AyeDubbleYoo

With the history of shite CBs we had, it's no surprise that some people thought Colo was another one. I did, happy to admit I was totally wrong.

Wow, some sense talked about Ashley.

We've all assumed that's the plan because we all hate Ashley. (Obviously there is plenty of reason to hate him, don't get me wrong).

His international scoring record is scary - 62 in 97 games.

Agree, this is basically why I don't let my hatred for Ashley get out of hand. He's made a fair few mistakes but his approach to finances isn't one of them. The only alternative is massive spending from his personal wealth, which he obviously isn't going to do. So it's pointless moaning about it.

Number 7 looks a lot like Tony Mowbray, but the picture must be too recent to him playing!

Is that right? I would have thought that all our assets would have a value on the balance sheet. Not that I know much about this stuff!

All I know is that Pardew said that he doesn't want to talk about a new contract until we're safe from relegation.

The problem for QPR is that if they get promoted he won't be that much use to them.

I recognise 10 but I can't remember his name either! Fuck it.

Of course it matter as I reckon it is nailed on we did not value him at £35 million but we now value £35m as errr £35million. Can someone confirm what the value of the squad was in the last report. Yeah, I meant assuming we had valued Carroll at £35m. Once his value is established as that... say if we had turned down the bid. Obviously if you value an asset at £10m but manage to sell it for £35m then you've got yourself a good deal! Edit: Also I imagine Carroll's value was pretty high considering he had just made the England squad and we'd got him on a new 5-year deal.

Is No12 Brian Robson in his West Brom days?

Good spot on Poborsky, he's minus the hair!

I notice Pardew is wishing he had Gyan and not Darren Bent.

It doesn't really matter to the balance sheet if we own Andy Carroll as an asset or the £35m in cash. Both have equal value in assessing the financial worth of the club. Attractiveness to a buyer is another question mind. Selling him was probably better than keeping him in the long run, as his value is more likely to decline than increase from such a high valuation. Obviously we'll have to address this question again if we spend the £35m, then the issue will be the value of the assets that are acquired with it.

Lionel Perez the first one? Recognise number three as well, name escapes me.

I would be incredibly surprised if Ashley makes a penny from his association with NUFC. Maybe if the economy booms again and there are rich men throwing their money around he will manage to find a buyer at a decent price. Until then he's just trying to get our costs down so he can minimise the amount of money he needs to put in to cover our losses.

I always rated Enrique, but I've admitted many times I thought Colo was shit. Very happy to be proved wrong.

We're hardly Ashley's cash cow FFS, he hasn't made any money out of us and stands very little chance of ever doing so.

It's not about needing players, per se, it's about needing ambition. Players like Enrique will sign on as long as our club ambitions match their personal ones. Enrique is good enough to be a regular Spanish international, but only if he's regularly playing for a club that wants to (and - crucially - has a plan for) challenge for honours. As yet, we don't have that plan. We have a plan to stay up, and we certainly have a plan to make money from our assets, but we don't yet have that plan for honours. So Enrique will probably see his future now at a more ambitious club, since he himself is growing more ambitious. I don't think it's as big an issue for Tiote as he can be an Ivorian regular doing exactly what he's doing with us. And he may still feel he needs a year or two more seasoning before he thinks about a move. But it's deadly serious for Enrique now. And I'm sure hearing about the massive pay packet Carroll's getting doesn't hurt Enrique's desire to move either. I don't even think we lack ambition as such, it's just that any success we achieve will have to be within strict financial limits. And that means that in the Premier League it will be very difficult.

If we had kept Carroll, brought in a good striker (Gameiro/El Arabi for example) and someone like Kranjcar - whilst shifting some of the deadwood (so net spend of about £11m), we would have become one of those ''better clubs imo''. Depressing. Well we could still bring in a good striker, and some other bodies. I really think the massive negativity at the moment basically boils down to the Carroll sale. Before that must people thought things were looking up.

Thing is, we have about 6 or 7 players who are good enough to play for "better clubs". How many do we need before we become that better club ourselves?

Apologies for the optimism, but I think Tiote and Jose will both be here next season. Right, let's move on.

Obviously the club want to guarantee income by locking people into the multiple year deal, that's just good business. Whether or not it's good for the customer depends totally on how important the discount is and (crucially) how the club performs on the pitch. I don't think it's specifically to do with the fact NUFC know that the summer will be terrible, it's just the general uncertainty of football that they're trying to mitigate against.