Offshore

Doesn't matter how many owners/major contributors you have (eg Sunderland) its who you get to run it as chairman that counts. Lambias has been a disaster from start to finish. I agree Llambias has been s***, but just look at the trouble Liverpool have had with their two owners. I think they're joint owners, and have a deep hatred for each other (not sure if they brought this with them when buying Liverpool or not though) and that has been at the root of all their problems. At the end of the day, you should always have one person at the top of a managerial tree, if not an individual owner as chairman then one appointed if the owner/owners/major shareholders are not hands-on, and trusted to run the company. Slight side note: We've got one owner and a chairman - even if he trusts Lambias to the hilt, he must realise that for the sake of his company he should be paid off, a sacrifice to go some way to appeasing us the fans. It wouldn't be the end of all this crap, but it would at least be a positive start.

Doesn't matter how many owners/major contributors you have (eg Sunderland) its who you get to run it as chairman that counts. Lambias has been a disaster from start to finish.

Can't realistically count injuried players in the '2 out and 3 in' scheme of things as going by that we could have signed Kaka, Messi and Vidic and still need about 5 other players just to cover our RVI out-patients. Goalie, while Harper will do a decent and competent job, the fact is Given did an excellent job - weaker, but not by much. Defense, Ryan Taylor in and no-one out, other than his goals against us have no idea if he's any good or not - same or slight improvement. Centre midfield, Nolan in and no-one out, think the change of club will do him and us good - improved. Wings - Zog out and Lovengrants in, if I had to pick one over the other, i'd pick the Zog (even if he had the lip on) - weaker Attack - no change, but Smith back soon - weaker Overall - slight improvement, but could and should have been greater.

Definitely. Third'd Taylor isn't as bad as some make out, but thats got the best balance.

From my bed - nightshift. Bed at 7.30, set alarm for 1pm, then if able (unlikely) try to get another hour in before 5pm breakfast.

This game turned when Carrick went off injuried IIRC.

Perfect move for him tbh. Wont get a guarenteed starting place anywhere else, wigan are a side on the up. Would do a straight swap for scharner though! Rather do a swap for Steve Bruce tbh. Christ, thats something i'd never have entertained before.

Looks like we're going to try and protect our goal difference!! I've a bad feeling about this.

Give over man. You could probably count the number of folk who at the time then wouldn't want MON on one hand and still have some left. Milner is doing no more than he did here, the only difference is he's in a better team. You've said it yourself, his crosses still need improvement. What next, Zat Knight - the new Maldini? I don't know how long you've been watching this site, but there was a LOT more than 5 people who DIDN'T want O'Neill when he went to Villa..NOT that you are going to get many who admit it, although one has had the grace to do so..! And maybe it YOU who should 'Give over[...because looking at Brummie's comments, he has clearly seen an improvement over the past few weeks..is that so surprising, just because the 'Theatre of Excellence' that is NUFC can't manage to do the same with players....!? Are you counting those who'll have said they didn't want him (anyway) AFTER he'd gone to Villa which I would put down to a good old fit of pique? (Mr 75 excepted of course) Right, back to the main point. Milner. He's always had a 100% work rate, he's always had a great attitude. You say, and I don't think you'll find anyone disagree, he needs to improve on his crossing, so unless MON has injected some pace into him, exactly what has he improved on since he left us?

Give over man. You could probably count the number of folk who at the time then wouldn't want MON on one hand and still have some left. Milner is doing no more than he did here, the only difference is he's in a better team. You've said it yourself, his crosses still need improvement. What next, Zat Knight - the new Maldini?

http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~1227633,00.html NEWCASTLE United announces that Dennis Wise has agreed to join the Club in the role of Executive Director (Football). Also joining the Club are Tony Jimenez as Vice President (Player Recruitment) and Jeff Vetere, who joins from Real Madrid in the position of Technical Co-ordinator. Dennis will assist the Board on football-related matters, including the development of the Club's Academy and player recruitment. He will report to the Chairman.Tony and Jeff will also assist in player recruitment. The arrival of these three new recruits follows on from the recent appointment of Kevin Keegan as manager. Kevin will be responsible for all matters related to the First Team. Chairman Chris Mort said: "This is all part of the vision that recently helped us to secure Kevin Keegan's return to the Club as manager. "Two of the conclusions of our strategic review, since acquiring the Club, were that the Club would benefit from having a football person involved at Board level, which it has not had historically, and that further senior resources are needed for recruiting players of the highest quality from this country and further afield. "Dennis would like to move away from day-to-day football management to a Board role and, with his considerable energy and intelligence, we believe he will do very well in this new position. "With Kevin able to devote his efforts to developing and running the first team squad, Dennis, Tony and Jeff will each help us to secure success for Newcastle United Football Club at all levels and for the long-term. One or two further key appointments will follow in the months ahead." x 1000 The first bit in bold implies that KK has/had total control but its sort of watered down by the second. Ambiguous at best. Wonder if this was intentional or just a coincidence?

