TRon

Coppell was once manager of Man City. Do a little research and find out what happened there then you will understand just what bollocks that article is.

How would this work then? He'd just want £20m as the cash price, with the rest of the £100m paid back over a number of years? That would be ridiculous. He's just going back to his market stall roots, pitching to passing traders to see if anyone'll bite.

Crap article.

I think Asley should probably steel himself for a less pleasant outcome as well if he doesn't sell. If he was getting death threats in the mail after Keegan left I don't think he'll be getting sent flowers this time round.

£100m isn't the real cost though is it? When you factor in the overdraft and Ashley's loan the real price is going to be quite a lot more.

He'll get a longer contract.

If Nolan doesn't play I think we might be able to snatch a surprise win.

Yeah I hate nearly all of them too. Unfortunately the 4 or 5 players that I quite liked are the ones who are being sold.

It depends on who the new manager is. If it's Shearer he'll be looking at younger hungry players, which is why he was determined to fight to keep Bassong and Beye (not young in years but miles faster and fitter than most). If it's Kinnear then I expect we'll add to our collection of cheap, tired players so that everyone is on the same level.

Wonder how big the split will be between those who say its likely, those who say its unlikely, and those who sit on the fence with the classic '50/50' Knowing our luck it will be all 'talks broke down without agreement' etc. There is still a good possibility this is how it will end unless Ashley can go against the grain and make a wise decision. He will have to relent in the end to push a sale through. Does he really want to let this one go up in smoke as well?

100% in agreement. We couldn't afford to give him an extended contract so he's gone elsewhere and good luck to him. I'll say the same to any other useless cunt like Smith or Butt if they can get a decent offer which I highly doubt.

If he had two years left on his contract then there was no need to sell him for less than £10m. Lots of players agitate for moves, like Gareth Barry at Villa, it doesn't mean you have to give in to the blackmail. if another team wants a player they will pay a good fee.

It all sounds very much in the balance to me - with massive potential for Ashley to fuck things up at the final hurdle. Ah well, fingers crossed.

What about bringing in 16 times the fee we paid and being our best player for the whole season? Or did you expect us to keep him? ..Nothing like being bitter though. Good luck to the lad, i don't mind that it's Spurs either, he will get a lot of first team appearances in a team that was performing very well indeed at the close of the season. Gurantee there's a sell on clause with Metz, or are you only bothered about making profits? Why couldn't we keep him sorry he's on like 5k a week. One of the few I thought we would, but hey nothing like being optimistic. The lad was the first one wanting out, when he'd been far from perfect. Showed all the loyalty and class I'd expect. Loyalty?! he was here a year, he had 4 managers, his team mates were on 10 times as much as him and they gave up half-way through the year. When he was negotiating a new contract talks halted or ground to a close IIRC and he should be playing in the Premier League. He has ambitions, and didn't want to be at a club which is frankly a joke at the minute. Completely understandable. I also do care about the fee, anything that helps keep the club running in these times can only be a good thing. What about loyalty to the fans that have shown him nothing but support? He's hardly been the perfect defender, or are we ignoring the 2-3 red cards he picked up? The irony being it was his poor positioning that cost us the goal away to Tottenham. I overlook those because i saw a player who played out of his skin and was our best performer. He started the season as a good prospect, no one seriously expected anything of him this year. Or do you ignore that? He had a few bad games, he is 23 in his maiden season in the Premier League.. why do you expect a 'perfect' defender? I honestly believe Vidic or Ferdinand couldn't of done a lot better in our circumstances. Stop going on about loyalty, he was here less than a year... He owed Metz a lot more than us, he is not from this part of the world and bigger clubs are interested in him - who will offer him more than 5k. You're one of these people that don't blame the players for wanting to leave aren't you? The ones that have done nothing wrong ie: Bassong, Beye, Martins yee i don't blame them, they can further their careers elsewhere. The Nolans, Collocini's, Butt's' of the world it's a different story, i blame their very poor performances for being were we are now. So what exactly do you blame Bassong for out of curiosity? for his 3 red cards? poor positional sense against Spurs? Not being the perfect defender at 23? or are you just stupidly bitter? You blame Nolan??? FFS the lad was brought in in the January window, and started 10 games. A bit harsh to blame him for our relegation when the likes of Guttierez, Duff et al had longer at being shite for us. Nolan could at least have had the professionlism to stay fit. He arrived in bad shape and he looks in even worse shape now. I'm not saying he's a fag smoking beer monster but I don't have any proof he isn't either.

