afar

I will be absolutely shocked if these guys take us over. Just publicity seeking whores iyam. As long as someone takes over I'm beyond caring. Anyone is going to be an improvement so it's not like we can be picky. They'll not buy us though Tron, that's the whole point. They'll just piss around in the media making statements like wanting to bring the good times back and the fans deserve more, but they'll never actually place a bid. They just want a bit of free publicity, can't blame them, it's working, whothe fuck had heard of them before they werelinked with us the first time.

If we cannot get £10m+ for him then its very worth our while doing so. He's on a pittance of a wage here compared to the rest of the leaches and has a long contract. Sell him to Arsenal for big money or loan him to a mid table club asking for a £1m loan fee while covering his wages and setting a transfer at big money at the same time. He gets to stay in the prem and we don't lose him on the cheap. Only work for certain players. I'd be happy to do that with Taylor as well, though i'd rather him stay just like Bassong. That's all well and good but, it would need to be coupled with Bassong signing a contract extension. Otherwise we'll be left with the situation of Bassong returning with only one year left on his contract, his value will be nothing like what he would fetch selling him this year. We've actually done this thing before, with Vianna.

I agree, if the reported 12 million bidding war is true between Arsenal and Spuds, then we are getting a good deal. Who said he was a world beater? Fact is right now he's one of our best players, and young too. Selling him is a f***ing stupid idea. Have you learnt nothing from Ashley's tenure? Thats not the decision that is being reported, he wants away and i dont blame him. Neither do I, it's just the attitude that he's not all that and we'd be getting a good deal that I disagree with. A good deal is keeping hold of a good player. If we sold him right now that money would just go straight in Ashley's pocket anyway because I can't see him reducing the price of the club by £12m. As Skirge says, if the report is true then it's of the clubs own doing by being a total f***ing mess. Hold up there sparky. I've always advocated the need to not just sell Bassong for the sake of selling him and that cosidering his age and wage, he's should be no where near the top of the list of players sold. However if we get an offer that exceeds his valuation then we should most certainly take it. The point about selling him while Ashley is still flogging the club is very true, there is a danger that that 12 million will go straight into Ashley's pocket, if they paid all up front for him, which is not going to happen we'll receive installment payments. We can afford to sit on this and wait for the best offer to come hopefully by which time the takeover is complete. If we don't receive an acceptable offer then tell Bassong to suck it up and honour his contract. I don't buy this crap we are fed about there being no way to hang onto a unhappy player. Oh and transfer dealing should never be black and white like you indicate of not learning the lessons of Ashley, sometimes you have to look to make a profit on a young player to move forward. The problem with taking a good offer for Bassong is that we'll inevitably cock it up when we try and replace him. Does Coloccini replacing Faye ring a bell? You can not base your entire transfer policy on the possibility that you might cock up and sign another Coloccini or Boumsong or Luque. You get a offer that exceeds your valuation for a player that doesn't want to play for you anymore, then to be frank it's a no brainer.

I will be absolutely shocked if these guys take us over. Just publicity seeking whores iyam.

I agree, if the reported 12 million bidding war is true between Arsenal and Spuds, then we are getting a good deal. Who said he was a world beater? Fact is right now he's one of our best players, and young too. Selling him is a f***ing stupid idea. Have you learnt nothing from Ashley's tenure? Thats not the decision that is being reported, he wants away and i dont blame him. Neither do I, it's just the attitude that he's not all that and we'd be getting a good deal that I disagree with. A good deal is keeping hold of a good player. If we sold him right now that money would just go straight in Ashley's pocket anyway because I can't see him reducing the price of the club by £12m. As Skirge says, if the report is true then it's of the clubs own doing by being a total f***ing mess. Hold up there sparky. I've always advocated the need to not just sell Bassong for the sake of selling him and that cosidering his age and wage, he's should be no where near the top of the list of players sold. However if we get an offer that exceeds his valuation then we should most certainly take it. The point about selling him while Ashley is still flogging the club is very true, there is a danger that that 12 million will go straight into Ashley's pocket, if they paid all up front for him, which is not going to happen we'll receive installment payments. We can afford to sit on this and wait for the best offer to come hopefully by which time the takeover is complete. If we don't receive an acceptable offer then tell Bassong to suck it up and honour his contract. I don't buy this crap we are fed about there being no way to hang onto a unhappy player. Oh and transfer dealing should never be black and white like you indicate of not learning the lessons of Ashley, sometimes you have to look to make a profit on a young player to move forward.

