afar

Nah, it won't be that. MON has been the one who has sounded like he wanted to cash in on Milner this summer, apart from anything. As I said earlier, I think it goes back to the fact that over the last two years, we've accrued an immense wage bill, including a lot of players on big deals, who never get a game. Habib Beye, 31 years old, 3 year contract, 40k a week. Nicky Shorey, 40k a week, never used. Sidwell, 40k a week, comes on for ten mins here and there (and is s***) Also, revealed recently that Emile Heskey (3.5 year contract at age 31, on 60k a week) is the highest earner at the club. Personally, I think that is the thing which has done for him. Is it good for us? Well, I don't know. I do think that had he stayed, he'd have got us to 6th or 7th this season again. That's not his problem, he could get most decently funded teams to around that level. His problem is that having got us there for three years, he plainly didn't have what it took to move us on. And that's not just judged on points / positions, it is judged to a large degree on what we've seen on the pitch at home for the last two years, where the football has been terribly predictable, and unproductive. It is good for us if Lerner appoints the right man. Were it not for the fact I've just heard he's been installed as favourite, I would be putting money on Martin Jol right now. He's the sort of manager we could use, and he's got an affinity for the club (used to watch us play on his days off when he was playing at Albion). As an outside bet, what is Klinsmann doing these days? Rumours he is a friend of Lerner, and he was widely considered to be his planned manager before the takeover, until he heard everyone else wanted MON. Strange, rarely does the negoiation of salaries fall the manager, that's generally a chairman level negoiation.

O'Neill we go to the first biggish club that sacks their manager this season, depending on their start, I could see him ending up at the Mackems, should Bruce not get them going. If he's had problems with Lerner not backing him, then he's hardly likely to get on with Ashley, but we can only hope.

I was going to ask if you were joking, but I've just had to remind myself how far we've fallen since I was pointing out o'Neill's was totally unproven as a top quality manager. I do think he's someone who can consistently achieve that top ten/UEFA hole with virtually any club, and that combined with his particular style as a manager mean it might not actually be a bad move for us just now. Still don't like him and don't much want him, though - would be happier to press on with Hughton. Same! Been waiting for something to laugh at Villa about since the horrible c***s acted like small time c***s about us going down. Hopefully they flog all of their best players and plummet. Don't count your chickens - unless Lerner's lost interest, which he hasn't really so far as I'm aware, I'd be over the moon if I were them and this could be the best thing to happen to them since o'Neill was appointed. The timing's pretty horrible of course... but nevertheless. Why the fuck would you be over the moon ? Are you insane ? The bloke totally transformed a strugglling prem club into one of the top clubs 8 clubs in the country, there's nothing better out there available for Villa right now.

Wow I am shocked, might have been on the cards, but this close to the start of the season, wow. Will be interesting to see what happens to that club now, will they go back to the pre O'neill days of barely surviving or will they appoint someone to carry on the execllent work O'Neill's done, does Lerner have any clue about managers in the game, he's never had to look for one before. He brought in Mike Holmgren as GM of his Cleveland Browns Organisiation in the NFL, that was a good move and could turn around one of the NFL worst teams. He'll need to make a similarly good move to ensure O'Neill's reshaping of that side is not lost, not many good manager's available atm, it could be a tough task, the person who made the Sven call, could be spot on.

We finished above West Brom in the relegation season and ahead of them again last season, since then they haven't improved more then us, I'd absolutely expect to finish above them (even if we didn't sign the likes of Ben Arfa). And we finished comfortably ahead of them. West Brom, were awful defensively last year, if they perform like that in the Prem they'll be shipping shed loads. Absolutelly expecting us to finish higher than them.

Wrong thread? LOL just realised

Manure have for me been the better team in that half, deserve the half time lead, but there are some encouraging signs for us, both full backs look decidedly average and since our wide men are our primary threat that's good, Owen looks like he looked for us, disinterested and extremely slow in thought, Scholes looks a year older and his lack of pace could be an issue if he's first choice for Manure all season, not that we have anyone who can exploit that in the middle. They'll still tank us no doubt though, with Rooney and Owen both getting hatricks. Think a lot of teams will try to exploit John Terry's lack of pace this season too, he was at fault on the goal.

I agree with this

To be fair he showed this in abundance last season. And I know it was a league down but Portsmouth must have seen something to interest them so quite a prospect in my eyes. Wins most headers and is very decent with his distribution. I still think he's too slow, and that will get found out in the big league.

Seems like Liverpool are being linked with just about everyone atm. Crouch on the Beeb at the moment is also headed their way. If we pull this deal off then where will the lad play ? Surely we are looking to bring him in to start, does that mean he's taking Jonas's spot on the left ? Highly unlikely that we would want to drop one of our better players from last year. So is it must surely be through the middle just off Carroll, if so where does that leave Nolan ? With the lad's reputation for trouble making, this deal has some bad signs for team harmony, one of 2 very powerful individuals in that dressing room is going to lose their place in the team and I doubt either of them would be very happy about that.

