TRon

could still be one of the best if we get a couple of decent signings through the door.

Aye. Change it to "tosser"

The updates on Erdinc and Long: we aren't getting either.

Fair point, but I wish we'd straighten all this out beforehand with the player rather than wait two months before finding out what he wants.

Pardew himself has said on so many occasions that it looks like Jose will be off and is pessimistic he will stay. So it would be either stupid or tight in the extreme if they are not looking to bring someone in because no firm bid has come in.

I'm fucked if I know what's going on.

If we want a tricky winger with dribbling skills and poor end product couldn't we just recall Lua Lua?

We keep moving on...it would be nice to actually get a deal done for a change.

If we change our mind on Barton because of the Barnetta snub then it totally undermines any authority or principle involved with putting Barton on the list in the first place.

The deal with Erdinc fell through because of his agent, we managed to fuck up Neil Taylor's signing and now this. Agents are a fact of life unfortunately, if we are going to get any deals done which are worth doing then we better find a way of dealing with it. This doesn't look good for the prospects of signing the much needed striker either.

Good to see that once you are rid of the current owners you are prepared to hold the new ones in such high regard

Does anybody even buy official shirts in Korea? Since these countries are the kings of the unofficial replica I'd be highly dubious.

Unreal if he did, a billion miles away last night but this morning? Who fuking knows. I feel its an attempt by the club to win favour with the fans, to show they tried everything...either that or he's not getting the offers he was told e would get and the club have turned round and said sack your agent and we can settle this with a new contract. Would be brilliant to see that c*** sacrificed in all this. Think it's all straw clutching and he'll still leave though. Barnetta will do me as a replacement though. if barton did sign a new contract it would be win win for every party. he would hold abit more value for when he does move in the future and he is likely to take a small wage cut. for the pardew he gets to keep a senior pro and a good squad member with some quality. it sounds like the board just have some personal dislike for him, but that said, if there willing to sort it out, then whats stopping him sign a new contract down the line? i still think barnetta will come in whatever now routledge has gone, we are very short on attacking players in general, and having barton and barnetta would give us alot more options on the right hand side. What this episode has shown us is, that far from the insane ramblings of Barton's agent would suggest, Barton doesn't hold any resale value. No club has taken up the option to sign even on a free transfer. If Barton wants to climb down off his high horse and sign a new contract on reasonable terms, fair enough, but if I was Pardew I'd have difficulty in trusting him again. If he stays it will be just to play out the last year while behaving himself I would have thought.

Would prefer if Barnetta came, Barton stayed and everything turned out Hunky Dory! Barton doesn't strike me as the type who would sit happily on the bench while Barnetta started in his place. Would give Barnetta a season to "bed in" and get used to the English game whilst Joey runs down the last season of his conract. That would only happen if the club feel they can now trust Barton again. Frankly after his shenanigans for the last six months I'd be surprised. The last thing we need is a bitter senior pro who resents being pushed out by the new signings.

I don't think they're bluffing, they just can't force him to leave because he's under contract. Surprised Derek hasn't pulled his "force" player to sign a transfer request Jedi mind trick TBF. They can technically force him out by telling him he wont be selected in the squad list meaning Barton will sit doing nowt for a year, cant think how a season on his arse will help clubs want him in 12 months. Barton would then have the choice of career over petulence Ashley might be a penny pincher but I think he's quite capable of paying Barton while refusing to let him be part of the squad if he wants to be awkward.

Barnetta could be seen as a replacement for Routledge rather than Barton if we are to take the view that Barton might still be here come the start of the season.

Would prefer if Barnetta came, Barton stayed and everything turned out Hunky Dory! Barton doesn't strike me as the type who would sit happily on the bench while Barnetta started in his place.

If Barton stays it's because they type of clubs who might have an interest in taking him will refuse to match his wages IMO. Everton and Stoke for example aren't going to pay 60k a week, this might have something to do with Barton's decision to stay put unless he gets a club who will match our wages. Hence his agents insane blabbering about top clubs being interested.

