Parky

People shouldn't be fearful asking for things in this thread. lol

Mainly for this: “We have addressed the situation, met it head on, which is why Mike initially put in £30m of his own money and has now committed a further £45m to pay off the big debts that had people clamouring at the door''. Chris Mort. I know you are a bit of a dark horse, but I also know you beat the city at its own game and they are still sore hence the many London penned articles having a swipe. You have steadied the business and show great enthusiasm for the challenge ahead, don't take your foot off the pedal or let your attention drift cause thousands are watching your every move. Remember one thing, no matter how well a club is run supporters are only happy when the results are on the pitch. Happy Christmas and a successful 2008.

Allardyce can only have himself to blame if that's the case, he spent £18 million on Smith, Barton and Enrique. He's brought in 9 players so has the basis of a full team of his own players if he wanted to play them, it might even be slightly more balanced than the one he actually does pick. £18m sadly buys you average players today Mick, which is what all those players he signed are (at the moment anyway). You rarely get in good quality for £18m. I mean West Ham spent that much on Nobby, Dyer and Parker from us which just goes to show you what you get or rather what you don't for your money. Of course you can buy some quality even for little, Beye for example and Viduka on a free, but in generall you need big big money to break away from mid-table, ala Man City. Or you can do it by slowly building the squad, weeding out the tat and bringing in quality over time like Everton have done. Blackburn are fantastic at buying cheap and doing well: Nelson: Free Warnock: 2m Samba: 250k Emerton: 2.5m Bentley: Undisclosed (bet it wasn't a lot) Pederson: 2.5m Robbie Savage: 2m Tuguy: Nominal Fee Roque Santa Cruz: 3m Beni Mc Carthy: 2.5m For the price of one Michael Owen. Less even. The main obsevation from my point of view is the fact Hughes was given *time* to build. Everton is a similar story. Hughes has a pretty good transfer record though. That is good never realised. 4 of those would walk into our side.

Strikers being the operative word.

Thanks for all your hard work Dave.

Merry christmas Baggy.

Arsenal don't. And the other 3 can afford those risks. All their owners are rich fuckers. Who could have paid off our debt if Freddie was still here? The Halls? Fred himself? What? The Emirates will be paid off by 2035 or something. Dont they have a £500m worth of debt? What on earth are you talking about?

I suggest you read this: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2007/09/25/without-takeover-united-could-well-have-folded-72703-19844203/ I already have. The only thing of note in the whole article is this “We prefer to invest as the cash comes in, not before it does." As most people would. Its an article in the journal by a journalist. In that sense i couldnt care less what the angle is, the quotes from Mort say that if the club had not re-financed by the end of May, it would have folded. In my eyes, thats unlikely. Also, he doesnt say which debt. £50m could not be re-financed as this was stadium debt and secure. So, is this the debt that couldnt be found by Macbeth? A £25m debt means the company is going to fold? Quick someone ring the Glazers and warn them!!! I dont actually believe Mort at all in this case and the reason i dont is because he does not mention the £30m increase in revenue from TV money due to the club's this season, nor the fact that the top 4 carry significantly more debt than we do (because they can and because debt is not a bad thing) He also, quite funnily, states very clearly that his role at the club is a PR based one, which was basically the purpose of the article. I'm not criticising Mort here, i would have used the same lines myself. Well said Chez. It's a wonderment to me that people on the board aren't reading Mort correctly even though he comes out with his little quotes almost every other week now. Mort is beavering away managing expectations and he is beginning to realise it may be tougher in Rome than him and beerbelly anticipated.

As long as I get that 5o notes all will be fine Brummie. Happy Christmas and good posting for 2008.