It could be argued that money 'is' available, we've supposedly put bids in for M'bia and another (defender?) from France without having yet sold anyone to finance this. or for balance, as i'm sure someone else will come up with. We've not yet had our bids accepted so haven't 'got' to sell anyone to finance these deals. i'll go for 70/30 the former, but knowing that there isn't much extra cash available.

Kevin Scott should give them a ring...........

what If they hadn't gone on a kamikazi spending spree, hoying money about when we didn't have it, then maybe our short stay at the top table would maybe have been longer. and if they hadn't gone on a "spending spree", they would have been at the top table in the first place, I presume this will go in one ear and out the other. You should have supported the club during the McKeag and Seymour years, you 'd have loved it. Then again, soopa mike will drag us down to that level pretty soon now The reason I brought this up was I think they'd already done this - have a relatively fallow year spending wise - during Dalglish's reign I think (and this is off the top of my head, mind) that they'd but a reasonable brake on spending as we had Pearce, Rush and Barnes all playing. My point, is that if they'd taken stock after the SBR reign then perhaps they'd have come up the other side better off. Instead they saw the bright lights and continued to chase after them throwing cash out that we couldn't afford then and still can't. Oh, and don't know about Seymour, but deffo McKeag....1977'ish for me. I said at the time that the money they allowed Souness to spend - and throw away through kicking out Bellamy and Robert - would bite us on the arse. Lots of people disagreed though, and said he was doing the right thing, backed what he was doing, and insisted he would come out of the other end as the new Alex Ferguson. A notable supporter of this was mandiarse, one of the biggest supporters of what Souness was doing in fact. Thats the thing though, we're NOW finally having to pay for the excessive spending of the club chasing the dream. They unfortunately continued gambling on the fact that it had worked before then it would again, and again, and again without taking any steps when they could and should have. The end result has left us with an accumulated debt during a banking recession - while the previous board could not be expected to second-guess that, the fact that they ok'd all the spending in the first place has greatly contributed to our present predicament. If you put a poll up on here asking 'who wants the club to spend £xxm every season?' I think you'll not find many, if any, who'd not want that. We're fans at the end of the day, all we really care about is what happens on the pitch, we want the best players, we want the best results, we want to win things. No-one outside the club would have been aware of the debt building up, so we, quite naturally, didn't care or presumed that we'd always be ok. Can't disagree with you saying that if we're in a good position and don't improve then you'll end up going backwards. However, being in a good position isn't just determined by your league position. If you earn £40k and spend £50k each year on a fantastic lifestyle, there come's a time when you have to take a good hard look at yourself and take action. You can either earn more, or spend less - at least until you get your debt cleared or under reasonable control. Same goes for football. Football is indeed an expensive business, one which our Mr Ashley is finding out the hard way, he's done a shitload of things wrong including not doing due dilligence - but at least he's now trying, correct the finances.

what If they hadn't gone on a kamikazi spending spree, hoying money about when we didn't have it, then maybe our short stay at the top table would maybe have been longer. and if they hadn't gone on a "spending spree", they would have been at the top table in the first place, I presume this will go in one ear and out the other. You should have supported the club during the McKeag and Seymour years, you 'd have loved it. Then again, soopa mike will drag us down to that level pretty soon now The reason I brought this up was I think they'd already done this - have a relatively fallow year spending wise - during Dalglish's reign I think (and this is off the top of my head, mind) that they'd but a reasonable brake on spending as we had Pearce, Rush and Barnes all playing. My point, is that if they'd taken stock after the SBR reign then perhaps they'd have come up the other side better off. Instead they saw the bright lights and continued to chase after them throwing cash out that we couldn't afford then and still can't. Oh, and don't know about Seymour, but deffo McKeag....1977'ish for me. Between Dalglish arriving and the end of his first summer (and leading up to our first CL season) we'd sold about £17 million's worth of players (including Sir Les and Ginola, and Kitson who went in January) and brought in about £8.5 million's worth (Given, JDT, Pistone) plus a bunch of frees (Barnes, Pearce, the clapped-out Ian Rush). Thats the one.

