Teasy

Very constructive..

Fights in the tunnel now.. The Serbs spitting at people, filthy bastards.

This is all I expect to happen. Assuming you mean deducted points. Its what would make sense, and if they were docked 10pts for next season i doubt either team would appeal it now, WHU would be just happy it wasn't last season, and Sheff Utd couldn't suggest a harsher punishment should be handed out. Doesn't make that much sense to me to be honest and I think Sheff Utd would most definitely appeal against it. No matter how harsh a 10 point deduction next season is they would argue it wasn't a relevant punishment. Given that the infringement happened last season and the outcome of that infringement was that West Ham stayed up when they would otherwise have been relegated. If the FA did admit that points need to be deducted then the only thing that makes sense is to relegate West Ham and reinstate the team immediately below them.

Brian Pinas

You're talking utter bollocks, as usual: can you even read? are you honestly expecting the clubs bank statements to detail IRREGULAR payments? are you expecting club officials to confess to the money under the bed when it isn't even a criminal investigation? What a load of sensationalist claptrap. I don't see Freddy Shepherd named here, nor any other Newcastle United officials. As a club there is no wrong doing claimed at all. There is a suggestion of wrong doing on a the part of some agents and two people who were once connected to the club, that's it. There's obviously no evidence linking anything Souness or Kenny Shepherd might have done to Newcastle as a club. The report stresses that point repeatedly. Or do you have some undisclosed report that says different?

Bollocks, if Souness or Kenny Shepherd have done wrong that's there look out. But as far as the club goes there has been no wrong doing found despite full disclosure of club documentation including bank statements.

Not high enough to declare to the stock exchange?... What does that mean exactly?..

Rubbish. It's not like money is all Chelsea have over us at the moment. CL football, a real chance to actually win something, an extraordinary manager, etc. He will have talked to Mourinho or other Chelsea representatives and obviously feels he will be involved in the first team sufficiently. I think this type of comment is very much sour grapes and well strange considering money is what we usually throw in our transfer targets' faces in abundance to compete with potentially more attractive clubs careerwise.. How many other players over the last few seasons have spoken to Mourinho ect and felt they would be involved in the first team sufficiently? Only to end up a shadow of there former selves a few seasons later having played barely any Football... Wether Ben Haim's carear goes the same way we'll have to wait and see, but if I had to guess I'd say it will..

Silly lads just ruined his carear IMO... Like someone else said, its a shame due to the fact he was free. But its not like he was the best defender we could possibly sign, so lets see who comes in next.

What?.. do you really think that the only problem with Roeder was that we finished low in the league with him as manager?.. The bloke was a f****** disaster in just about everything he did. Even when we finished in a European place the season before I was still on his back, because I could see that despite his lucky finish the bloke didn't have a clue. If Allardyce finishes 10th but IMO he's doing the right things to improve the club then I'll be happy. But yes I would be pretty confident of him finishing a lot higher.

No it isn't, this idea that a players worth is fixed no matter what the situation is lunacy IMO. The fact is when a player is a free agent they become worth more in wages and signing on fee's, simply due to the money the club will save on a transfer fee. If he still had a contract at Bolton what do you think it would cost to buy him? Or another player of the same age, quality and Premiership experience?

Which is about what you'd pay Ben Haim over a 5 year contract. Davies Fee: £8m Signing on fee £500k Wages: £25k x 5 years = £6.5m Total: £15m Ben Haim Fee: £0 Signing on fee : £2m Wages: £65k x 5 years = £16.9m Total: £18.9m All guess work, but in the end him at £65k pw isn't worth it imo. A couple of comments on that. Who says there would be a £2 million signing on fee for Ben Haim? Who says Davies would accept £25,000 per week? Davies is s*** in comparison to Ben Haim. Finally even based on your guesses he would only be slightly more expensive if he stayed for the full 5 years. We'd pay more for Davies right from day one then we'd pay Ben Haim for his first two years! It would take until year four of his contract before he'd finally become more expensive then Davies, and that's going by your rather dubious guesses on wages and signing on fee's.

Hmm normally I'd question why we weren't interested in a player like Tuncay for free. But I trust Allardyce so I assume he's either not good enough or doesn't fit our plans.

Also don't forget that Barton is also costing us £5.5 million for the transfer fee, and Owen cost £17 million! That's £15.5 million total for Barton (if the rumoured wage is correct, which I hope it isn't since he's not close to being worth that IMO) and £31.4 million total for Owen (assuming 3 year contracts). Ben Haim for a total outlay of £10 million is a massive bargain in comparison IMO.

No way. Give someone like Ben Haim £70k, and when we do start going for the top stars, we'll be looking at Owen-style wages. To buy a player like him (quality, young and proven in the Premiership) would normally cost at least £5 million and even £45,000 a week for three years would then take the total outlay to £11.5 million. But you think we should pass up on the player for a total outlay of £10 million?... The simple fact is you have to pay players what they're worth in the market and that changes depending on the transfer fee. If another player coming in to the club can't understand that then tell him to take a hike.. Or we could simply pay Ben Haim £50,000 a week and make up the difference in signing on fee's and or bonuses (loyalty bonus ect). My main point was that IMO he's worth spending that kind of money on.

Considering its a free transfer I'd have no problem at all offering a player like Ben Haim £65,000 plus, £70,000 even.

Because they want him off the wage bill. Similar situation to Figo when he left Real for a nominal fee with a year left on his contract.

To be honest he's not even good enough to be backup. If we're going to challenge for the top 5 we need better backup then Baba. So yeah I want him gone, not lingering with the chance he might actually get in the team because of injury.

For me he has Ginola/Robert written all over him! Would probably become a typical french winger for us, make a great initial impact, then become a player who drifts in and out of games, scoring the occassional spectacular goal. Not syaing he isn't any good, as I haven't seen much of him (only Youtube clips), but Ginola/Robert is the first thing I think of. Really?.. Overmars is the first thing I thought of when I saw Giuly play.. I don't know what his temprement is like but from watching him in clips I certainly wouldn't liken him to Robert or Ginola as a player.

I certainly hope that's not the way Allardyce is thinking. If he thinks Brown is better he should go for Brown.. Going for an inferior player just to save a million or so is ridiculous, especially now..

Its around about the figure initially reported before the transfer went through (£8.5 million).

They aren't being sold, not as in a takeover anyway. This is just there current chairman and majority shareholder (Daniel Levy) buying some more shares and probably looking to own the club completely. But he already runs the club anyway so...

Giuly reminds me so much of Marc Overmars and we all know how well he did in the Premiership. I'd be very happy to see him here.

Hopefully its £7 million with addons based on appearances making it up to the originally mentioned £8.5 million.

I'm not a particularly big fan of Barton personally. However I trust Allardyce so the fact that he's got one of his targets has to be a good thing. If he is being paid £70,000 per week though I'd be extremely suprised and a bit worried. Hopefully that's just press talk.