Martin Lol

Aye because NUFC are the ONLY club to have used that money in future accounts get over yourself FFS It's like the comment that if £30m hadn't gone in dividends over a decade (or whatever it was) that this exact £30m would have been available to Roeder last summer to buy players. I'm understand why you say this, but where would it have gone? In the summer 2003 £8.5m was given away at the same time as no money was given to the team manager to strengthen his squad. For me that was a key turning point. It is far better to invest while things are going well, then to try and spend your way out of a mess. The moment has gone though. Agreed we didn't build and this was the key moment. There's always those times when you can look back in hindsight and say 'if only'............ If Newcastle had retained that money, if Manchester Utd had decided to sack SAF 2 matches sooner, if SAF hadn't signed Cantona............the premiership might have looked a whole lot different to what it does now.

They are in panic mode tbf. Interesting about Davenport any ideas on Hudd? How much he's on? Someone did say £9k, I don't know how accurate that is but I would guess that is fairly close. Hudd's problem is that we haven't got the perfect midfielder for him to play alongside so for the forseeable future I see him as Zokora's backup.

Almost as cheap, relatively speaking, as Walcott for £12m!! But when comparing him to Henry for £10m............... it's not so much what they cost as what you get for your money.

Keep them coming, you're cheering me up no end! :lol: It's only when I think of Toure for £150k I start to get depressed which gets worse when I remember it was Comolli who was responsible for that!

True, he was great for you (and at Bristol before that) but, as I said, once a woolwich pikey, always a woolwich pikey. Will always revert to type some time or other.

Nobody gets it right all the time and I never suggested for a minute that they had. Their success, however, in those days could easily be compared with Wenger, who is as successful as anyone, and even he spunked £10m on Jeffers.

As much as you think the squad players may be getting a sizeabe wedge, it surely still can't compare with the Spanners. It was said on KUMB and generally agreed that Lucas Neill opted for them ahead of Liverpool because Rafa had no wish to spend £64k pw. Also Davenport celebrated his move by buying himself a new Hummer. As he was with new employers, he had to produce confirmation of his declared income. £33k pw. At Spurs he was on £8k!!! And it's said there is no clause to reduce that if they do fall into the Championship (which is like Sunday morning following Saturday night tbh).

Not surprising, started off with the scum and it'll always be there in the system no matter how much he tries to keep it suppressed.

Peter Taylor did a similar job for Brian Clough. On the basis that 2 sets of eyes are better than one, of course that is correct, but the principle is nothing new. All you are describing is a scout. Bill Shankly did it himself, with his scouting staff. So does Alex Ferguson, and his scouting staff, nowadays, having nurtured a good percentage of the players who have played a major part in the clubs success. At the end of the day, it isn't the system that works, but the ability of the person doing the scouting, and the manager when they start to get near to the first team. If everyone employed a "DOF", could everyone be successful ? Of course not. It seems you have a good chief scout, mind, although we will see if he can find them again for another club. I think there's quite a bit more to it than that. It's not about appointing a Director of Football or a Chief Scout, or whatever you want to call them, it's about recognising the principle of specialisation and the value of having an expert doing something that they're good at rather than a jack of all trades doing a whole load of stuff they're ok at. What teams like Spurs have done is to understand that times have changed, the days of a manager and a handful of his mates running the playing side of a club are over, and rightly so. What is needed now is a team of experts, a number of people who really know what they are doing, all working together. Yeah the manager is the overall boss, but the people who he works with need to be of a higher quality, and will therefore enjoy a higher stature, than they did in the old days. It's not just Spurs, lots of clubs have a large backroom staff made up of people who have a certain amount of autonomy to do what they want, due to the club having genuine faith in their ability to do the job. We, however, are still in the stone age by comparison and that's got to change. You're right, there's a lot more to it than just having the right scouting setup. Even if the scouting network is top notch and you find a good youngster, the likelihood of you being the only club to have seen him is hugely unlikely. You are going to be in competition with other clubs, probably a lot of other clubs, some of which will have bigger reputations than yours. Without being an expert, all the indications seem to be that constant contact is a major contributor in helping sign a player. Arnesen said at a Spurs forum soon after he arrived that went to Brazil to Ronaldo and his parents 3 or 4 times a year for 5 years before signing him for PSV. Comolli was in almost weekly contact for a year with Henry before he signed for Arsenal. Even then it still does't always work out. A young Scandanavian kid signed for Liverpool about 3 weeks ago and Comolli was gutted. He thought he was all but signed for Spurs and he says that there is no doubt in his mind he will be a top class goalkeeper. But that's what happens, you win some, you lose some, but you try to give yourself an edge to be ahead of the rest. With the greatest of respect NE5, I'm old enough to remember the awesome partnership that Peter Taylor and Brian Clough were before the bust up, but I still don't think that would be enough today. We're not now looking at just young English talent, it's now worldwide talent and all the clubs are now competing with the cream of Europe. Clough and Taylor were hugely successful in their era but they would have to change from the method used then to compete successfully now (imo).

