afar

Difference there is all those players were world class, Arteta didn't even play international football. Those managers immediately had the respect of the players when they came in, what's Arteta done to demand that ? Sat with a miserable face on the bench handing Pep water bottles ?

I might be wrong, but if they appoint Arteta I see a train wreck on the horizon, probably not last a year.

Wpuld be an absolute disaster for either club tbh. Hope it happens

He deserves it but it's never easy to go from caretaker to real manager, he's got to hope he follows the likes of Hughton rather than the countless examples of failed caretakers. That squad is not great and he'll lose the better players in it. The big advantage though is they've made the appointment very early and are a step ahead of their main rivals next season like Stoke and Swansea who will probably spend the next few weeks finding a new man to take charge. I'm not convinced they'll bounce right back up but they've probably got the best chance of the three relegated clubs right now. Strange that in the last two years just one club (us) bounced back up, it's not that common anymore.

It's the only thing that makes any logical sense for Short tbh. You don't wipe out all the debt and walk away from 70 or 80 million that will go to the new owner who will have a much more manageable finances with a much reduced wage bill and zero debt. Without the parachute payments, it's still going to be a huge struggle for them financially, they don't generate nearly enough to cover their expenses, the simply have to get promotion next season and the following, otherwise they are stuck forever unless they happen upon a miracle worker of a manager.

Oh well, there's the ground work in place to engineer another non event of a transfer window. Rafa's gone like just a matter of when not if now. Think he will want to see out this final year of his contract to pay back the loyalty of the fans and his players unless a proper job, not a West Ham, comes along. I said before that 400 million wasn't an outrageous price, but if these numbers are true then I was way off the mark, he was lucky to be offered 300 million and should have snatched PCP hands off, of course that's IF this is all true. I also said I did believe he genuinely wanted to sell but I'm clearly wrong IF these numbers are to be believed.

We are fucking insane: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-set-side-big-six-14672185

Well I thought at the time the sacking was a little premature, and was very impressed with his first press conference and of course starting the season with good away win. I wonder where we would be now if Ashley had realised how much of a perfect fit the Fat headed git is for his idea of how to run a football club.

They could be playing at SJP next year after all with Exeter City in the league tow play off final with a 3-1 win over Lincoln City tonight. Exciting days ahead for them

Pardew isn't coming back dude, I get the whole scepticism but Pardew's reputation is in the toilet right now, the job he did at Palace and WBA put the final nail in his PL manager coffin. Ashley wouldn't trust him to do the one thing he insists upon which is to keep that PL money flowing. Fat Sam's return is what you should be more worried about.

And that's the crux of the issue, it's not that the price is too high for what they get, it's that either something is putting off potential buyers or there are simply not any people in the market for these kind of investments anymore, like loveitifwebeatu pointed out above. If it's the latter then the only fix is to drop the price until there is a market, which has already been established by PCP's bid to be around 300 - 350 mill. If it's the former then what is ? Are investor put off by something in the books, the fan base, the lack of potential for the club, what ? Clearly Ashley is not aggressively looking to sell otherwise a deal with PCP would have happened they are so close on price, bridging that gap shouldn't be hard if there was real desire on both ends. I just can't see the desire for him to keep putting himself in the radar for hate as people expect action from him that he clearly doesn't want to do, it's quite bizarre. He's getting brand exposure but that brand is taking a huge beating while he is owner of our football club. That's why I have always expected that a deal would go through at some point but now it seems more unlikely than ever. Like I said previously , we won't be this desirable an asset for anyone ever again, this is our small window of opportunity.

Did we release him ? England youth product, seems a bit premature to give up on him.

Speaking of Arsenal, I forgot all about Wenger, he would fit the profile Sullivan painted too. Wenger should be the next England boss in my view, but the FA won't have the balls to sack Southgate even if we don't get out of the group stage. Don't think Wenger feels he's finished with football.

