Dr Venkman

good lad, give him no.9

Not much business between now and the start of the season would be ok as long as we dont lose anyone

potential to be very tasty indeed

everything in moderation Couldn't agree more, but you can't just ignore the financial realities of the situation because it's football. Which seem people seem very very keen to do. personally i'm keen for them not to ignore the footballing realities but whatever floats your boat. just look at everything else the club is doing, now we're getting rid of badly needed squad players for no other reason than to stop paying them wages, EVERYTHING is geared towards cost cutting for f***s sake, EVERYTHING. when does this become not good enough for our club? after 10 more seasons 'trying to attack the top ten and challenging in the cups' ? Not sure where that little temper tantrum is going. All I am pointing out is that it is utterly ridiculous for people to ignore the financial realities of running a business. The fact that this particular business is a football club doesn't alter the fundamental principles on which the business should be run. People making statements about not caring about balance sheets, the wage bill or levels of debt are deluded. being patronised isnt going to stop me caring passionately about the club. i agree, but on the other side of the coin there's a fair few who've been completely sucked in

we don't need a squad, if they're not starting every week get them off the wage bill :facepalm: :facepalm: Did you read it? Genuine question, because that is not what is being reported. Pardew - "It is about accepting your role in the squad. We have players like Joey Barton and Fabricio Coloccini who will be expecting to play every game. But we also need players who will need to make competition for places below that group. Some may not see a lot of football. It is up to them if they are prepared to stay and be in that role – or move on." noises that these players were available for sale have been around for weeks now, dont you think pardew would have had the conversation with them BEFORE these leaks if those comments were genuine? can you read that?

everything in moderation Couldn't agree more, but you can't just ignore the financial realities of the situation because it's football. Which seem people seem very very keen to do. personally i'm keen for them not to ignore the footballing realities but whatever floats your boat. just look at everything else the club is doing, now we're getting rid of badly needed squad players for no other reason than to stop paying them wages, EVERYTHING is geared towards cost cutting for fucks sake, EVERYTHING. when does this become not good enough for our club? after 10 more seasons 'trying to attack the top ten and challenging in the cups' ?

we don't need a squad, if they're not starting every week get them off the wage bill :facepalm: :facepalm: there's only one player there that should be going and everyone knows who it is. i've never been big fans of routledge and best but they should be adequate back up, ranger and lua lua should be given more time to push on. if any of these players want to leave of their own accord thats a different matter but forcing them out to save even more cash, ffs man.

everything in moderation

Because the offer was amazing and it helps to improve our finances. I'm not saying we might not spend slightly more now we have extra money BTW, just that it's not such a direct link as people like to make out. ("Would we have spent nothing?", "We still have £30m in the bank" etc etc). I know Pards made the situation worse by saying it would all be reinvested, but you must know he was just reacting to a question and defending a shocking development. 'Slightly more'?! The entire reasoning behind taking that amazing offer was that it would be used to significantly improve the squad. The computer game experts on here assured us all that plenty of better strikers could be bought with the money we were getting for Carroll, for example. I'm reasonably happy with our transfers so far and as it stands I would say the squad is possibly a little better than it was last season, but that's making a number of assumptions about players fitting in straight away (or coming back well from major injuries), hitting the ground running and offering at least the same production as those they have replaced. Not to mention the fact that there are supposedly a number of what I consider to be useful players up for sale. The sound of goalposts being moved grows louder every day. You're obviously not happy with the transfers so far otherwise you wouldn't be constantly moaning like a bitch. It's so painfully obvious here that the overriding issue here isn't the potential quality of player we're bringing in or looking to bring in, its the amount of cash we're spending. The stupid thing about this, is I actually agree with your fundamental point, I think some money needs to spent on the squad, I argued pretty much the exact point you're contesting in the post above. I'm starting to think though that my shot was slightly off Target, instead of spending to improve the squad, I think we need to spend money to appease fans like yourself. I can see us spending £12m of the £35m, would that be enough for people? (This might be a trick question) worst post of the year

