Cronky

While it's tempting to pay over the odds in transfer fees or wages to attract players, unless you're a bottomless pit of money, you're going to end up in difficulty. Not every transfer works out, and in any case, if the team improves you may be looking at upgrading some positions two years or so down the line. That means shifting players out, and if they are on higher wages than they're worth, you'll have problems finding a buyer, not to mention having to take a hit with the transfer fee. That's how the likes of Leeds and Portsmouth found themselves in trouble. Owners are under a lot of pressure, because many fans think that if their club pushes the boat out and buys 'just' two or three players of the right calibre, they'll hit the big time and the risk will have paid off. The more likely scenario is you experience greater and greater difficulty in keeping afloat. Chelsea aren't in trouble, but it's interesting to see what's happened to Abramovich's master plan of spending big and then running the club on a business-like basis once they've reached a certain point. In practice, they're having to spend greater and greater amounts of money just to stay still.

It's more things he has said in the past and been completely proven wrong about. "I promise Carroll wont leave", "All the money will be reinvested back into the team" etc. If Nolan's "comments" are true about how unhappy he was with Pardew not fighting for him then that's worrying too, as he's said in the past he wanted to keep him. It is the way it works, so why should we be the only ones playing it straight? Look around at the crap other clubs come out with. Example: Read what Levy said about Berbatov (and other players) leaving, he knew Berbatov was gone, it was purely designed to talk the price up. Look at the false outrage expressed when players (and managers) are tapped up by clubs that do exactly the same thing themselves. You could also read what Levy and Redknapp have said about Modric leaving and let's see where that one ends up. This is a multi million pound industry and people spout all sorts of shyte to get selling prices jacked up, players to perform, players to join their club, keep fans onside etc etc etc. It is what happens, it is an industry with no integrity and we have gone beyond any justification for moral outrage. That's all true, but it wasn't so long ago our owner and chairman were judged to have deliberately and repeatedly misled us in the past so I'm inclined to think it's a bit more serious than the stuff you mention. It might not be, but I find it very hard to trust them/Pardew. This does keep getting raised. It relates to a particular circumstance where Keegan was publicly saying that he had the final say on transfers, and Wise / Llambias were in the position of either saying 'it's more complicated than that' (which would have exposed a division in the working relationships within the club) or covering things up by backing Keegan's statement. They chose the second course, which of course was a deception. Now everyone has their own opinion about where the fault lies in the Keegan-Ashley rift, but on this particular matter a) it's the sort of cover-up that often has to go on in large institutions when dealing with the public and b) it doesn't mean that every statement that Ashley or Llambias make has to be treated with more suspicion than you would with any other Chairman / owner of a football club. The flipside of this that I often see is that any statement from a critic of this regime (eg Keegan, Shearer, Barton) gets treated without any scepticism at all.

Enrique is just waiting to see if he gets an offer from a bigger / CL club. If he does, he'll go, if he doesn't, he'll stay.

Seems like a good reason to ship Nolan out tbh. Nolan is a walking paradox on the field. Great leadership and goalscoring. But he is not much of a passer of the ball and not technically comfortable to be in such an important central position as he interupts our game. He was asked a lot about Nolan, and it emerged that Pardew himself didn't think that Nolan should have a long contract, because he didn't envisage him continuing to hold down a first team place. For Nolan to exercise leadership, he needed to be hands-on, in the thick of the action. So not just a question of age, but ability as well. As you say, Nolan would not fit in with the new style. At all.

He confirmed that we were going for a change of style. He was concerned at our difficulty in keeping possession and controlling games last season. He's right, really. Even with the games we won, we rarely looked comfortable. With the players he's brought in, we should be a lot better at working the ball through the midfield. He sounded bright and optimistic.

I actually thought he looked okay on the ball. What would concern me is that, whilst he looks a good all-rounder, I'm not sure that there's any one feature of his game that would really trouble the better Premiership defences. A definite upgrade on Lovenkrands though.

Wilshere springs to mind.. And this is Joey's response to that (someone said Wilshere before): @Joey7Barton Joseph Barton @Danbo12 little bit easier playing with van Persie than Shefki Kuqi, no disrespect to Shefki he's a great lad...... 15 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® a) That is disrespectful to Shefki Kuqi and b) It's crap. Wilshere is a better player than Barton. Someone take his computer away before he becomes unemployable. Hell no, the space time continuum would collapse, if you did that then this thread would cease to be and we would all have never posted here, boredom and Barton being normal..............does not compute. Its a bit like The Terminator, if Johny Connor doesn't send his Dad back in time to knob his Mum, he will never be, this thread is at that risk with your quite frankly mental suggestion I have considered your response very carefully and cannot make sense of it. My final throwaway line was a cry of despair at the way each daft tweet or statement that Joey makes, can only have the effect of putting off this or any other club from giving him a contract. He seems to have a death wish. That last sentence is not to be taken literally either.

Wilshere springs to mind.. And this is Joey's response to that (someone said Wilshere before): @Joey7Barton Joseph Barton @Danbo12 little bit easier playing with van Persie than Shefki Kuqi, no disrespect to Shefki he's a great lad...... 15 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® a) That is disrespectful to Shefki Kuqi and b) It's crap. Wilshere is a better player than Barton. Someone take his computer away before he becomes unemployable.

I'm not that confident with any of our centre backs but an upgrade would be costly and difficult to land, given the competition for the best CBs. Kadar looks good but needs experience.

Don't think they'll get that. Those clubs who're able to pay that amount of cash need a striker that's capable of scoring enough goals to take them to CL or Europe asap, and Sturridge is not that kind of player, yet. But I think he will be. Chelsea may be thinking that a lot of clubs in our kind of category will be after him, and they may get an inflated price by starting an auction. Chelsea have managed to mess up the development of a few players (eg Johnson, Wright-Phillips) by buying young talent and then not using it. I hope that won't happen with Sturridge, because he has both pace and skill. At this stage, it's important he gets regular football in a side that matches his ability.

