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This is what I think. He should stay with Blackburn. They gave him a great chance to establish himself and he's done well, he would be foolish to leave his safety net right now incase things go tits up at a top club. He's got the chance to establish Blackburn in the UEFA Cup. He might be a bit annoyed with a lack of funds but he's shown himself more than capable of spotting a good bargain. It's a little thing called Ambition, Obviously Man City job is a lot bigger than the Blackburn job. Personally I think this would be a great move for Man City, and hughes will see it as a nice stepping stone to the job he really wants. Not having managed a big club could go against him, when Ferguson retires. Allardyce going to Blackburn would also be a great move for them. Despite his failings with us, you can't fault his track record at Bolton, Balckburn are a different kettle of fish to us and it'll probably suit him down to the ground. Yes, it is ambition, ambition to make money. That would be the only plus of going to Man City, a better contract than he's on now I bet. If I was Hughes, I would be looking at how Sven has just been fired, despite still achieving a UEFA Cup place. Money is not the driving force for Hughes here. It's about improving his CV. Getting struck in the backwater that is Blackburn is a real danger for him. He'll feel he needs the test of a big club, working with a big transfer pot and managing bigger expectation. If they make him an offer, I doubt that he'll need much time think about it. And I don't think he's wrong to. Although the owner is completely mad, he's in a win/win situation, financially he'll do well and protect himself against the chop, if he fails a big mitigation will be the lunacy of the owner, so his reputation will stay in tact. If he succeeds he'll come out of it looking great, done a better job than Sven despite the owner issues. Personally, I think he's a great young manager, hated his as a player but you've got to respect what he's done at blackburn and before that with Wales. I'm sure he'll be a success where ever he ends up.

It's the classic mistake. You can see it throughout football. A big name player becomes available, your team can make the deal, they think it's a bargain but ignore thier own needs. In football it can have a negative effect if you strengthen a position of strength. In one of the first interviews I saw with Mourinho when he came to Chelsea, he went on about have a squad of 23 first teamers, no more and no less. And he was bang on. The ideal is an established quality player plus a player of potential who is ready to step in in the event of injury or suspension, for each position. The players should know the pecking order, to manage expectations, and when the potential player's form and ability overtake that of the established player then the manager needs to be ruthless in promoting the potential guy, getting rid of the established player and bringing in a new understudy. We didn't need Duff, at the time, we had two established players in Milner and Zog, equally capable of playing regular first team football. Zog was demoted to the roll of understudy, some players will thrieve in the competition but most will take it as an insult and loose motivation. That's fine if the new player is an improvement, but Duff wasn't and all you have achieved is weakening your first team while demotivating the back up. I think Chelsea had similiar problems with Sheva and Ballack, neither offered more than the current occupants of the role that they play, Lampard and Drogba. The only thing I think Chelsea achieved in bringing those two in, is breaking up that team spirit, which as well as all the money was the key to Chelsea's success. We all have to remember that footballers are human beings, if you bring someone in, to replace another, you have to make sure that the replacement player is going to be an improvement on your current first choice. If you constantly bring in sub standard or similar ability levels players, the rest of the team will pick up on this and think they are next for the chop, no matter how they perform. Team spirit is a huge factor in football, NUFC is a prime example of that when we had success during KK's first spell, it was a core to the squad that we had a great team spirit. Ferguson places huge value in at at Manure, you can tell they all want to work for each other. In a way it's easier to manage team spirit at the smaller clubs, because you are either replacing very substandard players, which is far easier to do than upgrading already good players. Or replacing good players who have left for bigger clubs. It's a different management skill set altogther for the bigger clubs. And I think that's why some managers can be really successful a small club but fail miserably when they make the step up (ala Allardyce).

This is what I think. He should stay with Blackburn. They gave him a great chance to establish himself and he's done well, he would be foolish to leave his safety net right now incase things go tits up at a top club. He's got the chance to establish Blackburn in the UEFA Cup. He might be a bit annoyed with a lack of funds but he's shown himself more than capable of spotting a good bargain. It's a little thing called Ambition, Obviously Man City job is a lot bigger than the Blackburn job. Personally I think this would be a great move for Man City, and hughes will see it as a nice stepping stone to the job he really wants. Not having managed a big club could go against him, when Ferguson retires. Allardyce going to Blackburn would also be a great move for them. Despite his failings with us, you can't fault his track record at Bolton, Balckburn are a different kettle of fish to us and it'll probably suit him down to the ground.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Lets hope those personal terms can be sorted out.

