Shak

Spurs have managed it in recent times, and Arsenal have never been big spenders and are up there every year. The emergence of City and Chelsea has undoubtedly made things very difficult, but it's not completely impossible for teams to get up there.

How would we get back to being a CL team under a different owner? Find the best manager you can attract (rather than hire the most highly qualified of your mates) and actually back and empower him, for one thing. We'd probably need someone who was willing to speculate to accumulate too, given the state of the modern game.

Aye, we're in a better position but I do feel there's a much lower ceiling on what we can potentially achieve than there was under Shepherd. The only way we'll ever get back to being a CL team under Ashley is if we somehow unearth an absolute gem of a manager who can consistently develop young players into stars. And the odds of that don't seem all that good when you consider that Pardew got the job because he was friends with the people in charge.

"N'Zogbia was a player we were interested but you need to find value for money and we didn't feel he quite represented that. But we're more than happy with who we've brought in, I know Stephen had some problems with injuries last year but we feel he can really benefit from a fresh start and be a quality player for us."

Aye, sad to see.

Aye but he may as well be given how shit those options are.

All will be revealed by the end of the window. Signings like Marveaux and Ba will either be very shrewd squad additions or else they'll be indicative of a plan to build a team on the cheap. There's literally no excuse for us not to go out and add at least two really quality players after the deal we got for Carroll, I'm not expecting us to spend all of it but they need to spend a significant wedge.

Aye, and then ye sign Sanchez and tell Pedro to hit the showers. You lucky cunt.

What's the plan if ye buy him like? Push Iniesta further upfield, maybe out left?

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/jim-white/article/32244/

Ben Arfa quotes I assume? Signing a player on loan with an option to buy isn't really the same as spending 13m on one, tbf.

Bit of a Patrick Vieira about him from what I have seen of him, would be a magnificent signing. Think he'll get better offers though if we are actually interested, which I tend to doubt.

He had some personal problems with a few of his teammates in the Ireland squad. He resolved these problems by telling his coaches that a member of his family had died and he had to go home for the funeral. That tells you a bit about his mentality when the going gets tough. Still, he'll be cheap though.

I'd be up for giving him a chance if he wasn't such a complete and utter tosser. He is though.

Be surprised if any of them are on more than Nolan was like. And yes, when you've decided that Barton is going to be off the wage bill within 12 months, that is something that should be factored in. Honestly, I wasn't being entirely serious with the original suggestion. I know well that if we spend over 20m net on transfers it'll be considered a pleasant surprise, for me anyway. N'Zogbia and either another midfielder or another striker (depending on the system we're planning to use) would do me. I just don't want us to miss out on quality players that are keen to come here for the sake of a million or two.

How much do threee quality signing cost though? £10m for CNZ when we already have Jonas, Marveaux & HBA here isnt going to make fat Mike rush to his cheque book tbh when the likes of Erdinc/Matuidi will be another £20m or so if they came. So 30m in total yeah? Reckon we should be able to scare that up somewhere. In your mind are we planning on paying these players at any stage? The club clearly said it would go into fees/wages etc. You are talking a lot more than £30m in that case depending on how much the club were talking about. Maybe, but had we kept Carroll would you have deemed it acceptable for us to make no moves this summer at all? We should have been looking to invest anyway, the Carroll money should only be added to that frankly. We're also going to be saving a lot on Carroll's contract, Nolan's off the books and the club seem like they've decided to cut Barton loose next summer at the latest. I don't imagine that'll be factored in when considering the new contracts though, of course.

Are there any quotes like?

How much do threee quality signing cost though? £10m for CNZ when we already have Jonas, Marveaux & HBA here isnt going to make fat Mike rush to his cheque book tbh when the likes of Erdinc/Matuidi will be another £20m or so if they came. So 30m in total yeah? Reckon we should be able to scare that up somewhere.

Would be just class if we signed Matuidi and N'Zogbia and went for a 4-3-3 with N'Zogbia and Ben Arfa down the flanks. Couldn't really imagine Matuidi, Cabaye and Tiote getting overrun in the center of the park, would allow Zoggy and Barf a lot of freedom to attack down the flanks. Might have enough money left for a new #9 as well.

Will be really pissed off if we don't sign him tbh. Money should be no issue whatsoever after what happened in January. We've basically spent nowt so far, should be enough for three more quality signings, assuming the promise to reinvest the Carroll money wasn't just another lie.

It was like the scene in Fight Club where they're digging in the garden and Brad Pitt is belittling them through the megaphone.

I see. Handy as fuck for you that I'd imagine, in terms of getting jobs here and all that?

That clip of the training session at St. James' Park man, stuff of nightmares.

It better be decent, given that it's actually my first language. Confused.

Ah right, was curious to see how your English was so good. You damn sure didn't get it from these workbooks I use.