Teasy

But if that article is correct its far more extreme then that. Abramovich is still going to own Chelsea. However he is leaving and letting someone else run it and having very little to do with the club at all. Its not just an end to silly transfers either, he's actually cutting all financial support. They have to operate completely on there own, which would explain why he's told them they have to now bring in a wage cap. As without his support they can't afford the wage bill anymore. All I'm going on here is the article at the start of this thread of course. But that's all any of us have to go on at the moment.

Terry and Lampard have two years left on there current contracts. Unless Chelsea sell them both now they aren't going to go for big fee's. They might have a bigger fanbase, for now, but they aren't in a position to accommodate them, there stadium is still the same piece of crap its been for years. I agree that they're in a far better position now then they were before Abramovich arrived. But that doesn't mean they're going to be as good in the next few years as they have been in the past few seasons.

How's that then? They can't support the wages of there best players using the clubs revenue. Had Abramovich built a state of the art 50,000+ stadium for them before pissing off then I'd have to agree with you more or less. But he didn't. There's absolutely no chance of them rising further then they are now. They just can't support that financially. Madrid are a very different animal, they have a massive stadium and are still bailed out by the Spanish government today when they get into financial troubles... Chelsea have a poor stadium and will now no longer be bailed out of any financial mess they get themselves into.

Who says they aren't going anywhere? Terry and Lampards contracts are running out and now Chelsea have to introduce a wage cap. Without Abramovich's money they can't come close to affording to renewing there contracts without them accepted a major pay cut, which they won't accept that. Yeah you can probably expect Cole to be fit for most of the season, maybe even Robben, but who says any combination of Lampard, Terry, Drobga, Cech, Essien, Shevchenko or Ballack won't be injured? Yeah they've gotten some good free transfers this season. Simply because they're successful at the moment (though much less so this past season). What happens when contracts expire and can't be renewed for a lot of the players I just mentioned? What happens if they win nothing next season? No matter what way you look at it Chelsea are not going to be the same now as they have been over the last few years. They have no safety net, there best players have unsupportable contracts and there's in fighting which could see there manager leave.

Probably be good for him, no Roman led signings to upset things. Got to laugh at people thnking this is the end for them. Why? They don't have any better of a financial support structure now then they had before Abramovich came in. Most importantly there stadium is still the same rat trap its always been. How will they now pay the wages they're currently paying? Never mind get new players in if needed. They're in a position now where they could lose huge players like Terry and Lampard for close to nothing, how will they be replaced? Its going to take extremely good management of the club to sort things out IMO. I can see them regressing season after season, they lose players, stop winning things, there fanbase goes back towards what it used to be, revenue drops, plus no more money from Abramovich.

How is there no chance?.. Our spending over the last 10 years probably averages £20 million a season (maybe slightly less, maybe slightly more). A further £34 million per season from Ashley for 5 seasons (£175 million total) is hardly impossible from a multi-billionaire.. Our average spend is £8m a year, more or less the same as Liverpool. I meant our average outlay rather then our average net outlay, which I assume is what your talking about there. After all its unlikely the £270 million talked about will disclude money gained from player sales. If it does we'd be looking at a whole lot more then £54 million per season (I realise this is all theoretical and based on paper talk of course).

How is there no chance?.. Our spending over the last 10 years probably averages £20 million a season (maybe slightly less, maybe slightly more). A further £34 million per season from Ashley for 5 seasons (£175 million total) is hardly impossible from a multi-billionaire..

So you would take millions upon millions out of the clubs coffers as it struggles along in mid table? I f****** know I wouldn't! If the man really loved the club he'd forgo the absurd wage he pays himself and the ridiculous dividends he gives to himself and put everything into the well being of the club. I'd be too embarrassed to take any wage if I was responsible for the s*** Newcastle United have gone through for the last few years. Let alone a wage many times higher then any other chairman around. I certainly would pay myself millions in dividends and syphon off even more by giving dodgy contracts to my own companies. He's already a millionaire yet he leeches millions from the club every year despite the atrocious job he does. Does that sound like someone who loves the club as much as any real fan? Not saying I wish him ill health of course, I just don't think he loves the club, in fact I think its blatantly apparent that he doesn't. I think he's a fan and he does care about the club, but nowhere near as much as most real fans.

