AyeDubbleYoo

It's worth a lot, but you could achieve it without buying a football club. As I've repeated many times, I don't think advertising his brand was the sole reason he bought our club - but how can you fail to see the connection between owning a sports retail company and a sports club!? I don't fail to see the connection, in fact I see the connection! You posted this: That was what started this line of debate. All I'm saying is that I think saving money on advertising was a very minor consideration for Ashley.

It's worth a lot, but you could achieve it without buying a football club.

Putting words in my mouth now ... Just think it's convenient that he bought a club with a 52,000 seat stadium and in the top 6/7 that appear on Sky Sports. Well no, obviously all those factors make us much more attractive to any buyer. IMO he just bought us because he wanted to do something interesting and be a man of the people, one of the lads, something to do on a Saturday etc. I don't think he ever expected it to bring him so much hassle and cost him so much money. Obviously very naive.

I'm pretty sure Ashley didn't buy NUFC to get free advertising for Sports Direct! £300m or whatever he's put in is a lot for a few billboards and a sign on the roof. He could probably have hired every advertising board in the Premier League for that money.

Man, can't believe we're still having this meta-debate about people's opinions rather than the actual issues. FWIW, I do accept that Ashley cares more about financial results than on the pitch results. I've posted a load of times that 'ambition' we show will have to be within the limits of his financial constraints. All I'm suggesting is that financial results and on the pitch results can't really be separated to that great an extent. So selling all our decent players in one window isn't a good idea financially. And we've never done it before, so I don't see any reason to believe it will happen now. Anyway, fuck it, I'm obviously never going to persuade anyone that Mike Ashley is out to do anything other than asset-strip NUFC and pocket all of his massive profits, before running off cackling and investing it all in Tottenham. I know he's basically incompetent and has made many mistakes. I've never denied that.

love these posts. as if ashley is bothered about anything except money. Sorry, I'll try harder to make my opinions conform to yours in future.

BTW, Man City resigning Barton is surely mental. They'll be looking at the world's best young midfield talent, surely?

No idea, sorry.

Having a spine does though, and you can't create one of those with money, no matter how much you've got. You've got to either spend money and HOPE that it creates itself, or take the bull by the horns, create it yourself and more importantly, hold onto it no matter what. That's the point. Yeah, a consistent and high-quality core to the team is essential I agree.

I can't guarantee that won't happen, but I think they'll both stay.

For some reason I'm fairly confident Barton will sign a new deal. Don't see where all the doom and gloom is coming from. There is absolutely no way we'll let Tiote, Enrique and Barton go in one transfer window. I know Ashley is a cock, but that would be suicidal.

Hmm, not sure. He cashed in for Carroll, but £8m for a Spain U21 international who's one of the league's best in his position would be a bit stingy, no matter how long he has on his contract. I'd hope (and just about believe) we wouldn't sell him for that.

If you're upgrading Williamson and Jonas then you definitely need to upgrade Nolan as well IMO. I would replace him before either of those... although I don't think we'll sign anyone in either of those midfield positions.

Oh yeah, I definitely enjoy Shola's goals more because he's a local lad, and I would prefer if we did have a local spine. I just doubt whether it actually makes any difference to our chances of success.

She's got a half a point about certain players that don't fit the stereotype of a footballer being unfairly criticised sometimes. Don't think it;s really enough for an article like.

Nah I know, I was basically just posting any great moment I could think of!

Yeah, I mean obviously it doesn't really matter where the players are from, as long as you have them for long enough and they care enough to try hard and stick around. That's why the Man Utd generation of Beckham and co was so amazing - doesn't matter whether they were actually from Manchester or not. I think that was Wullie's main point though, I think everyone realises that the place of birth on your passport doesn't really make much difference. The value is more in bringing players into the team from an early age and making sure they're the right quality.

I can't wait for Kuqi to score TBH, will be immense when he does the first belly flop.

Was Tiote attacking at Twente? I've honestly got no idea, hadn't heard of him until he descended from the heavens into SJP.

Yeah, I agree with this. It's more about building a consistent foundation by having players that (a) come through regularly enough to provide enough players and (b) have enough attachment to the club to stick around and care about how the club performs. Man Utd a brilliant example as you say, and Inter (and possibly Chelsea) an example of how success that is only built through mercenaries can be fleeting.

Even John Terry is from Barking, east London, and was only poached by Chelsea at age 14 (from West Ham). [/wikipedia]

I was about to post about Arsenal, do all the youngsters they shipped in from abroad when they were embryos count as local? I would say they pretty much do, I would be attached to anyone who had come up from the age of 13 or 14.

Isn't he more of an attacking midfielder?

When Bergkamp flicked that ball around Dabizas and scored was pretty amazing, albeit for the wrong reasons!

Unfortunately the PR machine at this club will continue to blind the masses. Howay both of you, it's just childish to reduce opposing arguments like this. There have been a lot of reasonable posts about the club's actions, for and against. Sniping like this is stupid. Also, Ashley has the worst PR machine ever, I doubt it's capable of blinding anyone to anything!