ikri

There's not a player at the club who wouldn't leave if Arsenal came in for them. We're just not in the position to compete with Champion's League clubs at the moment.

In other news today, the pope has said that he's not catholic and a bear has denied responsibility for taking a shit in the woods.

Worst case scenario (worst for them anyway, quite good for us)? Yes. They've already got some pretty nasty debts from throwing money around on wages to get them out of the shit when they nearly went down. If all of the claims go to court & West Ham end up losing or settling out of court they could be looking at an additional £10-20million debt, on top of what they've agreed to pay Sheffield United already. With their wage bill already at a massive level they've got to lose their top wage earners to just break even again, with a potential £25million to pay out to Sheffield United over the next few seasons + whatever comes from these court cases they may be looking at having to find upwards of £50million to cover wage debts & whatever they're sued for. Their owners have no more money to throw at the club and thanks to the credit crunch there's not much likelihood of a new buyer appearing for them. Oh, and the Tevez affair still isn't over. West Ham may simply reach the point at which administration really is the best option for the club.

Leeds are now thinking of legal action against West Ham too:

No one that fits that description in this country really, at least no one that would be accepted by the fans. Redknapp & Venables are the only highly experienced managers that could be tempted up here with a sack full of cash. Steve Bruce is less experienced but might be willing & he'd get enough time. We'd have to look abroad, which is something we should have done post-SBR.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/images/2005/09/20/graeme_souness_300x300.jpg Wanna bet?

They should probably expect to double that figure since they're now likely to be sued by every player & staff member who was at Sheffield United at the time for loss of earnings.

:clap: :clap:

I could no more swap my allegiance than I could swap my blood type.

Yesterday highlighted the reason why, in my opinion, we need to lose Owen in the summer. When Owen is anywhere near fit every manager we've had has tried to shoehorn him into the side regardless of whether he's the best option. Had Owen not been fit for yesterday's game, or if we ever had a manager willing to leave him out of the side, we'd have played Lovenkrands who has looked a far better option for the team whenever he's played up front. He's got the pace that Owen no longer has & he works harder for the team. Owen is a great player, but he's a luxury who disrupts the balance of the team far too much.

know exactly what you mean and have been saying this for 4 years. However, to think we'd be a league below the mackems League below, class above....

Weren't there loads of rumours about him having a real attitude problem when he was at Preston? He was a Premiership player & far too good for the Championship, etc.

I'll probably end up attending more home games than I've managed over recent seasons. Not living in Newcastle & not having my own transport has often meant that any games not played on a Saturday have been off limits to me, but with more Championship games taking place on Saturdays (& having my own transport now too) I'll be able to see more games.

Yes. But I think there are a few people who might dispute the association of the word "talent" with Andy Carroll.

And Martins using that logic. There's nothing stopping us selling Ameobi or Carroll this summer, its happened loads in the past, players signing new contracts then leaving at the end of the season. I wouldn't say it's definite that Martins will be here. I'd say it's definite that neither of those two will be sold. Only my opinion obviously and I hope you're right. I'd like to know how our crack recruitment team can't find anyone better than the likes of Ameobi, Carroll and Butt though. Dave, you know the answer to that, they give their all in training! Wish they'd stop giving their all in training & save some of it for the actual matches

Hasn't he repeatedly said that he has absolutely no interest in leaving & if he was forced to leave he'd only leave for another Spanish club? Not much choice for Villa as Valencia has debts around 500million euros if I'm correct...and the players haven't been paid their salaries for couple of months Yup, this. Valenica could well go kaput, and are pretty much nailed-on being forced to sell their big names for big cash to stave it off. If they've not been paying the players it'll be a moot point anyway assuming that there are similar laws in Spain as there are in the UK where players can walk out of their contracts if they haven't been paid for a certain period, 12 weeks I think it is over here.

Very mediocre player with a shit attitude

Hasn't he repeatedly said that he has absolutely no interest in leaving & if he was forced to leave he'd only leave for another Spanish club?

In case anyone's interested, Forbes Magazine have released their list of the world's billionaires. According to Forbes, Mike Ashley is now worth $1.1 billion (works out about £800 million on today's exchange rate) down from about $2.6 billion when he first bought the club. Mike Ashley's profile on Forbes.com

This. what if the player sticks out for a term contract ? Say no?

This.

Possibly for the same reason we've never even looked at a foreign manager since Gullit. There's a stupid nervousness about us hiring foreigners, enough people whispering that they can't settle here & the fans won't accept them. It really doesn't matter that he's interested in the job, a former player who knows & loves the team & area. The same people who suggested that Souness & Allardyce were superb appointments are the same ones who'll be suggesting that JFK is absolutely the right man for the job.

Interesting fact is that the talent in the first team actually increases when these are injured Not a new phenomena either, remember how we'd mysteriously play better under Roeder when the "first choice" players were unavailable & we'd be back to garbage again when they were back in the side?

I would. Particularly when we are signing 2nd rate players while making profits from transfer windows in sales. Which 2nd rate players, I think all signings have been decent bar Xisco but he hasn't played. they can't be. Otherwise we would be getting better results. The players aren't the only factor. If it was just down to how good our individual players were then we'd have won the league under Souness

This doesn't even make sense, you can only come into the first team if you have first team experience? How are you supposed to get first team experience if you aren't allowed to step up? I thought the whole point was the 'reserves' come into the first team to prove themselves. The plan we've been sold is that talented youth will replace expensive flops. My point is that none of the youth brought in over the last 2 years are anywhere near ready to step up to be first team regulars. The only two that have made the starting 11 this year made their first team debut's almost 3 years back. And they've only managed a few starts between them. That's the problem with youth players, they take time to develop. I'd really like to see the club send those players getting close to the first team out on loan to Hartlepool & Darlo. Middlesbrough, who have an enviable youth record, have sent their best & brightest out on loan to clubs like Darlo for a while and everyone involved has benefited from it. The players get the first team experience they need, Boro get experienced youth players & Darlo get players for free. We should be setting up agreements with League One & Two teams and perhaps a couple of foreign teams to get the players the experience they're not going to get in the reserves here.