They must hold some sort of importance to there criteria if they're going to ask Newcastle to join. Because I really don't see how we fit into there big plans at the moment outside of our big stadium and high Uefa ranking. Then again I'm sure they'll find some way to ignore this if they ever decide they really need Chelsea in there group. I'm certainly not going to assume that greasy russian has refused an offer to join them at this point though.

Cant be that, there capacity is no worse than many of the teams already in G14 Those teams got into the G14 before that criteria was in place. At the time Chelsea were absolute nobodies on the world stage with a coefficient ranking outside the top 100.

Stadium capacity (there stadium is basically utter shit).

The only reason they aren't is because they don't meet the criteria.....

Celtic fans are tossers in my experience, I'll always remember Beardsleys testimonial in particular. Chanting about how great they are and how they would dominate the Premiership because they were beating a bunch of old men, some of which used to be players 20 years ago.

That's a massive exaggeration. The quality of goals in Spain are higher, but then the players have so much space its easier to score great goals anyway.

The fact that we haven't won trophies in ages doesn't change the fact that Sam is now in a totally different environment then he was at Bolton. At Bolton the expectation was low and the money was even lower, he now has to work in a big club environment (as in large resources, large expectations ect). But I'm confident he can do it.

Not saying I agree or disgree on your defence but going by goals conceded doesn't always tell the whole story. Newcastle have only conceded 6 more then Villa, only 8 teams have conceded less then Newcastle this season. But I can safely say that our back four is absolutely shit, Taylor is the only player out of them fit to wear a Newcastle shirt.

Would be a fantastic singing IMO (Ben Haim that is).

I wonder how much money we'll just shaved off the wage bill? At least £5.2 million a year I'd say.

Allardyce is doing exactly the right thing. He's the manager of Newcastle United and should be the most powerful most important part of the club (well a good manager should, I didn't feel the same about Souness being the most powerful person at the club ). He shouldn't go cap in hand to any player, not if he wants to be in a position of strength. I'd love Owen to stay, but if Allardyce asks him that question and he tells him he wants to go then he should be sold immediately, it'll hurt for a while, mostly due to the loss we'll make and what could have been without Owens injuries, but in the long term it will be inconsequential.

Of course not, Coppell has no responsibility at all to any club talking to Sidwell. Especially considering the fact his club won't even be involved in the transfer (sidwell will be a free agent).

Your believing the paper talk though. No I'm not.

£62,500 per week?!... not a good sign IMO if true. Just screams "I don't really want this job but I'll take the stupidly over the top contract if your handing it out".

What you've missed is that none of those teams could afford even half his wages never mind all of them.. On the subject at hand, it amazes me all this talk that Owen owes us "fuck all" and its understandable if he leaves. Yeah in the world of no responsibilities and no morals that's true. But in the real world Owen does owe us a season fit due to how well he's been treated by this club and its fans right through his injury problems. Frankly he should be so embarrased with what's happened at Newcastle he should be raring to to prove to everyone that he was worth the money we paid for him. Obviously that doesn't mean he'll stay because the real world isn't fair. But it does mean that if he leaves its fair to label him a fucking wheasel with no respect for himself or anyone else! Oh and I don't buy this £9 million clause either. Why is it £9 million all of a sudden and not £12 million?

But getting rid of your manager 2 games before the end of the season when you have Europe to play for is so much better right? At least we had nothing to play for when Freddy sacked Roeder, the season was over. This lot of muppets sacked the man who's dragged them up the table 2 games before he likely would have gotten them into Europe. Now they're looking like sliding right back down again after being beaten handily by West Ham of all teams... Such a state?.. He's left a Championship club 6th in the Premiership, Bolton fans need to get a reality check!

What about Houlier as director of football and Sam as manager? Or do people think they couldn't work together? (likely I suppose since sam is such a strong character).