Martin Lol

Spurs have gone up by an average £27 per ticket. Mine's gone up £40. Takes the piss tbh.

I can see the logic in that, but surely more important to get him playing in as higher league as possible? Two years at Watford didn't do Foster any harm under Boothroyd's managership. If Fergie had doubts about the benefits of going there, he would have put him to Bury, Oldham etc.

If it were my decision, I would put him out on a 1 or 2 season long loan, preferably with a Championship side, following the same route as Man Utd did with Ben Foster. Thinking about it, Watford haven't got a number 1 keeper as Foster has gone back to Old Trafford......................

http://www.thefa.com/England/U19s/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/U19sEliteRound_Holland.htm UEFA European U19 Championship Elite Qualifying Round 17 May 2007, England Ricoh Arena, Coventry FC It was a tale of two penalties on a night when England's dream of qualifying for the European Championships evaporated. After falling behind to a freak own goal, two spot-kicks - one missed and one scored - ultimately decided England's fate. Danny Haynes failed from 12 yards on the stroke on half-time, a miss compounded in the 71st minute when Jordy Buijs masterfully stroked his penalty home. England had other chances too, but a combination of wasteful finishing and immaculate goalkeeping from Tim Krul meant the young Lions were left with a mountain to climb. When they did finally adjust the shooting radar, it was too late. Hogan Ephraim's curling effort might have been the goal of the game, but it was a mere consolation. On a warm evening at the splendid Ricoh Arena, the young Lions - needing a win - started brightly, stroking the ball confidently along the perfect Ricoh Arena turf. But they almost fell behind on seven minutes when Chelsea's Michael Mancienne played a terribly short back-pass to goalkeeper Frank Fielding. The alert Jordy Brouwer latched on to the loose ball, rounded the onrushing Fielding before bearing down on an empty net. A goal seemed certain until Mancienne atoned for his error by dashing back heroically before launching himself into a last-ditch tackle to rob Brouwer on the goal-line. England's best chance of unlocking the Dutch defence was through Ephraim, West Ham's twinkle-toed starlet. Deployed wide on the left, Ephraim attacked with guile and it was no surprise when he helped fashion the hosts' first chance. Jinking past his man, he played the overlapping Scott Golbourne down the line who crossed into a crowded penalty box. Amongst the melee, Craig Lindfield somehow brought the ball down before firing at goal, only to see his shot blocked. England Head Coach Brian Eastick was forced into a an early change, replacing the hobbling Fabrice Muamba with Adam Hammill. Just seconds after the substitution, the Dutch were ahead, courtesy of a freak goal. Brouwer's reverse pass gave Siem De Jong a clear sight of goal, but he thrashed the ball against the post from close range. However, lady luck was not smiling on the back-peddling Golbourne, the ball ricocheting off him and into the net. It was a cruel blow but Holland didn't care and they set about doubling their advantage during a period of dominance. But England stood firm and played their way back into the game. Indeed, they could have equalised on the stroke of half-time when Michael Johnson raced clear but the Manchester City midfielder could not find a way past Tim Krul, the Newcastle goalkeeper making a superb stop. The young Lions squandered an even better opportunity just before the interval when Haynes was scythed down in the box by Christian Supusepa. After dusting himself off, the Ipswich striker watched agonisingly as Krul flung himself to his left to save. In the ensuing melee, Rossi Jarvis hooked the ball goalwards to Hammill whose header was then nodded off the line by De Jong. Having prevented a goal, De Jong almost scored seven minutes into the second period with a clever free-kick. Shunning the favoured up and over the wall method, the number ten struck the ball low through a forest of legs. Fielding was alert to the danger and made an excellent save low to his right. At the other end, Krul made an even better save to maintain the Dutch lead. Jarvis seemed certain to level after bursting into the box and planting a shot towards the bottom corner. But the expectant England fans had not banked on Krul instinctively flicking out his right boot to deflect the ball wide. England's hopes of a comeback were crushed in the 71st minute when Fielding brought down Marvin Emnes. Buijs stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way. His vocal celebration by the corner flag suggested he and his Dutch team-mates knew it was game over. There was time for an England goal, albeit in injury-time, when Ephraim cut inside and curled the ball past Krul's outstretched arm. But the goalscorer then went from hero to zero in seconds when he saw red for a late challenge on Buijs. England: 13 Frank Fielding (Blackburn Rovers), 2 Elliot Omozusi (Fulham, 14 Stephen Darby, Liverpool, 60 mins), 3 Scott Golbourne (Reading), 4 Fabrice Muamba (Birmingham City, 11 Adam Hammill, on loan at Dumfermline, 28 mins), 5 Jack Hobbs (Liverpool), 6 Michael Mancienne (Chelsea), 8 Michael Johnson (Manchester City), 9 Danny Haynes (Ipswich Town), 10 Hogan Ephraim (West Ham), Craig Lindfield (Liverpool, 15 Chris Martin, Norwich City, 78 mins), 17 Rossi Jarvis (Norwich City). Subs not used: 1 Jamie Annerson (Sheffield United), 7 Sam Hewson (Manchester United), 12 Ben Turner (Coventry City), 18 Jack Cork (Chelsea) Holland: 1 Tim Krul, 2 Tom Hiariej, 4 Jordy Buijs, 5 Christian Supusepa (17 Rens Van Eyden, 80 mins), 7 Diego Biseswar (18 Donny Gorter, 80 mins), 8 Geert Arend Roorda, 9 Jordy Brouwer (13 Niels Vorthoren, 64 mins), 10 Vurnon Anita, 11 Siem De Jong, 12 Dirk Marcellis, 14 Marvin Emnes. Subs not used: 15 Qays Shayesteh, 16 Melvin Koetsier. Boy done good!

