Parky

I still don't think we'll go down, but it will be very very close.

Sorry mate, mines been out for about 2 months. Of course it's probably not fair to judge surrounded by dross as he is. But, he seems to lack some basiscs ie crossing, shooting and passing. Relevant or not?

Jenas starts for England. Lets not go down the international so must therefore be a top player route. He may start for Argentina but he doesn't STAR for them... pretty much how he plays for us. he starts but doesn't shine. Unless you're one of those fans who looks at his work rate and his trickery on the ball to evade markers as shininge xamples of outstanding play and contribution. I don't, I value my players being able to do good things on the ball in key areas which Jonas struggles with and its starting to effect the team. Yeah, lets not go down the 'he gets picked to start for one of the best teams in the world so therefore must be a good player route'........in other words, yeah lets ignore the evidence that points heavily towards HTT being wrong. Maybe they are short of good players?

He's a tiny bit better than Milner but will never score for the club even if he plays 100 games which he won't cause he'll be off in the summer.

It's easy, when your team are relying solely on one player to do everything, to blame him when things aren't going right. It's ok though, we can all see him play outstandingly next year...for someone else whilst we've spent our £200k transfer budget funded by player sales in the Championship. No one is asking or expecting him to do everything or blaming him when things aren't going right. I'm blaming him for being inept at shooting, crossing and passing in general which isn't down to having shit team mates but shit technique. I've been saying this for ages but people have been beating me up for it. :-[

I'd have to agree with that. He needs to tell someone he can't do it.

The books have less red marks though.

It's on.

Cheif scout ftw.

Agreed.

Agree. If Wise / his team is responsible for all the random youth signings that we've made, then I'm more than happy to have him on board. Tis a big IF mind you. Regardless of whether you think he's had a hand in getting a couple of decent players into the club, there's little doubt in my mind that his continued presence is counter-productive. Besides, if the club didn't want him to be a scapegoat they could have spoken out in his defence long before now - a little bit of positive PR could have gone a long way. Clarifying his role would have been a start. Most clubs seem to be moving away from the DOF structure now, surely with good reason, but if we must have one then there must be better out there than Dennis Wise. Wonder if any of our rivals will be moving in to snap him up once his services become available? Doesn't work in the English game.

Agree. If Wise / his team is responsible for all the random youth signings that we've made, then I'm more than happy to have him on board. Tis a big IF mind you. FM 08 innit.

Shittest DOF on the planet?

What use is an on strike goalkeeper like the one we had? And how many of the players you've listed had handed in transfer requests as Milner did? Would you honestly have made them stay Dave? Honestly? Why do you think they wanted to leave? Money? Play more often? Or was it because Man City and Villa look like actually going somewhere and we don't? These other clubs manage to convince their players to stay when other clubs come in for them. FWIW Ebondo was desperate to join us: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/01/29/toon-target-albin-ebondo-keen-on-nufc-move-72703-22810181/. His club just played hardball. If Given was effectively on strike then Kinnear wants shooting for continually picking him when he wasn't committed to the cause as you suggest. Milner handed in a transfer request to try and get the club to give him more money, we didn't and chose to sell him instead, Given went to City because they are spending big to try and get success and we don't stand a chance of competing with them. I'm not sure why Ashley wants to pay for transfers up front but perhaps people can ask Llambias in the next Q&A session in the Chronicle if it bothers them that much, I don't see how it's made any difference to the club if he's prepared to stick the money in and get it back when the deals for Given and co pay out. He wants to pay upfront to keep the books straight and so as the players appear as full assets (intangible) for a sale if one appears on the horizon. FWIW I think MA will be gone in the next 2 years.

It does that. We can only speculate, but that was the time to add one or two more bits of quality to the outfield and as you say we were in a positon to start to dominate the top 3/4 of the table followed by CL money. The club effectively would have had a chance to be where Liv are now. On Souness I will say his dealing on Luque and Boumsong were complete blunders underpinned by his close relationship to Rangers and Mike in Spain ( I think with Luque the money was spent on the strength of one phonecall). Spanish wingers in the PL...Pull the other one. Even Benny has got mixed up with a lot of Spanish dross bar Torres who is absolute world class.

