AyeDubbleYoo

Nobody actually thinks buying someone on the last day is better than buying them in July, I don't understand what we're arguing about.

The four players we've already signed not count?

What has Brown's fitness record been like recently? I assumed that was why he was so far down the pecking order.

Wow.

Just looks like an orange t-shirt with an NUFC badge stuck on to me, not really like a football top. Anyway, I won't buy it and we'll hardly ever wear it, so no big deal.

I thought all signs were that Barton is staying now, the madness seems to have died down.

I don't know whether to use this for the joke or the responses, but fair play to you all:

No. Not in the slightest anymore. We should already have put aside a slice of money for this and the last window so focusing on that figure doesn't make much sense to me anyway. All I know is that it is a good chunk of money that will be invested into the club and will have given us an increased budget to invest in players, and beyond that I think its is pointless trying work out where it all goes. As for those adding caveats that, well we we hoped it would give us a chance to really push the boat out, I would agree. That would be great. With a gambler like Ashley, fingers crossed we may still be surprised, we are already on a more interesting road with the type of players we bring in and the football philosophy than the likes of Sunderland and that is important in my eyes. Were not just playing it safe. Beyond, looking at the accounts and checking that nobody is making a fast buck (and hell we're not even being bummed by the bloke with interest on his loans at the moment), I don't see the point in getting hung up on not being able to see exactly where that £35m goes, if we still see progress on and off the pitch. Just to say I agree totally with this, said before that this obsession over the Carroll money is pointless.

Exactly, the new wages aren't "coming out of the Carroll fee", it's just that we need to budget for the wage expenditure in the future. The Carroll Money™ goes into our bank account and all our costs come out. Obviously any players leaving reduces the wage bill, but if the overall objective is to bring the total bill down then it's not as simple as just comparing outgoing player wages to incoming ones.

The first year, or even two would be understandable - they are taking this self-suffiency lark a bit far... Indeed, but there's no way that's happening. What would be the point? We will just be budgeting for the future expenditure, can't believe we're attempting to pay someone's wages for the next 5 years out of a lump sum we're holding onto right now.

This is starting to get silly. These are things you will never find out. No. No we really don't. If we have a better team next season. If not. Simples! f*** me, finally. yes and no. if we were to marginally improve but have kept money back would you not ask why we didn't use it ? fwiw i don't think they'll take money out but if they are setting aside 5yrs worth of wages now for the new signings i'm not sure if that is the best use of the money. Not really, we need to use money on other things than transfer fees (and even wages), and I don't have a problem with that. I agree with your second point, but I don't see any reason that the club would be keeping a lump sum now to pay for future wages. That doesn't make any sense, they will just budget for the future expenditure.

We view on that is just that I would rather have him play for us for a season, added to the fact that we might end up good enough to keep him at the end of it. You're right though, I fully expect the club not to take that view, and understandably so.

Thought that only applied for talking to clubs in different countries. Ah you might be right there. Well open sly negotiations on the understanding that we'll nab him the summer! Now you all dissect it, it's a pretty risky idea. But potentially cheap, which is what makes it plausible in my brain.

Sits it out til Christmas, opens talks with Barca to toddle off on a freebie. I would accept that TBH. Except then we probably wouldn't sign M'Bengue as I think we'll only sign him if we get a fee for Enrique. Maybe, that would obviously be bad. We'd have to sign someone though.

Aye, both fair points, was just a thought. Might go to the end of the window either way.

If we think N'Zogbia is set on coming here, we might not decide to move until someone else meets the fee. If they don't, we can open negotiations in January and get him on a free at the end of his contract. Not saying I would do that, I would rather he joined now, but I could see that being the club's strategy.

Sits it out til Christmas, opens talks with Barca to toddle off on a freebie. I would accept that TBH.

This is starting to get silly. These are things you will never find out. No. No we really don't. If we have a better team next season. If not. Simples! Fuck me, finally.

I'm sure they just sit down in front of the computer and write whatever sounds plausible at the time.

There's no reason to be frustrated though, that's the thing I don't understand. We've made some good moves and are obviously working on others. There's no way our squad could be described as threadbare at the moment IMO. We obviously lack quality up front, but not numbers. I don't know what kind of summer people were expecting, if what has happened so far seems negative to them. It just baffles me. It happens at every club during every transfer window. We're never totally happy Yeah of course, that's fine. And I know Ashley has earned his fair share of doubt/negativity. Just seems like we've done well so far from any objective point of view.

For some reason I get more hopeful the longer he sticks around. I know I'm setting myself up for a big disappointment like.

that was a case of Redknapp getting his media mates on it (hell even the Christmas day thing at Spurs training ground SSN had where they asked about Carroll was disgusting) But then NUFC were touting Carroll around to different clubs and I wouldn't be surprised if Spurs thought they would get him until Liverpool got involved.

Think the good think about Long is that he could play up front on his own, off another striker or even potentially in a wide position. Anyway, I've sucked him off enough in this thread, suffice to say I think he would be a good signing!

How many strikers did you think we were going to sign this summer, 3? Think that's a bit optimistic for one transfer window. If we get one more to go with Ba I'll be satisified with that. Obviously I'd rather have more, but come on, it was never likely we'd sign 3 strikers. Well I wanted us to sign two, was hoping for more quality than Ba & Long but there is point us signing two strikers if it means we get rid of one we already have. But how many strikers can we realistically have on the books at once? New Player, Ba, Best, Shola, Lovenkrands - that's 5 first team forwards. As well as a winger purchased and HBA coming back. I'm not saying they're any good, but there's only so many signings we can realistically expect. Well yeah but it looks as though Best will be sold so say we end up with Ba Long Shola Loven thats just not good enough Fair point, that list doesn't look amazing, although the top two are better than anything we've had for ages. Guess it depends a bit on the system we're planning to play. Fingers crossed for some more quality anyway, but I don't think there's any chance that more than one striker will be coming in. Hope to be wrong.

Can you though? Who? And what don't you see in Long? Not saying he's world class, but he has the attributes and the potential to do very well for us. Whether £7m is fair or not is a bit hard to say. I haven't seen a huge number of games in the championship but when I watched Reading last season he's never stood out. If you look at the caliber of players we've got in for less, 7 million seems like a huge amount. I'd rather have DJ Campbell here for example. He's proved himself to be a decent option at this level and would complement Ba well as a poacher. IMO Long is far superior to DJ Campbell, although more expensive. I can imagine the reaction on here if the next striker we sign is Campbell, it would be meltdown. It's going to be difficult for the club to win here isn't it? If they sign someone decent for a low fee they'll be slammed for penny pinching, if they pay any money for someone who's not world class they'll be criticised for that as well. Narrows down the list of acceptable targets quite a lot. I'm ignoring net spend and focusing on the players brought in. We need a striker, a fast one at that. Shane long doesn't have that sort of pace from what I've seen. If we are unwilling to spend in the region of 10-15 million to get a bit of a marquee singing in this position, then I would be happier singing Campbell from what I've seen of the two players. Fair enough, we'll have to agree to disagree. FWIW one of Long's biggest strengths is his pace... that's exactly why I think he would be good.