TRon

I don't share your enthusiasm. Middle eastern investors would rather throw money at a London club if possible, I don't think Newcastle have much of a profile in the arab world these days. If they do have any knowledge of the club I doubt they've missed the unpopularity of Ashley either. Not sure we're as attractive a proposition as you think.

We must have been worried that Portsmouth's buffoonery was starting to make us look respectable. Well this has shown them who the real clowns are!

That might have something to do with the performance of midfielders in his absence. We are talking Butt, Smith, and Nolan here. Which of those three has been the midfield boss this season? All are on massive wages and should be dominating games to reflect that?

Just realised, there's another player with Necastle links signed by Bruce in Titus Bramble. So that makes: Butt N'Zogbia Beye Bramble Bent Kilgallon so far in my reckoning. He's either obsessed or clueless by my reckoning.

looking good for Wigan atm. I'd also say Jenas, who is just the sort of athletic player who would walk into our side. I'm glad you mentioned Jenas because I got fed up defending him on these pages. Fuck me, you would think it was a crime to appreciate a young midfielder with a good engine and ability to run with ball and without it.

I didn't see much of Barton before he was signed, but he's never looked fit in the proper sense of the word when playing for us. His running off the ball hasn't looked much better than Nolan's when he has been available. Wouldn't like to speculate why.

Story of Barton's life at Newcastle. According to that Barton isn't too far away from figuring. If he's up and running in three weeks or so there's still a fair chunk of the season in which he could in theory play a big part. Depends how much he wants it I suppose, but we could desperately use a midfielder with some passing ability.

No I agree with that. On the wing he's a not the quickest, but through the middle the whole pitch is opened up for him, and unlike our midfielders for instance he does like running with the ball at players. I can remember quite a few fans on this site insisted he should be given a go through the middle, Baggio for one. It's easy to forget that a lot of managers are just thick former footballers who's ability with their feet isn't necessarily matched by intelligence.

Steve Bruce has read about the move in the Chronicle and put in a bid.

How many are there like him though? I'd say there's a far bigger likelihood we end up with owners like Hicks or the Glazers.

All that proves is that hiring the wrong manager can come back and bite you on the arse. In fact that could be said of most of the players in this thread. Disgree with Milner, never did a bad job in a B&W shirt, just happens to be setting the world alight at Villa now He's setting the world alight due to being played for two reasons: 1) He's being played through the middle, something he wasn't given much opportunity to do here despite the fact we've had cack central midfielders for five years now. 2) He's playing in a team with balance, pace and power, not with a bunch of knackered cast offs from other clubs. Yes MON has spent money, but Milner was here when Souness and Allardyce were doling out big notes on players.

IMO it's a far bigger threat to promotion that we have no defensive cover than the risk that the midfield which has us top of the table and has enough cover will suddenly not be good enough to keep us there. Plus the chances that we would get anyone to actually improve the midfield for the money we are going to be spending is remote. I know nothing about this bloke, but under the circumstances I'm happy enough that we're getting in this level of player as backup in an area where we are most vulnerable from any injuries. Since we brought in Pancrate, I seriously doubt we're even looking at any more midfielders tbh. True. Ashley will have given so much in funds for team strengthening and Hughton spent the midfield budget on Pancrate. The fact that he isn't starting is his problem, as far as Ashley is concerned Hughton was backed.

That's food for thought. We think Ashley's bad, but the owners of Man u and Liverpool are draining the life out of what were perfectly healthy clubs.

To me he just reeks of Championship. A bit like Earnshaw. The kind of player you just associate with this division regardless of how much you know about them. A bit like Williamson as well then.

All that proves is that hiring the wrong manager can come back and bite you on the arse. In fact that could be said of most of the players in this thread.

I don't think that anyone's under the illusion that our priorities lie further up the pitch but we do need cover in defence. Losing Taylor or Colo without cover would hurt us. In fairness to Hughton he seems to be "trying" to sign players further up the field (if rumours are to be believed). Is he? The only player we've been linked with up field has been Beckford and we've lost out there as well by all accounts. We are buying at car boot sales and getting the left overs from those in reality.

Sadly there's more chance of Joey breaking his own leg in any misguided attempt.

And how did he do that? He was part of the team that got relegated? Beye is one Ronaldo favs so out of a defence that was mainly Beye, Colo Taylor & Jose......3 of them have nothing to do with us going down while the other one got rapped more often the A.Hughes. He plays favorites more than Jayson You forgot Bassong. The fab foreign four that kept our local star from earning his natural accolades.

Maybe if he hadn't wanted to make a profit in the xfer window last Jan we wouldn't have been relegated by 1 point and he may not be supposedly stumping up this £20m. I have to say, I'm surprised you continue to support this joker. Even for you, it's barely believable. So you'd favour the club getting back into debt? Not while Fat Ash is running the show obviously, his degree of ineptitude is beyond belief, but generally my answer would be yes. A club trying to achieve success on the field and has a debt that is managed is better than a club with no debt and going nowhere. I note you don't deny your full and continued support for this joker turning the club into a pile of dogshit. Why on earth should you expect a response to your cack-handed attempts to put words into my mouth? Ashley has proved inept on various levels, and he's even worse at managerial appointments than Shepherd. Incredible but true. That said, he's doing broadly the right thing by trying to get the club's finances under control, as watchers of recent developments at Man U, Liverpool, West Ham and Portsmouth will understand. It's not long ago that the dear departed NE5 was trumpeting Portsmouth as the very model of how an ambitious football club should be run. Well, they'll be paying a long time for that FA Cup, just as we're now also paying for the extravagances of old. I think the only sensible course is to separate the two owners and treat each on their own merits. Shepherd's ambition was admirable but out of control and could have finished us. Ashley is proving to be a massive liar and his lack of sensible investment is proving just as short-sighted. Buying make do and mend players to fiddle through is NOT the Arsenal blueprint.

Beye was fantastic for us before he had fitness issues, but he's on the way down now so I really don't care too much. More importantly for me, this just showcases Bruce as being a total arsehole of a manager desperately chasing round after players linked with us. Butt, Zog, Kilgallon, Bent and now Beye. Does the daft prick phone Alan Oliver to clue him up on players?

Yeah have to agree there. Guthrie at times looks like a footballer. Taylor looks like he'd be a handy plumber. .

His impact upon our defence was rather impressive, yes, but having plucked him from League One only 7 months before he left, for him to think himself 'too big' for the club, refusing to play a game feigning illness and refusing to get onto the team bus in order to force a move to Portsmouth; absolute twat. He just went up massively in my estimation. Cheers for that vital info

We're probably still paying for half of them. You're just grumpy 'cos you prefer a board that doesn't sign players at all. I'd prefer this board to sign no players at all if the ones we are signing are anything to go by.

With regard to Ashley's "Arsenal blueprint" of signing young players who will increase in value, I'll be interested to see which of Kilgallon or Williamson is worth more this time next season. Although i suspect their both probably shite.

We're probably still paying for half of them. We're probably still paying the managers who signed them.