afar

The funny thing is, well not really funny, but anyway. If in the summer Ashley goes about and spends 35 million on players, he'll be looked on as really giving it back to the fans, whereas in reality he's Net spent nowt, and in any other window a Net spend of nothing would be considered being tight. So in essence he gets one free transfer window, and lets be honest most people will be happy if we spend 20 -25 million in the summer.

Sad thing is that he's absolutely right. We've been looking for attacking players all window apparently, some irons surely must have been in the fire. The one thing we shouldn't do though is panic.

If Brum came in, in the next 4 hours, with a 5 million bid or something ridiculous like that would you take it ?

I'm not sure there's much we could have done about today's event, if the unfurled the way they are reported to have. But I still marked them down based on their managerial choices and past sales purchases. We shown a frugile nature which is fine but we have to speculate a little too and I din't see too many signs of that (Ben Arfa and Tiote aside).

Looks like Best Loven Shola and Ranger for the rest of the season. Ranger man this is your chance. Can't see him taking it though, which parodies himself on the field

My thoughts entirely My thoughts entirely The parrells are there. Can't remeber what happened to the Waddle money, don't think it was re-invested, it wasn't a huge sum anyway 500k I think. Beardsley's money went on a new stand. Gazza's was invested in 4 players that on paper looked good, but for whatever reason didn't click at SJP and we ended up getting relegated that season. Hope we can buck the trend and actually re-invest wisely but I doubt we have the people in the power positions that have the ability to identify talent.

Spuds will take us to the cleaners for him, if we could get him for 3million, yep he would see us through the season, but Spuds will not let him go for much less than 10million and he's not worth that.

I was looking at other clubs forums earlier and everyone of them were calling us mad for rejecting the initial £30m bid. Other fans know f*** all about our situation and are stupid enough to believe we'll a) See the full 35million re-invested b) Pardew will chose the replacement wisely. I respect the opinion of other NUFC fans on our club 99 times out of 100 over some other fans. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, we had a great player who would only get better, now we are stuck probably looking at inferior overpaid has beens or never was's. Selling only makes sense if you have a plan B and we don't have the peopel at the club to have a clue how to formulate one.

Day gets worse. Still now Carroll's gone I don't care anymore, we need bodies now.

As every minute goes by , I'm thinking more and more about how bad this deal was for us the supporters. We'll not see that money fully re-invested, no one should kid themselves on that score. Even if we see a quarter of it, it'll be spunked on some overprice has been or never was. Thank god we have 30 points already in the bank.

Can I change my vote please ?

We sold two strikers today, we have to bring one in at least, hope to god they don't panic.

Well that's it then. Would like to know the full tale of how this went down. Got a feeling we didn't get as much money as is report. I'm not buying the Carroll transfer request thing, I would imagine he would be giving up a sizable wedge if that happened. Although it would make sense as the "Loyality" bonus he would have been due, is now saved by NUFC so that means more of the transfer fee in Ashley's pocket. Now we move on, how do we replace him, unfortunately I don't trust Pardew to do the right thing. Crouch will be here for a ridiculously high fee no doubt.

If the rumour about the Crouch inquiry is true, this is another reason I don't want this to go through at almost any price (40 million is hard to turn down). Crouch is the type of signing we would make to bridge the gap, he's nowhere close to being able to do that and as usual Spuds will screw the team trying to buy their players, we'll end up paying about 10 million for him no doubt. I would much prefer us looking towards someone like Romelu Lukaku at Anderlecht. But we won't so that, don't think pardew will go far from the big names at home.

LOL, how can it be empty posturing, surely we have some say in the matter, if we reject the bid they can just say, fuck you lot we are siging he anyway, even if you don't agree. They still have to make an improved offer and there's no confirmation of that yet.

Did I miss something ? Mind you, I have no idea who you went to school with, could be Daniel Sturridge for all I know.

Woot, where is this coming from

I'm still not happy at 40 million, IF and it's still a big IF that is true. We'll not be able to find someone who'll be prepared to come here who'll have the same impact. And we'll be lucky to see a quarter of that money being plowed back into purchases. Still just talk at the moment won't believe anything until we recieve some official word.