The thing with cliches is they are often an exaggerated version of the truth. The Prem is utter pap for the most part, I have no doubt about that. Didn't miss not watching it regularly one bit last season. Conversely I watched La Liga and Serie A consistently. Far more absorbing leagues imo. Funny, I've lived in a few countries in the world and I can tell you, that the Prem is by a long margin the most popular league to watch. Here in Canada, we have 3 big TV stations showing live games and another 2 highlights. La Liga and Serie A are tuck away on some obscure channels, and shown in small doses. Seems like the Prem is much more absorbing for the majority of people than those leagues, it certainly is for me and I'm half spanish so really can't be acused of bias

Aye, we should get David Villa. Yeah he's not bad, I would take him, to put pressure on Xisco and Shola for their spots in the squad

The striker situation is a huge worry, and I'm amazed the club don't seem to recognise it, but there is a lot of crap at the bottom of the league, think we'll get enough points against our fellow strugglers to survive, but not by much, it'll go all the way till the last game, unless of course we go on a spending spree.

Taylor's contract ending would effect the size of fee for him probably, lucky to get 4 million for him. Enrique's reputation outside of Newcastle is very low, I doubt any team would be prepared to pay more than 5 million for him. Carroll is probably our most sellable asset, young, English and lots of potential, could get up to 8 or 9 million for him I think. So if we got the best we could get for that lot, that would bring in 18 million, Ashley never gives back all the sale money, lets take Milner money as an example because it was the last big sale when we were in a position to re-invest. From that 12 million he gave 6 million back for the purchase of Xisco. So 50%, I don't think we could get 3 players of sufficient quality to replace Carroll, Taylor and Jose for 9 million. By the same reasoning you could say that Ashley has a history of giving back 4 times the money we sell a player for because we sold Faye for £2.5m and bought Coloccini for nearly £10m.. Its a silly way to look at it though. Its the total spent vs total brought in that tells us how Ashley deals with transfer money, so far under Ashley in the Premiership we've always broken even on transfers. It is sily, I agree, as I could counter that easily and say, we sold 20 million plus last summer and bought nothing. I was just trying to point out that people who expect all the money from sales of players to be re-invested are assuming too much and historically, that's not generally been the way Ashley has played it.

Taylor's contract ending would effect the size of fee for him probably, lucky to get 4 million for him. Enrique's reputation outside of Newcastle is very low, I doubt any team would be prepared to pay more than 5 million for him. Carroll is probably our most sellable asset, young, English and lots of potential, could get up to 8 or 9 million for him I think. So if we got the best we could get for that lot, that would bring in 18 million, Ashley never gives back all the sale money, lets take Milner money as an example because it was the last big sale when we were in a position to re-invest. From that 12 million he gave 6 million back for the purchase of Xisco. So 50%, I don't think we could get 3 players of sufficient quality to replace Carroll, Taylor and Jose for 9 million.

I would add Ameobi to that list. Problem is Ameobi's got more Premiership goals than all our other strikers combined. That could be the root of our problems this season.

I wouldn't trust the ability to find replacements of a decent level for the likes of Saylor, Jose, Jonas or Carroll, and past experience has shown that we can not be certain that the full amount recieved for those players will be plowed back into the transfer kitty. If we could find a buyer for the likes of Raylor, Best, Xisco and Smith and even Barton, then we should look to move them on, but again are we likely to see that money reinvested ?

I'm in agreement with the panickers, as oldtype calls them, tbh. But I think the quality centre forward is more important than yet another centre mid. Yes we are one dimensional there, but we have our creativity out wide, which will do for now. A proven goalscorer though, is what keeps teams out of trouble in this league, we're banking an awful lot on a unproven at this level Carroll (who hasn't scored this pre-season) and an over the hill Loven.

Yeah after you had done his knee in for the season

It looks like an asshole !! So does my face, it works well. LOL fair enough, guess it blends in nicely.

It looks like an asshole !!

Having watched the Watford away game last season, I doubt that pitch was any better than the Wigan one.

I still don't understand why they fely the need for that bloody collar abomination, what were the thinking, the rest of the shirt isn't much better. Really a huge missed opportunity for Puma, hopefully after the 2 years of this contract we'll go back to a proper manufacturer.

But premature, non? Oh yeah, I'm trying the old "Lower my expectations to the bottom, then be pleasantly surprised technique, when we actually sign someone", tried the same thing with Roeder though, so not 100% certain to be surprised. I haven't seen the tired old statements like "If we could add one or two faces to the squad that would be great, but I'm more than happy with what we've got" yet but I'm sure they are out there.

I thought it was just me, looks really nice.