Harry's a wheeler dealer, always has been. Just now he's doing it on a bigger scale... Exactly wheeler dealer, at West Ham barely had any resources except upcoming talent like Defoe, Lampard, Carrick, Ferdinand. To call him chequebook manager, because he is in a position to sign players now is something else. He brings in alot of bargains/free transfers in his career its hardly chequebook style. He over spent so much at Portsmouth that they now have had to sell a lot of the players he bought, they're wage bill was something like 95% of turnover under the saggy eyed one.

He's played 95 times over the last 3 and a half seasons, no idea if he's currently a first team regular though.

We hold all the cards if we aren't planning on buying any more players. If we want to buy say M'bia or Donadel for example, we'll probably need the sale to go through before too long. That's if we need the money from Given to buy the likes of Donadel.

Why would Donadel's wages be huge? Saviola's on something like £60,000 I think so I agree if he's not willing to take a cut I wouldn't bother, simply because he's unproven in the league and hasn't played consistently for years. But I can't see a relatively young player for Fiorentina being on large wages.

I think even just letting Owen, Viduka, Cacapa and Geremi go would go a long way to recovering our financial position. Saves us about £15 million a year, of course they need to be replaced. But I see no reason why that can't be achieved on half those wages. I think we might even be able to sell Smith if we're willing to let him go for a small fee.

We don't need to sell all our established stars and buy youngsters, we just need to stop giving numerous players silly money, especially players who are useless to us. Some people seem to have gotten the idea we're just poor or something "we can't afford big players, we have to be a selling club bringing through cheap youngsters". Have people forgotten we've got the fourth highest wage bill in the league? Its twice what the majority of Premiership clubs pay out. We're still a financially very strong club as far as the money we bring in, with a massive revenue in comparison to most Premiership clubs. All we need to do is get rid of the wasters like Smith, Duff, Geremi ect and other players on silly wages like Owen and try to stick within about £45-50 million total for wages (still far more then 70% of Premiership clubs could afford). Why would we need to become a selling club when we have probably the 5 or 6th highest revenue in the league? Also how is the likes of N'Zogbia and Given a problem for our wage bill? N'Zogbia's on a moderate wage compared to most and Given's wage is both appropriate and affordable (around £45 to £50,000 isn't it?). Cacapa Owen Duff Smith Geremi Viduka Six players that cost us in the region of £20 million a season, that's almost as much as a lot of Premiership clubs spend on there entire squad! Yet how many of them are even useful to us in any way, about four of them, and even then only one of them would actually be difficult to replace. The rest could be replaced by average players on low wages and still be a improvement (not that I'm advocating that of course).

Well I agree of course, but to be fair despite Ashley not spending any of his own money on transfers we haven't been in profit on transfers since he's been here. When has transfer money ever gone in his pocket?

If we didn't step up our transfer activity after selling Given I'd be both surprised and extremely pissed off.

In all honesty if £14 million was on the table I'd be disappointed if it didn't go through. IMO we need that money spent in other area's and I'm totally confident in Harper's ability.

Unless we get the new defensive midfielder as well.

Harper's played bench boy all his life, nothing has changed. According to reports he did want to go though didn't he?, certainly could have been bollocks but to be honest at 33 I'd be surprised if he hadn't finally decided he needs first team Football.

Toon's Taylor I wasn't referring to Newcastle's intentions, I was referring to Harpers.

Harper signing a new contract does suggest its a done deal.

No but its pretty certain he will.

You're confusing bigger club with better team or being more attractive/in a better position at the moment. West Brom could get a crazy billionaire owner tomorrow and spend £50 million but that wouldn't make them a bigger club immediately..

I would say that he should. I'm not terribly happy about the manner in which he's leaving, but 10 years at the club deserves a testimonial. He's been a great player for us on and off the pitch. Definitely deserves one but can't remember a testimonial for a player who has moved on to a "bigger" club, rather than downward as would more usually be the case for aging players. Given all his charity work as well would be sure he wouldn't want to keep any of the money for himself. Glad you put that in quotation marks Can't think of any way in which they're a bigger club, owner with bigger pockets yes. the bigger pockets thing is making them into a bigger club. It might make them into a bigger club in the future if they turn the spending into actually winning matches and trophies, but certainly hasn't yet. We're a bigger club in every way apart from owners.

I'd say when we have no right back we are a bit suspect in defence, but nowhere near all over the place. With our first choice defence we look quite solid at the back. Though it could be argued that when they say "defensively" they mean how the team defends as a whole.

I would say that he should. I'm not terribly happy about the manner in which he's leaving, but 10 years at the club deserves a testimonial. He's been a great player for us on and off the pitch. Definitely deserves one but can't remember a testimonial for a player who has moved on to a "bigger" club, rather than downward as would more usually be the case for aging players. Given all his charity work as well would be sure he wouldn't want to keep any of the money for himself. Glad you put that in quotation marks Can't think of any way in which they're a bigger club, owner with bigger pockets yes.

More like: FA: "Are you aware of the rules you have broken?" Joe: "You're a cunt!!"

As much as I appreciate Shay's time here, no he absolutely can't be given a testimonial.

Why is Chris Mort so much of a better person then you?

Its ok he's actually played over 20 games a season for his previous club unlike the little midget