What FS would have done what all the other clubs with high wages and debt do. Maybe you can enlighten me so that I know the answer. You know the ans goes they are all above us in the table. There's zero evidence to show we were heading up the table under FS. Strange don't remember saying that. If the others have managed to reign in wages and continue sensible spend on players not sure why we can't. Feel free to point out what I'm missing. Paying for players upfront is madness, nobody does it and there are some good reasons not to. Why would we want to? Every team is keen to keep an eye on debt under the new fianacial scenario, but they don't do it to the extent that it might endanger PL status. and on and on....

Not refreshing the first team adequately 'that summer' was a catastrophic mistake.

What FS would have done what all the other clubs with high wages and debt do. Maybe you can enlighten me so that I know the answer. You know the ans goes they are all above us in the table.

What is that? What don't you understand?

Rich ffs! I'm trying to make this thread go away. In fairness, I was in a pub with loads of Liverpool fans on Wednesday night and they all seem to share your view from then even now. He was getting all sorts of abuse for having Gerrard on the bench (obviously not fit) and for his formation, but then he goes and gets a 0-1 result away at Real Madrid! It's just another case of us lot thinking we know better, when really we're pretty clueless about most things at the top levels of the game (not just you!) Aye. Anyway took a lot out of me getting rid of Ramos.

Rich ffs! I'm trying to make this thread go away. Tbf the fat spanish waiter has been close to the chop a couple of times........We'll see how the new contract goes. He seems to time negotiations with CL cup runs the scheming bugger.

You talking about fat Fred and the Hall's? They didn't pretend the club was broke, they actually made it that way . Just a little correction for you there. :laughterisnotargumentation: they found it that way ............ do your history. Just lately I had held out a bit of hope for you. Back to square 1 how would you describe the position when ashley took over and what do you think fred and co would have done had ashley not bought them out ? FS would have done what all the other clubs with high wages and debt do.

No one can gag Keegan unless he agrees to it, and the only way he will settle quietly is if his case isn't watertight (which it obviously isn't). A settlement is an agreement between the two parts, so Keegan will of course have to agree to it. But you have no reason to assume Keegan will accept it only if his case isn't watertight. They may chose to pay him more in a settlement than he could expect from a court case, rather than risking a PR disaster, and Keegan might think money is worth more than publicly humiliating the people at the club. We don't know. But basically, a settlement means the club think they may have more to lose by letting the case go public, and that Keegan think he has no more to win, or small chance of it, by taking it further. Interesting opinion. One that just seems to pluck any possibility out of thin air with no regard to how probable it is in reality. Do you have experience of employment litigation issues? To be offering such wildly improbable scenarios i'd hazard not. "Lets give him 12m out of court so we dont have to give him 9m in court". Genius. Clearly not what he was trying to say, but fair play for being so pig headed. Keegan will not necessarily get the full £9 million he is asking for but still win the case and still get some compo from the club, as well as having the satisfaction of having the lame excuses trotted out by those in charge on full view to all and sundry. Ashley isn't in the business of giving away cash so the fact they're trying to settle out of court speaks volumes. With Keegan apparently liable for 2m then an out of court settlement doesnt speak volumes about anything. If Keegan is liable and the club aren't at fault why are they giving him £4 million? Oh sorry, i've just realised you live in cloud cuckoo land and Ashley has already paid out. It's looking likely it's going to be settled out of court, with MA parting with some cash. If Keegan is liable why may MA be about to give him £4 million? Sensible answer please. alternativly if NUFC are liable why is keegan willing to settle for half. an out of court settlememnt of this style would,to me, seem to imply neither side was too sure of the ground they were on. Lucky for KK I don't think they can really remember the mistakes they made while fucking him over.

Ha ha...Dodgy alright. How to buy a club effectively with its own revenue while at the same time make out it's broke. The Glazers have nothing on this fella.