Chris_R

Joe Cole Swap for Enrique

Because I asked somebody who worked for the club and he said they hadn't inserted any clauses. That's all well and good, but why do you believe this particular turnstyle operator?

If we bought Cole for £2-£3m then I'd say "Well at least he's got to be better than Lovenkrands" and see him as decent backup, but the thought of wasting £9-£10m on him just makes me shiver. There simply MUST be better players than him around for £10m.

Carlton Cole? No. Just no. This is a man who has never scored more than 10 league goals per season (12 in all competitions is his best return). This year, his return is 5 from 28. He makes "Homegrown Striking Ace" Shola Ameobi look fucking prolific. Laughably he had never scored 2 goals in a PL game until boxing day just gone. At 27 and having played up front your entire career, that's fucking disgraceful. Career stats of 52 in 248 in all competitions says it all. One in 5 ffs. The man's a fraud.

Needs to make sure he's exactly 6th off the pitch then, right bang in the middle.

Mustn't have looked very far then Dave. Agree he could say he knows his budget, but if he didn't explicitly state "My budget is £Xm" then people would still whinge. There's honestly people here (Probably like chubby, above) who will only be happy if Pardew said "My budget is £25m" just so that they know there's a certain amount to spend so they can then decide whether they're happy with that or not, irrespective of the damage that would do to our intentions in the transfer market over the coming months.

I'd suggest the manager knows full well how much he has to spend. He's just (quite rightly) not telling the press. Every club in the world knows we've got £35m burning a hole in our pockets after Christmas, we'd be mental to not try to play this down somewhat.

Or what ads said, basically.

Just a thought for those already sharpening their pitchforks: A) Pardew comes out and says "We've got £30m to spend, we're going to go on a spending spree!". All other clubs hike their prices up and we get fucked roundly in the ass spending £30m on 2 crap players bought as panic buys on deadline day B) Pardew says he's "Trying to get the owner to spend" and is able to negotiate a lot of really good deals, and we still spend £30m by the end of the window Which would people prefer? Why on earth would the manager come out and declare he has bucketloads of money to spend? What benefit could this possibly have to the club or our ambitions in the transfer market this summer? Not saying B is definitely true, but to completely discount the fact that we're just being a bit clever about how we go about things is fucking madness. [Cue all the "cockney mafia out" mob screaming "Waaaaa, but it's Ashley man, he's trying to destroy us!"]

I just want to finish as high up the league as possible really. If that means we finish above the mackems, I'd not complain.

I don't think we should lose him for nothing, but I'd rather lose him for nothing than sell him to Liverpool. I'd keep him for the extra year just to spite them, even if he ultimately ended up there on a free anyway. If we were offered £5m from Milan and £10m from Liverpool, I'd accept the Milan bid and tell the bin dippers to get knotted. It would be truly horrible to see him playing for Liverpool. Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Man City even I could accept, but I'd still prefer him to go overseas.

Sounds uncannily like us when we went down.

Thought we played terrifically well today. Fully expected us to get a beasting and even at 2-1 I was fairly happy. But the equaliser was thoroughly deserved. The only downside is that Mike Ashley will probably think we don't need to sign anyone in the summer now...

Allegedly looking at Van Nistelhorse... http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15052011/58/paper-round-ruud-return.html He turns 35 in July and they'll be spunking £60k/week on him Still, at least they'll be pleased that he's not black.

Michael Owen claiming he won the Premier League is like me claiming I've set foot on the moon, just because i was alive when it happenend.

Personally I'd take him back, what's done is done and I want what's best for Newcastle. We need another winger, he's good and likely available. If Wigan go down, which looks likely, we could get him for less than we paid. The problem might be the effect it could have on squad morale. We finally seem to have players that are a unit and happy together, and some of the longer established amongst them might harbour a grudge against N'Zogbia for the way he left. For that reason alone, it might be worth looking elsewhere.

Have to agree with everything the OP said. I'd add that I don't think Barton will cut it as a right sided midfielder now that he doesn't have Carroll to aim for. We need to switch him back into the middle (Yes, I realise this leaves Tiote, Barton and Nolan comepeting for 2 places) and get a decent, pacy right winger. Or better still, get a decent pacy left winger and put Jonas on the right. I always have been and always will be baffled at why a completely right-footed player is continually deployed on the left wing, and then people criticise his final ball. Madness.

Some mad answers. Jonas FFs Williamson for me. He's an old-fashioned defender who offers little or nothing going forward. Nothing wrong with that, but he's probably our least technically gifted player.

--------------Given Hughes Albert Woodgate Enrique -------Solano Speed Ginola ------------Beardsley --------Shearer Ferdinand Subs: Pav (Possibly not our second best keeper, but a legend nonetheless) Coloccini Robert Dyer Watson (For versatility if nothing else) Asprilla Bellamy Right back definitely the weak link there, struggling between Watson, Venison, Beye and Hughes, none of them really shine above the others. Think with that team (and subs) we'd do pretty bloody well.

Shit game. Ok we've got lots of posession but we're completely incapable of doing anything with it. Could play until tomorrow and we'd still not score.

Fucking sectarianism, arguing over something that isn't even real in the first place. The very definition of retarded.

Buy 2 new, quality strikers. Keep Ameobi and Best as backups Get rid of Lovenkrands who is now ineffective Send Ranger on loan Just really echoing what 95% of people have already said but meh.

Turn it into a casino so that Ashley, Pardew, Llambias and pals can sit and play Roulette all night.

Liverpool every time. Desperate for them not to qualify for Europe next year.

We're all but guaranteed safety, so just take our time. Absolutely no need to have him on the pitch before he's good and ready. That said, there's over £500k per league position available in prize money, wouldn't surprise me if that came into our thinking somehow...