macphisto

I think it's more they don't want him as a player than his wage demands. It's better for the club to say they don't want him as his wage demands are too high as it helps to dampen the expectations of the market heading into the summer. Maybe I'm looking too much into these things.

No they're not but are other clubs giving out massively contradictory messages like us (Howe about the Liverpool match, "Hopefully it is [a title decider] in the future")? As I say, I'm not entirely sure of the correct strategy but I don't think this is it. Some people won't be bothered by this but I do think it's important to keep the local journalists onside as it makes things so much easier for the club. We saw how the local journalists looking out for the club got into a spat with national journalists after the Chelsea match. Hopefully local journalists are in on the act because all of them will look ridiculous by the end of the transfer window.

I wouldn't worry too much about teens attending away games when they'll struggle to attend home games.

In fairness to the local journalists who are all saying the same thing, I do think they have been briefed by the club to quote these figures. I'm over the moon with the ownership but I do think their comms strategy needs to be looked at. To be actively encouraging the £50 million budget & evolution over revolution whilst then contradicting themselves about competing within 5 years & the Champions League comments from Bruno, etc just makes everyone look stupid. I'm not sure of the answer because if the club said no comment then everyone would assume they'd spend a load of money. Obviously if they do only spend £50 million then their other comments about challenging just look ridiculous.

I can see us having some free transfers lined up. I wonder if they could secretly sign a few players without others knowing? If they buy a few players early on for big money then other clubs will inflate their fees. Apparently the signing of Wood for £25 million resulted in other clubs vastly inflating their fees when we enquired about their players.

I have a feeling, based on nothing, that Fulham could be one destination.

But would it not help to speed the process up now? I've no knowledge of planning permission but does it not mean that a lot of the information they require to make a decision is already there?

They got planning permission for a new training ground in 2014 (link) which might quicken the process.

I love your poetry!

It's difficult to know what he's worth? We paid around £25 million for Willock so you would think we'd get more for ASM but then I can't think of any teams who would pay over that amount? Probably the best solution would be to exchange ASM for another player.

I recently read Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football and it struck me how there's a link from Dutch football in the 70s via Cruyff to Guardiola. The book talks about how it's not enough to win but you have to do it the right way and that Dutch football was also on a mission to show the world how football should be played. Maybe I'm overthinking things but it certainly struck a cord when I was reading it and City's performances in the Champions League. Jan Jongbloed, is an example of what I mean and is something I could see Guardiola doing. Jongbloed made his debut in 1962 where he played for 4 minutes and never featured again until 1974 when he was aged 33. Pretty nondescript career where he played for minor Dutch teams (this at a time when the keepers at Ajax and Feyenoord were winning European trophies) but was selected for both World Cup Finals in the 1970's as he was good with the ball at his feet and could act as a sweeper; there was little consideration given to his abilities as a shot stopper.

I was just googling the deal as I thought Souness had shares in Rangers at the time. If not, I'm sure he benefited some way through his business relationship with Murray, Rangers Chairman. Anyway, I had completely forgot that the police raided the club over the Boumsong and Faye transfers.

Just to make people cry, later that season we signed Boumsong for £8million under Souness when he had only been at Rangers on a free transfer for a few months. Utterly bizarre and then to rub more salt into the wound we let Hughes, a solid squad player, go not long afterwards for peanuts.

Laughing to myself as you've just told it a lot better than how I just did now!!!

I thought the issue was Man U were planning on buying Rooney the following summer so we were used to make them bid sooner than they planned and also start a bidding war to increase his transfer fee. I might be wrong and it was a genuine bid but we had already signed Kluivert that summer to go with Shearer, Bellamy and Shola. The bid may have been genuine with us using the Woodgate fee to fund the move or a smokescreen in an attempt to pacify fans about Woodgate leaving. 2004 was a strange summer as apparently Kluivert and Butt were signed above Robson's head; particularly the latter player as Robson wanted to keep Speed.

Honestly no need to apologise and apologies if I was too strong myself. Honestly, I just detest what became of the club under Ashley. Signing players with the team in mind is all I want from the club and you're right about the bad days being behind us!!!

Do you mean when we bid for him? I don't think we were ever serious bidders. I always thought that was more to help Paul Stretford out, Rooney's agent, by flushing out Man U's interest. Freddie Shepherd was Streford's best man at his wedding and godfather to one of his kids (Chronicle Link). After Newcastle, Shepherd and his son formed a sports agency with Stretford. I'm sure I read Bobby wasn't happy with the club's relationship with Stretford where he almost had an office at the ground.

