Raconteur

I can't say I agree with that - I'm of the opinion that this is an Ashley drive. This is no more than speculation, but I believe Denis Wise's "Newcastle Reserves & Development Squad" has two very specific goals. Firstly, nobly, the hope is to find the new Cesc Fabregas - a player that costs next to nothing, spends a year or two developing before establishing himself in the first team. However, some quotes have led me to believe that the second hope is to find the next Nicholas Anelka - a player who costs next to nothing and is shortly afterward sold for a 20m profit. That's a fantastic return in anybody's language but to me, if persued as a policy, smacks of profiteering and even becoming a "selling club"... Am I being alarmist? Personally, I like the new setup, but only if it works properly and it must be said the jury is still out on that one too...

The answer. I can't believe people have doubts as to whether there are protective measures written into Barton's contract. Even if Freddy Shepherd maliciously left a time bomb (or Ashley and Mort royally fucked up one of their first ever transfers) there is no way known that we are paying Barton's wages while he is in the clink. The Dabo assault was fresh in the minds which would have prompted a "last chance" clause - a chance he blew when he beat the shit out of a boy, just after an assaulting another man. So the power is entirely in the clubs hands. I'm surprised no one has pointed out that Joey Barton played on the left side of our midfield three - the same position it was expected a certain Luka Modric might fill had he not chosen the Yids. Perhaps the club was already preparing for life after Barton...?

Can we expect a raft of inside stories permeating the Freshfields chambers, and thus to the media? Because my strongest impression of Mort was that he is niave and inexperienced in the ways of football - it follows that said man might step out of the insane football world and think relating annecdotes over cigars and brandy harmless...?

I think it depends entirely on what type of player is being signed. Wise and Keegan will have a meeting, certainly, but I would imagine both would go in with an armful of files and a box of DVD's. Keegan's first team needs are paramount, and one would think the first discussions would be on strengthening the gaps - KK might say "I looked at the DVD's of those French boys Diane and Gomis you told me about, lets go for them" for instance. After the meeting, Wise would tell both Mort and Jimenez, with Jimenez attempting to negotiate a fee with the opposition club. Wise might then say "We're looking at this Dutch boy for the academy, here's the file. Still raw but quick and tricky..." I imagine this wouldn't be an "asking" Keegan, but "telling" him (not saying that's a good thing, just how I feel it is) There are also impromptu targets - one can imagine Keegan getting a conference call from Jimenez and Wise saying "We've got Barcelona on hold, they're offering us Deco for a good price, do you want him?" One would hope that Keegan's recommendation is taken 10 times out of 10 in these cases. Once the fee is negotiated with the club and time comes to agree personal terms with the players is where it gets tricky. There are those who feel Keegan does not have enough influence in this area, and I fear those concerns are well founded. A manager must have the chance to look his prospective employee in the eye and guage what sort of man he is and whether he can work with the player. And indeed, when the player is wavering, Keegan can win the day in a way that Wise, Jimenez, Mort, Vetere and Ashley combined can't do...

Just like to show appreciation for Tom_NUFC's post - and to thank him for prompting me to pick up my copy, and add to his recommendation

Unless of course he is the "proper c*nt" variety of WUM, and not the fun, mickey-taking type we know here at N-O

What sort of figure do you think Blackburn might put on his head? Didn't they ask 25m for Bentley? I'm intrigued by your fervour having not having seen much of him except for Munich when he was a lot younger. Sorry to be a Negative Nancy but I reckon the Ewood Park heirarchy might slap a stupid price on him... BTW He will turn 27 around the time the Prem restarts

I've said a few time that Santa Cruz would be my first choice. Regardless of who we sign i'd still play Viduka when fit, he is staying for next season right? He is contracted for next season, but who knows when he'll be fit. I wouldn't expect to see him before Christmas... Is Santa Cruz realistic though, he's only been there a year? Do Blackburn need to sell - and if so wouldn't Bentley be sold instead? I don't know anything about their finances but they were pretty damned stubborn in January!

Well, a great racehorse in Australia was named after him...

