OzzieMandias

Yeah, if only he hadn't been too fat to get on the end of that cross from Ranger.

Aye, the daft bastard should have realized by now that half of our supporters are just gagging for the next thing to get all piously outraged about.

Carroll wanted to leave though, surely that has to be the main point in all of this? Course he didn't man. Pardew forced him to write his transfer request when we refused his new contract 4 months after his last, while Nolan kidnapped and brainwashed him to think all things Scouse before pilotting Ashley's helicopter to Liverpool to drop him off.

This has the ring of truth for me, but possibly just because in broad outline it's pretty much how I already understood things must have happened.

Now Ashley has mastered the trick of forcing players to hand in transfer requests, moving Smith on should be no problem.

Because of all the mongs running around talking shite about Ashley supposedly "trousering" every penny that comes into the club?

True but ultimately it'll come down to whether or not Pardew can handle being dictated to over players, fee's, contracts etc etc I'd wager he's probably on a percentage of the profit if we sell the club for more than x whilst he's in charge which will incentivise him to; a) go along with Mike/Dekka b) stick it out c) forget he's got any morals. Like he had any to start with. This would happen to any manager, at any club, under any owner.

Me too! :colo:

Had to say this or the mongs would never have calmed down.

Probably wise to change things a little more slowly than that.

A lad I went to school with played with Carroll and said the same thing. His words were "He has the ego of Shearer with a quarter of the ability - no word can describe how much of a prat he is." ...and that was him being nice! Tbh not one person who's known a football through school has ever had a good word to be said about them. Not that they are insanely jealous or owt. Friend of mine was a friend of Michael Bridges. Never heard him say a bad word, though he did once talk about how competitive he was.

Let's not forget that Shearer also kind of bigged up the move -- great signing for Liverpool, or somesuch.

Aye, exactly. Let's hope Barton comes out with a counterpiece along the lines of them being wall pushers etc.

The short answer to that is nothing. He did at one point reduce his loan by £1 million but he stuck a load more money in after that. Going back to the thread I'm not arsed whether he reinvests the whole Carroll booty or not. The most important thing is quality rather than money spunked - if we buy 5 players of the same standard as Tiote and Ben Arfa for £20 million I couldn't give a toss if Ashley uses the rest to reduce his loan tbh. If some of the money goes into improving the youth set-up and scouting system, that would be A Good Thing. It would. My point was obviously that amount spent is not as relevant as quality of player bought. Boumsong for £8m or Williamson for £1m? Luque for £9m or Ben Arfa for £5m? Alan Smith for £6m or Tiote for £3m. That sort of thing. Obvious of course but I can see a lynching party being assembled if £35m isn't spent when in fact it might be possible to make a huge difference with less. Sorry, yeah, I get your point and agree with it. My thought was just moving on from there -- that I'd also consider investment in scouting and youth to be money that was "going into the team".

They've done well in recent seasons. And Pardew strikes me as the planning type. One advantage of getting the money now is that we've got a few months to think about what to do with it. I've decided to be optimistic.

The short answer to that is nothing. He did at one point reduce his loan by £1 million but he stuck a load more money in after that. Going back to the thread I'm not arsed whether he reinvests the whole Carroll booty or not. The most important thing is quality rather than money spunked - if we buy 5 players of the same standard as Tiote and Ben Arfa for £20 million I couldn't give a toss if Ashley uses the rest to reduce his loan tbh. If some of the money goes into improving the youth set-up and scouting system, that would be A Good Thing.

Depends how you want to calculate it. Mick reckons some paragraph in the last set of accounts indicate that he's maybe taken out about a million. OTOH, he'd put in £111 million up to that point, and there was a note in the accounts to the effect that he was about to bung in a further £25.5 million.

I hope he hates it there. Looks very nervous. Is that his first ever proper tv interview? Can't remember him doing one when he was with us. Never seen one. Didn't even watch that one, tbh.

Don't be daft. I'm sure they'd all also hand in a transfer request if they thought they could triple their wages elsewhere.

I hope he hates it there.

Ashley's said in the past that all money generated from player sales would go back into the squad. From the accounts released so far, he seems to have kept his word on this. (See link below; and if you can't be bothered to read it, spare me your "wisdom" on our finances.) Added to the fact that he so far also hasn't taken any money out of the club, I see no reason why this statement shouldn't turn out to be true. Doubt we'll get all £35 million in one lump, like. It'll come in dribs and drabs. http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2010/12/newcastle-uniteds-finances-in-black-and.html

Occam's Razor, parky.

I think it's the other way around.

You really believe this transfer request bullshit, get a grip. Will you drink a glass of your own piss when Carroll doesn't deny it?