AyeDubbleYoo

Obviously you're right, but that's not how football works sadly! Could say the same about Spurs, but this is a competition, everyone else is the enemy.

Has he? When did that happen? You'd have thought we'd have discussed that somewhere!

It is hilarious how many injury-prone players West Ham signed over a short period - it's like they thought their physio wasn't earning his money or something.

For a PLC it would be very unusual for any shareholder to actually spend their own money though wouldn't it? I'm not business savvy, but surely a PLC would have to spend its revenue and raise finance through loans etc? Probably the reason for our debt situation.

Any links to reports of this? I can't see anything at the moment.

I would have Bellamy back in a second, love the guy.

Won't disagree that perhaps he wanted his bit of fun too of owning a premiership club. But he never expected to hang around too long. Have his fun then cut and run laughing all the way to the bank. He could still have keegan here if he really wanted. Alarm bells should be ringing now and the penny has hopefully dropped for some now he wants 300-400m for the club he paid just £133m for (ok plus paying off £80m) . I just don't think he'd bother with the hassle of the takeover and the review of the club etc if he only wanted to hang around for a season. All the signs were that he was planning for the long term, don't know how anyone can say otherwise. The only thing he did wrong was bottling out when things got tough.

Very well put, people need to remember this.

I completely disagree that Ashley always wanted to sell quickly for a profit. I think he wanted some fun and somewhere to go on a saturday, and badly underestimated how much he would need to keep investing. Obviously he wants the best price now, but I don't think that was his intention from day one. Sam is a bitter, bitter man, and should keep his mouth firmly closed on the subject of NUFC.

Do you fuck Sam, you blame everything but yourself you dick.

People stopped buying them more because of the internet and the free papers I think, not because they were rubbish.

I do think Joe was out of order trying to shout from the tunnel yesterday, although it was hilarious. I imagine when the FA say 'touchline ban' they don't mean you can stand just off the touchline and still direct the players!

I think all of the defenders will look a lot more comfortable if we can get a few people back in midfield who can compete. If you add Barton and Jonas to the midfield I'd say we'd look a lot more solid in defence. Butt and Geremi did alright yesterday but they just aren't mobile enough out of possession.

All the shit we've been through and we still have more than double the points of Spurs. There are a lot of teams on not a lot of points as well, which as always will help a lot in keeping us safe in the end. Everyone is as good/bad as each other at the moment - barring the top teams.

I suppose as we started making less and less headlines on the pitch, and more and more for the goings on in the boardroom and manager's office, we began to fit into the role of figure of fun. With Keegan we were attractive to watch and upsetting the established order, with Bobby we were respectable, but after that it was just decline. A load of baffling managerial changes, chairman making a fool of himself in the press and results declining dramatically. We've been a soft target over the last few years, added to the fact we dared to get ideas above our station and compete with the top clubs. There's a lot of factors I suppose, difficult to pinpoint any one event. I think the reason we get stick when the likes of Spurs escape it is regional bias though - can't see any other reason why us finishing above them nearly every year is never mentioned, and them selling all of their best players is only mentioned in passing.

I actually felt encouraged looking at the table this morning, and us being 3rd bottom! Amazing what getting any kind of point on the board can do for confidence, especially if it's a comeback from 2-0 down. BBC are saying it won't do much for our league position, which is true, but it should do a lot for our spirit.

Well recently I suppose so, but go back to the first Keegan era and we were 'everyone's second team'. Don't remember the media being against us then really, although I was young at the time. Also, the siege mentality only benefits us if we have someone like Kinnear who can get the players to embrace it and use it to their advantage. If the players still want the press to like them and react to bad publicity by losing confidence, it can easily be a negative influence. Looks like we are starting to move to the positive 'fuck them' attitude though, which is great.

I don't know about the press - I hate most of them but I can't believe there's any agenda behind what they're writing. We just lurch from one crisis to the next, so we give them plenty of ammo. Also we're 'simple northerners', so they naturally patronise us. It's telling how much grief Spurs have avoided though, even down south I don't see much abuse directed towards them in the media or among fans.

Spurs have been brilliant for me this season, really needed something to offset the gloom. I thought they would be above us after this weekend for sure, couldn't believe they lost to Hull. Wouldn't wish relegation on anyone, but Spurs are really going to struggle without leaders and without a goalscorer or two. Berbatov, Defoe or Keane would do the trick - they should go for one of them in January.

Owen should definitely be in, he's the guy you'd want to bring on if you needed to poach a goal. Capello is full of contradictions though, it's weird. He picks mainly the same players (Bridge) as ever but then tries to be progressive by picking people like Jimmy Bullard.

I think that a few people on here have missed the point. He is not rewarding a charity or other third party, he wants to give back the the *fans*. But is he actually going to help the fans in any way? Will the club cut ticket prices for the season or something? Because if not I don't see what the fans are getting out of it. Except maybe that he stays when he would otherwise have been sold?

Only if they then also repeat Ashley's multitude of other mistakes. Don't want to make this another one of 'those threads'!

I really hope the new owners don't repeat Ashley's mistake by bringing back Keegan again. Maybe we will get a short-term boost, like last time, but inevitabley we'll be left up shit creek again in a year's time, with the fans baying 'sack the board' again.

Aye, but if journalists work for papers like the Mirror then they have to take some part of the responsibility for all the shit it prints. No man is an island.