HawK

Was amazed to see in that Sporcle thing the other day that Le Tissier scored 25 Premier League goals one year, that's phenomenal for someone who wasn't an out-and-out forward. Probably the most naturally talented footballer other than Messi I've ever seen. He was born to play football.

If we went out and spent €45m on one player in the summer, all we would have done is balance the transfer books of the past 5 years. Then there's TV money (£XXXm per year) Then there's the money we've lost from not taking paid advertising within the ground. Cold hard facts and some people still give this club money. Money talks, spend somewhere else. I am :/

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/transfer-league-table-last-five-seasons.html http://i60.tinypic.com/2i89btt.jpg

'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 s***. But super-rich clubs generally buy the players of the rest. Sadly at the moment we're part of the rest. Except our owner chooses for us to not be a 'super-rich club' when in reality he's one of the wealthiest men in the PL. Adds insult to injury doesn't it?

23m for a very good central midfielder at 28 is not a bad deal. Considering we only ever use transfer funds generated from player sales to purchase players and never TV money, Sponsorship or Gate Receipts, the silver lining is 23m is a good whack to get someone in.

Well if One Direction was rejected, they can always go with 7 Chins.

Is this a wind-up..!?? Never thought I'd see the day, but it shows how short fans' memories are and how successful the club have been at dumbing down expectations..

Lua Lua won the Cypriot cup..

Besides, he made some of our team look so good that pundits were asking why Barton and Nolan weren't in the England fold, because he didn't need 3,4,5 balls in to get one on target. Put so many on a plate for Nolan that he was outscoring Lampard. One chance, one goal aerially. Hand on heart, better in the air than Ferdinand was and he was an absolute beast in the air. Broke my heart when he left, nothing to back it up to hand but my opinion is that Mike Ashley with a 35m offer simply said 'You better start driving, son'. This was the beginning of the end for NUFC as I knew it, as I realised that we weren't going to ever be one of the big clubs any more.

Was absolutely unplayable when he played for us in the second half of the championship season and the first half of the prem. So much potential, the injury he suffered just before the mega-bucks transfer and the transfer itself has killed him football-wise. He could have been fantastic as a no. 9, holding the ball up, flicking it on. The goal against Liverpool from outside the area when the defenders just stood and didn't know what to do and he thumped it with his left foot to the bottom right corner from the left side. But he's no-where near that now. What a waste.

I'll put my neck out and say he's the best centre mid we've had in the PL era.

Wrong club for Marveaux, would work well at a team that keeps it on the deck and plays slow, possession football.

To save himself paying interest to a bank to be fair. had he done due diligence he would have discovered this. The majority of the debt is caused by Ashley's acquisition in the first place - Stadium loan.

Easy enough for me, win despite him, lose because of him. Project that to league finishing positions too. The best squad in living memory and people are conditioned to believe that current ambitions are acceptable. It wasn't long ago Newcastle were mixing it with the best, 3rd-best supported team in the country. Any lack of commercial revenue bullshit excuse is directly Ashley's fault too. Add up player sales, subtract player buys, factor in TV money and you can see this club is being bled dry. Voting with feet is the only way, my money's been going to a different club and will continue until the philosophy changes. Viva los Liones, Athletic!

Immediately

Shame the next one is more than likely when he leaves... in 2026. It'll be nice when Mike puts Pards on his hover the board and sends him on his our way. How I read that

That goal against Dmitri Kharine from 'nigh on the centre circle when he punted it against Sir Les and it went off his knee with so much force it went the whole length of the pitch and in. Don't see goals like that any more, nutty keepers lol

Reads like a rap. Reads like a rap. There was a young man from Venus...

Ferdinand proved for years on end he could mix it with the best and had everything, Cole struggled for years at Manchester United while SAF figured out how to make him an all-round player. Caveat, Ferdinand was the definition of a confidence player, but KK was the best manager for him.

I just don't get big clubs blaming referees for losses. They should be scoring 3,4,5 goals vs Sunderland. To complain about one dodgy decision against you just masks the real problems, and supporters seem to fall for it every time. Totally different for smaller clubs who are struggling who only get one or two chances per game and they hold out really well to lose to a dodgy decision.

Some referees can't even keep track of how many Yellows a player is on in the game they are reffing, let alone the player's last game too!

It's just not practical to ask refs to distinguish between fake and genuine injuries. I found the list of most bookings for simulation since August 2008 very interesting - •Tottenham - 13 •Chelsea - 12 •Manchester United - 12 •Arsenal - 8 •Liverpool - 8 Why distinguish? Just have a blanket rule, if you go down injured for more than X seconds, say 10, then you are off the pitch for the next 5 minutes. If you are injured, you will get subbed anyway.. if it's 50/50, that's good time for medical team to assess their multi-million pound asset to make sure he's not going to make himself worse, and the play-actors just give their team a disadvantage. I think it's a good idea.

Decision making usually comes with form... which comes with playing games.

The big difference for me is that the two you mention were much more relaxed on the pitch, Ben Arfa always strikes me as a player who feels he has to do everything on his own and is always playing under pressure. I'm not sure he has the level of self confidence that the other two had but he's got the skills to match them. IMO the skills make half the player, the true greats didn't really make use of their skill very often, it was their intelligence off and with the ball. HBA has none :/