No, I agree, it's not one of those things you should have a league table about. But there is, presumably for a 'name and shame' guilt complex, and I find it pitiful that the sports highest paid are also the least generous to what I think most would admit is a deserving cause.

Add on the loyalty payments for those being shipped out not having asked for a transfer and signing on fees for those being brought in. Debateable whether you would get much change out of £15m. Owen alone on his salary would probably be looking at £3m.

Players have been asked to donate one day's pay to the Nurses Hardship Charity. The league table is at: http://www.maydayfornurses.co.uk/?module=players :clap: to all who have contributed.

Injured for a lot of this season.

Also quite interesting is this tit bit ... Having read all of this I can't tell you how grateful I am that we didn't get relegated this season. It appears the team was going of the rails. It really does look like Roeder was good when the team was doing well, but once they struggled he lost it completely! If Roeder didn't want Bernard, who signed him???

I'd be happy to see him at WHL to do the same job as Naybet, play a bit, organise the defence, bit of coaching the kids. Naybet goes out the door and we ship 50 odd goals. De Zeeuw was always a good organiser of the defence at Pompey and Wigan, we could do a lot worse than draw on his experience. Could probably say the same for Newcastle too.

A lot of managers looking from a distance might think "10 home goals, Joey Barton " etc and think there's one hell of a job to do. There probably is but an established manager with a 'name' to protect could be forgiven if they waited for another job with less hassle. They're not the only managing fish in the sea though. Personally, I'd like to see Citeh on the up.

That's what Arsenal have got, Chelsea as well. Liverpool and Spurs have got the plastic mesh which has to be injected into the soil and that only needs to be relaid every 3 or 4 years. Hampden and Wembley have also got the mesh version.

I would say Phil Brown joining Newcastle would be good for you. It's obvious that Big Sam has a lot to do setting up the club as he wants it. Who better to help him than someone who was with him for years at Bolton, knows how the system works, someone that Sam can trust to implement the system as Sam wants it run. I think recruiting Brown could speed up Newcastle's transitional stage significantly.