He was actively part of a football setup where players were bought purely for their resale value with no consideration of how they would fit into a team. That was his remit which he accepted and therefore has to accept some responsibility for how dysfunctional our teams were. As a football person he knew we were set up for failure and if he had any self-respect then he would have left. Like most of our managers and Charnley he knew he was on a good thing. The reason some of his alleged top recommendations were released is that it was a classic Ashley strategy to string the fans along. In a few years time we might be able to buy Carr's first picks, have faith in what the club is doing. Why is it that scouts at other clubs have nowhere near his exposure and even now at Newcastle how often do we hear about Steve Hickson? I know you disagree but for me anyone who lasted that long under Ashley in any capacity is nothing but a parasite who put their own interests first with the club well down their list of priorities.

All of the people at the club had a remit, I'm not sure of the point of bringing that up? Charnley and Barnes were hugely successful as their remit was to make a profit. Apart from two seasons all of our managers did a great job as their remit was not to get relegated. He was an integral part of how the club was set up and therefore deserves some of the blame for how it was run. I'm tired of hearing in general how great he was, the players we missed out on, etc. It was PR spin by the club to give people false hope that we might get success doing it the "Carr Way"; that's why he received so much exposure. Think about it from the club's point of view, without pushing how "good" Carr was and his near "misses", what hope was there for fans to believe the club would be successful? It was the usual Ashley smoke and mirrors. The fact is, he bought a lot of dross which is glossed over by his few successes below, plus Cabaye and Sissoko. Below are his signings above 6 million Euro. Only 4 of the players in bold made a profit and a lot of them contributed to our 2nd relegation. The losses are particularly glaring when you consider most of his players were only here for a short time. You can not say without Carr we would have gone down as that is assuming we would not have bought other players. With regards to coming back up, I'm pleased Carr was not involved as none of his players stuck around the 2nd time we went down. Papiss Demba Cissé: €12.00m, left €5.85m Vurnon Anita: €8.50m, free transfer Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa: €8.00m, left €7.35m Mathieu Debuchy: €6.20m, left €15.00m Rémy Cabella: €10.00m, left €8.00m Siem de Jong: €8.70m, left €2.30m Emmanuel Rivière: €6.32m, left €1.10m Daryl Janmaat: €6.00m, left €8.90m Georginio Wijnaldum: €20.00m, left €27.50m Aleksandar Mitrovic: €18.50m, left €24.70m Florian Thauvin: €18.35m, left €11.00m Jonjo Shelvey: €16.00m (Carr Signing?) Andros Townsend: €15.70m (Carr Signing?) Mbemba: €12.00m, left €4.66m Henri Saivet: €6.00m, free

Quite easy, he helped to facilitate the way the club was run under Ashley. Maybe Barnes needed the money like Carr????? Anyway Mandoon and HTT, it's very late where I am so off to sleep but it's been a good discussion!

Our whole business model was set up for agents to make money, signing for us and then moving on after a few years. Look at the players signed for over 6 million Euro. How many were actually any good and how many stayed for more than two seasons? The agents were laughing all the way and I can't think of another club operating with such a high turnover of their most expensive players. It's interesting to note that once Carr left, we never returned to the model of high player turnover where we spent a decent amount of money. Been a fairly static squad after Rafa. Papiss Demba Cissé: €12.00m Vurnon Anita: €8.50m Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa: €8.00m Mathieu Debuchy: €6.20m Rémy Cabella: €10.00m Siem de Jong: €8.70m Emmanuel Rivière: €6.32m Daryl Janmaat: €6.00m Georginio Wijnaldum: €20.00m Aleksandar Mitrovic: €18.50m Florian Thauvin: €18.35m Jonjo Shelvey: €16.00m (Carr Signing?) Andros Townsend: €15.70m (Carr Signing?) Mbemba: €12.00m Henri Saivet: €6.00m

It's proven we did do it, that's why Keegan left as one of the signings was to do a favour for an agent.

Because we had a relationship with an agency(s) where the premise was that we would provide a platform in the PL and then the player would move on for big money in the future. That's how we were set up and sold to players and agents. If Cabaye had gone to Arsenal then he would have gone for the initial low fee and that's it; there would not be the prospect of a large transfer a few years later. Cabaye would also not have the time to adapt to the league like at Newcastle if he needed a season to bed in.

I don't think he did, I'm sure it was Pardew though I can't find anything through a quick Google.