Baggio has put forward a very strong argument for a DoF/coach partnership instead of an 'old style' manager. As someone who supports a club that has run with both options and having seen the best and worst of each (Nicholson/Gross > Comolli/Pleat), I totally agree with what Baggio is saying, I would dread the option of Spurs going back to the manager option, it is too big a job for just one man unless that one man gets the right staff around him in all the right places. But under Comolli's reign we are beginning to see what a good DoF can bring to the party. Berbatov signed for Spurs in spite of being wanted by Manchester Utd, Arsenal wanted Assou-Ekotto and Zokora was wanted by both of those clubs. Berbatov said that he resisted the temptation to sign for the Mancs as Comolli had been talking to him for over 2 years and Zokora first spoke to him when Comolli was still with Arsenal. It's that attention to detail which I personally think is impossible to maintain without a DoF. Ironically, Comolli made his name attracting youngsters to Arsenal and that is his strength. Since he joined Spurs he's recruited Tomas Pekhart, Dorian Dervite, Dean Parrett, Adam Smith, Takura Mtandari, Alex Olsen and (maybe) most importantly, Adel Taarabt who was wanted by just about every major club in Europe and in the end came down a choice of Barcelona and Spurs. As Comolli had been talking to him for 5 years since he was 12, he opted for us. Comolli reckons if he keeps his feet on the ground, he could be as good as Zidane and openly admits Taarabt is his best signing. Maybe some will not live up to expectations but what those 7 youngsters have cost is roughly equal to what Berbatov cost. I don't believe that those players could have all been signed by a single club operating a manager only system, it would have been impossible to have maintained the contact with the kids whilst they were developing . I very much agree with Baggio, a good, knowledgeable DoF is the logical way forward in the modern game as it is now.

Wenger doesn't find them, most were found by Damien Comolli who was his chief European scout. ............. who is now continuing the good work with Spurs who this week beat Arsenal at u18 level (3-0 at their place) for only the 3rd time since Wenger joined the other lot up the road. 6 of the team were Comolli signings and the latest, Alex Olsen, made his debut and scored the first goal. Incidentally, Alex Inglethorpe is (apparently) doing a sensational job as Academy Coach. You got knocked out of the FA Youth Cup by the mighty Chester City!! mackems.gif But there was a good reason for that defeat...................... erm............... we were robbed by the ref/we were plagued by injuries/we were unlucky/we were shit on the night (please delete those not appropriate). The last one looks favourite! :lol:

Wasn't me quoting £8.2m, I was providing the link to skysports.com. If you don't like that link, you could try http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/feb20b.html or http://talkingsoccer.blogspot.com/2007/02/tottenham-keep-tabs-on-zigic.html or http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=32114 Does that make it any easier for you? Personally, I still think he will wind up in Italy if Racing hold out for €12m.

As far as I'm aware, Ledders is top earner (£45k) followed by Robbie Keane. Keane's figure was artificially inflated at the outset as Leeds were still paying a significant chunk of his wages until last summer when the basic deal ran out. Spurs then exercised their option of another 2 years and now pay all the wages.