Is Owen bigger than Newcastle United? Probably, yes. In his own mind, I'm sure Owen is far more important than the club he plays for at any time. Note that this is the same with any player at any club. They're pretty much all self centred tossers. With the caveat that we don't know if Owen wants away, IF he does, then he really does need to question his morals if he's prepared to leave the club after what has happened since he joined. However, the bigger concern must surely be regarding the moron who agreed to such a release clause at those figures in the first place. It smacks of doing anything to get short term gain (ie the trophy signing, if you will) and not sparing a second thought for the long term consequences. Hard to imagine SA sanctioning that kind of agreement, but then that assumes SA would actually have input over that side of things. Agree with everything you've said there, but with regard to the highlighted bit, but Owen could be seen in a 'no win' situation. If he wants away and he goes, he'll be accused of having no morals bearing in mind what's happened to him over the past 2 years. If he stays, some journo is bound to say that he did want away but the clubs who wanted him wouldn't match the salary being paid to him by Newcastle. Irrespective of what is the truth, he could be damned if he goes and damned if he stays. His advisors ought to thinking up ways of putting a positive spin on this. The simplest way would be to come out and make the statement FFS has been asking for, " I'm not going to leave Newcastle, I want to stay".

If he "didn't really want to join Newcastle" he would of stayed at that small club Real Madrid. He wasn't playing much for Real Madrid, he wanted to play matches in readiness for the World Cup, preferably in the premiership. Maybe I should have said I believe he would have preferred the option to move to one of the Big 4. The fact is he had a option of staying with Real Madrid or going to Newcastle United and he picked to come to Newcastle. That does not constitute to this Myth "he didn't really want to join Newcastle United" IIRC his choice was to stay with Real Madrid and play sometimes from the bench or move to the premiership with Newcastle and regularly start. The latter was better for him as SGE had already expressed concern about the little playing time he was getting in Madrid. Of those two options, Newcastle was the better for him and he took it. I still believe, however, that a permanent move to Newcastle was not Owen's preferred option, hence his comment that he would only move on a year's loan. IMO it was the absence of other options which forced Owen to move to Newcastle. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/4196760.stm

If he "didn't really want to join Newcastle" he would of stayed at that small club Real Madrid. He wasn't playing much for Real Madrid, he wanted to play matches in readiness for the World Cup, preferably in the premiership. Maybe I should have said I believe he would have preferred the option to move to one of the Big 4.

Berbatov staying is not dependent on the good Spurs financial position but whether the player makes himself the move to Man United just like Carrick did last Summer. However the positive is his Agents seems decent and has said positive things regards to giving back to the Spurs fans which is encouraging for your Club also the fact supposedly bigger clubs came in late when you tried to buy him and Berbatov and his agent stuck to there word of joining Spurs. That situation could prove key to Michael Owen future here as only the Big 4 can buy either Owen or Berbatov hopefully for us the over hype of Berbatov this year gets him a move to one of the Big 4 rather then Michael Owen. Berbatov staying is not dependent on the good Spurs financial position but whether the player makes himself the move to Man United just like Carrick did last Summer. However the positive is his Agents seems decent and has said positive things regards to giving back to the Spurs fans which is encouraging for your Club also the fact supposedly bigger clubs came in late when you tried to buy him and Berbatov and his agent stuck to there word of joining Spurs. That situation could prove key to Michael Owen future here as only the Big 4 can buy either Owen or Berbatov hopefully for us the over hype of Berbatov this year gets him a move to one of the Big 4 rather then Michael Owen. I totally agree. I wasn't trying to imply that Spurs' financial situation had a bearing on whether Berbatov goes or stays, I was responding to the points raised by Stevie. Unless Spurs are lucky, Berbatov will go at some stage if we do not qualify for the CL. However, he has settled in London well and has said he has of intention of moving yet. Negotiations for a new contract started about a month ago and Dawson said on Monday that it's great news that Berba has signed his new contract, although there has been no official announcement as yet. I think the difference between Berbatov and Owen is that Berbatov wanted to come to the Premiership, agreed the move with Spurs and then snubbed Man Utd when they came in late. With Owen there is the belief that he never really wanted to join Newcastle, just wanting to get back to the premiership to play games before the World Cup. If he was keen on the idea of playing for Newcastle he wouldn't have put the clauses in the contract. The problem for him at the moment is none of the Big 4 are falling over themselves to get him, even at a knockdown £9m. Rafa could have him to replace Bellamy, Fergie could replace Saha with him, they may still do, but my gut feeling is that Owen will stay on Tyneside and see out his contract.

