Beren

Derps gon' derp.

Who should we do business like then Beren? I personally think on the transfer side of things Ashley almost has it down to a tee. I think he buys well and sells well but often falls short in times like these when a replacement might cost a bit over the odds on what you'd like to pay but he won't do it because we aren't in trouble and we aren't pushing for champions league spot. Or if we need to push on, he lacks that bit more desire on the incoming side of things. Overall I think he’s built a very good squad, better than the majority of sides in the league on a tight budget. People say we are a selling club and yes we are but who isn't? Most teams have to sell their best players at a certain point when a top club comes calling. We can't be that bad when we say Arsenal will sign Krul every window, Ben Arfa will join Liverpool, Santon will go to AC Milan etc. It's not like we offering Krul away for 8 million each window and so on. Champions League clubs will look to lure your players away and until you're in a position to stop that you an only delay the inevitable before having to give in to the players demands and accept the fee. Everton, if I had to choose, but we have different circumstances - we can do things our own way based on our own circumstances, but Everton's is - broadly speaking - a good rough blueprint. The rest of your post ignores the whole of my post. It's not about transfers alone, Brett. Stop looking at transfers in isolation, they don't exist in isolation, so why assess them as such? I also don't care about being better than the rest of the teams in the league on a tight budget - their circumstances are different to ours, I care about maximising our potential. We're not. More incriminatingly, we're not trying to.

fuck me i'm going all ian w here but does the context not count for the bold too? it's not like ashley just woke up one day, decided he had to spend 250m quid in order to systematically suck the life out of a football club he had no association with I'm not sure what you're driving at - Ashley's motives? Maybe he didn't go in with the sole intention of having the club purely as a advertising/money-spinning vehicle, but I struggle to see how the management could be more explicit that that is what it is now. Really, tell me what they could do.

'Happy' is the wrong word, but I think some of us are accepting that, given all the circumstances, the right decision is to accept PSG's offer. It's not like any football club is completely in control of everything that can go on. He's a good player, but as Tmonkey has pointed out, he has his flaws, and £20m is a good price. If it's true that he could leave for far less in the summer, then really there's no choice. I do get tired of hearing that it's all down to Dr Evil and his mad schemes to fleece the club. There's a far simpler explanation, and one that would affect every club in our position. Exactly. Nobody likes it, in fact it's shit. But super-rich clubs generally buy the players of the rest. Sadly at the moment we're part of the rest. Is this purposefully myopic? That's the only reason I can think of why you would ignore the context around the sale, tbh. We're not talking about Real Madrid tabling £86m to pluck a star player from a team not playing Champions League football/paying inordinate wages, no one would be delighted with such a situation, but no one would begrudge the ownership either. We're talking about a club (or vehicle, if you will) re-invented for this very purpose, for these very paydays. They've explicitly stated they don't want to win cups, they don't want European football and 2.5 years+ of evidence shows they're not fussed about entertaining or respecting fans. However, you are their perfect fan. You will chalk it up to "one of those".

.com growing some balls

:lol:

Ashley wet dreams.

Least we won't have to be nervous on deadline day as we know fuck all will happen

You can accuse plenty of people of being spineless, to be fair. Thousands, in fact. Now that's a can of worms.

Cabaye's replacement is Vurnon Anita, realistically. He cannot fill those boots whatsoever. Krul, Tiote and HBA left.

Insult to injury

Can't see why PSG would want or need to keep it a secret. Term of sale by the vendors, perhaps. Was asking more generally, but, yeah. Seems like we haven't played our hand very well here at all.

Are transfers for undisclosed fees eventually revealed? Or can they remain undisclosed interminably?

Ashley-esque troll move. Somewhere on a PSG forum, they're talking about an N'Zogbia-esque smokescreen bid

Emms - badminton player

"Confirmed: Dreamboat Cabaye sets sails back to France for £xxm"

Woah lay off the Pritt Stick Heavy user of Pritt Stick

£60m please

I'm dreaming, but I just hope the pay-off is big enough to edge Ashley towards his desired RoI and exit route.

£20M+ will be the reason. The excuse will be that we did not have time to get the "right" replacement in at the right price. "Teams do not like doing deals for their best players in Jan". Despite having a season touting him out to all and sundry inviting offers for our best player, we will not get a replacement as we are safe, likely to get a top 10 place (with or without him) and have no ambition. Instead we will keep the cash, pay 20% corporation tax on the sale (as this will most likely all be profit). Better to reinvest all the profit for this reason alone but we won't. Might get rollover relief if he invests it in some other non-player business asset

You really expect to win? You've triggered the anti-Hughton forum macro here, gimp. Tbh is a sad state of affairs if you can't expect to beat fucking Norwich Look at those games against Hull, the mackems and West Brom man. Anything can happen. Sadly this is so, though I do agree that we should turn over Norwich with the quality we have. Would have said the same for West Ham last time out though, so it's not a novel feeling by any means.

You really expect to win? You've triggered the anti-Hughton forum macro here, gimp.

He's got the same rep as a punk like Adel Taraabt outside of our fans I'd imagine The credit Pardew gets for his man-management(!) of him is some Keyzer Soze-style trickery shit :lol: The ongoing mind-boggling tragedy.