TRon

I would assume so. Hope he's good as he's got massive boots to fill. Jose is the best full back I've seen in over 20 years of following NUFC. harsh on beresford. I watched nearly every game Bez played for us and saw alot when he was at Pompey and can say confidently Jose is a mile better. i'm not so sure. enrique was stronger defensivly but had much more support (jonas instaed of ginola for large spells), beresfords distribution was much better. wouldn't like to choose one over the other Beresford was more the backing off type of defender like Simpson, you didn't see him clean out the opposition in 1 v 1's like Enrique does. Add to that the fact that Enrique is great at bombing forward as well and you have the complete full back for me.

He sounds like Enrique when he first came here Seriously he seems like a sound lad.

I would assume so. Hope he's good as he's got massive boots to fill. Jose is the best full back I've seen in over 20 years of following NUFC. harsh on beresford. Beresfrd was good going forward but not a patch on Jose defensively IMO.

It does but if he's hell bent on leaving I'd rather he went now and we got his replacement in before the season kicks off.

That struck home. Unfortunately it's his club and as it says further up in the article, he now wants the club to be self-financing without putting in any more of his own money. Not a situation which will make fans happy but unless there's genuine interest from outside buyers then we'll just have to suck it and see. That in bold just totally baffles me, it really does. So why do the fans resent him? What are the reasons? Oh aye, because he lied to them for starters when selling those 3year season tickets! If you wanna talk about when his bubble burst, he forced out the manager, a legend who had managed to restore confidence for fans & players, by lying to him and allowing him to be completely undermined by Dennis bloody Wise. Even when he was given the chance to sort it out he chose to keep Wise on. From then he's made one stupid decision to another, with a fair amount of p*ss taking along the way (sports direct on the gallowgate roof, allowing his mate to publically slag off people like Alan Shearer, and the fans regurlaly). The fiasco with Keegan showed the amount of class Ashley & his cronies have, because they still act completely devoid of it up till now. So guess what? He's not respected! Shock Horror! ...and guess what? He won't put more money into improving the squad for the benefit of people who can't stand him. Would you? If I had cocked up as badly as he has I'd take the critism and dislike on the chin, because theres an obvious point behind it. Its about motives for bing here though isnt it? Yes I'd put money in (aswell as actually showing that little thing called respect to fans & players) and attempt to turn things around because the chances are people might start warming to me again. If he dosent put money in because people react to his conduct that is just childish, this is the running of a football club not some social club, but it obviously shows the character & ego of the man, which was revealed years ago anyway. For an owner to invest his own money into a football club rather than run it as a business needs real commitment and love for the club. Ashley has made too many cock ups and has turned the fan base against him which for me has torpedoed any chance he will invest with any risk to himself, if he ever was going to. I think the best chance of him doing that are if he gets excited about the club again rather than be viewed as a villain. Which is why I won't support NUST or Supporters for Change as the only way things will change is if someone buys the club, not through agitators who p*ss the current owner off. The ball is in his court to prove his credibility and show some enthusiasm for the club in response to those mistakes - some of which involve leading fans & managers down the garden path. If he is unwilling to do that because the fans took, and take, exception to his actions then it is his own childlishness that has torpedoed any chance of investing some of his own money... if he wants to get excited about the club again then its well within his capability to change people's opinion of him by putting that money in, change his structure of having an MD completely unsuited for the role for example, and create more of a buzz. And to be fair, its not like theres people waiting outside for him, and police rushing him through the entrance! Whenever he's had stick its mainly came from the pocket of 3,000 out 50,000 fans in the corner way above him, and again has been in reaction to stupid & offensive decisions. If he's sitting there thinking 'bastards, youve hurt my feelings, you should like me regardless what I do, sing my name please and I might show some passion for the club' then it sums up his ego and arrogance. I doubt he's sitting there thinking that though, it's probably more along the lines of "If I put more money into the club and it goes wrong will I be seen as a hero or a cockney cunt?" Because putting more money in doesn't necessarily equate with more success as we've seen with Villa's failed experiment. As a fan I would love him to take the chance anyway but I think the Telegraph article is pretty accurate in that he probably just wants to his money back and get out.

