AyeDubbleYoo

Whoah there tonto, it's just a press rumour. Obviously I would be gutted if we signed Cole, as 90% of the time he's awful.

Totally agree Jonny. Punk77, I think you're the only person I've ever heard call Newcastle 'Castle'. I kind of like it! My main worry is with Mike Ashley's pigheadedness and arrogance, he might come down on the wrong side of tight decisions about player wages too often. For example, in any world Enrique has earned a pay rise, assuming he's not already on crazy money. If he comes to Ashley and asks for one, will he just be told to fuck off and join Carroll at Liverpool? However mad footballer's wages are, they are normal to them and the individuals need to feel valued and like they're getting their market value. I don't want us to spend crazy money again, but it's a very difficult balance to strike. And fans will obviously tend to come down on the side of paying the player a little bit more if they love him.

It's a relatively new phenomenon for us though isn't it Jonny? Previously we were either paying so much in wages that we could retain our players, or the players we had signed were so bad that bigger clubs weren't looking at them. I agree it's common to all the clubs in our position, it just seems worse for us because it's only just started to happen. Don't think the Carroll deal can be underestimated either, we wouldn't even be talking about player sales if it wasn't for that. We still don't know whether it was an exception or an example of a strategy.

The NUFC shop must be one of the worst websites ever. For a business with a multi million pound turnover it's a disgrace.

Basically if we stay up it's job done, if we finish in the top 10 it's an awesome season, and if we qualify for Europe it's outstanding. We could do it, we probably won't, but I'm just looking forward to seeing how the end of the season pans out.

Really tempted to make an impulse trip back for this.

Post of the year. (Although I do agree with steady progress!)

Same, obviously he's not Tiote but he's better than any other backup we've got. Thing is, he might want to go somewhere for first-team football after not featuring for Villa that much.

Managed by Steve McLaren.

I'd be weirdly excited if we signed Cisse, always liked him for some reason. Not that I think we will.

Well that's fair enough, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it's normally argued on here!

I'm not complaining about the selling of the players, if it happens. I'm complaining about the ruining of a perfectly decent season by people constantly talking about a player as if he's gone. Promise I won't post this again, but can't we at least try to fucking enjoy the good players we've got without constantly using them as a way to snipe at Mike Ashley?

Get used to it. We used to be a club who bought players for large fees, give them massive career fulfilling contracts, and then could never get rid of them. We are now a club who aims for players on lower fees, on lower wages, but with potential to be a hell of a lot better. It is a natural consequence of the second option that we will worry about the players we sign who turn out to be great player, and then leave for bigger and better clubs. Do it consistently enough for a long period of time and you might get lucky and hit the sweet spot between the Arsenal model and the Man Utd model! No, I won't.

How longs he's been on the books is meaningless. The club will be able to make a massive profit on him and that's all that matters. I just don't agree we'll be looking to sell players per se. If Enrique doesn't want a new contract or he wants Champions League football then fair enough, he's at the end of his contract so the club might decide to cash in. But I don't think we'll be selling players like Tiote who have only recently signed deals the club finds affordable. I know everyone believes that Mike Ashley is out to ship out all our players and replace them with casino dealers or something, I just don't see much reason to believe that. Anyway, this has been done to death in almost every thread, so sorry!

It's quite a gamble to think that Carlton Cole's awareness will suddenly click for the season after we sign him for a large fee though.

Well maybe indirectly, in that we would be better off financially if we hadn't previously given so many big contracts to shite players. But we still wouldn't have changed the policy on wages for Carroll.

Can't see us selling Tiote, we only just signed the fucking guy. Wonder how long it'll be before I open a player thread and it isn't about him being definitely sold in the summer?

Clean break, it should be absolutely no doubt he will be the same player bar any psychological blocks. Given his ego I doubt we'll see that, though. Hopefully. I suppose at that level they can come back the same with the treatment they get. But Marcelino was never the same player after he broke that finger remember? Nice!

Stop making up names.

To be fair to Liddle, men are programmed to have affairs. Some of us can just use our reasoning minds to not do it.

Might actually be good for the ground if the people from L7 end up in two or three groups around the ground. Might actually encourage everyone to sing a bit more. [/wishful thinking]

If it's any consolation, he doesn't care about Liverpool either.

PL rules mean that the away section needs to be extended and the family enclosure was sold out last year so understandably they want to extend that. The fact that the vast majority of the anti Ashley chants start from up there would also be a strong factor I would suggest. Hopefully they will get things sorted out and that it suits as many people as possible. Personally I think that having our most vocal fans closer to the pitch can only be a good thing and with them now being in the "main bowl" of the stadium the potential for more and more fans to join them is now much better. I would also like to think that the club will help these supporters out financially. After all they are being moved out against their will and asking them to pay out an extra £150 or so on last seasons prices is a bit much in my opinion. I'm sure these are the sort of things that Colocho/Jordan/Steve are on the case of though. Thanks man, sort of makes sense if PL rules are dictating the away section bit. Like you say though, would be nice if people weren't forced to buy more expensive tickets though. Maybe a special discount could be available to people who had a ticket in L7 something.

Why are they moving people away from L7 anyway, is there any reason that's been given? Sorry, a bit lazy to go back over the thread!

Does the DVD only include the second half?