Like I said I don't think 400 million is an outrageous price. Sports clubs over here in North America change hands for considerably more money than that and their worldwide exposure is nowhere near that of the PL. It's not a bad price when you rake in a guaranteed 100 million just by surviving in the division, that's a 1/4 of your initial investment in one year, that's not profit of course but few owners are in it for that, even if Ashley had taken the 300 million, he would have recouped all his investment in the club and had a decade of priceless free band exposure. This is not America ... Sha la la la la ... It doesn't matter, I just used that as a reference point. The big take here is that Ashley could recoup all he invested in the club, by taking the lowest offer he was made already (along with the hard to quantify value for brand exposure).. 400 million is a lot of money though and not many folks have it to spend on a football team but I do think it's a OK price for what an investor would get.

So have we all calmed down now ? The time for panic is not yet here, that'll come later on when talks inevitably break down.

Yes it's exactly the same

Like I said I don't think 400 million is an outrageous price. Sports clubs over here in North America change hands for considerably more money than that and their worldwide exposure is nowhere near that of the PL. It's not a bad price when you rake in a guaranteed 100 million just by surviving in the division, that's a 1/4 of your initial investment in one year, that's not profit of course but few owners are in it for that, even if Ashley had taken the 300 million, he would have recouped all his investment in the club and had a decade of priceless free band exposure.

That isn't how it works though. Do you think PSG bid 200m for Neymer without already knowing if he was keen? West Ham will have sounded Rafa out. Call it tapping up or whatever you like. That's how it works. Call me stupid but if I were, the West Ham owner, I would not go on record saying I was already talking to the manager, before I have agreed to pay the buy out with his current employer, especially when there is currently another high profile case going on involving Silva.

Benidorm ?

I honestly think after the last relegation, he was ready to call it a day. It's too much work for him, it's a risky business whereby if you underperform you lose a substaintial amount of cash, yet still maintain huge costs. I know we should right question any of what he says but honestly believe he eventually came to the realisation that it's a difficult business to sustain and the exposure of the Sports Direct brand was the only thing he had a hard time on giving up on. So he set a price in his mind and was ready sell if someone matched it. The success of the team this season may have re-ignited his desires but I still think if someone comes along with the money in hand to pay his price, he'll take it and be happy to walk away from the spotlight.

I like the Fulham manager (whom I can never spell his name so he'll be forever that to me), but my money would be on the return of fat Sam unfortunately, the public apology last year and acknowledgement was clearly engineered to pave the way for his return should Rafa leave. He's the perfect manager for Ashley, absolutely perfect, gonna keep that PL TV money rolling in but in no danger of ever reaching the point where he needs to dip his hands too deep into his pockets.

That makes the most sense here, he fits that description.

LOL that's funny, wish it wasn't true though.

I mean, yeah. That reads as if they're talking to someone (Pellegrini? Emery? LVG?). Unless the press know fuck all, surely it would've came out if they'd paid the clause and/or were speaking to Rafa? That's a great point, the process would have had too happen way too fast for it to be Rafa, they have to approach Newcastle first and get permission to speak to him, even if it is a "release clause" and not a "confirmed compensation amount", he can't just talk to another club without the agreement to pay the fee be in place, that's clear tapping up. That would be all over the press, Ashley would have ensured that happened to start managing the shit storm that would come his way. "They paid the fee, nothing we could do." . Bishop would absolutely want to be ahead of that situation.

Dunno, but Ms Staveley has gone very quiet since her interview with Caulkin, where she stated she was still interested, and would come back once safety was secured. Suppose a leak of West Ham (or any other clubs) interest in Rafa could also be trying to put pressure on her to come back with another offer, if his position as manager is indeed key to their takeover. I'm pretty certain she's off doing other things and the interest in us will only come back if Ashley's price drops significantly. But if she was still in talks, I'm sure she and Ashley have both agreed to keep everything behind closed doors, not wanting a repeat of the he said, she said incidents. What i find most displeasing right now is the fact that there appears to be no one else remotely interested in purchasing us. To me, and I am hugely biased, we are prime for a takeover, we won't get in a better situation while Ashley is in charge. We've got a low cost base, with a manageable total wage bill, huge base income, zero external debt, loyal and dedicated fan base, world class manager, expectations low and potential extremely high. Even if we go with Ashley's new price of 400 million, that seems a good deal for me, we just made 126 million for taking part in the PL this season.