The sad thing for Newcastle was that SA never accepted the job when it was offered to him before. The years of Souness and Roeder have put the club back years. If you believe the stories, Sam wasn't the only one to turn us down at that stage, and you have to wonder why. It looked to me like Souness, Roeder, and Robson in his last season, weren't really in charge. But I think that's changed. It may take a long or a short time to get back to where SBR took us, but a corner has been turned. I think SBR lost the dressing room when FFS announced that he was going at the end of the season. Without that, I think there would have been a smooth transition. But once the players were able to get away with it then, they saw the opportunity to do their own things with Souness and Roeder, and with neither of them showing true managerial ability, the problem just snowballed. I can't see SA allowing anything like that to go on, and once the problem players have gone, it should be smoother sailing in the future. I agree with you, the corner has been turned and it should be progression from now on. How quickly that happens is debateable. Brummie says that Villa are taking the steady route, a season of consolidation/slight improvement. Arnesen's way at Spurs was more akin to a bull in a china shop, change took place at a huge pace. It still took 2 years to get Uefa football and that is the type of timescale I see for both Newcastle and Villa as well. The problem is that in a couple of years there will be too many teams seriously expecting Uefa or CL competition. It will be interesting to see how the teams that miss out handle the disappointment, sacking the manager and starting again won't be the answer.

Shows the extent of the job SA is taking on when, in the first piece, there are only 8 players with a 'definitely wanted' tag.

Regarding the bit in red. If I was SA, I would start telling FFS that day to day administration is the manager's job, not the Chairman's. I don't understand why FFS wants to put all discussions/negotiations etc in the public domain. Just leave it to Big Sam, he gets paid a lot to sort things like that out, preferably in private, let him get on with his job!

The sad thing for Newcastle was that SA never accepted the job when it was offered to him before. The years of Souness and Roeder have put the club back years. Quite true. However, we dug our own graves by sacking both SBR and Souness while the season was well underway which complicated things. Souness should have gone before the season started. SBR shouldn't have gone at all. If FFS had kept his mouth shut, no-one would have known that SBR was going at the end of the season, he could have moved upstairs in a DoF type role and Newcastle wouldn't have suffered the upeaval that they did.

The sad thing for Newcastle was that SA never accepted the job when it was offered to him before. The years of Souness and Roeder have put the club back years.

For most of the squad being fit, I'd agree Newcastle would have been higher up the league table than where they actually finished. For some, the Moores, Babayaros and Carrs, it wouldn't have made a lot of difference if they were fit or not, they were happy to take the money but not to put in a shift to earn it. It's those that SA has to sort out, to shape up or ship out, and it can't all be done this window, maybe SA can get those 3 and the rest to perform as they can, not as they have. There again, maybe he can't. It will take time to evaluate them before deciding whether they stay or go. Berbatov won't be sold for a while. Spurs reported £20+m profit for the last 6 months, it'll probably be around £35m for the year. If it doesn't get spent beofre the end of the tax year, the taxman will be taking a big chunk out of that. That's why Spurs are looking to sort out some the bigger deals asap. I think Spurs will be spending all, or very nearly all, of that £35m this window. Rasiak back in? :lol: God, I hope not! I think that it more likely that £20m could be committed within the next 2 weeks, £35m could be spent this window, announcement for a new stadium in October and Levy selling up before the end of the year. Kemsley's name could also become a lot more prominent. All of these are only wild guesses though. Northumberland Park does need regenerating though.

I think they'll do a Reading tbh. It wouldn't surprise me to see Fergie loan him a couple of youngsters for regular games.

If rumours circulating down here are true, there were figures of £12m at year 1, £9m or £9.2m at year 2 and £4m or £4.6m at year 3. They are only rumours so I've no idea if there is any truth in them at all.