The most used things in his locker are the injury excuse book and the sick note, if he goes and we get a fee then we've done well. Emre has turned out to have been a terrible signing. Was the same for Owen for the first two and a half season with us, yet he seems to have managed to turn a lot of people around in the past 6 months. No way of knowing whether Emre would have been able to do the same.. Emre has been here longer than Owen and still shows no sign of an apetite to get off the treatment table and play for the club. By less than a month - how does that make a difference? Maybe if Emre had been given a more definite role in the team under Allardyce he'd have this 'appetite' to play for the team - having the likes of Smith picked above you hardly shows you're wanted within the squad or gives you an incentive to play better. If Owen hadn't proved himself of value to the club last season, then the same would be said about him, if an offer arrived. He's had every opportunity to shine, but failed to do that by not being able to stay fit. All 4 of his manager's have picked him when they've had a chance to. James hit the nail on the head early with the career of Emre. The bloke's on 60k a week, do you think he's done anything to remotely justify taking over 9 Million plus signing on fee out of the club so far ? Has he got a year left on his contract if so then that's another 3mill !

The most used things in his locker are the injury excuse book and the sick note, if he goes and we get a fee then we've done well. Emre has turned out to have been a terrible signing. Was the same for Owen for the first two and a half season with us, yet he seems to have managed to turn a lot of people around in the past 6 months. No way of knowing whether Emre would have been able to do the same.. Emre has been here longer than Owen and still shows no sign of an apetite to get off the treatment table and play for the club.

He's on a roll. Not guilty next time!!!! If we are opening a book, I'll put $10 Canadian (which is about 4p) on, Guilty as charged.

Can you be more specific, there are a few candidates for this title ?

One of the reasons that we are a laughing stock i football, for god's sake, our blinded faith and belief that we are better than most. Fact we are not a top 10 club anymore. Mackem WUM, back I see.

we thought the same about dyer and it nearly got us relegated though. if we sell emre we need to sign 2 good quality creative midfielders this summer, and i'd want a top draw def mid as well tbh. at least that's one of the mega rich on more money than their worth out of the way now though. now we only need to shift smith, viduka (somehow) and duff and we'll be in much better financial shape. i agree. even though he didn't play much Emre got 5 assists and a goal which is pretty productive for the time he was out on the pitch. likewise Dyer scored 7 goals the season before he was sold, and his so-called replacement Smith, never mind producing anything positive, actually had a negative impact on the team. as tmonkey says, players like that add something that players like geremi, barton and butt don't have, a bit of flair, maybe some pace etc. I honestly don't think we'll miss anything with Emre. We just haven'r seen enough of him on the pitch to miss him. Dyer on the other hand, we have missed becuase if you look past popular image of him and beyond the numerous injuries you notice that when he was fit he performed. He was instrumental SBR's succesful team. However Emre contributrions to NUFC can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

You know he's just lying in wait ;P, could you imagine the whoops, yipees and high fives when he saw that post from tmonkey ?

I'd take that. Good deal.

Excellent Hope we got a few quid for him and we're not still going to be paying a portion of his wages or anything silly like that.

I don't recall ever saying he was going to take down the PL with this, he's got an agenda against them and would love nothing better than clip there wings but I have always stated that he hadn't a hope in hell of pulling this one off. But go ahead and twist people's words, if it makes you feel better. Oh and Hilarious, yawn, how old are you 6 ??

I pretty sure there is, but how advanced or aggresive those activities are, are of a concern to me. My purely guesswork theory is that, we've put in a number of bids, some of which have been rejected, some of which are lying on the table but I don't see any evidence of any being accepted and negoiations begun with the player's representatives. the press jump on even the slightest thing these days, keeping anything a secret is almost impossible as it is mostly in the best interest of the player and the selling club to conduct business in the puclic domain.

correct I would like shot of all 3 tbh. That's a saving of around 180k a week, for 3 players who through injury or lack of ability will be lucky to make 10 starts between them, next year.

I agree, I hope he has a fantastic Euro 2008 and some big club come in with plenty of $$$ for him. I'm completely frustrated with his 'injury' record, despite his obvious talent we are better off without him and his huge salary.

Yes, lots of things have the unanimous backing of FIFA, right up until they get canned at the very next executive meeting. Great politics by Blatter, anyone who actually believes the man gives a s*** about anything rather than $$$ & power is extremely amusing. In fact you'll find the very answer to the whole 5+6 proposal lies in the EU constitution. Blatter would never even propose it if he knew it wasn't going to be shut down in the end by the EU. As it is he gets to win votes from all the confederations outside of Europe, by supporting this policy, and he gets the EU to do his dirty work in rejecting it. You have to hand it to the man. You don't get to be head of FIFA without being slippery weasel b******. absolutely correct, I never thought of that. He gets to play the "protector of the small and weak" while fully knowing that things won't change one iota.

