simonsays

seems odd that most people would be delighted if we signed Ben Arfa outright now, but would be against a loa deal which specified we would be obliged to sign him for a pre-agreed fee if we stay up this season

this - tbh I would rather wait until the summer for a decent premiership level creative midfielder - despite their obvious shortcomings I think our current midfielders have just about enough about them to get us out of this league

Nail on the head. Typical NUFC signing these days. Seems we're getting ourselves geared up for a relegations scrap next year. No offence, but this is ridiculous point of view on a number of levels. We aren't a Premiership club, we don't have much money, so we need to make signings of cheap players who have potential to do better than they have before. Obviously when we're in the Championship we can't prepare a team for a top half challenge in the Premiership, for one thing we can't afford to take the risk with the wage bill. Don't agree in the slightest. We will be promoted and that means why should be planning for it now. How many players out of our current squad are good enough for the Premiership - 7 maybe? Now is the time to be buying players good enough to play at that level who need time to gel with the current side - this is when we should be looking for the next Enrique (young, great potential and probably not after silly wages). We don't have much money - who does? We've got the smallest wage bill we've had in years and with some good planning it could be even smaller - that must free up some capital. We've got to plan for the premiership so all of this bollocks about being a championship club is short sighted - we've got one foot back into the Premiership and need to start to act like a big club again - that means investing in players good enough to improve the team immediately. Didn't Enrique cost £6m. That seems a lot to spend when we don't have much money I thought he was £4.5m but you might be right - I've not looked it up. Point being we should be scouring the various overseas leagues looking for people with the potential to play at the top level and also change our current playing style. why should we be looking to change our current playing style when we are top of the league? Fair enough we play ugly, long ball rubbish but if it is good enough to get us back in the premiership then I am happy with it. We need to guarantee promotion and then change it because it won't work against those teams that can pass and move nor against those who adopt a similar style meaning we'll be up against it from the off. We're like a very poor mans Stoke or Bolton and Bolton are looking to adapt their style and slowly move away from long ball/bullying whilst Stoke and others are way better than us at the ugly stuff because they have some movement/quality to go with it. I'd liked to have seen us sign people in time to get them to gel with the squad and be able to play football with their feet rather than their heads. In an ideal world where we were already guaranteed promotion I'd agree with you and I think we will have to change our style if we are in the Premiership next season. However I would be reluctant to take the risk of starting to play that way at the moment when our current tactics seem to be working relatively well.

Nail on the head. Typical NUFC signing these days. Seems we're getting ourselves geared up for a relegations scrap next year. No offence, but this is ridiculous point of view on a number of levels. We aren't a Premiership club, we don't have much money, so we need to make signings of cheap players who have potential to do better than they have before. Obviously when we're in the Championship we can't prepare a team for a top half challenge in the Premiership, for one thing we can't afford to take the risk with the wage bill. Don't agree in the slightest. We will be promoted and that means why should be planning for it now. How many players out of our current squad are good enough for the Premiership - 7 maybe? Now is the time to be buying players good enough to play at that level who need time to gel with the current side - this is when we should be looking for the next Enrique (young, great potential and probably not after silly wages). We don't have much money - who does? We've got the smallest wage bill we've had in years and with some good planning it could be even smaller - that must free up some capital. We've got to plan for the premiership so all of this bollocks about being a championship club is short sighted - we've got one foot back into the Premiership and need to start to act like a big club again - that means investing in players good enough to improve the team immediately. Didn't Enrique cost £6m. That seems a lot to spend when we don't have much money I thought he was £4.5m but you might be right - I've not looked it up. Point being we should be scouring the various overseas leagues looking for people with the potential to play at the top level and also change our current playing style. why should we be looking to change our current playing style when we are top of the league? Fair enough we play ugly, long ball rubbish but if it is good enough to get us back in the premiership then I am happy with it.

Maybe if the club had an effective scouting network you wouldn't be on here looking for suggestions. Why leave Moses and Beckford off the list? We failed to attract them to the club - why is that? Money. We wouldn't compete with Wigan on transfer fee. Yet we'll spunk money away on players who've never proved themselves capable of top level football. It beggars belief the lack of ambition and forward planning at the club and also makes me question Mr Nice Guys ability to persuade genuine talent to come to the club. when has Moses proved himself capable of top level football? It seems you would have been delighted for us to spunk 2.5m on him I'd have been happy for us to make an investment on someone who is widely tipped to make an impact on the game at the highest level - if he doesn't make the grade then he's a bad gamble and we'll incur a small loss. Leon Best comes with no reputation and has a career history showing a handful of goals. We were competing with Boro to get him - I hardly think he'll set the premiership alight in his tenure with us, therefore a short term, short sighted signing on the cheap. Wonderful. widely tipped by who? I have heard a lot of chat from his agent and plenty of reports from the tabloids about all the scouts coming to look at him but I have yet to hear a top manager praise him or see a top club make a firm offer. Fair enough we were competing against Boro for Leon Best but who was our competition for Moses? West Brom, Nottingham Forrest and Wigan - hardly Premiership big guns are they.

Maybe if the club had an effective scouting network you wouldn't be on here looking for suggestions. Why leave Moses and Beckford off the list? We failed to attract them to the club - why is that? Money. We wouldn't compete with Wigan on transfer fee. Yet we'll spunk money away on players who've never proved themselves capable of top level football. It beggars belief the lack of ambition and forward planning at the club and also makes me question Mr Nice Guys ability to persuade genuine talent to come to the club. when has Moses proved himself capable of top level football? It seems you would have been delighted for us to spunk 2.5m on him

The ones surrounded by hype tend to be surrounded by hype for a reason. The ones who are genuine quality tend to be signed up by the big teams - not relegation fodder like Wigan. There as been no evidence that any top half club ever had a genuine interest in Moses, just a lot of agent and tabloid talk about Madrid and Barcelona being interested

I doubt very many people on here have seen him play more than once or twice but still seem willing to write him off because he isn't an unproven 19 year old surrounded by a load of hype

Dave Kitson has gone to Boro on loan

hopefully a winger rather than another central midfielder

Calling loans outside the transfer window 'emergency loans' is a bit of a misnomer as it seems that they can be carried out whatever the circumstances.

Well, it does seem that it is taking the 'Moat Consortium' (shall we call it) quite some time to get the NUFC overdraft level agreed with the banks (what else could the delay be about?) and so from that you can speculate that the consortium does not have as much money behind it as Ashley has. And, when you consider the fact that Ashley has nowhere near enough money to run a competitive and potentially successful ('big spending', of necessity, to be successful) Premier League Club, what hope can we have for the Moat Consortium, for the future? "Rid of Ashley" might well turn out to be it's best (if not its only) plus-point! I think all you can draw from the fact that the renewal of the overdraft is taking so long is that Barclays are unwilling to give a Premiership level overdraft to a Championship club. I honestly believe that even if Ashley remains in charge Barclays will still be looking to reduce the overdraft.

it seems the Railway Telegraph in Thornton Heath is the place to go

he made a very poor German midfield look half decent when he came on in the EC - I'd take him in a shot

BBC are reporting that informal talks did take place - still can't see a deal; being done at that price though

nufc.com are saying that the other club is Portsmouth, not Arsenal

I seem to remember a certain Jean Alain Boumsong looking outstanding in the rangers defence a few years back, and he looked decent in Europe, but couldn't cut it in the EPL

bring in some players above 5'9"

good news if it happens - i'd like to see us take Billy Clarke in exchange