ikri

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.

But we were told the money was there to spend in January. We had bids totalling £40m+ knocked back according to Llambias. And if there's an expensive player the manager doesn't think is good enough....why can't he be loaned out? Even on a percentage of his wage we'd save money. It's a step not taken with an underperforming first teamer since Keegan loaned out Rozenhal and Ameobi. With the exception of Duff & Owen, our high-earning low-performing players have also been crocked most of the season too. Who is going to pay Alan Smith's £60000 per week wages knowing that he hasn't played in a competitive game for 8-9 months? Who is going to give Viduka his £80000 per week wages knowing that he's never more than 10 minutes away from yet another niggling injury that'll keep him out for the season? If it weren't for the transfer windows we may have been able to shift some of the garbage out on loan but that's a whole different thread. Frightening innit. The squad already lacks the depth needed. We're just letting the contracts run out on Cacapa, Owen and Viduka. Gonna keep paying Duff, Geremi, Smith and Xisco to play in the reserves because no-one wants them. Carroll and Edgar are the only "reserves" with first ream experience so there's no-one to come through and replace them. ...and we're spending fuck all because there's a credit crunch. I mentioned my idea for Cacapa, Viduka, Owen, Duff, Geremi & Smith a while back. It mostly involved the Otterburn training grounds, a live fire exercise, a "team building" session & a missing mini-bus. Those 6 players are costing us somewhere in the region of £20 million per season. Owen & Duff are the only ones who have really featured in the first team this season & they've managed to justify their wages when they have featured only sporadically. Joey Barton can probably be added to the list too. He's looked good when he's been out of jail & fit but that hasn't happened often enough. Plus there seemed to be a real desire last summer to either cut his wages drastically or get shot of him, too much money, too much bad press & too few games.

But we were told the money was there to spend in January. We had bids totalling £40m+ knocked back according to Llambias. And if there's an expensive player the manager doesn't think is good enough....why can't he be loaned out? Even on a percentage of his wage we'd save money. It's a step not taken with an underperforming first teamer since Keegan loaned out Rozenhal and Ameobi. With the exception of Duff & Owen, our high-earning low-performing players have also been crocked most of the season too. Who is going to pay Alan Smith's £60000 per week wages knowing that he hasn't played in a competitive game for 8-9 months? Who is going to give Viduka his £80000 per week wages knowing that he's never more than 10 minutes away from yet another niggling injury that'll keep him out for the season? If it weren't for the transfer windows we may have been able to shift some of the garbage out on loan but that's a whole different thread.

Nah, it'd be Steak Bake Park

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m172/Spathiphyllum/Shut%20Up/AwJeezNotThisShitAgain.jpg

That's true, so if we could get some money, wouldn't this be something that we should do? Given that it would basically free money since no one would call it by the new name anyway. You could try, but pretty much every business would realise the same thing - no one is going to mention their name - so the money we'd get from selling the naming rights would be negligible.

Naming a new stadium works OK (The Emirates, etc.) but changing the name of an existing stadium would be an exercise in futility, no one would call it by the new name unless they were forced to do so.

Loads of thought gone into this - Which of these statements best apply to your current lifestage? Living at home with my parents Left parents home and live alone in shared accommodation Live with partner only, no children or other people in household Children in household, majority are pre-school age Children in household, majority are of school age Children in household, majority are beyond school age Children have all left home, live with partner alone Live with my son or daughter in their home Other Have they never met someone who lives on their own?

Fuck Played better than we have in ages & yet again our own stupid fucking mistakes kill us

Source? 55% said that even given the current world financial situation they were not prepared for Ashley to stay at United. http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2008/11/29/ashley-given-second-chance-in-fan-survey-61634-22365564/ So once again, NUSC agree with the majority... 27% is not a majority (unless you're actually George W Bush) erm....exactly. 73% of people agree with the NUSC that there are circumstances under which Ashley could stay. That's completely the opposite to what you originally posted though I was trying to point out that according to that Journal survey, there are only 27% of fans who feel that way. I agree that there are dozens of things that Ashley could do to fix things up here, and I agree in principle that there's a need for a supporter's voice at board level, or at least one that can speak directly to board level. Given what happened when Keegan left if there had been a strong supporter's voice to tell Llambias & Ashley that they needed to take action a hell of a lot faster both in appointing a replacement manager & telling us all what the fuck was going on then much of what's happened this season simply wouldn't have happened. But I do not think that NUSC, in their current incarnation, are that voice. They are far too adversarial in their approach to the club, one of their stated aims is to get rid of Llambias, does anyone really think that he's going to be that receptive to a group who want him out of a job?