First I've heard Newcastle mentioned, Bolton, Spurs and Juventus have been widely quoted as being interested. As Racing have said the fee will be £8.2m (€12m), I think only Juve would be interested at that price. http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=453892&CPID=23&clid=6&lid=&title=Racing+set+Zigic+value

Wenger doesn't find them, most were found by Damien Comolli who was his chief European scout. ............. who is now continuing the good work with Spurs who this week beat Arsenal at u18 level (3-0 at their place) for only the 3rd time since Wenger joined the other lot up the road. 6 of the team were Comolli signings and the latest, Alex Olsen, made his debut and scored the first goal. Incidentally, Alex Inglethorpe is (apparently) doing a sensational job as Academy Coach.

Couldn't agree more. Can't think of a better potential partnership than Owen (pre-injury and hopefully post injury as well) and Berbatov. Two hugely talented and intelligent strikers, Berbatov even makes Keane look a bit better than half decent!

Don't think it makes a scrap of difference who the opposition is tbh. In 10 years time the records will show how many goals they scored, not what the quality of the opposition was. I'm happy to view both Berby and Oba as two talented strikers, albeit in totally different styles, who have both done superbly well in the first season in the premiership. At least you'll be watching Martins next season at the same ticket price as this one. Spurs must be the only club in the premiership to have increased ticket prices for 2007/8.

............. held in Korea every 2 years, this time being sponsored by Samsung. Definite teams: Asia: Seongnam Ilhwa (Korea, the K-League champion of the last season) N.America: Chivas de Guadalajara (Mexico) S.America: SC Corinthians (Brazil) Europe: Tottenham Hotspur (England), FC Schalke 04 (Germany) Maybes: Asia: Urawa Reds (Japan) Europe: Reading FC, Newcastle United (England), Olympique Lyonnais, AS Saint-Etienne (France), PSV Einthoven, AFC AJAX (Holland), FC Sevilla, Atletico Bilbao, Real Betis, Deportivo La Coruna (Spain), Udinese, Juventus, Palermo (Italy), Benfica (Portugal), RSC Anderlecht (Belgium), FSV Mainz 05 (Germany), Galatasaray (Turkey) N.America: Red Bull New York (USA), Pachuca (Mexico) S.America: Independiente, Club Atletico River Plate, Belgrano (Argentine), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Olimpis de Asuncion (Paraguay), Liga de Quito (Equador), Club Atletico Penarol (Uruguay) Oceania: Melbourne, FC Sydney, Queensland (Australia) Africa: Kaizerchiefs, Santos (South Africa), Stade Sportif Sfaxien (Tunisia) Samsung wanted Chelski but they couldn't fit it in, Samsung are wanting 2 English clubs. The competition involving 8 teams will run from July 6th to July 14th, two qualifying matches plus the final or 3rd/4th place playoff, unless they change the schedule due to Manure tour of Korea possibly going on at the same time and Asian Cup games. Spurs have confirmed they will be there (Spurs won it in 2005 beating Lyon) subject to not having to compete in the Intertoto. Worth the journey too, £1m for turning up, prize money for results and bonus £2m for winning it plus all the tv income, even if it is only Eurosport! I'd guess that Reading are included just in case either Spurs or Newcastle do have to compete in the Intertoto.

