Colos Short and Curlies

I'll ask one!

Too much anyway, wouldn't pay anything over 4m max for him, highly doubt Baines "snubbed" Everton as he was even at the ground the other day, fee problems and hopefully we can nick him. You've been to Goodison Park? An hour there and you're thinking... 'God I'll have to play here 18 times a season, my car don't stand a chance' (pulls phone out of pocket) 'Hello Sam?, Please bring me up to Newcastle, I'll accept any wage you want to offer, just get me away from Goodison!'

Great move, Falkirk my Scottish team. Have an oustside chance of Top 6 there next year so at least its not a pub outfit

I think it goes along the lines of.. Sorry Silvestre, you turned us down so we bought the beast Drago and Leighton. Enjoy playing for the reserves next year Love Anal

You are quality. To calm your nerves, the Smith deal will be discussed on SSN shortly, it was just on the headlines. Reckon that if the Drago deal is nearly there all 3 will be announced at once, why waste your free Orange minutes ringing David Craig 3 times in one day? Is he exclusively a SSN's NUFC reporter? I never see him doing anything else, probably relocated the poor b****** as well. Got to feel sorry for the poor bloke. Just gets thrown around from the Riverside to SoL to St James' from day-to-day, gets mobbed by charvers when a transfer is made or a manager is sacked/appointed. Bet he hates his job. Best Mates with TalkSports Graham 'Expecting a good game today' Courtney no doubt. DC did get to do the Evening show with Ian Payne last night, kept mentioning Smith so maybe he was getting edgy about having to report on other insignificant teams like Arsenal and Chelsea

You are quality. To calm your nerves, the Smith deal will be discussed on SSN shortly, it was just on the headlines. Reckon that if the Drago deal is nearly there all 3 will be announced at once, why waste your free Orange minutes ringing David Craig 3 times in one day?

Given Carr Roz (if fit - or Ramage/Taylor) Cacapa (if fit - or Ramage/Taylor) Baines (if here - or Zog) Butt Geremi Eminem Martins Dukes Luque Subs (to come on) Owen Taylor/Ramage Milner Solano Carroll Pattison

` kerr is definetly worse!!! but brittain looked excellent! joke On an old Champ Man (be around 2002) I got Brian Kerr to be worth a mammoth £11m!

I could deal with Carr (especially Carr v2008) at right back. Admitedly he would be the weak link there, but for the past 2 seasons he has been the better of the full backs - and thats not a compliment! So if Carr stays and we have significantly improved the other 3 defensive positions then I'm satisified (until January anyway!)

This post rates close to 10/10. I can guarantee no detractor will have the balls to debate or dispute it on it's own merits but may well hark back to the days before Shepherd and Hall as a crutch defence and attempt to divert the issues addressed. You would be wrong then. I can guarantee that no detractor, especially those who weren't around pre - 1992 and think that NUFC have always won trophies galore and the Halls and Shepherd are responsible for bringing an end to decades of glory, would have the balls to dispute that a young quality defender is just as good a buy as an older quality defender, as he can spend his career with you, but whether they are young or old, you have to be prepared to pay a fee if they are under contract. And the competition will be hot if they are good, and the competition will not be so hot if they are not so good. And if they are good, they won't sign for clubs that they think are not going to be successful, or clubs that offer less money than someone else. We did quite well to sign Woodgate. For big money. There was also unknown, or cheap foreigners over the years such as Dumas, Marcelino, Goma, Boumsong, Babayaro, Pistone, Charvet, and younger players such as Bramble, O'Brien, Griffin, as part of a "plan" for those who think everybody but us has a "plan". Lets hope these new defenders are better than most of that little lot, the vast majority of whom were celebrated when arrived because we needed defenders. The bottom line, is that if you want quality, you invariably pay, either with a transfer fee or in wages. Woodgate is the absolute proof. Or rather, if you don't, then your chances of success - depending on your ambition for the club - is seriously diminished. But - at least in terms of the ones who we paid money for, they tried, and backed the manager. I cant fault that. I do think there is evidence though that Allardyce can get good players for small amounts or on a free. We are lucky to have him and we both know who to thank. As I've said earlier, he's said he can't get the players he wants because we have no European football so it makes sense if he's looking to bring in players that can get us into Europe on short term contracts so he can try for the players he wants in January/next summer. Dismissing people because they're free is stupid when nearly everyone would have taken Campbell and Distin under the same circumstances. Spending money on players you don't want to keep numpties on messageboards happy is not the way forward either, both manager and chairman have said the money is there so I really can't see what your problem is, and before you start I couldn't care less about Shepherd or Hall now, they're history and Ashley will get my full support until I think things are going wrong, that's not 2 weeks after taking over either. I think numpties on message boards - or anywhere for that matter - are people who think that success can be obtained without spending money, people who slate the last board for not spending cash despite spending bucketfuls and are now saying not spending any is the way forward, people who think having a DOF cures all your ills, and biggest of all people who think all you need is a "plan" to be successful and we haven't had one having played in the Champions League, europe regularly and reached a couple of Cup Finals in the last decade. There are 2 possibilities here One is that Ashley came in and knew it would cost 200m quid to buy the club and clear the debt. If this is the case, the slate is clean and he has written this money off and is running the club in the way he sees fit. Two is that he didn't, meaning he's not a shrewd as people are making out ? And another 3rd option, which Vic touched on, is that Allardyce is still thinking in Bolton mode, and not high enough for Newcastle. Which is it ? bear in mind his comment about "they would be stupid not to back me now" He's said he's got money but the players he wants want come because we have no European football - You seem to be ignoring this and trying to get it through to you is like banging your head against a brick wall. Do you think Allardyce is lying? If you look at our dealings in the past we managed to sweeten the lack of Euopean/Champions League football through grossly exaggerated wages and minimum release clauses (means to an end). If Mort/Ashley/Sam have put a stop to this and offered a fair wage but no 'compensation wages' as it were then it has to be a good thing and falls in the middle of your two arguments. So I wouldn't say Sam is lying, but under the Freddy regime I reckon one or two of these players would have been persuaded to sign due to our 'ambtion'.

