Dr Venkman

the only place there'll be hell is on here, there are no other consequences other than the team not being as good

West Ham get relegated and hire Allardyce and they have more potential than us. How on earth did that get published?

mate, the spin is dripping off of that article. we only want to sign players who REALLY want to play for nufc? but were happy for marveaux to strop at liverpool because of the contract offer and come to us instead for a better offer? and what's wrong with a player trying to get the best deal he can when he's got so many clubs after him? if we're going to put so much emphasis on finance when doing deals then why cant a player do it too?

chelsea are mad though aren't they? i have no trouble believing that we wont pay the going rate for a player with no loopholes or release clauses

Look, I'm happy that he's signed, it's good news, but an incentivised contract isnt fantastic news. It's a shrewd financial move. But if his knee goes he cant play, on the pitch, where we need him to win games, then we're forced to play someone of a lesser calibre. This is great but it really needs to be accompanied by bringing in at least 2 more of his quality. Well aye that goes without saying man, but it's better news than handing him a fat payslip every week regardless of what he does. Don't understand the point of that post whatsoever. That the very fact we're paying our new striker on a pay-as-you-play/score basis indicates that we'll definitely need 2 further strikers and that he hopes the club realises that? Aye, but I think that goes without saying though, and with the rumours I'm pretty sure the club realise that. I'm just saying it is fantastic news that he's seemingly signed a sensible contract, which IS fantastic news whatever way you want to twist or turn it. my point is i hope the lads in charge of the money agree Fair enough matey, me too, wait and see. aye it's all a big waiting game at the minute, i have to say though i'm delighted to have 2 progressive signings already

Look, I'm happy that he's signed, it's good news, but an incentivised contract isnt fantastic news. It's a shrewd financial move. But if his knee goes he cant play, on the pitch, where we need him to win games, then we're forced to play someone of a lesser calibre. This is great but it really needs to be accompanied by bringing in at least 2 more of his quality. Well aye that goes without saying man, but it's better news than handing him a fat payslip every week regardless of what he does. Don't understand the point of that post whatsoever. That the very fact we're paying our new striker on a pay-as-you-play/score basis indicates that we'll definitely need 2 further strikers and that he hopes the club realises that? Aye, but I think that goes without saying though, and with the rumours I'm pretty sure the club realise that. I'm just saying it is fantastic news that he's seemingly signed a sensible contract, which IS fantastic news whatever way you want to twist or turn it. my point is i hope the lads in charge of the money agree, if there's one thing we should have learned by now we can never really be sure about what the club realise

Look, I'm happy that he's signed, it's good news, but an incentivised contract isnt fantastic news. It's a shrewd financial move. But if his knee goes he cant play, on the pitch, where we need him to win games, then we're forced to play someone of a lesser calibre. This is great but it really needs to be accompanied by bringing in at least 2 more of his quality.

The last line of this highlights a very important issue imo

can we give him number 9.5 next season?

was in the journal also http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2011/06/17/leon-best-put-up-for-sale-by-newcastle-united-61634-28893323/?

nah, he's another player on the payroll, ashley hates those. there's no way pardew will be allowed any more than is deemed necessary to stay top 10

Don't mind Best going at all if he's replaced, shouldn't be too hard.

I'm happy playing the mackems early like, I think we'll carry on the positivity from last season and their terrible run might be hanging around a bit. Also they're still desperate for 'revenge'

that record's slightly tempered by a hat-trick against one of the very worst defences i've ever seen at st james like, including some of ours. that said i think he's a decent player, but not seen anything to suggest he's more

i'll be so unbelievably gutted if he never gets back to that form, and delighted if he does

aye no problems with him being number 9 like, why not

Venkman i'm saying if it's only him we're getting it's a bit of a risk given his knee, if you want to call that complaining that's up to you.

