Parky

I wouldn't want either as starters next term.

Strange.

Same age as Berbatov then. I reckon around the 15m mark and i'd pay more big fan. 15m would do it imo.

Gone.

Cruz.

Drogba-Mourinho to Inter.

What? I'm agreeing.

I reckon the must go will go.

Martins would be off in a blur of backflips if Arsenal came in for him. I think he's seen enough now.

Martins backflipped out of training on Friday when Keegan said he wasn't starting. Last I heard he was trapped under sniper fire in Milan.

The special one is going to Inter with Drogba.

I personally would go in heavy this summer and give us a strong chance of qualifying for Europe etc, so I agree with your 3rd para. Profit and income has to be increased and that isn't going to happen with treading water. Why the chuff didn't you say that originally then, you gonk! That way would undoubtedly be a lot more exciting, like, as I've said. I thought you knew I was a slash and burn merchant. Should have bolded the bit I meant in particular, I was gagging for someone to state the alternate route. I'd go as far as to say we in all reality have no choice but to compete. For falling further behind or standing still is going to hinder and sacrifice future income and branding goals. It's a tricky one though as we don't really know what all this gradual building lark really means...Is it a 5yr plan or a 10yr plan? When will our breakout year come? Wether it happens now or in 3 years time, speculative investment on the pitch has to happen.

I personally would go in heavy this summer and give us a strong chance of qualifying for Europe etc, so I agree with your 3rd para. Profit and income has to be increased and that isn't going to happen with treading water. Why the chuff didn't you say that originally then, you gonk! That way would undoubtedly be a lot more exciting, like, as I've said. I thought you knew I was a slash and burn merchant.

Cheers Apisith, I was waiting for someone to come in with this argument, I didn't want to have a discussion with myself to be honest. The speculating to accumulate thing has to be mentioned, even though it's a more high-risk strategy. If what they do is trim the fat like Smith, Duff, Emre, etc. and replace them with players like Modric who command hefty fees but smaller wages, then they'll be starting out on the right track. It's a hell of a lot harder to find players like that, though, rather than to go after the likes of Riise, Crouch, etc. We've been speculating to accumulate for years now, like a gambler who just kept chucking it on and building up a tab. Thing is now, we have an owner who could, by rights, afford to do things that way - and fucking hell it would be a lot more exciting. This is what I hoped this thread would be about, though, to see whether people would back the high-risk strategy over the "Spurs" strategy. I still stand by me we need to spend £100m over two windows thread.

I personally would go in heavy this summer and give us a strong chance of qualifying for Europe etc, so I agree with your 3rd para. Profit and income has to be increased and that isn't going to happen with treading water.

Some figures here: http://www.newcastlefcweb.co.uk/Latest-Newcastle-News/Newcastle_United_finances_laid_bare_.php

I'm trying to be sensible...Sure it won't last.

Could be in which case we need to watch it a bit regarding sustainable growth on and off the pitch.

It's reported to be running at between 62-68% of turnover. Ideally you want it around 50%. That was last season in January, wasn't it? Nobody knows the figures now as the club isn't a PLC anymore. All we have to go off is that Mort said £10M was added to it this season... can anyone see our turnover having increased any? The latest figures in the press have been around 80%, but obviously that may be wide of the mark. Well Leeds went down with 96% or something approaching that and we are some way off those numbers plus we actually own our players and we aren't renting the stadium. Financially I'd rather be where we are than Liverpool or Pompey or Fulham for that matter. 80% looks high to me. We did shift Parker 60k and Dyer 80k. I'd personally get rid of Duff and Viduka who are high earners.

I think there's always a chance you will lose players if the really big clubs come in for them, Arsenal have lost Flamini to Milan already this season for example but it's making sure you get good value for the player going out and you go about replacing them well. When someone says the club should look to sign young players people automatically think of the likes of Kadar and Tozer who we brought in in the Summer, as you say we're not talking about young lads like that, we're talking about players like Modric and if we were to bring in 4 players of his age and quality then it would put us well on our way to moving back up where we want to be, I think Ashley would be quite right to tell Keegan that any big money should be spent on players 24 or under. As for your comment in the other post about how Keegan must have known what they were aiming to do when he took the job, I think it was a case of Keegan agreeing to it just to get his feet under the table and will now look to go about it a different way instead, Beardsley said something similar in the talk in that Coach went to, I reckon if Keegan did try and force the club to change direction then he'd be the one to go rather than Jimenez or Wise. I agree, I think there were some very general understandings in place and now KK is testing the water.

