Colos Short and Curlies

And let's be honest if this wasn't happening to us we would be doffing our cap to the blatant trolling

Ba The strikers I can recall we have signed since the fat guy signed us: Ba, Cisse, Gayle, Joselu, Mitrovic, Riviere, Perez, Kuqi, Best, xisco, and Løvenkrands. Then you can argue if they where goalscoring strikers... I would deem a 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 stiker as a proper goalscorer. Theres not too many in that list. The first 3 basically, Gayle may be a little bit shit in the Premier league but he was a proper goal scorer in the Championship. Mitro should have been in the list but he was destined to fail here unfortunately

We need to be safe by the end of the West Ham game, can't see a point after that

Hiw else do you think they get to the Data Room ? I've just got a mental picture of Staveley dress as lara croft fighting her way down the "corridor of power". Ashley as the end of level big boss. Keep your fantasies to yourself

Stiffy did say Bruce wouldn't say it - I can quite easily see Bruce saying something as incoherent as this

I've sad this previously but it makes sense to take cash out of the club prior to a takeover and Ashley won't want to reduce his loans as this will increase his exposure to tax on the sale. Buying an asset should have no impact on the value of the club and actually makes it more attractive for a prospective buyer as they would rather buy assets than cash (OK I give you Joelinton as the exception to the rule). I doubt the owners actually care about who the players are other than maybe one or 2 favourites that they may look to bring in It basically is either happening behind the scenes or not, everything else will continue pretty much as normal

Is that the line I've just seen on Twitter, where Charnley has told him "nothing in the Saudi takeover up to now"? In reality, would Charnley know or tell Bruce anything until it was a done deal? #Straws Thumbheed would have to know I would have thought unless our 'dataroom' is updated as a matter of course and therefore no reason for him to know. He would be under NDA though on any potential takeover and Brewcie wouldn't need to know so would be outside of it

I'm with HTT on this. I got much more pleasure from thrashing them in the Premier League and being the best team in the North East when we had 2 or even 3 teams in the top division. Now we're just simply the least worst of the 3 and their are no bragging rights in that.

The irony when this is THE one

Slight deviation here but there is a company in Dubai looking at investing around £500m into Swansea (not involving the football club) so I could easily see Saudi Arabia looking to invest significant amounts of cash into a UK city that maybe isn't one of the glamour cities. To them £350m on NUFC as part of this would then make perfect sense rather than buying Man U and its actually a small piece of a bigger puzzle. They probably missed the boat on Liverpool mind with G&H were forced out

Oh how I long for the days before the internet when the world wasn't ending if you didn't have an update every 5 minutes or need everyone to publicly announce their decisions. For all we know MA had a decision to make, he made it on Tuesday and the process is continuing between the 2 parties - as it should. It's either bollocks or we will know when its done

The pound ain't going to fall on Friday, that pricing movement has been and gone. And even if it did have an impact then this has no impact on Ashley's deal if he is being paid in pounds - £350m is still £350m regardless of a FX rate. It is very fair to say that the other party have a vested interest if they are considering an paying for the deal in another currency as £350m may cost them x cents more on a currency movement

It's been a very active window for us without anybody going out. Some on high wages will play no part. Our transfer activity whilst it has been loans is unusual for us. I actually wouldn't be against this year being a formal blueprint for future January windows (well apart from that I would ban loans for Prem teams all together but as that aint happening...). You really are in a market where you need to take a punt on people in Jan so taking on loans with an option to buy is a pretty sensible way of doing things

He jumped into bed with Spurs too early, missed his chance to manage his boyhood club* *copyright every manager unveiling press conference

That's a before and after shot for Weight Gain 3000. Follow your dreams, you can reach your goals. I'm living proof. Beefcake.

Is Klopp not missing the point that we are having a Premier League break and the FA Cup is not a Premier League competition?

He doesn't, its his way of killing of the stories when they have no further benefit to him

Agreed. He’d be in his element. Rafa loves all that infrastructure stuff. A chance to build a football club in his image with unlimited resources. Love the idea of having someone at the club who has always believed in us. Staveley likes him too doesn’t she? If they were both 100% on board with it.... Let Rafa build the club infrastructure and playing side Let Keegan promote and sell the club I wouldn't want KK back in a coaching capacity (well OK I would but it aint going to happen) but he really should still be part of the club in some way

The stupid thing is that if we had cash in the bank and a takeover is being discussed then buying players wouldn't be a bad move. Nobody is going to pay cash for cash and Ashley wants as much of the sale proceeds to pay off his loans to manage tax so you buy an asset to get rid of the cash and leave the loans alone. Take Joelinton - whoever buys the club won't know who he is, they just see a £40m Brazilian striker on the books. Must be good. But anyway, we aren't buying players in Jan. Loans with an option is as good as it gets

Trying not to entertain a single thought of this happening, but then at the same time my brain is taking me to directions of trying to work out what moves he has made recently that would help to reduce any potential capital gains tax coming his way. Can't think of any slightly dubious moves the club had made recently though.......

Be crazy to play ASM IMO. Stick him on the bench perhaps. We should be able to beat Oxford without him. I'd personally start him and take him of at half time. Can only see bad things if he comes off the bench without a proper warm up, and if that is a risk then as you say we should beat Oxford without him so give his spot to one of the U23s

Expect Ritchie to get a 3 match ban from the FA for that

I get that, its more what or who managed to persuade him that the Wise appointment and that summers activity was a good idea. Everything that followed is a direct result of that

Makes you wonder how it all went so wrong. Actual elements you can pick - Wise being appointed and the dodgy deals that summer then Lambias etc etc etc but from Keegan coming in until the end of the season everything looked set to (a) reestablish our position in the league and (b) make MA some cash. Then it just all went to shit

Keegan, Robson, Benitez Dalglish, Souness, Bruce??? Spot the link