TRon

12m for Milner. Great business sense. 14m lost on Milner (to be worth 26m) + 30m lost from relegation + at least 10m lost from crowds, sponsorship and merchandising = Clueless football business sense. It's all just a little bit of history repeating. I was saying at the time that it was short-sighted to sell our best young players, but... Alright, let's look at the next few years. No hindsight needed. I hope and pray that the new signings are great, bed in well and quickly, stay injury free, and aren't sold at the first sign of them being any good. But if I had to put my predictive skills on the line I'd say that I foresee a relegation battle ahead - sometime in the next 3 years, if not immediately. How about you? Can't see a relegation battle ahead tbh. I think we'll sign a couple of players and finish halfway up the table for the next couple of years. We could finish higher but I think we won't invest enough to stop players leaving, but the prices they'll fetch will mean we'll always buy enough players to keep us in the division.

Pardew's main test will be in getting results from foreign players who have a totally different approach to the game to most British players and coaches. Last year's squad dictated the game we played and it didn't take a lot of coaching nous to wing the ball high to a big forward and let Nolan battle for the scraps. If Pardew can't work out how to get the best out of the new lads we might see a foreign coach come in.

Not arguing that we need to spend more wages at all. Just that at THIS point it seems like we are stumped for a striker and a left back with our preferred choices falling through. Unless the club have some well hidden contingency plans there is a real fear we will buy/loan sub-standard players due to our lack of willingness to pay for quality. it's been happening for ages I realise that. Again, I repeat: this is our first window with a year behind us in the premier and some big money coming in from player sales. Last year was about consolidation and this year there's no excuse for not building a competent squad which can finish in the top 10.

I'm sure you've said this every window for the last three years like

You're only interested in what the first 11 looks like on September 1st. I take it you're not going to the Arsenal and Fulham games, or Sunderland away. I might well go to the Arsenal and Fulham games, probably not the Sunderland one. If we've signed no one by then I might give the Arsenal game a miss because I'm not going to watch us getting stiffed voluntarily.

I agree in principle, but this seems to be the norm for even the best teams with the biggest budgets. Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea still haven't done their serious business in the window so it just seems to be the way these things work. Laughable though it seems I will still wait to see if this applies to us. It would beggar belief not to.

Pardew said. Those two words could be followed by any other combination of random words and have as much chance of being true. Pardew said we'd have a player in before we went to America, didn't he? He talks shit. Whatever. I don't really care what Pardew says or what his detractors say, I don't have any agendas. I'm only interested in what the first 11 will look like by Sep 1st.

Not arguing that we need to spend more wages at all. Just that at THIS point it seems like we are stumped for a striker and a left back with our preferred choices falling through. Unless the club have some well hidden contingency plans there is a real fear we will buy/loan sub-standard players due to our lack of willingness to pay for quality.

Pardew said in the last week that August was the month we would see real movement with other clubs doing deals. Well, I am giving him the benefit of the doubt (again) and will see if this movement of players will see us bringing some players in rather than shipping them out. I'm now assuming we have plenty of potential deals ready and waiting for the pieces to fall into place. Four more weeks. That's it.

There's no reason not get a replacement unless we want to concede to Joey's plans to put us in the clarts. There's more than enough money in the kitty to get someone in to replace a twat who isn't going to be considered this season.

Signed a four-year deal in May. Would only be available on loan = stop-gap. The c***s that run this club need to pull their fingers out of their arses and bring in a replacement for Jose, who is proven in top-flight football and will look to be here long-term. With a month to go, I'd go for a loan deal rather than buying dross in like Shorey or Warnock, or relying on Ferguson, Tavernier to step up. It isn't with a month to go, we've known Enrique was off all summer. We should have genuine targets ready to pursue rather than last minute bodge up deals designed to keep the balance book looking healthy.

You've summed up everything I feel in that one post. Still biting my lip for four more weeks then that's it.

Toulouse will sell and M'Bengue will sign if the money is right. The wages will be less than Enrique was on and the fee will be more or less covered by the Enrique sale. The only real obstacle will be whether we will be prepared to pay the fee or go for the safe but cheap option of Warnock or Shorey. On past form you have to fear it will be the latter. He's going to cost at least £8-10 million, was widely reported we were unwilling to pay more than £5 million. If he goes anywhere this summer, it will be Marseille. The deal could be done for less than that IMO, in any case we have the money even at those prices. In any case, the money we get from Enrique regardless of money we've received for other players is more than enough to get us a damn good prospect at left back.

If he was that bad I don't think they'd be turning down £6m for him.

Toulouse will sell and M'Bengue will sign if the money is right. The wages will be less than Enrique was on and the fee will be more or less covered by the Enrique sale. The only real obstacle will be whether we will be prepared to pay the fee or go for the safe but cheap option of Warnock or Shorey. On past form you have to fear it will be the latter.

Those are all eminently do-able deals, neither are they big money transfers so I don't really see why they won't be done. There might be the argument that the likes of Long are a risk but if you want to pay low wages that's the market you are in.

This is how I saw things panning out if the intention had been to use the Carroll money to rebuild the squad. I agree about Pardew rebuilding his own squad without the player power brigade, hence why I won't shed tears over Barton and Nolan going...although Enrique's leaving is a massive blow. The problem is I'm yet to be convinced the board are going to follow through on the rebuilding part of that equation. It looks to me we might well sacrifice quality for players who will play for less.

Are you actually taking the piss? Jose doesn't want to play for us. If you want to judge the wisdom of offloading Nolan and Barton, wait till Joey moves on and see the level they're both at. I do agree with this basically despite the fact it feels bad to lose a player like Jose. But if we don't get good calibre replacements in then it looks very much like asset stripping. There's still time to get those good calibre replacements of course. Will we? There's no excuses now really. There have been no excuses all summer, but plenty have been put forward on here. Waiting to see what sort of team we end up with by the close of the window isn't an excuse.

Are you actually taking the piss? Jose doesn't want to play for us. If you want to judge the wisdom of offloading Nolan and Barton, wait till Joey moves on and see the level they're both at. I do agree with this basically despite the fact it feels bad to lose a player like Jose. But if we don't get good calibre replacements in then it looks very much like asset stripping. There's still time to get those good calibre replacements of course. Will we? There's no excuses now really.

Pardew reckoned this month would see some movement in the transfer market and that would see us making at least two signings. While it's true the movement has mostly been us selling our players, it will be interesting to see which players come in. I still reckon we'll make a couple of signings but after all the talk we'd be getting players in who would get fans off their seats he's made a rod for his own back. Unless he meant off their seats and walking out of the stadium.

Respectfully disagree there. Liverpool have wasted a lot of money but this is their best value signing of the summer by a country mile. He will bring a lot to their game both defensively and in possession.

Would probably welcome a move back to Spain. No one will pay the wages he's on over here. Jonas will leave when his contract runs out because he won't be first choice here anyway by then IMO.

If he's got any sense he'll say nothing until his bosses get some signings through the door. He's on a hiding to nothing until then.

Top 10 finish for me.

I'm still sticking with £6m staying at £6m.