Could have had a crap second year in the Premiership. He may have been the best defender since Woodgate but lets be honest we've not exactly had any good defenders in that time. That does sort of emphasise how difficult it is to get good defenders though. Doesn't exactly back up your dismissive attitude to us having finally landed one only to let him go a season later. You seem to be forgetting we're a Championship club now. Also was it Joe Harvey who said you should always get rid of players who don't want to be at the club as quickly as possible otherwise you'll end up relying on them in a time of need and they will let you down. No problem with that as long as the buying club doesn't get the player for less than he's worth. In most cases they usually have to pay a premium for unsettling the player as City will do if they buy Lescott for £18-20m. What was he worth when we signed him on the cheap then? We made a huge profit on it at a time the club are desperate and he was desperate to leave. Little choice sadly now to replace him............................. Just because we (for once) signed a defender on the cheap doesn't mean we should be happy to let him go for a profit, otherwise you could argue £2m is enough. We did pay £4m for Nolan by the way so i wouldn't start whistling a happy tune on the way to the bank just yet. That fat fuckers still here and no, there aren't any offers in.

Read the Journal article and it's obvious that Kinnear is obviously being kept in the loop far more than Shearer, something which must make him furious privately. He's even talking about the offers for the club only being £75m FFS.

Could have had a crap second year in the Premiership. He may have been the best defender since Woodgate but lets be honest we've not exactly had any good defenders in that time. That does sort of emphasise how difficult it is to get good defenders though. Doesn't exactly back up your dismissive attitude to us having finally landed one only to let him go a season later. You seem to be forgetting we're a Championship club now. Also was it Joe Harvey who said you should always get rid of players who don't want to be at the club as quickly as possible otherwise you'll end up relying on them in a time of need and they will let you down. No problem with that as long as the buying club doesn't get the player for less than he's worth. In most cases they usually have to pay a premium for unsettling the player as City will do if they buy Lescott for £18-20m.

Could have had a crap second year in the Premiership. He may have been the best defender since Woodgate but lets be honest we've not exactly had any good defenders in that time. That does sort of emphasise how difficult it is to get good defenders though. Doesn't exactly back up your dismissive attitude to us having finally landed one only to let him go a season later.

£8m is a very good deal for Spurs. When you think of the money spent on CB's who have proved fuck all in the premier (think Coloccini/ Boumsong etc) EDIT: As Mowen has pointed out, that wheezing fat bastard Nolan cost us £4m

I can remember we were looking for £15m for Given before capitulating to City for half of that last season.

Whys that then? our best defender on the lowest wages and we cashed in? who we going to get to replace him on those wages? yeah but the fee makes it worth while I guess. Total of about £20m for the sale of two players. That amount will possibly cover half of the players wages for the season. It doesnt though, the fee will not reduce the wage bill. We have weakened our defence on the eve of the new season. If he was a top earner i would agree, but we now need to buy another defender on the same or similar wages for buttons, it just doesnt make sense. If we want to return to the premier league we need at the very least capable defenders, as we have a very dodgy loooking attack, we now f***ed ourselves. £10 million is f*** all compared to promotion. The trouble was he didn't want to be here and was refusing to play. If Moat is going to be the new owner and he wants Shearer as boss you would have thought Bassong was one of those players Al didn't want to let go.

In all fairness, any fee close to £8m will be a good deal if he's only got a year left on his contract. If not then £10m is a good deal for them IMO. I'm pretty sure he'll go on to be worth at least that.

It will be at some point...might as well leave the title alone

I doubt the Chronicle would have dismissed it so quickly unless they had some info tbh. There again, it's only on their web page, it could easily disappear in the next couple of hours.

Just before we get to sign anyone.