AyeDubbleYoo

It's a bit like Ashley's mythical PR machine and control of the media. All he does is use this power and control to make everyone hate him - not the traditional approach to public relations.

I said hopefully! I know we didn't replace Carroll, but I think because this departure has been on the cards for ages we must have at least identified some players. Even we can't start the season with no left backs in the squad.

M'Bengue, Barnetta and Long would be dreamland at the moment.

This is basically my feeling as well. Fair enough he might be a bit spineless for not walking out because he can't stop Carroll/Barton/Nolan leaving, but given he has decided to see it through I think he is a decent manager otherwise.

Yes, but I think I've been in denial about the whole thing. Was half hoping he'd stick around until at least January, by which time we might have been doing SO well that he would have considered staying on. Wishful thinking eh? What it's brought home is the fact that this could have been so avoidable had some sort of ambition been shown in the past few months. Whilst Enrique may have decided to piss off anyway, there would at least have been an attempt to keep him. Fair point, I still believe the main reason is that he has just become good enough to attract the attention of other clubs while simultaneously coming to the end of his contract. The most shocking thing is the destination really, I would have said "fair enough" if he'd gone to Barca or even Arsenal, but Liverpool takes the piss.

If we don't get M'Bengue, I've honestly got no idea who we'll sign. I was always expecting Enrique to go though, so hopefully we have planned for this eventuality.

I know this is gutting and especially bad following on from the Barton fiasco, but didn't we know Enrique was leaving?

I'll be gutted when this happens, but we always knew it was coming.

Their job is to report links to players, every newspaper does it about every club, and a tiny fraction of them end up happening. I doubt there's a conspiracy behind it.

If anyone is as untrustworthy or out for themselves as Mike Ashley, it's Willy McKay.

He didn't impress me that much, but I'm still disappointed he isn't coming. The summer is a weird, weird time.

Think we're up to at least F.

If you are to believe certain journos (which I know, probably waffle), Erdinc deal is off due to inability to agree personal terms. Personal terms? With the wage bill down, and all that Andy Carroll used up on tarmac, lightbulbs and whatever-bloody else... How anyone can seriously believe Barton will be replaced properly, when we haven't replaced Carroll properly despite having funds and time, and we haven't replaced Enrique even though we've known for a month or so that he wouldn't sign a new contract. Utter madness. Can't disagree too much on any of that. Despite what I think of Barton and Enrique's convenient excuses, I am sceptical of our intent to spend seriously this window. The only good thing about Barton's outbursts is that it will put more pressure on the board to prove him wrong...or right as the situation may be. I'm sceptical about that too, in fact I actually believe they don't intend to spend much. Enrique leaving doesn't have much to do with that though, I just think circumstances have evolved to the point where he is bound to leave. As for signings, praying we get a LB and another striker, and that they undervalued like the players we've signed already.

Grope?

When Nile is the voice of reason you're in trouble.

Well - goal, anyway. The 's' is yet to be earned. Eh? Didn't he get about 7 at the end of last season?

Although it sounds stupid to say this, it's surely beyond even this regime to think we can sell Enrique and not sign anyone of quality. That would just be suicide. Even in the case of Carroll, we had numbers up front even if we lacked quality. To go into a season with no left backs would be inexplicable. Don't think it will happen, but you negative cats are making me worried.

Why is the boss bit so important? He falls out with a lot of people, some are his bosses and some aren't.

The issue in Jan was the lack of time to find Carroll's replacement. That said, I personally think we needed another striker anyway, but that's now by the by. Absolutely NO excuses this time, however. They've known for months that Enrique was likely to leave so they better damn well find a replacement. Yeah, it will be terrible management if we don't already have a LB lined up. We need one even if he stays.

Even if you think transfer listing him is over the top (which I do myself), can't see how you can object to a fine.

At the time, I thought that tweet meant that the team could continue without Nolan.

I think people need to look at the reasons for his behaviour. Woah, woah. We don't want to do that. Just ignore them and focus on the outcomes man. Don't think anyone is ignoring the reasons TBH, some people just think that the reasons don't justify the public outbursts.

I think people need to look at the reasons for his behaviour. His reaction may be far more palatable if you consider what/who he's been telling with since Jan. Yeah, I understand that, I just think there has to be discipline at football clubs and this sort of behaviour isn't acceptable. FWIW I also think the club has overreacted a bit, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact he was leaving at the end of the season anyway so they don't see any point in persevering with him.

It's his last opportunity to work in top level football. If it wasn't for the fact he's a bullshitter with a penchant for blackjack, he'd be applying for jobs in League two now. On that we can agree. But he's still a patsy cunt. That was almost a reasonable post. It's about as reasonable as you'll be seeing on this subject matter. It genuinely made me chuckle, I was thinking it was quite a calm response after the first line!

Just so I get this, you think even fining him is wrong?