TRon

According to Oliver West Ham are prepared to offer £0.00. Not quite over a milion but it's a start I suppose.

Reading between the lines, looks like Oliver is spitting the dummy out because he no longer has easy access to inside scoops since Shepherd got the boot. So he's basically up for anything that will make life difficult for the club. Yes West Ham would like our players for free, and would love to stir shit by suggesting this move so Oliver obliges happily., even though he must know this will never happen. What a slimy bastard.

Slow players can't usually run past players...although Gazza did, so maybe it doesn't matter if they aren't Linford Christie type sprinters.

It's time for Alan Doh'liver. Come on Admin, make it happen...

But then he can look quite clever with his feet as well...maybe he should stick to easy stuff like laying it off instead of twisting and turning with the ball...but then he wouldn't be a handful any more. Can we really ask a PREMIERSHIP striekr to "stick to the easy stuff", and not expect to look like twats? Don't really understand what you are saying. Can you rephrase it? Where do you think our natural position currently lies? 6th to 9th in the league? If so, and i think it is in honesty, then how can we have a "young" striker on the bench, who we might have to bring on for tactical or injury reasons, who's ability is so limited that all we can ask him to do is lay the ball off? Out "second choice" strike force should be pushing and pushing for a first team spot, not someone we wince when we realise we HAVE to play them for soem unfortunate reason. That was my whole poi9nt though. He DOESN'T just lay the ball off. He feints, runs at defenders with the ball, generally tries harder stuff than 'just laying the ball off' which is part of the reason why he loses the ball - similar to Martins. This is what makes him a handful but it can also make him look clumsy when it doesn't come off. To answer your question I'm quite happy to have him on the bench as he's quite capable of changing a game. Yes I'd prefer a young hotshot instead, when we get one then we can sell Shola.

This prick is actually getting paid to write such shit? The mind boggles.

But then he can look quite clever with his feet as well...maybe he should stick to easy stuff like laying it off instead of twisting and turning with the ball...but then he wouldn't be a handful any more. Can we really ask a PREMIERSHIP striekr to "stick to the easy stuff", and not expect to look like twats? Don't really understand what you are saying. Can you rephrase it?

But then he can look quite clever with his feet as well...maybe he should stick to easy stuff like laying it off instead of twisting and turning with the ball...but then he wouldn't be a handful any more.

I agree. If Shola went elsewhere, I don't think it's beyond possibility that he could do quite well as a target man. Injury-free, he is definitely a handful, and not a bad finisher. I don't think he's quite ruthless enough for a top club though - but I'd be happy to see him on our bench.

Good cover for Viduka, but not good enough to be first choice.

I could have pointed out that the only successful appointment under Shepherd was Robson - and the prime driver behind that was John Hall - but wtf.

I would play Luque up front ahead of Shola alongside Viduka. Luque's a better finisher and has more goal-scoring instinct about him. Depends whether Luque will be happ to be 4th or 5th choice though, and I suspect he won't.

Not really fussed either way. His opportunities will be limited here so as long as we aren't expected to pick up some of his wages he could leave. If not, he offers us another option up front alongside Viduka, if Owen or Martins are unavailable. With Owen's injury record and Martins unavailability due to the African cup, that could easily happen.

I can see where you're coming from, but Allardyce's work in the transfer market suggests he's a pretty shrewd operator, and to be fair, he's tactically kicked our arse a few times, not to mention several teams with much better resources than Bolton.

I agree that it's time to move on and wish the new board every success in the future. The past is the past, and as you say irrelevant. So no need to discuss this further IMO, especially as it isn't related to the topic in any case.

Really good article that. This sort of attention to detail is exactly why I have wanted Allardyce here so long, and Mark Hughes is another manager who seems to have his eye on the ball in preparation of players. There's only so much you can do without the right players, but you only have to look at managers like Souness to see where negligence and lack of insight can lead. Allardyce believes in appointing experts, Souness believes in appointing his mates. Their respective records probably reflect this.

Could well follow a similar p[attern to the Rozenhal signing. He said similar stuff about staying in Paris before signing. If we make it clear we still want him I'd be surprised if Drago can turn down a big pay rise.