Because the offer was amazing and it helps to improve our finances. I'm not saying we might not spend slightly more now we have extra money BTW, just that it's not such a direct link as people like to make out. ("Would we have spent nothing?", "We still have £30m in the bank" etc etc). I know Pards made the situation worse by saying it would all be reinvested, but you must know he was just reacting to a question and defending a shocking development. 'Slightly more'?! The entire reasoning behind taking that amazing offer was that it would be used to significantly improve the squad. The computer game experts on here assured us all that plenty of better strikers could be bought with the money we were getting for Carroll, for example. I'm reasonably happy with our transfers so far and as it stands I would say the squad is possibly a little better than it was last season, but that's making a number of assumptions about players fitting in straight away, hitting the ground running and offering at least the same production as those they have replaced. Not to mention the fact that there are supposedly a number of what I consider to be useful players up for sale. The sound of goalposts being moved grows louder every day. I don't really disagree with any of that Dave, except I don't agree that the reasoning for selling Carroll was to improve the squad. I think the reasoning behind selling Carroll was to improve our finances and because we got an offer that was too good to turn down. The improvement of the squad was something that was said to soften the blow for fans, and hopefully will actually happen in some way as a secondary effect. But it won't increase out spending to dramatic levels, it will just allow us to make a reasonable number of realistic signings. Which we're already doing. in a nut shell. the offer was too good to turn down but not on the premise of improving the team as the majority of people defending the sale claimed. the claim that it supposedly allows us to make a reasonable number of realistic signings is ridiculous though, no-one can convince me we cant do that without selling Carroll. here's an idea, don't sell Carroll and spend the MASSIVE fees of the Ba deal on his extra wages. every other deal could and should have been done and we'd be in a better position going into the new season. that'd be thinking of the football though, obviously.

it's a brilliant place to be if you've got a few quid Couldn`t stand living there, but I do like the odd weekend out down there. don't get me wrong i'm not a big fan, i'm generally down on it tbh. but if you're a rich man then London's got a lot to offer

it's a brilliant place to be if you've got a few quid

Constant to who or what you are looking out for. The only true losers of the whole situation were the fans, that's all there is to it. So for him to come out and always mention his love for the fans and club rings false. no, ffs, just no.

Loves them the most and for everyone to know that. His sudden bouts of misplaced integrity didn't do the club much good, but I suppose that doesn't matter. principles and integrity are constants, you knacker

FFS! So now if we hadn't sold our No 9 then not only would we have had no budget this summer but none next January either. Exactly. How much more of this bullshit are people going to fall for. Some of them will fall for all of it.

there's a question mark after that hash tag

isnt it? or am i being whooshed?

I don't know, we'll see if it happens. You seem to be reacting like this happens all the time, when Carroll is the only real example. my reaction is a continuation of the one i had when hughton was sacked for nothing and pardew brought in so ashley could sell/bring in whoever he wanted with no argument , IMO, it's all part of the same thing Hughton was widely criticised as a yes man when he was given the job originally, this thing about Pardew being a walkover is a non-starter IMO. Any manager sometimes has to acquiesce to the board, they would be resigning all the time if they didn't. Ian, you're a good lad and I enjoy our debates, but this just seems so naive to me. I'm aware I brought up Hughton but i reckon it's probs best for everyone if we dont go down this route again

If we are a stronger, better team next season, how will it resonate with you? i'll be very happy if we're a stronger and better team, i try my best to separate this sort of thing from my actual enjoyment of watching the team play and i'm as positive as the rest when it come to the actual football. tends to irk me when i think someone's taking libs though

I don't know, we'll see if it happens. You seem to be reacting like this happens all the time, when Carroll is the only real example. my reaction is a continuation of the one i had when hughton was sacked for nothing and pardew brought in so ashley could sell/bring in whoever he wanted with no argument , IMO, it's all part of the same thing

Scouting is a much of a muchness really. Most clubs are aware of most players. disagree, the ability to spot potential is different from having a list of names and contract lengths

Ultimately we've had six months to decide what to do with at least £30m of allegedly unexpected income, with the benefit of what some seem to say is the world's best scout and a manager who apparently has the full backing of his manager and the club owner. And yet here we are, with people happy to 'hope it allows us the ability to react to opportunities, if there are any'. If we're so hard up that we needed to sell our best striker and most promising talent for big money just to pay wages and to afford to bring in couple of free transfers, it makes you wonder if they'd fully intended on flogging Carroll all along. And if that is the case, who's next out of the door? you'll agree that at least some of it will have gone on signing oin fees,agents and wages and rightly so ? will you agree that the club has other avenues of making money other than selling players? and some of it should go towards the same things? at what point do we stop giving them the benefit of the doubt and realise they're taking the piss?

i wonder if any of this will resonate next time it happens btw, if we sell another key player for money thats 'too good to turn down'. or if there'll still be 'lets wait and see what they do with it first' all over the place.

I'm not even sure that we have improved on the pitch, we'll have to wait and see but we've shipped out a lot of goals that will need replacing or we'll have to tighten up at the back just to tread water. i share your concerns, especially considering the fitness concerns of Ba and Marveaux

What does it get you then? you know we'll make a profit on the enrique replacement too. as many others have said it's the squad that matters and as long as we improve on the pitch we should be happy, i can't shake this feeling that we could improve so much more with our resources though.