It's reported to be running at between 62-68% of turnover. Ideally you want it around 50%.

I don't follow this Johnny, or even remotedly agree with it. Its about assessing quality, and building a team of quality players. The higher the quality the better. If you can buy a player such as Rooney, then you know you have someone of the absolute top level and then look at other quality players for other positions. Whats the point of building a team of players who aren't good enough ? but since we've gone about buying these types of players we've been no better than mid-table and had these flirts with relegation so you can hardly say it's worked. when we bid for rooney we'd just sold a world class centre-half and were desperate for another, but we tried to spend all our money on another striker even though we'd already bought one that summer. that, to me, is the epitome of a trophy signing. likewise with Duff. the brightest player in the squad at that time was a left-winger and we had several other positions needing to fill, but instead we went out and bought Duff, simply because of his name, cos as we all know, he's fucking awful at football. and when we signed Owen, Souness was pressing for Boa Morte and Anelka, ie players who werent big names, and in one case (Anelka) a player with a terrible 'le sulk' attitude who a portion of our fanbase would not have welcomed here. Shepherd refused to back this genuine attempt at team building and instead bought Owen because he is a big name player. no one is saying these are bad players (other than Duff) as it is more than probable that these big names will also be good players. last summer we kind of did the opposite and bought average squad fillers to bolster our thin squad. this hasn't proved entirely successful either. however, at one point in the summer we had only one senior centre-half, taylor, who is of below average quality, so we simply HAD to get numbers in for a variety of less glamorous positions. had we decided to spend £15m on say, a small quick goal-scorer, a totally unneccessary and perhaps damaging purchase, when we already had Owen and Martins for that kind of position, we would've spent the season with Taylor and Edgar as first choice, with the likes of Darren Lough and other academy or reserve players playing dozens of games. that's a bit like how huntington played loads of games last season despite not being good enough for League One, and his presence led to us being knocked out of europe and being mired in the bottom half of the table. ultimately you need to back the manager at building a balanced squad, not just deciding to go out and buy big names but neglect the rest of the team, or going to extremes of generosity when it comes to getting an Owen, but refusing to pay more modest sums on a smaller name like Anelka, who happened to be the better player. Yup.

Don't think we're in the ballpark of sanctioning a £70m spend in one window. Think it will be about £30m tops....All will be revealed by the end of the summer.

Completely wrong. Old-style (Freddy Shepherd) "one-off" trophy signings will achieve nothing, other than confirm that we are still second-rank 'triers / failures'. That doesn't make any sense. So buying a world class player at a high fee would confirm us as second rank triers? What would buying second rank players do then? its just to have a go at Shepherd though Not really, I am simply saying (the bleedin' obvious) that Keegans comments (no matter how 'clever' his intentions MAY have been) have only made it specifically more difficult for us to become a successful club (attract top players) and I was refuting a comment made that "a trophy purchase" (singular) would help mitigate the damage. so - again - who are these "trophy" players that have been signed in the past ? And what have you got against the club having, for instance, one or two players the top 4 would like themselves, rather than none ? Hmmm, interesting. Firstly, I did not bring up the subject of 'trophy players' - someone else did. My response was that one-off big purchases are no good at all. A big purchase is only a sign that you are a club that means business, if it is 'the norm' (part of a continuous process) as it was starting to be when Keegan was last with us, and as it is all the time at Manchester United (for example). A 'one-off' big purchase is not the solution that the poster whose comments I was refuting, thinks it is. ok? Let's not get hung up on the past, or previous owners of the club etc, it is the future that matters. Secondly - I have already said it really. To be successful, we should only (routinely) be buying top quality players. If we do not (cannot afford to) then we will not be successful. Keegans comments help to make it more likely that we will indeed NOT become successful I hope he is proud of himself. I think he is a great bloke and a great manager, but in letting the "we are not big enough" Genie out of the bottle - he has done untold damage to our club (as I said in my earlier posts). Rubbish. If anything KK's integrity and honesty has been reinforced. Also if it fuels a debate about what kind of club we are and what our immediate ambitions are all the better.