I know what you mean, [b[i just don't see why everything positive has to have a massive caveat tagged onto the end.[/b] Ba is a good signing, he's better than all our other strikers. Let's judge the other business on its own merits. it doesn't, but it absolutely must be judged with reference to selling a player for 35m and then promising to invest that money into the squad publicly ian, i'm sorry like but it fucking does Fair enough. I just think Ba is a good signing and there's no reason to be down on it because he didn't cost £20m. aaaaaargh which part of "criticising the Ba deal is stupid 'cause it makes good sense on every level" is me being down on the ba signing? Sorry, I didn't see you say that and I wasn't really talking about you solely anyway. My personal view is that the Ba deal is a good deal. It won't become a bad deal even if we fail to make other signings. That's it really. i'm very surprised you don't see each individual incoming and outgoing deal as part of a bigger outlook the club has now. signings have to be looked at in this context now imo because we know that 1. the club are looking to take advantage of release clauses/free transfers rather than scouting a player and paying what he's worth (this is the reason i dont think we'll get n'zogbia) 2. we'll sell for big money even if it immediately hampers us on the pitch Each deal is part of the whole deal imo and it's the whole deal that I care about ultimately. With respect, you are talking shite TBF. I get the whole "big picture" thing but if you can't judge the signing of Demba Ba on whether we sign another striker or not. IF we sign Ba he will judged on his own merits out on the pitch. IF we sign another striker (which i think we will), he will be judged in the same way. If want to preserve collective judgement, save it for the management team on september 1st. i'm not going to decide he's a bad player if he does it on the pitch for us, i'm just trying to say i'll reserve judgement on whether it's a good deal for the club when we see the squad come the first day of the season. the reason being that it's another signing based on getting a deal rather than getting the best player (form and fitness) we possibly can with the resources available.

What if the knee goes bang of the striker that's almost certain to bang them in, like it did with Owen? Realistically there is only so much you can prepare for and I'd be amazed if we went out and bought 3 strikers, we've also seen this season in the league with Rooney, Drogba and Torres that there are no certainties in front of goal. fair question, but let me ask you one. It's a given that we need to operate the club within reason and not pay out ridiculous wages to everyone like we have in the past, but every signing is a balance between what they'll offer us on the pitch and what we have to pay out as a club. Given our recent signings and the sale of Carroll, does it look to you like the main consideration is money or ability? As far as i'm concerned it's 100% money, and that's from a club who've just received an enormous transfer fee. You have to play the percentages and at the moment we're not playing them in favour of fitness record or ability (Ba, Gosling, Neil Taylor) we're doing it solely based on how much we can save. At some point the attitude has to change if we want to go anywhere.

I know what you mean, [b[i just don't see why everything positive has to have a massive caveat tagged onto the end.[/b] Ba is a good signing, he's better than all our other strikers. Let's judge the other business on its own merits. it doesn't, but it absolutely must be judged with reference to selling a player for 35m and then promising to invest that money into the squad publicly ian, i'm sorry like but it fucking does Fair enough. I just think Ba is a good signing and there's no reason to be down on it because he didn't cost £20m. aaaaaargh which part of "criticising the Ba deal is stupid 'cause it makes good sense on every level" is me being down on the ba signing? Sorry, I didn't see you say that and I wasn't really talking about you solely anyway. My personal view is that the Ba deal is a good deal. It won't become a bad deal even if we fail to make other signings. That's it really. i'm very surprised you don't see each individual incoming and outgoing deal as part of a bigger outlook the club has now. signings have to be looked at in this context now imo because we know that 1. the club are looking to take advantage of release clauses/free transfers rather than scouting a player and paying what he's worth (this is the reason i dont think we'll get n'zogbia) 2. we'll sell for big money even if it immediately hampers us on the pitch Each deal is part of the whole deal imo and it's the whole deal that I care about ultimately.

Or have better options and won't come like Gervinho and Gameiro. we did have a pretty good looking striker here til january like and he cost nowt, a pay rise would have kept him here.

I know what you mean, I just don't see why everything positive has to have a massive caveat tagged onto the end. i shouldnt even have to answer that, we've been let down so many times by these lot it's natural to temper enthusiasm at this point well, no. I'll judge the squad as a whole on the first day of the season. If Ba is accompanied by other strikers of his quality he's a good signing, if he's not it's a bad signing because they THINK its enough and it's another signing made for financial reasons first and football second.

the way i look at it of we bring ba and erdinc and that's it in it's almost certainly an upgrade on what we have but it's worrying for a few reasons. 1. Ba's knee 2. Erdinc is somewhat out of form and a confidence player by some accounts 3. It looks likely we're going for a 4-3-3 with not many goals likely from midfield. If Ben Arfa isnt the player he was or takes ages to get back to it who's gonna score if Erdinc doesnt settle and Ba's in the treatment room? It would just make me feel more comfortable bringing in a striker who is almost certainly gonna bang quite a few in for us, due to form and fitness records. But they tend to cost money.

cant see anything wrong at all with saying it's a good signing if he's joined by another one or two of his ability but not wise if he's the only striker we bring in. that makes sense to me.

agree