I'll admit that you were right when september comes and we haven't signed enough players but until then I see no reason to panic. But I might change my mind if we still haven't signed anyone with 2-3 weeks left of the window. Its got to be the right players as well though. Last season showing signing anyone doesn't always work (Viduka, Geremi, Barton, Cacapa, Rozy & Smith) PS: I don't want you to admit i'm right even if i am (god forbid) just i've been here before, had the same s*** levelled at me and its turned out s**** like it always has done for years. TT, I agree with you general sentiments here. The overeaction of some is a bit OTT IYAM. You clearly are not in a state of panic but are a little concerned that nothing has happened yet and that the club appear to be dragging their heals a bit. If we had a history of fantastic summer transfer windows, then fine lets put up our feet, relax and let the window unfold. But unfortunately our record is quite frankly shit, the last truely great summer was over 10 years ago when we had got Ferdinand/Ginola. There we got in the bulk of our signings early on and then were in a postion to add icing on the cake late in the window by bringing in Ginola. The Belamy/Robert window was good too but that was through look more than design, I don't even think SBR could have predicted how good Belamy was going to be after his debacle at Coventry and we all know Robert was not his first choice at LW. Becasue of our history, we really need to try something new to make sure we don't end up with highly expensive dross. Planning ahead well before the season ends is one way to do that. Despite what Dave said previously in this thread, you are allow to negoiate with clubs and players (with the club's permission) outside of the window and hopefully that's what we are doing, there's just no evidence of it though, unlike Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs who have already locked up major signings. The thing is people will say nothing will happen now as it's too early, when the Euros start, they'll say nothing will happen now because of the Euros. Then when they are over, all the players will be on their holidays, so nothing can happen then !! That gives you late July and early August to land your players, by then of course they've missed the bulk of preseason with you and possibly the start of the new campaign. Bottom line is, we have previous, so I can understand people's frustrations, even at this very early stage of the closed season.

Absolutely spot on. We are not just talking about a small piece of the EU constitution, it's one of it's fundamental principles. Good luck with that Blatter. Oh and I didn't think there was such a thing as a Great Britain national team, well not yet anyway.

Should the thread title be changed here? Everytime I see it bumped to the top, I think there has been a development, obviously not.

Even though I have a legitimate country I can root for and I still like to see them do well. I soooooooo don't care about this tournament. I just want it to be over so the transfer market can start to pick up.

Isn't that the whole point of that thread, it's about other clubs transfers, Spurs are up for nearly every player available so they'll feature quite heavily. Our resident spurs fans have some ITKness about them, whether it's real or not, it's interesting and at times funny to hear. I don't know why people want to make an issue of it, can't we all just get along ? It's just a footie forum and we are all here I hope to have a bit of lively debate and fun, 99.9% of the threads here are still dominated by NUFC related stuff and quite rightly so. Two regular posters are not going to cause a mutiny and change our world.

After reading that about 4 times, I finally understand the point you were making and surprisingly I agree, personally I like MJ's and KD's contributions to the board, would be sad to loose them. The real reason this is an issue IMO is that there's bugger all going on with our club atm, and it's boring as hell

Having lived for a number of years in the US and moved to Canada at the end of last year I feel I can contribute to this disccussion. There is definately a 'soccer culture' in north america, for kids a a young age, outside of ice hockey here in Canada, nothing appears to be more popular for the kids to play. The problem seems to be that once they get to their teens other sports take over, winter sports are obviously very popular here, since we have like 8 months of it american football , lacrosse and baseball/softball seem to take over. I think this is partly because there is no where to go for these kids, there aren't any big football clubs here, there are few scouts watching them play. In europe if you have talent you are probably signed up with a top club's academy before you hit 14, here that is not the case and the talented players drift off to other sports or give up all together. It could change however and key to it is the MLS or a few successful North American based football clubs. FIFA would never allow it and it's never gonna happen but a US based team competing in the PL would generate huge interest, I'm pretty sure of that. The club sides here need to be snapping up the talent earlier and ensure they do not drift elsewhere. When I got here I was pleasantly surprised by the facilities available to 'soccer' players, in my community there are 3 or 4 playing fields, with goalposts, which are within easy walking distance from my home. There's plenty of indoor facilities and a fairly well structure association, I myself play in an over 35's league. As for the US being the dominant force in 15 years, I doubt it, unless things change dramitically during that time.