ikri

On paper and player's past reputations we have a class midfield. In reality most of those players are shit, living off past glories and barely doing enough to justify their superstar wages. Butt's numerous England caps mean nothing since he can barely pass the ball any more, Smith's goals are meaningless since he no longer plays up front (and rarely shoots), Geremi's Premier League winners medal may as well be made out of chocolate since he's unable to keep up with play.

I'm certain that I read years ago when Shola was still a promising u21 player that he declared for England as he'd been approached to play for Nigeria at the time.

I believe the restriction is on registering new players, so they wouldn't even be able to register out of contract players, nor (in theory) would they be able to register any of their academy players. They could sign whoever they liked, but they'd not be eligible to play until the ban is lifted.

http://www.theocelot.co.uk/modules/news/images/storys/0907021219-statusquo.jpg Status Quo have no managerial experience, we'd be far better off sticking with Hughton

I think that he wants shot of the club but thanks to his previous actions, the media's portrayal of the supporters and the asking price (has he or hasn't he written off that loan?) there aren't too many genuinely interested buyers. He isn't supporting the club financially any more so we're just treading water until someone buys us.

That'd be fine if Smith has overcome his phobia about shooting.

The deadline is only for permanent transfers between two clubs, there's a separate deadline for loans and I'm not certain that there's any deadline for free transfers. Either way we've still got time to get a few more bodies in.

Colo & Butt out Lovenkrands & one or two loanees in

If there were two bids they were probably the dodgy ones trying to pay with monopoly money

Good result considering how many players we were missing tonight

Pension funds = designed to earn money Football clubs = lose money hand over fist Ridiculous idea.

It's strange how some papers are just completely ignoring this US story. WTF is it about this club that it always seems to attract chancers and con artists?

Kinnear froze him out of the side by all accounts, wouldn't even speak to him let alone include him in reserve games. He did get a few games in the reserves when Kinnear was in hospital, even scored a few goals, but managed to get injured just before Shearer came in and wasn't really fit for the end of the season. If his attitude is a bit shit it might have a lot to do with that, knowing that no matter what he did he wasn't going to be picked is hardly an incentive to put much effort in. There's a good chance that the reason he looks like he has hardly played with his team mates is because he's hardly been given the opportunity to play alongside them. It doesn't help his cause that every time there's an opening for a starting place he gets injured. The Spanish Stephen Glass?

Kinnear froze him out of the side by all accounts, wouldn't even speak to him let alone include him in reserve games. He did get a few games in the reserves when Kinnear was in hospital, even scored a few goals, but managed to get injured just before Shearer came in and wasn't really fit for the end of the season. If his attitude is a bit shit it might have a lot to do with that, knowing that no matter what he did he wasn't going to be picked is hardly an incentive to put much effort in. There's a good chance that the reason he looks like he has hardly played with his team mates is because he's hardly been given the opportunity to play alongside them.

Considering Man U had ranted against Abramovich after spending vast sums, while they did the same on the likes of Rooney, Ferdinand, and a host of others for prices pretty much at LEAST as high as what Chelea were spending, why is Abramovich any worse ? Like all the huge amounts of money WE spent, the Manchester United money was EARNED money (in football). The Abramovich money was just "given/donated" and had nothing to do with earned football money. It made a fairly grotty mid-table club into a superficial 'big' club (despite HUGE losses of about £300M in many individual years). To be honest they were hardly a mid-table club, they won the FA cup in 97, league cup in 98 and got to the Champions League quarter finals in 2000. On top of that they finished 4th in the 2002/2003 season. I know that the Russian bought them in 2003, but I forget when. Either way, they've been a good team for a long time. Man City however.. if it wasn't for Thaksin they'd be absolutely knackered. I miss the days of Pearce managing them and them having no money. Chelsea had been living way beyond their means for a few years prior to Abramovich buying them, they were rumoured to be very close to going into administration at the time.

To be fair to a few of the players mentioned just because they haven't played any first team football for us doesn't mean they haven't got first team experience elsewhere. Danny Simpson and Xisco have each made over 50 1st team appearances for various teams, Tim Krul and Andy Carroll have over 30 appearances, just not for us.

Don't ask, the answer is too long in the telling and too many suicides. Or the short answer - Graeme Souness, Sam Allardyce and Mike Ashley.

I think years of shitty media stereotyping of the club have taken their toll, the fans want instant success, we won't give managers enough time, etc. If you were an outsider looking at the club and constantly hearing all the crap that gets repeated about the club you might think twice about investing your cash in the club if you think there's a chance you're going to have the fans on your back after a month. A lie told often enough becomes truth Vladimir Lenin.

Decent result.

Regardless of whether he wants away or not, at the moment we simply do not have the personnel to allow one of our two central defenders with first team experience leave. It doesn't matter how much money is involved, if Ashley wants to sell Taylor then he absolutely has to purchase a suitable replacement before Taylor goes anywhere.

Would rather have Roeder back

Ipswich away, especially if Shearer's in charge for us & Keane is still in charge of them.

If Oba was too expensive for the Championship so was Duff. There is no counter argument. If you're happy to accept being in this division for a good few years, then you're right it was a good move. If you're hopeful of getting straight back into the Premiership, then I fail to see how this can be seen as a positive. If he is replaced at all it will not be by anyone half as good, so the team is weakened by this move. Aye, because all the other promotion-chasing sides have £70k-a-week wingers on their books, fffs. The only thing we have as an advantage in this division is our midfield. I agree, but I just don't think we need an hugely overpaid, underperforming, injury-prone player to aid our cause. We need good team players who are going to play 45 games. You think Burnley had a Damien Duff? Exactly. Can't believe that still even after relegation people haven't woken up... I woke up to the nightmare a long time ago thanks. Unless Ashley wants to put the club into administration and lose all his money, then he has no choice but to foot the bill for any overspend this season. As I support NUFC, not SJHL, I couldn't give a flying fuck what the wage bill is, I just want the team to have the best chance it can of getting back into the Premier league ASAP. As far as I'm concerned Ashley owes this club the drop in revenue from relegation due to his mistakes and negligence. Then how much do the lazy fuckwits we laughingly call players owe us? Duff failed to earn his money in virtually every game he played for us, he was constantly at fault for us last season either losing possession too easily, not tracking back properly (he was great at looking like he was tracking back but then actually giving up before standing around on the byline waiting for the next opportunity to lose the ball), he lost whatever pace he once had, held up play, was incapable of keeping up with attacking play and struggled to beat opposition defenders. His last assist for us in the Premiership was a deflected cross that probably wouldn't have ended up anywhere near Andy Carroll's head if it hadn't flicked off a Stoke player. We could have replaced him with a traffic cone for many of the games last season and we'd have not noticed the difference. Yes, we need to replace him as we're desperately short of players, but he was fucking useless for us.

Barclays appear to want to cut the £40m overdraft we have to £20m unless he can prove support for their funds to them. It appears if he can prove it he'll still have the £40m overdraft, if not it gets cut to £20m and Moat has to find another £20m to pay off that part of the overdraft. Guaranteed future income from the transfers of Martins, Bassong and Duff would cover that....

He didn't look like he gave a shit for a lot of the game on Saturday, but his ability covered up for that for the most part. He also managed to get booked for being Joey Barton before limping off injured, both of the reasons I'd like to see the back of him. For all his ability he gets injured too often and his reputation goes ahead of him these days which gets him booked and sent off for challenges that would be ignored if they were committed by other players.