I think I'd go with Crouch too - 12m for a 27-year old Englishman is good value and as the good Doctor says he has many positive attributes to bring to the team. That said, I'm a big fan of the Duke, so in fantasy land I'd be aiming a little higher if we wanted to replace him. There's not many big men with the technique and vision Viduka has, and it costs...

Maybe it's as a player-coach with the emphasis on coach like Lee Clark was supposed to be...?

FYP

Gee, that insider verges on the verbose doesn't he? On first name basis with the big man too... Pffft

"Shanildo" - it just sounds like it must have been one of the Brazilians who never made it...

Are you being serious, or is this a wind-up ? The philosophy pf the EU is DE-regulation !! That's the best one I've heard all year - ask people whose bins are emptied once a fortnight whether they agree - that is, of course, whether they know that it is because of an EU Directive that the Councils are doing this - its all to do with Land-fill etc. Also, try asking people losing their local PO whether they like it - again, another EU Directive, supposedly to allow 'Competition'... There are numerous examples but, as I have said before, this is a Football site. Okay, so I'm lazy and failed to specify precisely what I meant. So, if you will allow me, when I say "the philosophy of the EU is deregulation" I mean specifically and very narrowly to the sphere under discussion ie treating football as "normal employment" Starting with Bosman and leading inexorably to the Scottish (?) player who recently won the right to buy out his contract the EU has consistently and vigorously resisted any efforts of football to be seperated from normal EU employment laws - the very laws which allowed all these footballers to challenge what is(from a strictly economic/political perspective) at best an irregular and artifical marketplace. Which was the exact point I am making. Jean-Marc Bosman won the right for footballers to be treated as normal employees who could move freely once their contract of employment had expired - something that in the general labour market is taken as a given. It may very well be that a salary cap or draft system could be beneficial to football - but just like quotas on foreign players, it simply doesn't jive with the EU's labour philosophy. Sorry to be verbose but I had previously failed to make myself understood...

First person I thought of - horrific waste of talent and potential... (not waste so much, more loss) Anyone heard of some of Fergie's "less spectacular" signings like Jesper Blomquvist or Jordi Cruyff lately? Oh, and can anyone expand on this from that Bogarde clip:

Definitely agree with the opening post of Top Three plus Liverpool - I don't think Liverpool have mounted a realistic challenge for years but they are clearly a level above the likes of Everton and Villa... As for the whole economic-philosophy tangent I have just one little question: What do you reckon the liberal workplace laws of the European Union would think of the draft and salary cap proposals? You're kidding yourselves - the philosophy of the EU is deregulation, not more regulation!

I'm pretty sure Martins has signed a new contract...

aye the African kids are better off than British kids tbf That's about it really - the article listed Sierra Leone as THE WORST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD in child mortality, life expectancy, education and health. The worst. In the world. As many have said, it is a very worthy project and one not emulated enough, though just next door in Liberia George Weah did something similar if memory serves... Kudos to Bellamy

That's a fun game You could play that game all day with this list, it's a farce...

Fred to the toon 90% certain he'll sign for PSG in the summer. Paris might not even be in the top flight next year! Fred to the Toon

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater - there are better examples of footballing evil than little Timmy. There is a time and a place for the correct application of the dark arts. Granted, there are those (some listed even) who build a career walking the line - but as mentioned previously (and "curiously" unreplied to), our very own Alan Shearer was highly skilled in the dark arts of football. Of course we all want gentlemen players who stroke the ball around on the field and work for charity after training. But we also want winners - and sometimes that means a brutish foul, or a sly jab to the ribs to unnerve an opponent or maybe even, reluctantly, falling over in the box to win a pen... Lines must be drawn of course. But Little Timmy and even Drogba aren't demons. I don't know about that Diouf character though, he's a bit loco isn't he? Anyway... Sidwell rejected us. Um, okay...

Well, I was going to thank him, but that pales compared to your show of appreciation...

Exactly - he never got the goals himself but layed them off for the likes of Kewell, Bresciano and Cahill. And in a country as ignorant as ours it's all the more remarkable that a striker who doesn't score goals is revered for what he does accomplish!

The soccernet coverage of this story also suggests our favourite agent Willie McKay may have also been arrested over these allegations: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=524304&cc=3436