Freddy backed Roeder less than Mort has so far backed Allardyce, at least that will be the case when we sign the bloke who has just travelled over from Spain, FACT. Again you mention balancing the books. that question was for Tron. I'm sure he can answer his own questions, like when you replied for Baggio. You also omitted the first bit, if you really want to answer for him I've answered all these questions indirectly through various posts but if you insist: You seem to have difficulty comptrehending the fact we turned down £6m shows we are anything but desperate. If you don't understand this let me know and I'll explain in simpler terms. I don't have any problem acknowledging Shepherd always backed his managers. My only gripe was that his reasoning for picking Souness and Roeder stunk of incompetence. £10m-worth of signings in the last few days with no players sold to balance the books AND Big Sam personally crediting Mort for getting the deals done. Actions speak louder than words. Well, lets put it this way. The club expected Dyer to go, so spent the money on Smith. This is not speculation, well it is, but it is true. So they have spent the money on Enrique. Well done, of course. But it isn't anything the old board didn't do for well over a decade. Nor is it particular an alien situation for Newcastle United to actually sell players for financial reasons anyway over the last 15 years. But I'm sure you will ignore this as you clearly are one of those who have it in for Hall and Shepherd on account of them being caught in a brothel and calling people names. Whatever. Actions indeed speak louder than words. Well done to the board for beginning to back the manager, even though he had to publicy speak out and tell us that he was having problems with them. Also, results speak louder than words, so along with everyone else I look forward to us playing in the Champions League again, seeing as Shepherd and Hall have gone, and they were holding the club back so much, and it should now be a foregone conclusion, given a bit of time, naturally. I hope that in the future the current board don't pick a knacker of a manager too mind, as nobody does it except Shepherd and Hall. Not even Liverpool do that, ever, Roy Evans, the double act of Houillier and Evans was a brainwave, as was Arsenal appointing Rioch and all the clubs who haven't played in europe as often as us over the last decade, including the great Steve Gibson, who would never be stupid enough to appoint managers with no managerial experience such as McLaren and Southgate. All things which people on here have said in the past on numerous occasions. I realise that this will go straight over your head, despite being fact, for not being completely anti Shepherd / Hall. Point by point your arguments have been disected, and your negativity blown out of the water. As usual you end up blathering about Shepherd and how we didn't appreciate him but no one really cares by now. Stick his photo on the mantlepiece and light a candle under it every day if you like but please give it a rest on the forums. We don't like talking about yesterday's news.

You must be joking

Peanuts to Big Mike. Putting West Ham in their place and rightly so.

With Enrique's capture, it wouldn't be a disaster if this fell through, but still think we are a bit light in the CB dept so Drago would be a good addition to the squad IMO.

Freddy backed Roeder less than Mort has so far backed Allardyce, at least that will be the case when we sign the bloke who has just travelled over from Spain, FACT. Again you mention balancing the books. that question was for Tron. I'm sure he can answer his own questions, like when you replied for Baggio. You also omitted the first bit, if you really want to answer for him I've answered all these questions indirectly through various posts but if you insist: You seem to have difficulty comptrehending the fact we turned down £6m shows we are anything but desperate. If you don't understand this let me know and I'll explain in simpler terms. I don't have any problem acknowledging Shepherd always backed his managers. My only gripe was that his reasoning for picking Souness and Roeder stunk of incompetence. £10m-worth of signings in the last few days with no players sold to balance the books AND Big Sam personally crediting Mort for getting the deals done. Actions speak louder than words.

Sends out another message that we have enough money at the club not to be bothered about losing out Dyer's fee. That is re-assuring in itself and should give critics of the new regime like Invicta and NE5 something to think about. To clarify, you think it's OK for the club to be run so Ashley bails it out and either uses his own money or the clubs to keep a player who wants to leave ? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not advocating being an easy touch, it may well be that this increase in the fee is to pay for a loyalty payment by Dyer, and I would actually be in favour of letting the little b****** rot if this is the case, although as Sam is the manager he will have to do the sensible thing and play him, but I hope he doesn't expect the supporters to accept him fully again after this escapade. You can't chuck money away, and you have to use your players to win games. We have been through this bollocks with Souness and Bellamy, and Robert. I'm asking this of you because you didn't respond to my post in "everything falling into place", number 237, and wonder why exactly you seem to want to make such snide comments about myself - and vicky - and presume for some reason that someone has supported the club for 40 years and not wanted us to be successful, just because we dont' agree with you ? Some people prefer to judge on actions when they see them, rather than wear rose tinted specs. I'll be happier when we start throwing our financial weight around and beating smaller clubs to the top players personally, and can't see anything wrong with that, can you ? Unless of course you yourself have limited ambition [bTW this is similar to the last comment you didn't respond to] I think if the clubs have agreed a fee of 6m quid he should stick to his word, and if Dyer has asked for a loyalty bonus then he would be far wiser to forget about it, he must know that setting foot in the quayside again would not be very advisable. What I am saying is that we are sending out a very strong message that we aren't desperate for the Dyer cash. If you like being desperate, well each to his own. Dyer is a Newcastle player on a very good contract, if he wants away, he could always buy out of it. As far as the post in my thread about "Everything falling into place", tbh, I just couldn't be arsed. I haven't got all day to wind up in circular arguments which end up in "Freddie always backed his managers" or "Remember life before the Shepherd?!!" FYI everything you said on that thread was total bollocks. We are sending out a message that we are wanting 2m more for a player, that we had agreed a fee with. Are we "desperate" for this extra 2m quid, or just showing the rest of football that we can't keep our word ? It's a shame that you can't acknowledge the fact that "Freddie always backed his managers" is, in fact, true, mind. I'm sure that our balancing the books act so far under the new board, that you thought was going to be automatically better, is showing all the signs so far of not backing the manager to a similar degree. Still, I'm sure that isn't true at all, as you say it isn't the case. Particularly as the one person who DOES know, has been expressing his dissatasfaction and frustration at whateve is actually reallly happening. Read the above quote in my last post. Answers all your questions I believe.

Jimmymag, you can ask massive questions of the board if you want, get Mort struck off if it makes you happy, that above quote is all I'm interested in. Because it dumps all over all the people who have been slagging off the new board prematurely. Carry on Ashley and Mort

Geremi seems just the sort of character to make an ideal captain; committed, great pro, and a player with enough ability to command respect in the dressing room. Good choice IMO.