That's a decent team, although Simpson looks the odd man out.

It did appear that we were prepared to spend big money on Gervinho and Gameiro. Unfortuanately, the more expensive players are likely to be chased by clubs in the Champions or Europa Leagues, and it then becomes difficult to compete. We could of course do an Owen and make ridiculous bids and offer silly wages in order to overcome the player's reluctance to join. We could also pay the same kind of fees for players who aren't worth it, just for the sake of spending the money. Neither sound sensible to me. We're competing with clubs in the top half of the table but outside the European places, like Liverpool and Everton. On that basis, we've done pretty well. If we only sign another striker, we'll still end up with a signficantly stronger squad, especially taking into account the return of Ben Arfa and Gosling.

he would say that, he's irish. anyway i thought it was that being born in a stable doesn't make you a horse. Ah, you're right. The 'biscuit' saying came from my Dad.

The Duke of Wellington said that if you were born in an oven you wouldn't be a biscuit. Just thought I'd throw that in.

Freddie Shepherd was ahead of his time when he only sanctioned Bowyer's free transfer in the summer of 2003 and blew our forthcoming Champions League campaign out of the water, a decision with such disastrous consequences that we are still suffering from it to this day. "Keeping the powder dry" is the new "winning stuff". In all seriousness, the day when my ambition for NUFC is simply to still exist, I'm packing it in. How fucking depressing. You're isolating one particular decision, and missing the bigger picture. We could of course, have spent £10m and still missed out on the Champions League and finished 5th. A bigger problem around then was the failure to replace Shearer at the correct time. And we failed to do that because Shepherd was worried about the fans reaction. He also wanted to keep Shearer on board as the next manager. Further down the line, we blew a lot of money on some poor transfer decisions (Owen, Luque) where Shepherd appeared to be having far too much say on judgements that should have been left to football professionals. Chairman and Manager weren't working together. The problem wasn't that Shepherd was reluctant to take risks financially. The club was in debt up to its ears. It was that he thought too much like a fan, and not enough as a businessman. He ended up taking short-term decisions on players which didn't get us further forward, and there was no long-term strategy. Ashley should not put himself under pressure to spend all the £35m this transfer window just to please the fans. He has to stay detached from all that, and stick to his strategy.

Joey is a risk, so he'll need a club that's willing to take a risk because they're in a bit of trouble. Villa possibly.

I'd see this as a first choice front six - .................Ba ...Ben Arfa.....Marveaux Cabaye....Tiote....AN Other The AN Other is crucial, and I'd like to see a player with a bit of height in that position. Our back five (apart from Willo and Taylor) aren't good at defending set pieces. Last year, they had Carroll, Shola, Tiote, Nolan, Jonas and Barton to help out. This year - only one of those players and possibly Ba. I'm not sure that Jonas will be first choice. The back five will need a bit more help. That's unless we go for the pipe-dream Barca option of being so good in possession and so good at winning the ball back in the opposition half that the defence gets protected that way. Not realistic. But I'm very intrigued to see how things are shaping up. It seems that the likes of Cabaye, Ba and Marveaux have bought into what is being planned.

Can't someone suggest to Joey a more constructive way of drawing attention to himself? Wearing a stupid T-shirt feels a bit desperate.

I'd agree with that. Sacking Capello after the World Cup wouldn't have been a step forward. What I feel gets forgotten is that beforehand we looked good and in fact qualified with far more ease than is usually the case. However, having got there, Capello was inexperienced at that sort of international tournament and got the mental and physical preparation of the players wrong. He should be given the chance now to use that experience. There were also outside factors working against him. The Rooney story hadn't hit the papers, but it was in the pipeline and he just wasn't focused. I don't think Terry completely accepted losing the captaincy and the stories that there was tension between him and Gerrard probably have substance. We seemed to be a house divided.

A few months ago, Ranger and Lua Lua would have topped my list. But Ferguson now looks the best prospect. I'd like to see how Kadar does this season. He's had a disrupted start to his career, and I don't think full back really suits him, but he looks very promising.

I don't see him as a holding player, more of an all-rounder like Fletcher, though not at that level of development. I can't say I'm an enthusiast for this signing, but the way things are shaping I'd like to see a bit more height and strength in the midfield.

He's a skilful player and I hope he makes the grade. Still not convinced though that defence is his best position. I'd rather see him further forward.

Hope so. I don't get the Mirror's logic. Regardless of who put their bid in first, if we match it, then the player will decide. Obviously I'm biased, but all things being equal, I'm confident a player will choose us. We're moving forward, and they're marking time. Unless they offer silly wages - which they might - we should be okay. As for the player, when I first saw him, I thought he was really poor. He looked a lot more confident last season. Lots of people were writing off Darren Fletcher when we were linked with him a while back. Gibson's not that bad and we do need some more steel in midfield, if only as cover for Mr Yellowcard Tiote.

Gibson has improved and this could be the right move at the right time for him, though obviously he's leaving Man U for a reason. If we're going for a 4-2-3-1, he and Tiote could form a formidable barrier. We do need to watch the defence a bit, and we can't be packing the midfield with too many Ben Arfas and Marveauxs.

He's not. That's me telt. Basically, aye. As of late, Barton is the better player. No doubt. He is also a leader which is an extra plus. We don't have too many of those. What makes him a leader? Determination, grit, presence, hard work, charisma. I'd say he had some of the qualities of a good leader, but not all. He loses his head too easily, makes decisions based on emotion rather than common sense, and gets wrapped up in his own point of view.