Lenny

No quotes or anything new there though??

Until he gets sight of goal and his gut drops out of his arse hole.

We've hardly been relying on him though have we. He's been getting rare chances, and I don't think you see that as anything other than a good thing as it show's we're prepared to give youngsters a chance. He doesn't look much kop in front of goal in the first team, and he seems like a bit of a twat, but he's occasionally looked a threat and he scored a lot of goals in the reserves (and under 18's?).

Just out of curiosity, who do people think is better out of Jonas and Milner? In terms of potential sale price there's probably at least £10m difference between the two, but I honestly think I prefer Jonas.

The thing is, it depends on the individual. He could come here and still stay professional, or he could come here like Owen did and not show much of an interest for much of his stay. At his age, and if he has any ambition that would be extremely detrimental to his career.

Don't think Rivaldo has been mentioned at all. Always thought he was class.

Surely there'd have been no way that sort of wage could have been sustained in the Championship though? I would have thought that wage increase/contract was on the basis that we stayed up. Very strong possibility he'd have signed had we stayed up that year IMO. As far as I'm aware he didn't "turn the offer down" until the season ended, by which time I doubt the offer was there.

Literally have no recollection of that silver kit

It's nice.... but pointless.

Love this! Genuinely making me smile reading thru this thread.

Completely agree with this. Looks afraid to do anything whenever he's on the ball. Even when he does something good it looks like he's uncomfortable doing it.

Amazing, I've been exactly the same I always used to hum that when I had him on FIFA.

Pretty certain if this ends up being how it ends and his doesn't sign a new deal, we'll hear about the more intricate details. Well, Joey's version of them anyway.

So has he been offered a 2 year extension from the date of expiration on his current contract or a 2 year contract from the moment he signs? If it's just a 2 year contract then I can understand him not being happy as it's essentially just an extra year.

I recognise your point, but in turn I also want to point out it's Pardew who's saying that and he doesn't have a great track record for man management (prior to coming here, I mean). He likes to think he's being clever when he makes these comments, and they don't necessarily relate to the reality on the ground. It doesn't change the fact there could be a bust up with a player on a longish contract, of course, but then it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. You could well be right, unfortunately it's one of those things that we won't really ever know as there is always varying versions of the truth. But, I personally can't see what benefit it would have coming out with these things if they were BS. And Barton himself has never made any grumblings that what he's saying isn't true. From what I've seen of Barton on the screen and judging by his past, and the fact that he's a man trying and possibly occasionally struggling to keep himself on the straight and narrow, the comments about him seem to fit the profile. Maybe I'm naive and Pardew has other motives, or is trying to be clever.

Ok... so this appears to me to be primarily about the length of contract and not particularly the amount. Thinking about this with my head rather than my heart, if I was in charge of the purse strings, I think I'd be quite cautious about handing out a 3 year contract to him. To be fair, he appears to have sorted himself out, but even so, I'm sure there's been more than one occassion this season where Pardew has said "Barton has found it hard this week", "It's been a tough week for Joey", "He needs his head to be right to get the best out of him" etc. It only takes one occassion for him to have a breakdown that he can't control and he could have burnt his bridges. If that happens sooner rather than later (or never), we're stuck with a player with no use to us, and will be practically impossible to sell due to his age, attitude and salary. I get the impression there's a certain amount of walking on egg shells that goes on with Joey. Heart speaking here, I'd hand him the 3 year deal, but if the reason above is the case for the breakdown, I think I can understand it in this particular instance.

I don't really care as such but I think if he's Northern Irish then he should play for them. Yeah fair enough, it was a pointless post, I'm just bored waiting for the shopping to turn up!

Whereas I couldn't give a shite

To be fair his goal scoring record is pretty shite. I still think I'd take the risk given the circumstances and what I've seen of him over the past year or so. Should be a decent squad player.

Signed/Signing for Galatasaray is he not?!

I'd personally be quite happy with Bothroyd on a free, providing we bring in another striker or 2. Would be nice to have a few decent options. I'd also be very surprised if we were to only bring in Bothroyd up top, so should be a good sign. I like that we appear to be getting on with things early this year

Fuck sake.

I think it looks good there too actually.

Prolific!