Unbelievable

Disagree with your Dutch mates about Douglas but the rest is pretty much spot on. Ideally I would want an owner (be it Ashley or somebody else) who is willing to invest in us to challenge for that next step (and I think it wouldn't take hundreds of millions either with the correct setup, which we seem to have), but at the same time I'm perfectly happy at this point in time to even be challenging for Europe again, let alone be in it. If you'd told me this 3 years ago I would probably have had you institutionalised.

Confident he will play. As other have said, we wouldn't have played Anita for the full 90 minutes the other night if he was a question mark.

Still got 7 goals in his last two seasons despite being a bit part player for Man City. Also has more pace than you give him credit for.

Also rumours he'll be their best ever paid player. Now he would improve them significantly, but they would be paying well over the odds again. Imagine what we could have done with the 30 million they're shelling out on Fletcher and Johnson.. Thing is, that's what they have to do to get decent to good players to go there. I really like both Fletcher and Johnson and while I don't want either here, I think they'll be two of their best players (if Johnson signs) this season and for the next couple. The problem is, when you're signing at such a premium, you're hurting the club financially and stopping it from moving forward properly. The only model that could make Sunderland a top football club would be one where they had an incredibly good scouting system and picked up young players like we're doing. Unfortunately, they have Marty who likes to blow his load all over the place Agreed. For a club like them to attract relatively established players they simply have to pay over the odds, especially in terms of wages, for the player to even consider the move. The alternative, spending sensibly and trying to develop younger players doesn't seem to be on the agenda, which has only been aggravated by bringing MON in. They have been reporting operating losses of 30 odd million per year for a few seasons now. The next set of accounts will be absolutely horrific unless they manage to sell one of their players to Liverpool again.

Also rumours he'll be their best ever paid player. Now he would improve them significantly, but they would be paying well over the odds again. Imagine what we could have done with the 30 million they're shelling out on Fletcher and Johnson..

Why? You have to ask why paying £14m for Fletcher isn't moronic? £14m... Ah sorry, thought that was about Johnson. Apologies.

I'd rather have Johnson than Obertan tbh. This is isn't football manager, Johnson wouldn't be any more than a squad player for us. To be fair, I think he wouldn't look out of place in our first 11. We don't need him as we have other, comparable options, but if we were looking for a winger I wouldn't mind him. As for the mackems, he's much better than anything they've got, so definitely a good signing for them.

Why?

Fletcher is a decent signing for them, albeit they've hugely overpaid. If they can somehow get Adam Johnson as well they look quite good going forward. A solid midtable season beckons.

Up against YoCab's Dreamboat in the H2H

I thought that was a RTG fairytale, was away for 2 weeks so missed most the news lately. Sounds like a classy addition for them Aye, read it on RTG, but think that was before he actually started missing games for Wolves due to ankle injury, so might be some truth in it..

Wasn't there a rumour he did his ankle falling out of a window in preseason trying to sneak out of the Wolves' player hotel at 1pm for a night out?

FC Twente official Aldo van der Laan has claimed in an interview with local TV station RTV Oost (last Wednesday) that they have not received any bids for Douglas yet, but negotiations are ongoing with Fulham and NUFC and the player's agents are in the country (unclear whether that refers to NL or England). They expect something to happen next week (needs to play in NL this weekend to officially be eligible for the NL national team. Telegraaf are reporting today that FC Twente will only get less than 2/3 of any transfer fee as the other third or more goes to various agents. Will be interesting to see what happens next week. Meanwhile Douglas is in Van Gaal's preselection for Holland's WC qualification matches vs Turkey and Hungary.

Don't think they've officially announced the Flecther deal yet have they?

How did Borini not tuck that in himself..?

Shit

Hmm, the original statement of the 20 million annual investment was done in 2008 after we went down: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/7615655.stm Pardew than mentioned in february 2011 that Mike Ashley long term wasn't willing to continue investing millions of his own money in the club: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3434247/Mike-Ashley-has-delivered-a-staggering-statement-of-Toon-intent.html Huge shame, and you'd hope that our success on the pitch and the acceptance by our supporters that the club is on the right track and Ashley deserves a lot of credit for this would lead to him regaining his original interest and enthusiasm. May be wishful thinking, but it wouldn’t be outside of the realms of possibility that this could lead him to reconsider his stance on investing in the club. I don’t think FFP would be an obstacle, as he could simply pay the investment out of Sports Direct as a fee for the stadium renaming and SD signage all over SJP. Either way, I don’t think our transfer strategy dictates we set a budget beforehand; it’s much more opportunistic than that, so I’m reasonably confident the money will be there when there are good deals to be done.

That's on profit they make. Some people assume that but as far as I know there's no proof that any sell on fee is on profit only. There is no proof that there is a sell on fee. Maybe not, but I think just about every source going reported a sell on fee. Some claimed on the total fee and some claimed on profit. Not sure which one's true. Just the one actually if I remember correctly.

Agreed. The way he spread it around last Saturday when he came on was quite impressive. If they lose Modric and Van der Vaart that's all their creativity gone.

I've gone on record in the past as being very cynical about Ashley's level of ambition and critical of his actions, but the way things have gone since the close of the last summer window, including this one, I am totally on board with what he's trying to do. Ultimately, he has delivered what he has set out to do, which was make the club more financially stable (not running at a loss anymore) and work towards making us competitive for the fight for European places as outlined in their five year plan. Not only has he delivered, but he has done so ahead of target and in some style too. Of course I have to agree with those who are saying we have an excellent chance to challenge the top 4 if we strengthen in 3 more positions and as long as our big hitters stay fit and have a season as good as last year's. As it is, I think we are already a better side than this time last year. We've replaced Best with Cisse and Guthrie with Anita, and brought in some promising youngsters (Bigi, Amalfitano, Good) replacing some older players on higher wages, who weren't getting many games (Smith, Lovenkrands). Also, we will hopefully have a fully fit Ben Arfa in the first team for the whole season, as well as getting more games out of Saylor and Marveaux than last year. We have kept all our important players, which was always going to be crucial and shouldn't be taken for granted. Other teams have arguably strengthened too, but I feel we are good enough to aim for another European qualification, which is good enough for me at this point in time. The one thing I would like clarification on is the status of Ashley's promise to invest 20 million per year into the club on an ongoing basis. As I see it, judging from the last accounts, we are almost at the point where our outgoings are covered by our incomings, so presumably any supplemented investment such as that promised 20 million could go straight towards transfer fees and wages to strengthen the squad. Also, with the new TV deal coming into effect next season, almost guaranteeing an additional income of 30 to 40 million to all Premiership clubs, we have to keep investing to stay ahead of the chasing pack whether we want to or not. In summary, as long as we keep what we currently have I would classify this transfer window as good despite the lack of significant net investment. If we manage to add a full back for the first team, that would make it very good, and if on top of that we manage to strengthen the squad with dependable squad options in central defence and central attack I wouldn't hesitate to call it excellent.

No need to rub it in..

42 points

Should have all your points docked for that Cech blunder..

12 million raising to 14 million according to the BBC