Rich

How do you keep an idiot in suspense?

I'd get rid of Butt and Parker before Emre, personally, and I'd love to see us buy a decent-sized defensive midfielder who can put himself about a bit and pass it, also. If Martins/Owen are going to be our first-choice strikers we are quite simply going to struggle with set-plays at both ends of the pitch, unless we sign two full-backs capable of challenging people in the air. If Solano stays as right-back, then we could have only two players in the entire team over six-feet tall (unless we buy a bigger LB.) In the modern game, that worries me enormously - though I know it's not the be-all and end-all. Man Utd are the current "smallest" team I can think of, but on most occasions even they have a massive goalkeeper, two big centre-halves and Gary Neville/Gabriel Heinze in the FB slots, both of whom are extremely accomplished in the air. Evra less so, when he plays, but even then Rooney/Saha are bigger than Martins/Owen and Carrick/Ronaldo aren't tiny, either. Not to mention the fact that Man Utd are incredibly well-coached, an' all. We are crying out for some power in all areas of the pitch, which is why I'm not over the moon about the prospect of Sidwell, or a Martins/Owen partnership, for that matter. It's all just a much of a muchness with what we already have and for all the fancy football we could play, I can't see beyond another season of getting bullied out of matches by the likes of Sheff Utd, Everton and Bolton.

If we are to go for a big bastard, then at least it's reassuring to know we're going for the best one around and I, for one, can take smug satisfaction in knowing that I mentioned him as a potential signing absolutely donkey's years ago now. I tend to agree with monkey's philosophy now, though. While big-men can be extremely invaluable in certain teams (Drogba and Berbatov are the current "target-men" doing the business), I'm worried that if we do sign someone like him that we'll play more direct than ever before. It would be a useful option to have in certain games and at certain times, but he's not going to come here without being a first-choice player. Just cannot see him joining us, especially at that price. It's just very unlikely.

Jesus, now THAT's a set-up. If a club/town the size of Bolton can achieve what they have been on that sort of money and with that number of fans, imagine what a similar/replica ideal could achieve at NUFC? This is why I get frustrated with the current board, more than anything else, because we are simply not as well-equipped as our rivals.

Don't see the fuss on Sidwell, personally, but I'll admit to not being the expert on Reading. However, in the previous three Reading games I've seen in their entirety I've watched him closely and he has looked average, at best (two were against Man Utd, though!) He has constantly surrendered posession, doesn't seem to have any outstanding physical attributes other than stamina and he has never looked like scoring a goal. That's all I can base it on, though, because I don't remember paying particular attention to the lad before he started getting linked with us. Certainly don't see him as being much better than what we already have. What, exactly, is so good about him? He's being a proper little runt with Reading as well and to me seems to be one of those "Jenas" players who is neither here-nor-there in regards to being an attacking or defensive midfielder. Certainly cannot imagine him being exciting alongside Butt or Parker and he's only got 4 goals in 32 appearances this season ('Boro, Tottenham & Villa x2). Good engine on him, undoubtedly, but hardly going to elevate us onto the next level, is he? 6 assists, too, but 2 were in the 6-0 over West Ham, 2 came at home to Sheffield United, 1 away to Man City and 1 at home to Charlton. He's surely not an improvement on Emre? Is this another baseless bandwagon we've started here? One person rates him and then numerous others, who've barely seen him, follow suit. Not accusing you of this Stozo, or others like tmonkey who I've seen rate him, but there are a fair few sheep around these days. Dont think Sidwell is anything special at all, but hes going on a free and Butt will be 33 next season. IMO he plays the game better than Parker/Butt, in that hes better at passing forwards, and does so more often. He therefore has more presence on the ball in central midfield, despite being a similar type of player (ie workhorse with low technical ability) - its not the fact that hes got more ability when it comes to passing forwards, its just that he does so more often and with more confidence. We need to build up a squad as opposed to a first team only, and although central midfield isnt a vital area that badly needs reinforcements, a free transfer for a decent player would only be a good thing. Sidwell has indeed been overhyped because of the Wenger praise, and his form at the start of the season was pretty impressive, but like Seol (who was stunningly good at the start), as the season has progressed, neither have managed to maintain their form. Hence, the hype. But agian, for a free and for someone who is more positive, I wouldnt say no. Also needs to be noted that imo, wed do some very good business if we were to ship out Parker for 6mill and bring in Sidwell on a free. Not much between both players in terms of ability and theyre pretty similar style players, but Sidwell afaik hasnt been messed around positionally so doesnt play as though hes confused about his role, and wed also talking about a pretty sizeable chunk which we could invest elsewhere. At the same time, in no way is Sidwell a replacement for Emre, in the way a second Scotty Parker would not be a good replacement for Emre. All makes sense to me, as usual. Good post and I understand your reasonings behind it. Was more on at the people who seem to think Sidwell would be a "brilliant" signing.