Ever since he signed for Spurs, there have been numerous articles that he was a Newcastle fan and Alan Shearer was his idol. This is one I've copied, mainly because it was the most recent: In an age when footballers are branded greedy thugs who do not give a monkey’s about anyone else, Bulgarian international Berbatov stands out from the crowd. He does not see himself as a latter-day hero and, indeed, has shyly fended off questions all season about what his armband signifies. But as he prepared to face Chelsea in Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final tie Berber, as he is known to his White Hart Lane team-mates, broke his silence for the first time. Berbatov explained: “We have Bulgarian medical workers in Libya facing the death penalty because they are accused of poisoning 400 children with AIDs. “I am trying to show support because my mother is a nurse and Bulgarians want to show the world these nurses are not alone.” The Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death in 2000 but a series of appeals have managed to stave off execution by firing squad. All evidence points to their innocence, with experts insisting the damage was done before they arrived with lack of proper medical equipment at Benghazi’s al-Fateh hospital. Many believe the medics are part of a stitch-up, caught in a wider political game. Berbatov added: “Bulgarian players wear the special armband when they represent the national team. We are trying to free the nurses because we believe that they are innocent.” The striker revealed he gets away from all the pressures of modern-day football by drawing. He said: “Away from football, I’m a big fan of movies. I also like to draw. “When I have time I like to do pencil drawings because it’s nice and relaxing. “As long as I can remember I’ve always been able to draw. I just sit and draw stuff if I’m in the mood. I try to be an artist on the pitch on and off it!” Berbatov has seen his opposite number on Sunday — Chelsea hitman Didier Drogba — develop into almost the complete striker. He said: “When Drogba came here he was still developing because I saw many games of his when he was in Marseille. “He’s now at the level where he’s almost the best. That’s why he wanted to come to England — like me, he wanted to develop.” Berber’s big hero in English football is Alan Shearer. He added: “I really loved watching Shearer. He was the best goalscorer in England. “I was really hoping to play against him when I came to England but sadly he retired.” Berbatov has grabbed 16 goals for Tottenham this season and is automatic choice up front for boss Martin Jol. He reckons his free-kick goal at West Ham last Sunday was his best. He said: “The goal against West Ham really pleased me. “It was from a free-kick and came in one of the most exciting games I’ve ever played in. It had everything — goals, scoring opportunities, everybody was giving 100 per cent. “That was also the first free-kick I have taken for Tottenham. I’ve done it many times for my national team but, until then, not for my club.” Berbatov admits he did not appreciate the passion of the FA Cup until he arrived in a £10.8million move from Germans Bayer Leverkusen. He said: “I wasn’t aware of the FA Cup final when I was growing up, but I know now that to reach the final would be something unbelievable. “Every club still in the cup wants to be the first to lift the trophy at the new Wembley and if we can do that it will be wonderful. “But we have a couple of obstacles until we can get to the final. Beating Chelsea? It’s not mission impossible.” Spurs finally ended their Chelsea jinx by beating them 2-1 in the Premiership back in November. Berbatov added: “It gives us more self-belief — as a striker it’s important to have that and we’re creating chances. “We beat them at home, but it’ll be difficult to go there. But we have a chance. “Maybe, for some of the smallest teams, it is impossible but I don’t think Tottenham are a small team. “We’re not going there thinking we’re going to lose, we go there with self-belief. “Everybody knows it’ll be very difficult but, hey, they’ve got 11 players, we’ve got 11 — we’ll see who’s going to win.” http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002390000-2007110469,00.html

Whether GR should be replaced is debateable, IMHO I would say no. What seems to be lacking is the mentality to fight right to the final whistle. Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan and Reading all have it, even top clubs like Manure have it. Whether it is something lacking in GR's managership or something that simply runs through the club I don't know, but Newcastle don't have it. Sadly, neither do Spurs. Both clubs could be so much better if (or when) they do get it.

And IIRC the substitutes were all Academy products as well.

Not bullshit Pretty accurate. The hip is less of a concern than the knee. The hope is that it can be managed like Paul McGrath managed his dodgy knees but there's no great optimism. But as others have said, he's enjoyed some highs in his career and earned a lot of money in that time. Whilst I have sympathy for Ledders, I've got more sympathy for Dorian Dervite who was better than Ledley at the same age, is having his knee rebuilt following a bad cruciate and it's only 50/50 whether he plays again. He hasn't had any career nor the money to fall back on either.

Are you still expecting people to believe you went to The Ashes? ;D ;D :lol: :lol: You would have pictures at the very least. What's this about you getting your son to post ITK rumours direct from the boardroom of WHL? No we haven't. 1. Photographs? Indeed I have. 2. mackems.gif 3. Oh yes you have. What happens at the end of the day I have no idea, just my guess.

He appears to be well informed. Both Spurs and Newcastle have had bids accepted, it's now up to the player. Spurs have Thudd trying to convince him Spurs is the right place, Newcastle will no doubt offer more in wages. More likely to go to Newcastle imho.

I'm back!! Had a great time apart from the cricket, Newcastle doing the double over us, and the scum's draw in the first leg with probably worse to follow tonight. Good to be home. BTW, Newcastle have had a bid for Giles Barnes accepted.