oldtype

The Google Ngram Viewer allows you to search their database to obtain and graph data on how often a particular phrase is mentioned in all publications. This gives you information as to how much cultural relevance has been afforded to certain things over a given period of time. So naturally the first thing I tried was... http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/1158/ngram.jpg

Obviously it's not strictly "us" i.e. the club (...or is it?) Just couldn't be arsed to type out "the press unsettling someone else's player by fabricating a possible move to us"

With the press doing their best to unsettle our best players every window, it's a refreshing to have us unsettling somebody else's player for a change.

The fact that he had to write "steve wraith" on the text is pretty concrete evidence that they're not on usual speaking terms

Heart says yes, "prodigal son" and all that shit. Head says no.

Seriously?

I am becoming much, much too interested for my own good in this guy succeeding.

He's shit, obviously.

Just realized that the sponsor logo has changed on the tiny icon shirts on the forum menu Who's OCD can I credit for this?

Blackburn are probably the most cash strapped club in the Prem right now. It's Yakubu

Maybe he'll finally get to play his song

Nailed on 1-0 QPR win with Heidar Helgusson scoring in the 94th minute.

I don't think my expectations for a transfer window have ever been lower. I've finally learned to never, ever be excited about anything in January. I don't even do that thing where I pick my phone off my dresser and browse this forum as soon as my eyes open. That's how disinterested I am.

unlikely people will sign a player with a 'dodgy knee' prior to the ACoN imo...those pitches are a fucking disgrace to humanity, it wouldn't make sense even at a knockdown price imo I assume this isn't Ba's first ACN? Would the clubs all agree to hold fire on a bid until the ACN is over then battle for his signature? £5m for a £25m forward is a worthwhile gamble. Liverpool were willing to gamble £35m on a striker with half a seasons experience and a few injuries himself to put this into context, in fact if you looked at how many games Carroll has missed through injuries the last 2 years compared to Ba I would be surprised if Carroll's wasn't actually worse. well, in response to this and oldtype then the question outstanding is why haven't spurs or anyone else bid? it's a crazy low price, i agree, so what's stopping them? It not being true to this and oldtype (again): this makes even less sense man, unless i'm wrong these are direct quotes from redknapp, if there's no clause what's his end game? unsettle the player...doesn't matter does it we'd still not sell him cheaply so it gets him very little then again what does him going public with a clause get him anyway? he's just alerting other clubs that can pay more than spurs about his availability perhaps he's in ba's agent(s) pocket? You said it best yourself. If the clause exists, it doesn't make sense for him to be saying these things. If the clause doesn't exist, it doesn't make sense for him to be saying these things. Both possibilities are equally unlikely if you try to analyze it from Redknapp's point of view. Perhaps he's been misinformed? Perhaps it's not a straight-up minimum fee release clause? (A relegation release clause of 7m seems like it would make a lot of sense, given that the player in question has shown a preference for relegation release clauses in the past)

unlikely people will sign a player with a 'dodgy knee' prior to the ACoN imo...those pitches are a fucking disgrace to humanity, it wouldn't make sense even at a knockdown price imo I assume this isn't Ba's first ACN? Would the clubs all agree to hold fire on a bid until the ACN is over then battle for his signature? £5m for a £25m forward is a worthwhile gamble. Liverpool were willing to gamble £35m on a striker with half a seasons experience and a few injuries himself to put this into context, in fact if you looked at how many games Carroll has missed through injuries the last 2 years compared to Ba I would be surprised if Carroll's wasn't actually worse. well, in response to this and oldtype then the question outstanding is why haven't spurs or anyone else bid? it's a crazy low price, i agree, so what's stopping them? [wildly optimistic]Because the clause doesn't exist?[/wildly optimistic]

unlikely people will sign a player with a 'dodgy knee' prior to the ACoN imo...those pitches are a fucking disgrace to humanity, it wouldn't make sense even at a knockdown price imo I think there would be plenty of clubs who would consider the chance to sign one of the best strikers in the world for a fraction of his value well worth the risk.

Why? Because we've been bit in the balls in the past regarding signing players on long term contracts, and then getting long-term injuries (*cough*Owen*cough*). I'd imagine Ba's the only player at NUFC atm with a release clause purely because of the apparent 'dodgy' knee. Still doesn't make any sense, the only reason this clause would be activated would be because he is playing well. If he was injured or shit we would accept anything to get him off the books, NOT give him a release clause no club would pay when we were desperate to get rid. It does make sense though Jon, if we've given him a low basic wage and made his contract highly performance-based then it's potentially something negotiated by Ba's people to compensate for that. Nobody's saying it's something the club's insisted on, more something we may have agreed to. In that context I suppose it does, that's not the way I read TU's post though. I still find it hard to believe, criticise the board for whatever you want but fucking themselves out of money isn't something they do very often and Ba's 'exploding knees' had us in the driving seat when negotiating a contract. Maybe the clause is true, just a number of factors make it very difficult to believe (as said we were holding all the cards, why hasn't a club spoken to him yet especially as the ACN must cause some difficulty trying to sign a player once it's under way etc..). A player who has scored 15 goals already this season at £5m isn't any sort of gamble at all, especially given the amount of games he has managed the past few years despite dodgy knees (think his career average was about 30 games a season, which means with a 1 in less than 2 goalscoring record you are looking at 15 games a season) as said, doesn't make any sense. Agree. How does the clause make sense at all for this board? If he plays well they miss out on an extra 10~20 mil they could have made. If he plays badly nobody would pay them the money anyway. Given the way they work, if Ba's agent had demanded a clause I'm pretty sure they would have told him to fuck off. We were actively pursuing other strikers at the time too.

The title of that article

If the clause exists he'd be gone already. At least, that's what I choose to believe.

Demba Ba signed his first professional contract when he was only two years younger than Prior is now. Replacement

And yes, ladies and gentlemen, he'll be starting this weekend. You all know it's going to happen.

This, slightly worried by the need to keep watching it. Just love the guy Porn is now officially obsolete.

Its partly Pardew's fault for insisting on starting him every game over Ben Arfa. He wouldn't be getting anywhere near as much stick as he is if he was second choice, as he rightly should be.

We kept this guy on the bench for four months