There was a thread on this the other day, and one a couple of months ago. The club is randomly sending these out to people on their list, by the looks of it.

I think he'd be excellent at Bayern, do you? Bayern sucks tbh (no pun intended to the germans) Right, then. I think they're fairly snazzy, personally.

Let's keep that under the carpet for now, eh?

When did he leave Fener? January? Are you not thinking of Tuncay?

3 of the 4 people mentioned in this title are married, I think. Not sure about Roberto/Dino. Maybe it's too much of women, have you ever thought of that? Huh?

That's the real crux of the matter, as Alex has alluded to. While we might have to use the £30m to pay wages of players already on our books and in order to compensate for being out of Europe, clubs with far inferior wage-bills can use the money to BUY quality players and increase their wage-limits, as well. Could leave us further behind a lot of clubs, unfortunately.

He's at Villarreal where he's played 9 games and scored 1 goal this season. (Injured again.) More useful than Owen has been this term, mind.

I think 50% of turnover on wages has been generally accepted as the "ceiling" in the Premiership, hasn't it? Which,obviously equates to £43m of that £86m and does show us as having gone over it by over 10% (11% I think), which is a bit of a worry (thanks Graeme/Freddy!) But then, I suppose that's what desperation does to you and I suppose that's why we've had less money than normal to spend. However, since then I assume that our wages have come down a fair bit, rather than gone up, in that we've seen the exits of big-earnes such as Shearer, Boumsong and Bowyer, along with the likes of Faye, Chopra, Elliott and not to mention that I'd suggest we're spending a bit less on staff wages with Roeder and Co. against what Souness' mob were getting. Martins and Duff will be on decent wages, but I doubt Sibierski and Bernard are getting paid too much - so I'm fairly confident the £52.6m figure (if correct) will be less for 2007 - against a higher turnover. Onyewu is here now as well, of course. This season we will have seen increased revenue from being in Europe, which should put our turnover up by a fair few million on top of that and should help push us back under the "50% threshold" - not to mention the extra TV revenue next season which will again cover it. To me it seems like a risk that Freddy felt had to be taken in order to ensure our PL status and it's one that has affected our ability in the transfer market since then, but should now be getting back to normal with the wage bill having been reduced and with the extra revenue coming in. I'm not sure he can be blamed too aggressively for it, because the club has maintained a fairly average level and has had European football this season in order to cover it. In a way, although I'm certainly no expert, it seems to be a gamble that worked for the club as much as it harmed it. By the way, was our turnover in 2002 higher than £86m? 2002 was £70.9m The way you worded the initial post made it seem like the turnover was around the same, but the wage-bill was vastly inferior. Hence why I asked. Still a fair jump to go from what must be around 45% to 61% over 4 years, though. However, like I said in that post, surely being in Europe and reducing the wage bill this season will have taken us back down to a fairly sane operating level again? Cannot help but feel that in this instance, it's not as bad as you're trying to make it seem. Especially with the increased turnover next term from the new television money - although it's a shame a good chunk of that will pay for wages of players already on the books, rather than simply financing new signings like it will for almost every other club. Like Gemmill says, when there are a few players getting paid exuberant amounts it makes it very difficult to build a SQUAD to compete, rather than just a team. With the players Gem mentions and the reported wages they are getting (he didn't even mention bonuses!) it is going to make it difficult for us to buy a good number of players AND keep the wages under the 50% marker in order to get to where we are supposed to be. Unlike the teams like Spurs, who probably have a fairly even spread of wages, we're going to have to rely on some young players on comparitively small wages to "fill out" the squad, if we want to keep the wages below 50%.