I think if he asked for what those other players are asking he'd be bombed out pretty sharpish. Aye, but the players asking for better than what Shola got, are much better players though But they are first team players who aren't that great and we could replace for the same money with better players, i.e., Cabaye>Nolan. The only player of real class we haven't re-signed is Enrique and that's because he wants to play for a CL club or challenging for CL at least. You don't know that Cabaye is better than Nolan yet. He hasn't played a game for us in the PL. I agree with you, from what I've seen, he's the better player. But only time will tell if he's the better player for us. If you want a 100% guarantee that a signing will come off then you would never make a signing. Cabaye wouldn't have been signed and Nolan would have been handed a new contract. Is that what you're advocating?

I think if he asked for what those other players are asking he'd be bombed out pretty sharpish. Aye, but the players asking for better than what Shola got, are much better players though But they are first team players who aren't that great and we could replace for the same money with better players, i.e., Cabaye>Nolan. The only player of real class we haven't re-signed is Enrique and that's because he wants to play for a CL club or challenging for CL at least.

I think if he asked for what those other players are asking he'd be bombed out pretty sharpish.

That struck home. Unfortunately it's his club and as it says further up in the article, he now wants the club to be self-financing without putting in any more of his own money. Not a situation which will make fans happy but unless there's genuine interest from outside buyers then we'll just have to suck it and see. That in bold just totally baffles me, it really does. So why do the fans resent him? What are the reasons? Oh aye, because he lied to them for starters when selling those 3year season tickets! If you wanna talk about when his bubble burst, he forced out the manager, a legend who had managed to restore confidence for fans & players, by lying to him and allowing him to be completely undermined by Dennis bloody Wise. Even when he was given the chance to sort it out he chose to keep Wise on. From then he's made one stupid decision to another, with a fair amount of p*ss taking along the way (sports direct on the gallowgate roof, allowing his mate to publically slag off people like Alan Shearer, and the fans regurlaly). The fiasco with Keegan showed the amount of class Ashley & his cronies have, because they still act completely devoid of it up till now. So guess what? He's not respected! Shock Horror! ...and guess what? He won't put more money into improving the squad for the benefit of people who can't stand him. Would you? If I had cocked up as badly as he has I'd take the critism and dislike on the chin, because theres an obvious point behind it. Its about motives for bing here though isnt it? Yes I'd put money in (aswell as actually showing that little thing called respect to fans & players) and attempt to turn things around because the chances are people might start warming to me again. If he dosent put money in because people react to his conduct that is just childish, this is the running of a football club not some social club, but it obviously shows the character & ego of the man, which was revealed years ago anyway. For an owner to invest his own money into a football club rather than run it as a business needs real commitment and love for the club. Ashley has made too many cock ups and has turned the fan base against him which for me has torpedoed any chance he will invest with any risk to himself, if he ever was going to. I think the best chance of him doing that are if he gets excited about the club again rather than be viewed as a villain. Which is why I won't support NUST or Supporters for Change as the only way things will change is if someone buys the club, not through agitators who piss the current owner off.

You could probably include Ben Arfa as another forward who is ahead of Shola really as he might well be used as a withdrawn forward in a lot of games.

That struck home. Unfortunately it's his club and as it says further up in the article, he now wants the club to be self-financing without putting in any more of his own money. Not a situation which will make fans happy but unless there's genuine interest from outside buyers then we'll just have to suck it and see. That in bold just totally baffles me, it really does. So why do the fans resent him? What are the reasons? Oh aye, because he lied to them for starters when selling those 3year season tickets! If you wanna talk about when his bubble burst, he forced out the manager, a legend who had managed to restore confidence for fans & players, by lying to him and allowing him to be completely undermined by Dennis bloody Wise. Even when he was given the chance to sort it out he chose to keep Wise on. From then he's made one stupid decision to another, with a fair amount of piss taking along the way (sports direct on the gallowgate roof, allowing his mate to publically slag off people like Alan Shearer, and the fans regurlaly). The fiasco with Keegan showed the amount of class Ashley & his cronies have, because they still act completely devoid of it up till now. So guess what? He's not respected! Shock Horror! ...and guess what? He won't put more money into improving the squad for the benefit of people who can't stand him. Would you?

