TRon

The staff at the bottom of the pile will be lucky to get a £10 bonus. Good. Since most wearside Sports Direct staff will either be till operators or bog cleaners.

Yeah. It's not like we bid £10m for him in the Jan transfer window to give people the idea we were interested in him like. Beats me where people get these ideas from. So what's your criticism there, that we bid for him? I thought you were annoyed because we didn't? I'm annoyed at the bullshit. I could accept we don't want him because we don't want him or we believe we've bought better, but bidding £10-12m on the last day of the transfer window when you know it's too late to sign anyone is bullshit. Just as bidding for Bent and Richardson was bullshit the year before. Now when we could actually sign Zog we are running a mile. That is what is mildly annoying. I don't really get this. Do you think we should succeed with every bid we make? And if not, why do you assume that every unsuccessful bid is bullshit? I've answered those in the post you quoted. Have you? I can't find the answer in a form I can understand. Sorry. The unsuccessful bid is bullshit because it was made when it was too late to get it done. And no I don't believe we should succeed with every bid but I think we could definitely have succeeded with this one if we really wanted it to happen.

Probably justifies it's own thread anyway. Ba's wages are also heavily incentivised so it's a consistent theme. Ashley pays on results.

Yeah. It's not like we bid £10m for him in the Jan transfer window to give people the idea we were interested in him like. Beats me where people get these ideas from. So what's your criticism there, that we bid for him? I thought you were annoyed because we didn't? I'm annoyed at the bullshit. I could accept we don't want him because we don't want him or we believe we've bought better, but bidding £10-12m on the last day of the transfer window when you know it's too late to sign anyone is bullshit. Just as bidding for Bent and Richardson was bullshit the year before. Now when we could actually sign Zog we are running a mile. That is what is mildly annoying. I don't really get this. Do you think we should succeed with every bid we make? And if not, why do you assume that every unsuccessful bid is bullshit? I've answered those in the post you quoted.

Yeah. Can see him on the bench a lot this season. I could see him making a dramatic rise through the ranks similar to Bassong when he arrived.

Didn't he make a bet about N'zogbia signing? He must have been pissed to have gotten that deluded.

Yeah. It's not like we bid £10m for him in the Jan transfer window to give people the idea we were interested in him like. Beats me where people get these ideas from. So what's your criticism there, that we bid for him? I thought you were annoyed because we didn't? I'm annoyed at the bullshit. I could accept we don't want him because we don't want him or we believe we've bought better, but bidding £10-12m on the last day of the transfer window when you know it's too late to sign anyone is bullshit. Just as bidding for Bent and Richardson was bullshit the year before. Now when we could actually sign Zog we are running a mile. That is what is mildly annoying.

Yeah. It's not like we bid £10m for him in the Jan transfer window to give people the idea we were interested in him like. Beats me where people get these ideas from.

We're so hard up even plucky little Swansea managed to turn Taylor's head and sign for them in a bumper 13k a week deal.

He looks quality mind. Here's hoping he makes us forget all about the N'Zogbia shambles.

We've waved the white flag and pushed Zog on his way to Villa, probably because we signed Marveaux. I just hope we did that so we could secure a quality forward, and let's hope we do a better job of attracting one than we did with Neil Taylor.

Hope the lad stays fit and has a good season as it's clear we went for the cheaper deal ahead of Zog.

WE'd have stopped paying wages causing a player strike is how I'd see that scenario unfolding.

Maybe the "club sources" who feed the journos with this stuff could have let on that he was no longer a target. Unless these journalists are just making stuff up, otherwise I'm fairly sure they were saying we still had an interest in Zog just a couple of days ago.

"Chase ended weeks ago" that would be around the time we signed Marveaux then. I wish they would just be up front about it and tell us that rather than this bullshit that he already has a club lined up.

You think Wigan will accept £5.2 million? It's £1.2m more than they've been offered so far.

It would actually be quite a clever tactic to bid £4m. With such a low starting bid Villa would be tempted to jump in with a £5.2m bid which we would quickly match, then Zog would choose us once Wigan are forced to sell at the price both clubs have settled on

Yep. There's still another striker to come in assuming Pardew isn't bullshitting, so if that happens our attacking options will be better that the route one combo of Carroll and Nolan.

If people behave like fans/supporters then of course. If people start to behave like customers instead then he's in a big pile of his own poo. It's true that any business has to offer good value to the customers or risk turning them away. If you are going to go down that route then you also have to acknowledge that businesses are usually run to make a profit not make losses so that needs to be factored in by the anti-Ashley fans. The only point of debate for me is whether Ashley is over-doing the cost cutting and we are capable of investing a lot more in the squad. Something we'll only know when the window shuts.

While they've spent a lot I really don't see how the players they've bought are going to transform them into title contenders. Suarez is their best signing and he cost the least.

People have been saying this for weeks, but I still don't see why it's such a given. Villa seem like a club in decline to me, I'm not so sure Zoggy would be keen to go there. They had enough money to buy him after selling Young anyway, I suppose. In decline in what way? We've sold a player we knew was going all year, and to the champions, and we've sold one who threw tantrums about getting his move. So long as we reinvest wisely, we'll be absolutely fine. We've also started shedding a lot of the utter, utter dross that MON left us with, so whilst I'd say decline is somewhat over the top, consoldiation makes more sense. Happy to accept your opinion is more accurate than mine probably, I just mean that you've sold the two players who were absolutely key to your success. At least they seemed to be from an outsider's point of view. True, but, I repeat, one went to the champions (if Man United want your player, he goes, ask Spurs about that) for 17m with one year left on his contract, and one has submitted a transfer request to go to Liverpool. It happens to all clubs, and it is unfuriating. Spurs will sell Modric, Liverpool sold Alonso, Torres and Mascherano, Arsenal will lose Fabregas and Nasri ... happens everywhere. Ah yeah, totally, maybe club in decline was a wrong choice of words. 'Less attractive team than before' might have been better. Obviously on a basic level it makes sense that Zoggy would be a target, but I'm hoping it's not as nailed-on as some people seem to be saying. Although I'm not sure if NUFC are even still interested anyway, we'll see. I would put this deal in the same bracket as the Neil Taylor one. We are interested if we can get a bargain deal, which is great if it comes off. The down side is that this approach allows other mediocre clubs to steal in and pinch the player from under our Scrooge-like noses. Swansea did it by competing harder for Taylor and there's always the opportunity for other clubs to compete harder for Zog.

I only watch our games these days tbh, and MOTD which wouldn't really show you the qualities of a defensive mid. My knowledge of other teams players is patchy at best.

Who are the two other black players? Are either of them defensive midfielders? What's them being black got to do with owt? Not aimed at you Tron. Since it was a black poster who mentioned their blackness I just followed suit. Otherwise I found that a strange comment as well but what the hell

Malouda's a winger. Haven't seen much of Mikel so I assume he's the defensive midfielder.

Who are the two other black players? Are either of them defensive midfielders?