I think 50% of turnover on wages has been generally accepted as the "ceiling" in the Premiership, hasn't it? Which,obviously equates to £43m of that £86m and does show us as having gone over it by over 10% (11% I think), which is a bit of a worry (thanks Graeme/Freddy!) But then, I suppose that's what desperation does to you and I suppose that's why we've had less money than normal to spend. However, since then I assume that our wages have come down a fair bit, rather than gone up, in that we've seen the exits of big-earnes such as Shearer, Boumsong and Bowyer, along with the likes of Faye, Chopra, Elliott and not to mention that I'd suggest we're spending a bit less on staff wages with Roeder and Co. against what Souness' mob were getting. Martins and Duff will be on decent wages, but I doubt Sibierski and Bernard are getting paid too much - so I'm fairly confident the £52.6m figure (if correct) will be less for 2007 - against a higher turnover. Onyewu is here now as well, of course. This season we will have seen increased revenue from being in Europe, which should put our turnover up by a fair few million on top of that and should help push us back under the "50% threshold" - not to mention the extra TV revenue next season which will again cover it. To me it seems like a risk that Freddy felt had to be taken in order to ensure our PL status and it's one that has affected our ability in the transfer market since then, but should now be getting back to normal with the wage bill having been reduced and with the extra revenue coming in. I'm not sure he can be blamed too aggressively for it, because the club has maintained a fairly average level and has had European football this season in order to cover it. In a way, although I'm certainly no expert, it seems to be a gamble that worked for the club as much as it harmed it. By the way, was our turnover in 2002 higher than £86m?

Don't see the fuss on Sidwell, personally, but I'll admit to not being the expert on Reading. However, in the previous three Reading games I've seen in their entirety I've watched him closely and he has looked average, at best (two were against Man Utd, though!) He has constantly surrendered posession, doesn't seem to have any outstanding physical attributes other than stamina and he has never looked like scoring a goal. That's all I can base it on, though, because I don't remember paying particular attention to the lad before he started getting linked with us. Certainly don't see him as being much better than what we already have. What, exactly, is so good about him? He's being a proper little runt with Reading as well and to me seems to be one of those "Jenas" players who is neither here-nor-there in regards to being an attacking or defensive midfielder. Certainly cannot imagine him being exciting alongside Butt or Parker and he's only got 4 goals in 32 appearances this season ('Boro, Tottenham & Villa x2). Good engine on him, undoubtedly, but hardly going to elevate us onto the next level, is he? 6 assists, too, but 2 were in the 6-0 over West Ham, 2 came at home to Sheffield United, 1 away to Man City and 1 at home to Charlton. He's surely not an improvement on Emre? Is this another baseless bandwagon we've started here? One person rates him and then numerous others, who've barely seen him, follow suit. Not accusing you of this Stozo, or others like tmonkey who I've seen rate him, but there are a fair few sheep around these days.

Maybe he does. Its just annoying to take a £5m loss on a player who almost got there considering the £9m loss we'll take on Luque who got nowhere near. Add that to the £4m loss on Boumsong, the £4m loss on Owen already, the £'s lost on signings before all them, am just sick of seeing our money go to nothing all the fuking time. I have in the back of my head we sign him up on 3year deal, has a decent season and we sell him for £2m like OB, but its not going to happen is it? Obviously that would be the ideal, but like you say it's incredibly unlikely.