I agree, if the reported 12 million bidding war is true between Arsenal and Spuds, then we are getting a good deal.

Outside of the 7 wins or so, and Shearer being appointed manager, I’m struggling to recall another event in which we’ve had some positive news about the club, since we came away from Manure with a point at the start of last season. It’s been negative headline, after negative, it’s been genuinely depressing being a toon fan. So the question I’m asking here, is when are we going to get some bloody good news, about anything ? Not really a very serious post but I'm so fucking frustrated by this football club atm.

The likelihood is we'll never see Owen at SJP again. We look miles off returning to the PL atn and even if we do, his injury record hardly gaurentees an appearance.

The lessons learned from last year tell us not to get our hopes up too much with this news. TBH I'm resigned to a long drawn out process, that will put our plans for next season in jeapordy, hope I'm wrong.

For $15 a month I get to see every PL game in full played over the weekend, with at least 3 live. I also get all Champions League games, if I cared about that. Plus Championship games live too. Also they bundle in a Rugby and other the footballing shows they do. Since the Canadian $ is around half the value of the pound, then it's really an excellent deal for me. Would be awful if they went out of business.

You think we should keep him then? unless we're offered £8m plus, absolutely. He's still an big asset and well though of on the continent I'd be staggered if we get offered anywhere close to £8m, regardless of his reputation. He's on megabucks too (something about this being a lifechanging financial opportunity iirc) so he needs shifting. He was on less than £20,000 per week at Depor according to their fans. His agent said we were doubling his wage, so he's probably on between £38k-£40k. Also we paid 11.3m Euros as far as I remember (with a further 1 million Euro's based on performance). So I'd be asking for between 8.5m and 9m Euros. I think he's on a little bit more than that. If we have 15 over 50k a week, I would doubt very much that Colo isn't one of them.

Unfortunately if I was a betting man I would put money on this not being far from the truth.

Makes so much sense it hurts Too much sense. Why would Ashley do that at all ?

We simply can't afford him to stay, as one of our few saleable assets, we need the transfer fee and we need to get his wages off the wage bill.

I can see a lot of supporters of many clubs being absolutely delighted to get Owen. Thinking they were getting the Owen of old, there is still the imjpression out there even amongst our own own fans that Owen has just been struggling because he's been playing for NUFC. Whether that's true or not is open to debate.

You better be yanking me mother fuking chain mate. I'm not sure if its £2m but he will get a 7 figure loyalty fee, for staying the duration. Part of his contract, when he'd expected to be off after a year or two. Yep pretty standard clause in contracts these days. The club should leak the amount to the press and embarass the little fucker iyam. He doesn't really deserve another penny out of the club.

I think I've just started to like Luke Edwards again... Yep that's an excellent piece, shame those at Thompson House, leave their best stuff for the blogs and don't have the balls to put this kind of stuff out in the real paper.

I was very optimistic, looking forward to the season in many respects, up until about a week ago when Ashley annouces to the world he's trying yet again to flog the club and the dallying over appointing Shearer. At this moment in time we are screwed for next season, things can change of course, but events need to move fast or things may go further downhill for what has become the most incompetent club in football.

It's certainly looking less and less likely as time goes on. This club could really do with some good news right about now.

Any substance to that other than Louise 'SMB' Taylor saying he has went on holiday? I dont read any quote or anything in that article to suggest as such? What we don't need is yet another week wasted dithering on without a manager, players are already being bought and sold, we need someone in place fast or we are going to be well behind in terms of rebuilding. But that's clearly not going to happen, don't expect a positive annoucement on who will be manageing the club for a little while yet

Simple fact of the matter is no one in their right mind will pay 100 mill for a club in the championship with 100 mill debt. That's basically costing them 200 million for a 2nd rate club. He might even struggle to find a buyer will to folk out 100 million, I think all things considered our value right now is about half that.

Wow how long is this thread going to go on for. We're obsessed.

Yep, other clubs don't seem to have trouble finding a buyer, look at Man city, get one dodgy billionaire to buy them, he runs into some bother, so another even richer group take over. All we get is stupid publicity seekers.

Less money for him would have been 90k a week !

and the fact that Kaka has a chin of course. That surely knocks a few quid of Ireland's asking price.