afar

Lejuene is going to be a threat on corners.

According to the Hearts TV commentator, he's been a constant threat down the left and struck the bar. He's had a made of a makeover this off season, looks remarkably like Aarons now.

I don't get this, even if Krul is not the keeper he was a couple of years ago he's still out best one, certainly better than Elliot and Darlow.

Not awful signing if that's the money they've got to work with. Still, the vile c***s will do very well to get playoffs. 1.5 million for the pair. If they've got f*** all to spend it's not bad business. Outstanding business given their predicament. McGeady is top half championship standard easy and vaughan is a body in in a position they are scandalously short in. He will also see this as a last shot at getting back into the big time and will be extremely motivated. If they keep the current squad on paper they've one of the best midfields in that division and on that basis I think they should be aiming for playoffs with anything else a bonus. I think they'll ultimately miss out due to a lack of depth and a proven reliable consistent goalscorer. Really, Cattermole, N'dong, Rodwell, that's bang average to terrible even by even champ standard. McGeady was invisible at SJP last season, there's a reason why Everton let him go so cheap, again average. They are still woefully short of the players they will need to make the playoffs, and teams alongside them in that division are just stronger all over the pitch.

If we don't get this one "over the line", I give up.

That seems a really fair deal in today's market. If we don't manage to get this one over the line then we are truly fucked and Rafa should walk, assuming of course he wants the lad.

that's absolutely the case, pretty sure we subsidised most of the loan deals last summer.

Like this deal if it happens, think we will know one way or the other in the next 48 hrs

Do people still buy games from high street retailers ? I think it a dead industry personally, outside of the trading in used games. Most cost conscious folks will buy their PC games through Steam, kinquin, humble bundle et al. For consoles, the online stores for Xbox and Playstation are more than competitive and Amazon an other online retailers is the place generally to buy a game when you absolutely need the box.

They've got a friggin Palace fan in that thread now, joining along with the other mensas LOL first post is about our delusion of course.

, some pearls in that thread, here's one: "Crediting Benitez with "Profit"? Really? How much credit should he get that the club received over £70m on Sissoko, Wijnaldum & Townsend. The transfer net is kind to Benitez simply due to those 3 big sales, yet he went and spent £57m on transfer fees alone and is still left with a squad short on premiership quality. He then demanded more back in Jan, and threw his toys out of the pram when more funds weren't delivered. A similar pattern seems to be emerging again. Offset the net spend too, with the fact Benitez helped take Newcastle down. He failed in his original remit of "saving them". 10 points in his opening 9 games, and bang. Relegated. Those 9 games included the 3 relegation rivals, in which he failed to beat any of them. 1 point adrift of us with a game in hand, and the easier run in. He failed, despite the adoration after that meaningless Spurs victory. He's a decent manager, but the hysteria over him is f***ing hilarious. I genuinely wouldn't want him anywhere Sunderland"

It'll be one horrendous long struggle to survive, no doubt heralding the triumphant return of Pardew. This inaction is going to cost us big time, the stupidity of Ashley and Charnley knows no bounds.

I keep checking in, hoping something has happened, once again no news. If Rafa walks because of this, it'll feel worse than when we went down, huge missed opportunity to kick on as a club.

So another day of nowt then ? This is shit, at least we'll have a game this weekend to take our mind off things.

One of those players we had last season and couldn't dislodge Gouffran from the team for the vast majority of it.

Absolutely, the most annoying aspect of this is the fact that this is totally avoidable. Ashley seems incredibly risk adverse for a person who's said to be a gambler and made millions in business by taking the odd chance no doubt. It' all safety first strategy with NUFC, there is zero sign we'll ever speculate to accumulate under him, this is preciely the time to do just that, spend that TV money in advance, bring in a couple of quality players, keep your world class manager happy and maybe just maybe the club prospers and in the end your investment will yields bigger dividends.

Yes, it was a sign we should all have been worried about what was about to transpire. Why we want to throw away this opportunity to move forward with a world class manager is beyond me.

Assuming Rafa stays, if we did no more business between now and when SSN declares that the window slams shut, do we stay up ? I think we do personally, because of Rafa. There is a lot of rubbish at the bottom of the PL and although our squad right now is not fit for purpose, with a quality manager we'll get enough points to survive, all depends on Rafa staying though. I doubt very much we are done, but if the start of the window is indicative of how we are to go this summer, then surely Rafa will not stick around. I did warn everyone on here about the statement Ashley made right after promotion, that it was more worrying than anything else in the fact that he mentioned nothing about the TV money or previous profits made on transfers. If you look at our business so far it would back up that the TV money is going into running the club, while the 30 million profit last year seems to have gone towards paying for the expense of dropping. We have taken in 9.25 million from Thauvin, and spent 6.5mill on Atsu and 8.5 mill on Lejuene, factor in agent fees and we are around 5 million in deficit as of now. That is probably paid for by the new sponsorship money. I wouldn't be surprised if we are "sell before we buy right now", and that we will see a fair few loan deals. Not sure why Rafa agreed to staying on these conditions and so quickly, if this proves correct, which I hope it isn't, then he'll be gone before the season starts, and we'll end up bringing Pardew back or something worse. Only NUFC could fuck things up like this ! The one good sign is that the pictures in training show Rafa to be in a pretty good mood, he doesn't look like he's on the edge, maybe there are a bunch of signings close but seriously when you see teams like Huddersfield completing a bunch of signings and we struggling over months to get one through the door, there is something not quite right, memories of the inactivity in January are still fresh.

I'm actually aligned to that way of thinking also, he's young and obviously will be raw but we won't know what we have until we play him, showed in the summer that he can handle a big stage.

It was 5 million for both he and Jamaal, I think Jamaal was probably 75% of that fee.

For the record I like Darlow also, like his ability and his attitude, but at the end of the day Rafa doesn't appear to rate him so best for all parties that he moves on.

I don't understand that move at all from Burnley's perspective. Walters is limited and what's worse is he's been past his sell by date for a number of years now. Strange move this early in the window, you could see where they are coming from a little, if this was transfer deadline day but my god there must be a thousand better options than him for a PL club.

lol, did they do that intentionally, poor Vernon

I don't know why but I can't stop giggling at this, awesome

Very Harsh, we wouldn't have beaten Pardew's Palace if it weren't for him.