Not a chance, man. Oliver knows they wouldn't sell half as many papers if he didn't have access to Roeder/Shepherd/Clark/Taylor, etc. etc. However, as most of his stories are lifted from the official site these days I'm sure he could manage. I cannot blame him for being up the club's arse, because that's where his bread and butter comes from and that's where he gets the occasional "exclusive" from. Outside of the enlightened folk on here, I bet there are a fair few thousand Geordies who think Oliver is the bees knees of football journalism. He probably doesn't give a hoot what we think because I doubt many of us buy his paper, thanks to icnewcastle.co.uk, it pains me to say it but despite his constant nonsense I still prefer the Chronicle to anything else and consider it the best source for news where NUFC are concerned. You don't find Roeder giving the Journal many "exclusive" interviews because people in football tend not to deal with media sections that slag them off, even when it's justified. The likes of Bramble won't speak to Oliver, etc. and so he becomes an instant target, however he DOES speak to the Journal and they tend to give him a far easier ride, even when he's atrocious - this week they have said he has simply been made the scapegoat "yet again." It's the sad state of the published media these days, very few sources can afford to be a voice for the fans because they'll be refused access to the football club.

I couldn't think of a better word, mate. I was trying to think of a term to describe a fisherman's preferred catch, but nothing sprang to mind. Anyway, we digress. Bramble HAS got to go, man, if for nothing other than to show Roeder backing-up his words after the AZ game.

I think he'd be excellent at Bayern, do you?

If we've got "no money" to spend, I'll eat my hat. EDIT: People are quick to forget the incoming influx of new TV money, allied with the fact we generally always spend decent money in the summer. Am not forgetting, I just doubt the board will release it for players, no doubt Freddy has seen a nice new Villa he wants in Barbados and he'll find a new ingenious way for taking that money out of the club in a big bonus to him or another member of his family. I'm always wary of reacting to posts that I cannot see as anything other than nonsense/wind-ups, so shall I leave this for one of your usuals to chomp?

Mmmmmhmmmm. Not a giant step, but certainly an improvement.

The Journal has been posting articles like this since Friday, for the record.

Conflicting? it is a Conspiracy at first place? The difference is that one said they heard "n*gro" and the other said they heard "n*gger". Do you believe that two professionals would waste their own time and money on getting a fellow professional labelled as a racist? As for the offers from Germany, if the money is right then I would sell him. £6m or more and I'd wave goodbye, which is a real shame, but I'm fairly sure he'd want to leave if Bayern Munich came in for him. i wonder if it's conspiracy because the media haven't mention this conflicting statement between those two players... and it did happen set the majority fans of NUFC were assuming that emre was guilty... The media has mentioned it, man, I read from numerous sources last night that the conflict was about the "n-word" which Emre had supposedly used, and Lescott and Howard giving different versions of it to the disciplinary panel. I'm sure it's also in the "Emre - NOT GUILTY" thread. "Not guilty" doesn't always mean "not guilty", unfortunately. Unless you're a fella who doesn't like working with grey, and simply prefers black or white. Just because Emre hasn't been punished doesn't mean he categorically didn't say anything racist, does it?

Most definitely they do. It's how we ended up getting Parker and Duff, to name just two. Yes they do and a good thing it is too. blueyes.gif Thing is, if we had one at the same level as Spurs do we could struggle to sign the so-called "top players", mainly because of our location more than anything else. The other side of the coin is that we might find ourselves mostly buying players who want to play for Newcastle more than they want to earn an extra few grand a week at a smaller club who pay bigger wages, which is the exact opposite of the decisions Parker and Duff seem to have made. I'm sure Parker was a Spurs fan as a boy, as well. The wage-cap is the sort of thing that makes sense though, for a club of our size, it gives a clear indication of the club's standing and is a structured way of bringing in football players on a completely manageable budget. It's exactly the sort of things I was talking about in my first post on this subject - having some sort of plan in every area of the club, all focused on exactly the same goal. I don't think overpaying wages will ever be anything more than a short term solution and it also reeks of desperation. Arsenal have a structure of sorts only broken by Henry if iirc. Players imo want to play for clubs that are competing and have good support. We have one of those already. Agreed-o. We're in a bit over our heads at the moment, though, for this to be changed - with the wages the likes of Dyer/Owen are currently on. I still think location plays a massive part, certainly as much as having "good support". However, again we could use Bolton as the exception to that supposed rule, on both counts! They might pay big wages, though, who knows?

If we've got "no money" to spend, I'll eat my hat. EDIT: People are quick to forget the incoming influx of new TV money, allied with the fact we generally always spend decent money in the summer.