Source? 55% said that even given the current world financial situation they were not prepared for Ashley to stay at United. http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2008/11/29/ashley-given-second-chance-in-fan-survey-61634-22365564/ So once again, NUSC agree with the majority... 27% is not a majority (unless you're actually George W Bush)

Source? 55% said that even given the current world financial situation they were not prepared for Ashley to stay at United. http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2008/11/29/ashley-given-second-chance-in-fan-survey-61634-22365564/

The alternative to Souness? Off the top of my head here are a few suggestions to who or what is preferable to Graeme Souness: Cancer Being bummed to death by a randy zebra A week listening to Glenn Roeder recite poetry Having your testicles mashed between 2 bricks Suicide As a genuine alternative. Hire a real fucking manager, not a stop gap.

I'd rather play a cardboard cut-out of Geremi than Geremi himself. Geremi is OK in short 20 minute bursts but that's all his 90 year old legs will allow. The last time Geremi started a game the only times he got within 10 metres of the ball was when he was asked to take a free kick. At least with a cardboard cut-out you know that at some point its going to get in a Man Utd player's way as they stroll through our midfield.

They're banging to be let out....

No. We just need a manager, not JFK, not Venables, but a real fucking manager. Preferably one who has some fucking clue about coaching teams to do more than defend.

Waste the chances & pay the price What the fuck was with the Martins substitution? Both things have happened far too often this season.

The £32m was for the most part an accounting loss due to the reduction in the book value of the players due to amortisation, impairment & disposal. If you look at the net debt of the club it went from £61m in 2006 to £70m in 2007, that gives a clearer indication of the money the club lost in real terms in that year, ie about £10m. In Ashley's first year the debt went from £70m to £100m+, this is in spite of getting the £18m TV bonus over the previous year. I couldn't understand at the time how the club could have suddenly started making such "real" losses, but this is obviously due in no small part to Ashley's decision to pay for players up front. The massive losses last year are therefore less to do with the position the previous owner's left the club in and more to do with how Ashley has chosen to restructure player purchases. As I see it there are advantages and disadvantages to either way of doing it, but to change from structuring transfer payments over a number of years to paying up front for any new purchases is obviously going to incur a large financial hit for several years. This is crippling the club in the short term, and is the main reason Ashley is having to loan the club more money. Each year we carry on purchasing players up front the club's losses for the same transfer outlay will inevitably fall compared to the first few years under Ashley as the payments for players from previous years are paid up. So the losses under Ashley will reduce merely as a consequence of that, not necessarily because of any improved management of the club's finances. When finance is hard to come by it seems a strange time to consciously decide to turn down credit, and I'm honestly not sure what Ashley thinks he's gaining by doing this, unless he thinks that he's going to look like the hero in the short term pouring money into the club to save it from financial ruin, and then the business genius in the medium term when the losses are turned into profits. You're already arguing in his favour from the projections, so he may be right in how people will view it. Didn't Mort say that Shepherd had already borrowed against the extra TV income?

A bit of positive stuff to look forward to for a change. Two winnable games too. Just begging for something Dreamteamesque to occur in March then.

Not what's been reported recently. The Keane deal (incoming) was apparently brokered by Parry & opposed by Benitez, hence why Benitez never played him. The Keane deal (outgoing) was opposed by Parry but wanted by Benitez. There's been an ongoing power struggle at the club over who has control over transfers for a while now.

Did you just reveal yourself as Jeremy Clarkson?

The club's business activities would be player sales, merchandising, concessions at the ground, ticket sales, etc. It isn't rocket science. That’s incoming money. The pie seller was talking about money for buying players, hence the word generate. He’s saying the money for transfers and so on (whatever so on is) has to come from a different place to where Mike is investing his money. Which begs the question does the club have two bank accounts, and if so why? It's the same thing. We've always been told that Ashley will put his cash into the club, so far that's had to cover wages, bills, etc. As the wage bill comes down that cash from Ashley, and anything extra generated by the club's income, will be available for transfers.