AyeDubbleYoo

Just speculation/rumour, Boro are in for him and 'another Championship club' are competing, according to SSN.

The last thing we want to do is saddle the club with masses of debt to buy short term success. We've been down that road before, it leads into the shit. If people (rightly) hate Ashley now, it would be nuclear meltdown if it emerged he'd saddled us with another £50m debt, surely.

Haven't seen Routledge play for ages, how's he doing?

I know this board doesn't agree, but I think he will get a new manager in. Do you really think so? I hope we get a proven manager in, but I don't see any reason to believe we will.

You might have a point if we were talking about a world class player, but we're talking about a 26 year old League 1 striker who would almost certainly be used as backup at Everton. Edit: To clarify, I'm speaking completely hypothetically here, as I'm not at all convinced about this Everton link and I think the deal probably broke down simply because we (rightly IMO) didn't offer Leeds enough cash for him. I'm just arguing about the principal of "we can't compete with Everton for players" and commenting on a worrying trend I see of the club's dealings with players into and out of the club. Don't see how those details about Beckford make him any less likely to join Everton. The fact is that they wanted him, and his age and current playing level probably makes it even more likely that he would bite their hands off. It's all hypothetical really, as we have no idea what went on, how much we offered and/or what would have been considered 'enough'.

I think we're prepared to make small signings of players that we feel are good value. How many of those are around is anyone's guess though. Also, the signings we do make will be considered by a lot of our fans to be the kind that we shouldn't be considering. The best hope we have is to offer Premier League reserves first-team football, or to unearth younger players that are much lesser known. Not sure we have the ability to do that though.

I think the first choice 5 is definitely good enough. The backup obviously isn't, because we don't have any. But as a lot of people have said, we could have Chelsea's back four and we would still be in danger of relegation with a strikeforce that can't make the ball stick and a midfield who can't run about. Absolutely essential that we short out the midfield ASAP.

That song is a work of genius.

You can't really expect us to compete with Everton though, surely. Anyway, we'll never know how good or bad our offer was really... or whether Everton were interested all along. Your comment is currently correct - but it shows just HOW far NUFC have fallen when Everton are a bigger attraction. Back in 1977, Gordon Lee was poached from us by them and neutrals were saying that it was because Everton were a better club...would anyone have said that during the mid-90s or even up to 4 years ago ?? Bill Shankly once said ' there are 2 teams in Liverpool - Liverpool and Liverpool reserves..' He was only half joking and the fact that we are now inferior to Everton merely illustrates how far the club have fallen....the fact that you also accept that shows, inadvertently, that you have little confidence in things changing soon - and you are correct. Course it does, but we can only operate from our current position. It will take a few years of steady progress to get anywhere near competing with Everton for players now. I'm not sure whether I believe it can be done or not, I hope it can. All I was saying is that at this point in time we can't criticise the club for missing out on a player that Everton want.

Alright UV, how the hell would you convince Beckford that Newcastle was a better move than Everton? Confident players want to prove themselves at the highest level... and players reaching their late 20s want to maximise their earnings. In general, I mean.

It will be false economy if we sell him now for a relatively small fee... we'll end up having to sign a keeper in a couple of seasons then. We're very lucky to have one experienced and two upcoming quality keepers on the books... we should keep them together.

It's the fans, it's the referee, it's the fixture list, but it's never you, is it Sam? IS IT?!

yeah but if we think that way how can we blame NUFC ? (which surely is the point of most posts) We can't blame NUFC, that's what I was saying. i know, i was being sarcy about those who'll use situations where there is no blame and still find a way. as if there wasn't enough legit stuff. D'oh, sorry, makes sense now!

From the players' point of view, I can see why they might want to leave to seek first team football. From NUFC's point of view, we should be looking to keep them both for as long as we can and see how they develop. Harper will only last for so long.

yeah but if we think that way how can we blame NUFC ? (which surely is the point of most posts) We can't blame NUFC, that's what I was saying.

Managers coming out after games and just talking about the referee. One, they're not biased, get over it. Two, your own team is to blame, not the referee.

I think it can work, but it does sacrifice your ability to have real balance and stretch teams across the pitch properly. Depends on your style I suppose. I think it's important that if a winger is playing on the 'wrong side' that he's at least confident enough on the wrong foot that he can still go down the line and get a decent cross in. Otherwise it should be very easy to defend against. I prefer wingers with correct foot though, love a team with two proper wide men.

Did he have any say in it?

As I was told by an insightful poster the other day, it's just a microcosm of the general crazy optimism that our economy was blinded by. Borrowing money to pay staff, then someone borrows even more to buy these debt-ridden companies... who's bright idea was that? It was a climate where credit was easy and cheap to get, and nobody seemed to ever ask for the money back. Amazing that new debt can be secured against something that is already crippled by existing borrowing. Man Utd's annual profit is about 100th of its outstanding debt, that's mental.

I claim this as well, loved the guy from the beginning. I was right, woo!

When Fergie retires Man Utd will be in serious, serious danger. Selling Danny Simpson can't help their cause either!

Good to hear, he certainly has as good a chance as most of our players.

Match fixing outrage!

If I was Beckford and Everton were interested, I would be very happy to finish the season and help Leeds get promoted - followed by a sweet move to the Premier League at the end of it. No reason to think we didn't do everything possible to sign him for a fee we thought was acceptable.

Oh God, training with us but not signing... isn't that what they said about Sol Campbell? Dum dum dum....