Short memories. I guarantee that half of the "Good news/alright backup/stop overreacting!" brigade will be calling him worse than shit the next time he plays and puts in a Shola performance. Well I'm in the other half then, since I've never subscribed to the theory that he's absolute shite. He's not good enough to be starting but if he is it's because we don't have enough genuine quality strikers at the club. Get that sorted first then we can look at upgrading our 3rd and fourth choice forwards.

This is the biggest load of crap any of you will read today. I thought it was pretty near the mark. The Shola hatred is over the top from some quarters. He's not good enough to start but he has scored important goals for us in the past. As a back up option he is ok imo.

That struck home. Unfortunately it's his club and as it says further up in the article, he now wants the club to be self-financing without putting in any more of his own money. Not a situation which will make fans happy but unless there's genuine interest from outside buyers then we'll just have to suck it and see.

Not fussed as long as he is just relatively cheap back up. The key is to get in another better quality front man. so Shola is only used sparingly.

What is it with you and him? He's not exactly world class.. Our current strikeforce happens to consist of Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands and Nile Ranger. He's a good player who will massively add to our options. That's how I would view it as well. I don't think Bendtner's a very good finisher but at this point we need a forward, and if he's not very clinical, he does have a lot of power and pace and would cause most defences problems.

Man U fans I presume. Although scum's pretty generic and could be applied to Sunderland/Liverpool as well. Be a bit more specific next time please!

but the riots have spread to the midlands and merseyside now haven't they?

Yeah we'll get them in Newcastle if they cancel our game the London bastards!

Hope this isn't affected, Arsenal's team is decimated by injuries. We've got our own problems but not half as bad as theirs so fingers crossed everything is ok.

Probably the worst joke i've ever seen, genuinly awful Yeah the fact it was so bad was far funnier than the joke itself :lol;

↲ In other words, no real replacement for Enrique? At best, a back-up? Yes, I can imagine we might sign a Dutch international as, at the very best, a back up player. ↲why would a dutch international come to be a backup? He was being sarcastic. Obviously it's daft to think he's coming here if we keep Enrique.

He looked good for Spain during the Euros when he came on as sub for a couple of games. Would be well pleased with that if there's any chance of it happening.

Isn't there a limit on squad places anyhow? I thought you could only name 25 or something like that?

Who was a winger at the time. Obertan our new striker ;-) And he only cost half of what the Anelka sale got them. Cool, would be delighted with a £17m striker to replace Carroll. And that would actually be one of the only few times that Wenger's spent big to replace a player he lost for big money. He didn't replace Vieira after getting £12m for him. He spent £8m to replace the £17m Kolo Toure. He didn't spend much of the £26m for Adebayor. He hasn't and doesn't look like he's going to spend the £7m he got for Clichy. Henry went for £16m and they didn't spend big to replace him. They run on a unique model. We're trying to emulate them. It's hard, but when a player is overvalued by another you club, you let him go. I think Carroll fits into this situation. If we're able to sign a decent striker then I would say our team is much stronger than it was last season, and this whole transfer window would have been a productive one. We will have two wingers who - on paper, at least - will be as good as Jonas is. We will have a new offensive CM - Cabaye - who - on paper, again - will be better than anyone who played for us in that position last year. We will have two good strikers instead of one - Ba and the new guy. There are a couple of kids who look like they're better than the old guys we played last year - Abeid and Vukcic. All in all, I think our squad has improved. Whether that's by promoting from within or spending big or searching for value, the improvement and the degree - substantial, imo - is what I'm concerned about. I think a good window sets us up for a good season. We would be better off if we spent more of the Carroll money, but that ain't happening. To focus on that, I feel, is to miss the picture of us improving. If Pardew's able to implement his vision then we'd be a top 10 team pretty easily, and for a team two seasons from the Championship, that's pretty decent. I'm not a non-believer like Pardew is. I think we can challenge the top teams, and we can do so in the short-term (2-3 years). But it won't happen in one window. I agree with most of that but whether we have a good season really does hinge on us getting that striker in, and a left back if Jose leaves. Relying on having Ba fit all season isn't an option we should even contemplate so I hope all this talk that we are pushing to get another forward in isn't hot air.