what If they hadn't gone on a kamikazi spending spree, hoying money about when we didn't have it, then maybe our short stay at the top table would maybe have been longer. and if they hadn't gone on a "spending spree", they would have been at the top table in the first place, I presume this will go in one ear and out the other. You should have supported the club during the McKeag and Seymour years, you 'd have loved it. Then again, soopa mike will drag us down to that level pretty soon now The reason I brought this up was I think they'd already done this - have a relatively fallow year spending wise - during Dalglish's reign I think (and this is off the top of my head, mind) that they'd but a reasonable brake on spending as we had Pearce, Rush and Barnes all playing. My point, is that if they'd taken stock after the SBR reign then perhaps they'd have come up the other side better off. Instead they saw the bright lights and continued to chase after them throwing cash out that we couldn't afford then and still can't. Oh, and don't know about Seymour, but deffo McKeag....1977'ish for me.

what If they hadn't gone on a kamikazi spending spree, hoying money about when we didn't have it, then maybe our short stay at the top table would maybe have been longer.

Perhaps if they had done something similar themselves then maybe we'd have been looking at our champions league runs stretching longer than 2.

1st team when all fit - competent. Squad as a whole - below par.

I'm in the same boat as you when it comes to finances and accountancy, having read this thread i'd taken it that if a player is 'bought' then he's included on the accounts as being worth that amount, but like a car depreciates over time, the players asset value would decrease by the transfer fee/years of contract. If bought for £10m on a 4 year contract he would be counted on the books as. 1st year - asset worth £10m 2nd year - asset worth £7.5m 3rd year - asset worth £5m 4th year - asset worth £2.5m The way i'd read this thread means that in theory if he signed another contract then he'd still be counted in accounts as being worth £0m. Presume this applies to free transfers and anyone we've brought through in the ranks. I'm prepared to have this all wrong though.

As someone who normally can't make head nor tail of his BT phone bill, a big thanks to all who've put the figures into laymans terms. The global recession has hit the banking sector hard, they're cutting back lending across the board. I don't imagine any special case would be made for football over any other business, so it probably follows that the days of bank guarantees to a club who wants to spend way more than they take in based on an estimated and increasing yearly income will be over or at least severely curtailled for the average club. From a financial viewpoint only then, other than those very few clubs who don't have to worry about their spending or debt - Man City (owner) and the established top 4 who are near enough guaranteed good revenues from the Champion league then i'd say, without seeing the other clubs figures obviously, that we're probably in a healthier state than most clubs.

gan on Burnley

If anything JFK is the least of our problems, in fact i'd say he's done better than most thought possible or i'll rephrase that to say the club is higher up than most thought at the start of the turmoil (with or without JFK) - if he could/would just turn down the bullshit a bit that would help his cause considerably. Everton are a stable club who 'have' splashed the cash when they've been able - mind you, also having a very good manager has helped too. That's my point, a better manager will help us too. I just don't get all this "Kinnear has done the best he can under the circumstances" bullshit. He's done an absolutely horrible job and has managed to embarrass the club on numerous occasions at the same time. Yes, Mike Ashley is the bigger problem, but he's not one we can replace. Kinnear is. btw, Moyes' entire net spend for his eight-year reign has been around 35m. I doubt many on here harping about "backing your manager" would be happy with an investment of around 5m per annum. And replace him with who? or more to the point, who that is better would come here? There are things that desperately need changing at the club and while the manager would be one of them, he's no-where near the top of the list.

If anything JFK is the least of our problems, in fact i'd say he's done better than most thought possible or i'll rephrase that to say the club is higher up than most thought at the start of the turmoil (with or without JFK) - if he could/would just turn down the bullshit a bit that would help his cause considerably. Everton are a stable club who 'have' splashed the cash when they've been able - mind you, also having a very good manager has helped too.

Thinking back, I think the quality of the editorials and articles in fanzines rises when the quality on/off the pitch falls. The Mag was at its best when we were at our lowest; KD's second season, Gullit and Souness onwards. KK (1st time and start of 2nd) and SBR made it too easy for them. Comfort zone and aal that.