Wallace

Just used City's interest to get a pay rise at Chelsea.

Saw Steve Harper, Tim Krul and Chris Hughton - all sat in different parts of the Directors Box.

Media all over this this morning. Suddenly they have woken up to our plight so I guess there will be a stream of articles now leading into the new season.

There was an electrical storm at half time in the Spain match so they have delayed the second half. Not sure if they are going to go back to that game or stick with the England game now.

Being cynical, I reckon Ashley will wait until the transfer window is closed before appointing a manager. That way, they can get on with selling players without any interference from a manager and not buy any new ones. Shearer will probably be back on MOTD as he will have to make a commitment to the BBC very soon and then Ashley can say that Shearer didn't wait for them so they couldn't appoint him. They will not want a manager who is going to ask awkward questions and I think they are going to need someone with a reputation of developing young players as that is all that will be left.

I too think they have no intention of appointing Shearer as manager. If they respected him as they said, they would have kept in touch at least on the football side of things for advice etc. They seem too cowardly though to actually be up front about anything to anyone - whether that is managers, players, supporters, journalists. And I cannot believe any manager with any self-respect would take the job considering the way Ashley has behaved towards his managers thus far - JFK excluded.

I don't recall another instance where the owner has basically walked away, refused to appoint a manager and to put any more money in. He is the owner - he cannot just abdicate all responsibility. He is responsible for a lot of the mess we are in and to basically wash his hands of it, is unbelievable. I think if players can be charged for bringing the game into disrepute, then those at board level should be as well. I don't expect any questions to be asked and Ashley wouldn't care anyway. At some point though, they are going to have to appoint a manager - but other than Shearer (and that could change soon), who would want it. If he is about to start the fire sale, I can't see any credible manager wanting the job.

Isn't there a limit on the number of weeks or games that you can have without a permanent manager? Hulse and Elliott must have almost worked their notice as well.

At least he is being honest and not coming out with the "I want to stay to help get the club promoted" line.

Anyone else heard that he's off to the Makems.

Bet Ashley just says they are crybabies like he did about his shareholders.

5live were talking about this tonight and seemed to think nothing would be happening anytime soon. If the players did start handing transfer requests, Ashley would be delighted as then he would not have to pay their loyalty bonuses and fans could not complain because they had asked to leave.

Heard he has had an offer from another club and because of the situation at the club has decided to go

‘All we keep hearing is “next few days, next few days, next few days”. They are as fed up as us.

Yes and they would still have to do due diligence.

With regards to representation on the board, there are loads of issues other than manager and player recruitment (which critics seems to focus on), where fans opinions would be positive. Where you have an owner and MD with little knowledge of the area and history of the football club, I think considering a fans viewpoint would be beneficial at times.

but then if he was still registered as ours he wouldn't be registered for man utd at the same time. They may have had to pay him up until the date the registration changed hands then. I am sure I read somewhere that clubs are required to pay players for a further month if they have not found a club. It is nothing to do with their contract but rather something to do with the FA or something like that. Not sure what happens if there is a big difference in sallary.

I hope his head is not turned by such rumours. I think and hope he will stick it out as long as possible before deciding to leave. He would only be a squad player at Chelsea or Spurs and he needs to play regularly at this stage if his career. Supposing it is true, we have already lost Edgar, Cacapa and Coloccinni will go as will Bassong. I have heard that Beye is likely to leave unless something happens within the next week or so at Newcastle. Although some of those mentioned are no loss, at this rate, we will only have the reserve defenders left - none of whom have played a first team game before. Some of them seem promising but you need some experience there. Ashley will not be interested in team building for next season so would he encourage a move if he can get a good price for some of our better players. Mind you, players and agents are saying there is no-one to speak to at SJP so perhaps nothing can happen until the club is bought.

Talksport were also discussing it with Steve Curry from the Mail (?) this morning. Thought Vialli would be a good foil for Shearer because Vialli is a really likeable guy and Shearer is just too dour!!!!!!!! I know I should not be surprised about how poor football journalism is but I cannot believe how lazy they all are. So much that is reported in both the print and broadcast media is based on internet rumour only. Much be the easiest job out there - reading the internet all day and then passing it off as your own scoop.

As much as we complain about the lack of communication from Ashley and Llambias, it is the same for the players. There have been countless reports in the last year where individual players or the players committee have requested meetings and they have been refused. I think that is pretty bad - the players are their employees and I think there should be some dialogue as a matter of respect.

Not really, they aren't going to go "Oh well you have sold off £40m of assets (wishful calculating) but we will still give you the same price as before". His best chance of getting a decent price is keeping these players, lets face it we won't get much for this squad! But the buyer would be paying the transfer fee over the duration of the contract (don't think anyone else pays up front like Ashley does) so he would not bring in that much money and chances are he is still going to have to subsidise their salaries. Look at City and the Given deal, they were reported to be paying the first instalment after 6 months.

Glad we are no longer part of the Owen circus.

How do you think our spending would have differed that summer under Shepherd to what it did under Ashley? I am not necessarily talking just about spending here. Allardyce was Shepherd's appointment and he would have stuck with him for a while longer than Ashley did. Ashley said soon after he took over that Allardyce was not his appointment so he was always on borrowed time after that and the relationship between Allardyce and Ashley was obviously uneasy. He complained about the club being slow to act in transfer dealings and that lost him a few of his first choice signings. Sam had a long-term plan to rebuild the club which Freddie had obviously bought into. How Shepherd planned to finance this, I have no idea.

As much as I despise Allardyce, as Freddie's appointment, he would have been backed. Would still have been awful to watch though.

I heard this earlier this evening and the person (contacts with Shepherd) was adamant about it but I just dismissed it as rumour as I didn'tknow the guy who told me. Was also told that it would be announced on Wednesday.