Colos Short and Curlies

Was in the bibbed team in training today - usually the starting 11 Fwiw so was Barry, Lampard wasn't This report comes direct from f365 if anyone's interested Thought not

TV wasn't it?

Anelka to replace Owen (who I have an inkling may end up at YouTube City). Could play alongside either Martins, Dukes or Smith or on his own. Will probably score more than Owen over a season if he was in a comparable team as he will play more often. Failing that Messi would be nice

Oh for the days when it was 1 on a Sunday, 1 on a Monday and the rest 3pm on a Saturday. Failing that, it should be a maximum of 1 lunchtime and evening game on the Sat and Sun, the remainder at 3pm Saturday.

Could either be a Lee/Clark or a Lampard/Gerrard

Said it on deadline day - Craig Gordan at £10m. Looks a top top drawer goal keeper, but he isn't going to win Sunderland many points as the rest of the team is soooo average (at best). Would have been better off spending 2-3 mill on a competent keeper and the remaining 7-8 mil on someone who will put the ball in the net or who will dominate the back 4. Now had he gone to Arsenal I would be saying he could be the difference between winning the league/ Champs league or not

Back 360 to my earlier post (might have been in another Harper/Given thread tbh). Regardless of form Given deserves his place due to past performances. Therefore Shay is the new Shearer. Not good for the team imo, Harper started the season as number 1, regardless of how this came about he had the shirt to lose and did nothing to warrant being benched. If Shay had got injured part way through the season and Harper had played 5 or 6 games like he did and Shay came straight back in I wouldn't care, but I do feel that in this instance Harper has been treated very badly (can I put a disclaimer in here that I'm not bashing Given here at all, he's obviously a top drawer keeper and will play himself back into form - however he should not have been brought back in when he was due to Harpers (and the defence in general) form)

how long doe Southgate have before a vote of confidence? Boro could easily finish bottom of the mini North East table

Should the stats show Shay conceding 1 or 2 today? Can you concede a goal that is an own goal you score yourself?

Needed that win with the other results today, up to 8th pending Pompy. Also, Lets all (continue to) laugh at Spurs

Emre: 'Babayaro is fit again, you've got competition now'. Enrique 'stop it Emre, I've just wet me pants laughing'

Come on, unless it took a deflection there's no way Lampard would have hit the kid in the first place

No doubt there'll be a minute's silence before their next home game. Justice for the femur

They are all stingy barstewards who don't thank the catering staff.

I'm sure you've mentioned those figures before, why do you carry so much debt while making those profits? I can only guess that the profits are used in a way which is thought to bring in more value than the servicing of the debt. Up to a certain point (varies obviously from company to company) debt is always cheaper than equity regardless of profits (I won't bore you with the theory). Also, its often preferable to borrow to finance than reinvest profits - (a) profits don't equal cash so the cash may not be redily available for investing, (b) at £8bn profit the risk to a bank for Chez's company is low so interest rates are likely to be lower than achievable on long term deposits

Would anyone blame Harper for slapping in a transfer request now? I wouldn't.

He'll be in a Toon shirt within a few years. Chez will have a word no doubt

Is Given now the new Shearer? Undropable due to his past form regardless of how well his replacement was doing?

Best 'club version' of a song has to be Citehs Alan Ball-Wonderwall ditty from back in the day

Sounds like a Club not a million miles from my own heart. With one very important difference - we didn't lose to the unwashed

Your scenario is really just a technicality though. Unless I''ve missed something St James Holdings now owns all of the share capital of Newcastle United, and Ashley owns all of (or if not the significant majority of) the capital of SJH. Therefore the only person Ashley has to answer to in terms of the accounts of Newcastle United is Ashley himself. Hence, whever the money was put into the club as share capital (highly unlikey imo) or just effectively gave the club the cash is irrelevent unless there is a structured repayment (again I doubt this to be the case in the short term at least). Ashley (for all his good work so far) is unlikely to die as the owner of Newcastle United, therefore he will be looking to ge this money back (including the debt repayment) at that point. He can (theroetically) make more return on his cash by leaving it in the club (more funds = better transfers = more prize money) than he would in a bank. Sorry if thats a bit muddled, just grabbing 5 mins here at work so can't proof think this through!

A wealthy business sometimes (in some years) spends more than they earn and in other years (most of them) they earn more than they spend. That is the case with us, we are a very rich club, have been for almost 15 years, but some years we have spent more than we have earned, as have the other top five. None of this "Top Five" thing is news, is it? We have been in the top four (or since the Russian arrived at the joke London club) in the top five financial "rich list" for the last 15 years or so. The only real difference is that in the last year or so, the "mid table also-rans" (financially) like Spurs/Everton, etc, have got closer to us and we have lost ground on the other four rich clubs. Although it does not alter our earned income at all (Turnover) at the time, when and if Ashley does start letting us spend some of HIS money (making our money available to buy players more 'flexible', rather than being a specific budget based on earned income, then the hoped for success that brings (Champions League qualification again, etc) will 'eventually' lead to improved Turnover figures. That should enable us to pull away from the mid-table clubs (in financial terms) and re-open the financial gap between us (the big five financial clubs) and the rest, again. I would imagine that Man City, Aston Villa and even West Ham, would hope that they can (similarly) move closer to us! Let's hope our financial development/improvement under Ashley, exceeds theirs (to re-widen the gap) as well as hopefully starting to exceed the level of development of Liverpool, Chelsea, etc. If Ashley knows what he is doing (and he certainly does seem to, financially) - it could and should happen. seems i've been mislead,i thought we survived on debt. Depends on how you define 'survived' Operating wise (wages, interest etc) we've been ok. Capital (player purchase) wise we've borrowed heavily. Not unusual at all, although in hindsight (most would argue you could see it at the time) we borrowed too much at once and spent it unwisely. One of the two you can get away with, both and you're in trouble.

I make one sword, I'm not known as a sword maker I cook one meal, I'm not a chef. I shag one handle-bar moustached biker...........

I can just imagine the hissy fits when one gets booked. Arms all over the place

Wonder if they will ban the tackle from behind, or will they actively encourage it?