Colos Short and Curlies

Heard on the grape vine that Ashley wants to rebrand our players and this is why the contract is an issue. Simpson is unhappy with being asked to change his name to Donnay Simpson

Apologies in advance for going over old gorund no doubt - but my 2 penneth on this. (1) I don't really give a shit what the official name is - to all football fans it will be SJP (2) The club own the land around the gorund do they not? It would be a nice touch for this ground to be called St James Park - heck I'd even taks 'home of the SD Arena' under it (3) We do actually get money from SD indirectly for all the advertising - its in the form of the money Ashley has put in over the past 2 years (obviously this comment is null and void if the next accounts show that he's taken money out this year after the AC sale) (4) 'Our next away strip will be blue and red' - One of our best Away shirts I can remember was pretty much Blue and Red so don't see the problem (5) Would love GE to buy the rights for the naming/sponsorship as i work for them and might get free tickets. (6) Would people prefer for Ashely to recover his money by doing this or by actually taking cash out of the club? (7) llambias is still a buffoon

Even better. I did Spanish GCSE in 1999. Pretty sure I can still ask for a cheese sandwich. Give me a cattle class ticket to Argentina, a ticket for a River Plate game and a copy of the contract. It will be signed in days

always comes down to this in the end doesn't it, all or nothing? as i said earlier on for me loosening the purse strings could mean spending 2m net in january to strengthen the squad to push on into europe this season (i.e. pay a fee for someone coming out of contract or whatever instead of waiting 'til July) i don't see that's living in cloud cuckoo land at all, as you said yourself businessmen should be looking beyond 12 month periods so to use madras's figures from the 5m "profit" you could invest 1m in new players on the assumption that recouping your monies can be a gradual process that goes hand in hand with team building and success on the pitch - 4m paid off against the losses with modest investment might see you make 10m "profit" the following season partially as a result of the 1m spent Sorry should have been an 'all' in there

David Pleat 'He's a happy man'. Could have fooled me. Cracking hit though Ryan lad

cheers teach wasn't one of the published aims to get the club breaking even? it's very clear what you're getting at but what it implies is that the club can/should only outlay a net financial loss on transfer fees once (a) MA has recouped all the money he's spent over and above the purchase price and (b) there is little or no chance that the club will once again make a loss in any future season within a reasonable time frame that's not living in the real world man You have to remember that MA is a business man, and business men don't look at 12 month periods. If we've made losses in 5 successive years, one year with a windfall won't automatically mean that we're now breaking even or making profits, it simply means we got 'lucky'one year with a windfall. This money may go back to MA, it may go on infrastructure such as the training ground or support staff, it may go to rewarding our better performes with a better contract, it may go on new players or it may sit in a bank waiting for the right time to spend it / defend against a bad year. I'm pretty sure that once we are breaking even before player trading/ammortisation then all recouped fees will go back into the squad over time, but anyone thinking the £35m + 5m + 6m received for AC, KN and JE would go into the first team this year is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Have to say, this was a brilliant start to the thread - don't think it would be allowed these days, definitely nwoat!

Demba, Demba, Demba. Demba Ba - goal! (To the Thundercats beginning)

To be fair, my point on Simpson and England last seasn was that after Johnson there was nobody else pulling up any trees. Now Walker, Jones and even Smalling ot a degree have stepped up

Loved the fact that goal 1 was route one and the pen came from a long throw Loved Simpson taking the piss with the throw ins Were Ba and Jonas auditioning for a porno in the Post Game interviews? Jonas especially Delap had 13 throws last night, taking a total of just over 5 minutes from ball reaching his hand to letting it fly. No problem wiht using log throws, but there has to be a time allowance (10 seconds?) Overall great night

Cabaye Freekick after Ben Arfa gets pulled back in the 5th minute leading to a red card. Ben Arfa then to sea it in the 65th minute from 35 yards

Don't know why people want Sunderland to go down, the season isn't complete without the derby days. I'd have them finishing 17th every season. Wouldn't miss Wigan if they went down, ditto with Blackburn. They add nothing to the Premier League. After that take any from Bolton, QPR, Norwich, Everton.

Dunno what its like but absolute radio apparently have us as their commentary today

Hopefully the release of the documents will get us to a position where all parties accept their part in what happened and can work towards ensuring nothing like this ever happens again. Without singling out Liverpool as the only ones to do it, Athens proved that some fans haven't learned the lesson. Policing is better now, as are stadia, but there are still steps everyone can take to make things even safer. No more blame, no more cover ups and no more excuses.

David Pleat lol '5 Minutes injury time, we got that right - I thouht there'd be 4'

Who's giving Krul saving practice?

Thats the annoying thing with Shola - That's what he is capable of

This ref will look to even it up I reckon. On a replay its a pen, but in real time looked 50:50 at best

Not the right thread, but glad Kadar is at least getting reserve games and hasn't completely disappeared

Just had Spuds on Pro Evo. Dawson sent off after 15 minutes, won 4-0. mind you I've also just won the league and have Huntelaar and Gignac up front

Nah, he was just giving young Tim a chance to show off.

I'd always personally have a goalkeeper as the first name on any teamsheet

Triangles to get out of the left back position are back!

No way HBA should start, the biggest risk for him now is muscle wear and tear and/or weakness. Cameo form the bench this weekend, an hour next weekend and then see where we are

I'm sure we've got a spare centre midfielder they could have, just change his name to Alain Smithe and we're sorted