brummie

They can't skint him. If every single Newcastle United supporter in the world boycotted every single Mike Ashley related company, it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference to him.

Any businessman strong willed and bullish enough to become a billionaire off his own bat is not going to give up because a load of teenagers call him a cunt, someone starts a nasty Facebook group, or a bored student edits his wikipedia page.

When chairmen install people in roles like Director of Football, or VP of Player Recruitment or whatever, does it EVER end in any way other than tears?

This is pretty much the end of football as far as I am concerned. It really is absurd.

Fans of Newcastle, you've finally cast off your "mongs interviewed outside the ground" shackles with that display of inbreeding outside the COMS.

I think this is still going to end in a very bad place for Manchester City.

Man City are hilarious.

But how many other PL clubs would be prepared to pay Michael Owen over 100k a week? Serious question, how many? My money's on very, very few indeed. I think he's a good player. I do think he's a massive injury risk, but that salary (I'm assuming it is in that region, I cant be arsed to traipse through the whole thread for it) is absurd. 3 years at 100k a week is what, 15m ish, plus signing on fees etc etc etc. That's a huge commitment.

Mardy cunt at Blues.

No. Well, I've never heard of him, and everyone knows I'm the oracle of all things claret and blue.

He was mediocre

On the train home. We should have won that. Cagey match though. Liverpool fans very quiet I thought. Decent atmosphere for a change though. Two points dropped. Absolutely cunting it down with rain down here.

I really rate Valencia. I'd even have preferred to have him than James Milner.

I always liked that banner "We're not fickle, we just don't like you" Gone down in folklore amongst our lot. God, what a cunt that man was.

I was wondering that, it is strictly a no go to be drinking alcohol within sight of the pitch.

if O'Dreary told me it was 2008 Id get my solicitor to investigate his claims, the vile, duplicitous reptilian shyster. Shit house of a man.

I cant believe nobody has mentioned the loss of Carlos Queiroz in this thread. Whilst I don't think Man United are about to disintegrate, I think they will suffer considerably from losing Quieroz.

I asked this before, but isnt the 12m dependent on a number of add ons? In which case, I'm assuming that to have achieved those add ons, he'll have to have done well for us?

The writing on that .com site is of an excellent standard.

When Ronaldo wanted to leave Man United, most of their fans were like "fuck it, we'll just replace him". How come we're so desperate to hold on to a pretty average player who actually isn't a first teamer? Because Man United can go after any player in the world as a replacement, and a. afford him and b. have a good chance of getting him?

We desperately, desperately need a right midfielder, and we've got 72 hours to find one. That's why we're letting you financially bumrape us for him.

The last 72 hours of a transfer window are always when things happen. There are some big deals waiting to go through still, and there will be some which will happen which nobody saw coming. I'm actually going to book Tuesday off work so I can watch the coverage throughout Monday night with a few beers Final word of consolation - you, Villa (paper thin squad), Everton (more than anyone), Spurs (strikers), West Ham (anyone), Blackburn (sold their two best players and not replaced them properly), Portsmouth (spent all their money), City (spending money they dont have) - all in a very similar position going into the last few days of the window. All will become much clearer by Tuesday morning. brummie, great balanced and reasoned post...you can always be relied upon to play devils advocate on NO as a means to balance your thoughtfulness i'd just like to echo afar and say i don't give two fucks about the bit in bold really, nor should anyone else NUFC-related, it's worst argument i hear on this board; "well we desperately need an ACM (for example) but look at everton, they've found it difficult to get one too so it makes us not having one OK" i struggle to find a comparable argument people would deem acceptable in any other walk of life, i don't know; "i need to meet my mortgage repayments but they're a little higher than i'd like due to interest rates and seeing as other people aren't paying theirs for some reason i'll default on mine too 'cause it must be OK"? doesn't work does it? look that's a stupid, facetious argument but it makes my point quite well we have to look after ourselves, as you point out yourself other clubs are having trouble and have thin squads or other problems - i see that as an opportunity to exploit, not an excuse for mediocrity I take your point, but I'm not saying the fact that other clubs are struggling makes it acceptable not to be able to do anything. I'm just saying that the fact that they are perhaps provides a reason as to why they and Newcastle are struggling to get players in at the moment.

The last 72 hours of a transfer window are always when things happen. There are some big deals waiting to go through still, and there will be some which will happen which nobody saw coming. I'm actually going to book Tuesday off work so I can watch the coverage throughout Monday night with a few beers Final word of consolation - you, Villa (paper thin squad), Everton (more than anyone), Spurs (strikers), West Ham (anyone), Blackburn (sold their two best players and not replaced them properly), Portsmouth (spent all their money), City (spending money they dont have) - all in a very similar position going into the last few days of the window. All will become much clearer by Tuesday morning.

Incidentally, re my point about it being hard to sign players, surely the fact Villa are even rumoured to be considering paying 12m for James Milner is the proof of that particular pudding.

I guarantee you that if you stopped 10 Villa fans in the street and asked them what they thought about our transfer activity, 8 of them would say that MON needs to stop fucking about and start spending. Last year we hardly pushed the boat out. Our net spend was pretty small, certainly lower than most. This year we've spent a little more but the fact is we are still at the very least 4 players short of what we need to get by. The fact is it is very, very hard to sign players these days. If you're not in the CL, you're competing against a lot of other clubs. Having the money is no guarantee that you're going to get what you want. Much as people talk about crowds or tradition or potential or anything, for the majority of players there's not a whole lot between clubs like Villa, Newcastle, Everton, Spurs, even Portsmouth, Blackburn and West Ham. They're all competing for the same players. If you think Ashley isn't prepared to spend money, then why did you offer what you did for Modric? Why would he have spent so much on the club and sorting out the debts only to watch it stagnate? Having a lot of money behind you these days is not enough. You can't go out and buy success of the shelf. Everyone has money these days, things are an awful lot harder.