Looks like the Barnetta deal is off then. Joey obviously realised his twat of an agent was talking shite about CL clubs being interested and has now climbed down. The club will probably take this as a golden opportunity to save £4m on signing Barnetta and paying both players wages if Barton refuses to fuck off. Personally I hope they sign Barnetta anyway and keep Joey well away from the team.

I hope this signing isn't dependent on Barton leaving because I can see the bitter turd sitting tight just so we can't sign his replacement.

Ashley signed off on all of the contracts you mention. It's not an excuse. Like buying us, the contracts are a mistake he should live with and make the best of. He can't expect them to take fucking wage cuts when wages in the game are still rising everywhere else. It's not like Colo, Jose, Nolan or Barton got any worse since we first signed them, if anything they are/were at their most valuable at the end of this season. Yes, live with until the end of the contract, which he is doing, then either party can choose to strike a new deal, or walk away. Situations change, and apparently in terms of the wages we feel we can offer, they have for us. It's hardly unusual or underhand, a number of contract jobs I've taken on recently have been for a lot less than I could have got away with in the past, so I don't see why footballers should be a particularly special case in that regard. I'm fairly certain not everyone else is paying less, though, and if anything our revenues have increased in the past season and will again this season. If you want to grow and move up the table, you'll generally need to pay more wages year on year to achieve that and keep the players you already have, etc. How can people not see this? We got relegated and trimmed the wage bill hugely. At a pure guess it seems to me like we appear to be at least breaking even so far this summer in wage terms, without even taking Barton and Enrique's potential departures into account - and any others that may now come in/go out. Revenue will have increased massively with the return to the Premiership and will again this season thanks to even better TV money and probable higher season ticket sales/general attendances, etc. I can't ignore the huge figures from player sales, either. I'm not one for being overly negative/reactionary (I don't think), but this baffles me. You keep your best players if you want to get better, even if you have to pay them very well to do so. I think there's some players who are perhaps considered among the elite in their position and you have to stretch your wage structure to accomodate them. There aren't many at Newcastle and you get a fair idea of who they are by the calibre of club interested in buying them. Enrique by dint of commanding a significant fee from a club like Liverpool is the obvious one. Coloccini I think we could keep within our current wage structure as he's not massively rated by other premier clubs so there'll be less demand. Barton and Nolan don't even come into the equation. They had their chance and they blew it.

Telegraph reckons that Barnetta is close to signing, and that Barton is looking at digging his heels in to stay due to the low grade teams that have shown an interest, even on a free. Looks like agent Willie McKunt has been leading him up the garden path with his tall stories about top 4 clubs rushing to fight for his signature.

no he isnt 'Just because ur told to jump, it does not necessarily mean u have to. I may choose to stand perfectly still. It's my right...just a thought' It might also be that the top 4 club interest hasn't materialised despite the guff his agent keeps spouting on any show which will have him. Or he might just be clarifying that he doesn't actualy have to leave if he doesn't want to? Knowing the evil little shit though it's probably some Zodiac style code for "Heil Hitler! Heil mein Fuhrer! Sieg Heil!"... Of course he doesn't have to leave the club if he doesn't want to. But that was the case before twittering about the crap dressing room spirit and rotten bosses. If he's being moved on quicker now it's because he chose to be disruptive and his agent is talking up his move to anyone who'll air his views.

no he isnt 'Just because ur told to jump, it does not necessarily mean u have to. I may choose to stand perfectly still. It's my right...just a thought' It might also be that the top 4 club interest hasn't materialised despite the guff his agent keeps spouting on any show which will have him.

Following relegation, it could have been a lot, lot worse than that. And the person most responsible for our relegation being... Yeah, I know he's responsible, I'm just saying we did alright to bounce back. If he gets the criticism he should have to take some of the credit for that as well. Whether the players going out this summer will have undone that good work remains to be seen. I do think the players need to take a large slice of the blame for our relegation as well though. A lot of them performed a long long way below their best, and Ashley isn't solely to blame for that. A lot of those players were of the Billy Big Boots variety who commanded large transfer fees and salaries yet still took us down. I think their non-performances had a lot to do with Ashley's move away from big wages. This was a problem even before Ashley arrived and now it seems we still haven't recovered from that as even when we have money we are guarding it jealously.