I've never heard of a club calling or cancelling a press conference because a player has been sold, stupid logic there. Personally I'm not worried yet but you never know I guess. And if I were Ashley I would be telling Liverpool, I want your full 50 million you got from Torres, that'll scare the bastards off. Carroll circa 2011 has been better than Torres circa 2010 and 2011, he's also younger and has a lot more different facets to his game, not saying he's a better player, because clearly Torres has been proven over a longer period of time.

Other than the low risk part, that point to prove stuff is exactly what we said in the summer. He's out of his comfort zone, unfortunately, and he's not handling it well. I get the feeling it would have been like this had he gone anywhere - anywhere that isn't Man City, that's the issue. He's apparently dreadful in training, doesn't want to know. On more than one occasion, he's ruled himself out with iffy sounding illnesses - the last time it was a "virus" and the very same evening he was seen out boozing with Heskey and Ashley Young. When he came here, someone on the City staff said he was in the top 5 percent in terms of talent there, but the bottom 5 mentally. Houllier said that any loans out, the other club would have to pay all the wages, and that we'd rather players stayed in the stiffs rather than subsidise them to play somewhere else. So, five months of Ireland = 70 x 4 x 5 = 1.4m, add on NI, and you're looking at 1.6m. On top of that, there's win bonuses etc etc etc. So, whilst it could be more expensive otherwise, it certainly isn't free. That quote for me sums the lad up. Think brummie's making a mistake here though, he should be looking out for Villa's best interests and really extoling his virtues You agree that he was in the top 5% of talent at the richest club on the planet, yet you think we - a team that has started Leon Best, Peter Lovenkrands, Alan Smith and Danny Guthrie recently - don't have any place for him in the squad. Wake up, man. Complete and utter buffoon. You can have all the talent in the world but if you can't get your head into things then you'll never amount to anything. That's where Ireland is right now, he's shown he has the talent but for whatever reason he seems deterimined to self distruct. I would take a player strong mental toughness and desire with a little less talent, over a very talented player with these kinds of mental issues 99 times 100. If that makes me an utter and complete buffoon, then hand me that straight jacket and pop me in that padded cell.

Joking apart, I really wanted it to work out for him, and I still hope it does (maybe it will, if he does well with you), but I think there's something very wrong with his head. He definately showed in that one season, think under Hughes ? That he could become a hell of a player, but his regression since has been startling and you've got to question if his head's in it, didn't he also fall out with the Ireland nation team ?

Other than the low risk part, that point to prove stuff is exactly what we said in the summer. He's out of his comfort zone, unfortunately, and he's not handling it well. I get the feeling it would have been like this had he gone anywhere - anywhere that isn't Man City, that's the issue. He's apparently dreadful in training, doesn't want to know. On more than one occasion, he's ruled himself out with iffy sounding illnesses - the last time it was a "virus" and the very same evening he was seen out boozing with Heskey and Ashley Young. When he came here, someone on the City staff said he was in the top 5 percent in terms of talent there, but the bottom 5 mentally. Houllier said that any loans out, the other club would have to pay all the wages, and that we'd rather players stayed in the stiffs rather than subsidise them to play somewhere else. So, five months of Ireland = 70 x 4 x 5 = 1.4m, add on NI, and you're looking at 1.6m. On top of that, there's win bonuses etc etc etc. So, whilst it could be more expensive otherwise, it certainly isn't free. That quote for me sums the lad up. Think brummie's making a mistake here though, he should be looking out for Villa's best interests and really extoling his virtues

frankly, i'd be fine with another holding MF. but if you play ireland off of carroll, there's a clear place for him in the starting 11. The problem with that is you would need Nolan to then adapt his game to a more withdrawn role, otherwise they would just get in eachother's way. We all know Nolan's game by now and it's not a withdrawn one.

Totally agree, sensible man I'm surprised O'Hara hasn't moved yet, he can't be happy warming the bench there at Spuds and showed enough at Pompey to have convinced someone to take a punt on him. Perhaps Spuds are being their usual selves and looking to screw clubs making a bid for him.

Now that's a good shout, I like O'Hara a lot, would add to our squad.