Not just the team tbh Read Morts interview in the Journal Debt being worked on Training Ground being looked at Working to reduce injury occurence Money to spend if needed No spending for spending's sake If we're not careful we're going to end up as a blueprint football club!

Yeah but, yeah but... We haven't spent any money on a defender yet lyke! That £6m should be spent on Baines or summink

I'll apologise for crossed wires! I took James' post to say that if Cacapa is better than Essien (who played CB with distinction last season for Chelsea) then he must be good. You took it a step further and got the link to the previous post. Still think if you take James' post in isolation you were wrong, if you follow the link you were right! So yeah, apologies (with restrictions!)

Other than an initial poor stint with Bastia, Essien wasn't a centre back when he played in France. Played there a fair amount, with reasonable distinction, last season with Chelsea. You might want to look at the context of what James was saying and then apologise to me. Ta. Essien was one of the best Centre Backs around last season Cacapa said to be better All good Couldn't see any mention of France in James' post!

Shouldn't there be a 'lyke' after pocket?

Meh!

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcastleunited/chroniclesport/tm_headline=united-s-boy-from-brazil%26method=full%26objectid=19558334%26siteid=50081-name_page.html Full story. Didn't play much last year after a falling out with Ged Houllier.

Think that was Champions League only, the likes of Coupet and Juninho only show 7 games on the same UEFA website...

8 or 17. You mean the only two numbers that are available in the first 20. You don't say! 3, 6, 13 and 18 are also available. Not so smart now are we I thought Milner had moved to 8? - sure I heard that

It would probably be better for us if he had a spell in prison while he's out injured. At least we wouldn't be paying his wages, well we shouldn't do. If we stop paying his wages his contract becomes void. But isn't that you cannot earn money while in prison, so if he did go we wouldn't have to pay him by law. Who said you can't earn money? I thought it was law. This aint Monoploy!

One point in my mind is would Alan Smith not seriously dislike Mark Viduka? I just remember in Leeds relegation season Dukes not giving 2 sh!ts whilst Eminem played his arse off. If it were my club going down and the 'star' striker couldn't give a rats ass he certainly wouldn't be on my Christmas Card list. For the record, I'm all for Smiths arrival, he'll score at least 5 more than Dyer in a season for less money and give us added bite away from home. Cult hero in the making

And its the same 2-3 posts repeated and repeated and repeated.

Do you really think it'd be close? Waste of time, it'd be a landslide. For Smudger/Eminem obviously

Cheers. I'm sat here doing something very dull and you've reminded me of the joys of the sort of in-house training courses i used to have to do and everything doesn't seem so bad! I always thought that a material misstatement was one which would affect the economic decision-making of users of that information. Not sure about the duty of care thing, but the audit procedures undertaken would comfortably cover anything that would affect a takeover decision. No it wouldn't, we set out our terms so that we are only liable to the shareholders of the company at the time of the audit, every engagement has a disclaimer regarding third party use - hence the usual use of Due Diligance Essentially an audit should uncover anything untoward, but for anyone to use published accounts as a base for a takeover is asking for trouble tbh, you get the figures but not how they are made up. If we were to get hold of the audit file however I'd agree that a sensible decision could be made. The review should be enough evidence that MA didn't believe that the published accounts had enough information in them for him to run the club

On football365 he's in talks with West Ham