Monkey running is in.

the problem is our club should be better than your club.... lol I don't know if he's taking the piss or on the level, or if the replies are taking the piss. Or on the level. *shrug* C'mon man... that's very irritating comment. Of course you being happy NUFC getting slumps each season at least your club being above us... what your post above just like to say that NUFC is must be lower than your club you happy isn't it? i don't know why mostly NUFC fans accept your post it's like you called them dipshitt.... and they agree with you : Ohh yea.... i am dipshitt ! People here tends to more patient with Big Sam... Big Sam should know running NUFC is high expectation... it's been many many years since we playing like crap.... and the worst thing is he is not learning with his tactics and player selection.... and that's very frustrating... look at City & Portsmouth they don't need many years to get settle with their new manager blueyes.gif..... not like us... What big sam bring to us isn't Winning Football also... the 2 words that's has been told to be his trade mark... he simply won't learn with what he has at NUFC... if he keep forcing his tactics into NUFC players which NUFC players couldn't manage to do...it's silly... because we simply don't have Bolton Materials.... I love the way you never consider playing it safe. Poster of the year material imho. It fascinates me how people from abroad sometimes see more clearly the soul of the club. Merry x mas Jun to you and your family.

There are clubs in the top 4 with far greater fianancial risks at the moment.

You see I wondered why Gerrard against us had 3 pops from range in his first 5 touches. How every team we play recently has started having a go from anywhere almost.....What do they know that we don't?

He stands too far out and he's tiny.

....and yet in other threads central midfielders it seems are not a priority. lol

Martins doesn't tackle back and if he does it happens once or twice a game. The rest of the time it's pointless run (anywhere) - don't get ball - hands on hips - look to the sky.

We will continue to concede daft goals till pressure is taken off the defence by a midfield that can keep the ball. I'm not sure if that excuses Derby's first today, in particular, which came from a throw-in. Derby were allowed 4 shots on goal in this game, 2 on target, we had nearly 60% posession, 72.5% pass completion... I have a feeling that you know I'm right, but being an optimist you're majestically trying to dance your way around the truth in order to keep pushing for a Diego or a van der Vaart, because you strive for emphatic solutions to what are really simple problems. Like I've said, I'd love us to sign one of these sorts of players, but the defence is a more pressing concern and one that can be more readily/realistically sorted out. I'll take 'majestic' just before bedtime.

I'd have to agree with this.

We will continue to concede daft goals till pressure is taken off the defence by a midfield that can keep the ball.

IMO comparing our game to City is a misnoma, they play a well rehersed 3rd phase game built on posession and the midfield catching up or refueling the attack and sometimes they break quickly with pace, but with the option of re-cycling the attack if the break is caught or moves sideways. It's a tempo game and very much SGE style, probably get an old Lazio match and see very much the same. We play a 2nd phase game primarily which is trying to hit isolated players with pace or heading ability (Martins/Viduka/Smith) and then picking up the second ball. This always looks better on stats as it looks like the ball is in dangerous areas more often, when in reality it is a far less dangerous strategy because player support is rarely there in large numbers to make a differance. If it goes wide to Milner or someone we are then moving to a 3rd phase game ie another pass/two before a chance is created, but this with us is often by default ie a whacked in cross (rarely from the byline) or the ball coming back inside for a vaguely aimed chip etc.. The main problem with this approach is that unless you have the required strikers it is the worst of all worlds ie no support for the 2nd phase knockdown or feeder pass or the whole defence is back by the time the ball is recycled from the wing....2nd phase footie only works if you have 3/4 players with pace not just one. *I hope some of this makes sense I've had a couple.

Just seen this. More or less where I stand.

We're getting locked out by shit sides cause we don't create enough clear/clean chances. The reason for this is we have nobody who can see the last/3rd phase pass. If you keep possesion in mf more and a creative CM can go someway in dictating this, it takes the pressure of the defence as well. Currently from what I see Beye and Zogg are bolting up the flanks and leaving gaps behind and the def component of our covering mf ie Butt/Geremi/Smith don't really have engines or real presence. I forgive SA for now cause I realise he couldn't have forseen all eventualities. But buying quality is one way for a manager to buy luck.

OMG!!11

Bojan screamer.....Come on Barca!!