oldtype

Selling players like Andy Carroll doesn't help. Indeed not, but not many clubs can turn down that sort of money. Besides that, let's not kid ourselves. If Carroll's development didn't stall and he became a top striker, he was never going to be ours for very long anyway and we probably wouldn't have gotten 35m for him if we sold him later.

Still getting a feeling that we might go in for Park Chu-Young at some point in the next week. He's getting desperate, we're getting desperate: interests have to coincide at some point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Bo-Kyung If we're selling Barton, this guy is another Korean we may want to look into. Decent little player on either wing. Turned down Brighton and is apparently being tracked by Stoke.

Barton has got brilliant technical ability but he lets himself down with his mental state on the pitch. When he's not focused or trying too hard his delivery becomes erratic and he tries way too many risky "hollywood" passes, which basically screws the entire team as delivering accurate passes is what he's there for. There's few better midfielders in the Premiership when he's on his game but that doesn't happen with any degree of consistency. I'm not too bothered about losing him, particularly since he seems to be a divisive figure in the dressing room, but I'm more generally concerned with selling any players at all given our chronic inability to actually negotiate transfers.

IMO I don't really mind. For me Newcastle has always been like this and I'll enjoy every matchday as it comes without particularly worrying about where we finish at the end of the season. As long as we don't get relegated it's fine and if we do better than expected that's a nice bonus. Couldn't care less who actually wins the title, or about the entire Champions League for that matter. Might as well be a completely different sport.

He knew most of it was there, he didn't know he would have to pay it off within two months. I still can't believe that Ashley didn't ask to see the terms of the various loans we had. It would have taken about 2 mins to check whether there was a change of control clause - which there would normally be anyway. Maybe he knew the clause was likely to be there, but he didn't think the bank would activate it. He may have thought the bank would regard the club as being in the hands of an owner with deep pockets and would be happy to continue the credit line. There is also the fact that the club was in the process of making a loss of £30 million for the year. Ashley would not have known that but the bank would have had an inkling, assuming there wasn't some seriously creative accounting info being fed to them. Just to add to that, in the recent Sir John Hall interview, he stated that one of the reasons they went with Ashley was that the Malaysians requested a considerable time to look over the books, while Ashley offered to forego quite such an in depth check to secure the agreement. Would have been pointless anyway. If the Malaysians got a chance to examine the books, they would've been on the first plane back to Kuala Lumpur.

This summer, I think Carleton Cole has been name-dropped on this forum more than some players that we've actually signed.

Top post It's true: from an ownership standpoint, the benefits of placing a few places higher in the Premiership are disproportionately miniscule compared to the money you'd need to spend to do so. Near 1m per league position isnt it. So finish 3 places higher with Barton than without & he pays off his contract + more. Keep in mind that 3 more points last season & we'd have been on the same points total as the team 4 places higher up. Thats ignoring the potential for a better squad to do better in cups and earn more again by getting further. Also the benefit of just generally having our club do better all round in terms of how that affects the way other players & our own would feel about our potential to achieve. It's a crapshot. No single player is going to guarantee a higher league finish and with most "good" players costing close to 10m or more, it's just not worth it. The idea of gradual progress is also completely and utterly pointless. There's a big fucking concrete wall staring us in the face and nobody is getting past it without plunking 50m+ in a single summer, regardless of how many best practices they've employed over the years.

Yip. The big mular for football clubs comes from TV revenue, ticket sales, sponsorship etc. The 500k or so each place is worth in terms of prize money is miniscule in the grander scheme of things. It's something that I honestly think is going to happen with every club in the league pretty much. Man United, Liverpool, City and Chelsea have the funding to splash big, Arsenal and Spurs are ran well enough as businesses to cling onto their tails. Everybody else is set to be stuck behind a glass ceiling that is pointless to try and break through, because it would take an absolute fortune just to get close. Look at Villa for example, they're seemingly cutting their cloth accordingly now. 2 biggest players out for close to £40 million, one replacement in - now McLeish has been told to work with what he's got. The depressing reality is the league is going to be completely split in two from now on and the big money men are heading abroad to purchase clubs where success is easier to buy. Honestly, if you look at transfer activity outside of the top six (or top five even, don't think Spurs' moment in the sun is going to last much longer,) it's like everyone has just given up. Trying to fluke a CL place was a valid strategy when the "elite" was only four teams. Good luck with that now. Wish Arabs would just buy everyone or something. Just to make it fair.Don't give a shit about doing things "the right way" anymore

Coyle didn't sign him though, wasn't that Megson Ah. Never mind, he's gash then.

Any manager who signs Koreans and doesn't ruin their careers is ace in my books.

We've now officially gotten to the point where every morning, when I open my eyes and check the forum on my phone, I bang my fist on the wall if we still haven't signed anyone. Ah, transfer windows...

Top post It's true: from an ownership standpoint, the benefits of placing a few places higher in the Premiership are disproportionately miniscule compared to the money you'd need to spend to do so.

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/41572_2204391556_1588_n.jpg

I would find a pay raise, long-term contract, and the chance to get far, far away from Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias very attractive. Exactly. Please don't agree with me. I'm already depressed enough as it is.

I would find a pay raise, long-term contract, and the chance to get far, far away from Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias very attractive.

Bet we could dig a couple of these statements out from a couple of seasons ago when we did have strikers in the team. We proved no chance had every chance. If Pardew walks on Sep. 2nd, we don't appoint a manger for a month, then appoint Joe Kinnear, then he dies in February, and we have Jon Carver as manager for two months, and then appoint Rob Lee, I agree, we're relegated.

I understand the point. And ith all things equal this would be the case however When the sums of money involved are completely contrasting (NUFC low - WH/QPR high) there really isnt a decision to make. Personal and financial security to live the life they want to lead comes first Barton and Nolan could retire tomorrow and both be financially secure forever. They have a financial/life plan that requires them to earn as much as possible before they retire 33/34 They will have massive outgoings Dont be so naive It is on a different level to what you or me can understand Barton earns more in 60 weeks at NUFC (no including any boot deals ect.) than I will in 60 years. It can't be that bad... That would be the equivalent of a beet farmer in rural China coming up to you and saying "Oy man, you could be king of my village with the money you've got!"

Barton and Nolan were both offered new contracts though. Either the owners realised Nolan and Barton were valuable first-team players and offered them extensions deemed financially suitable for the club given their ages or they were derisory, token offers designed to show the fans that they tried, but Nolan and Barton asked for too much. Until the details of the contracts that were offered to Kevin and Joey in January are known for definite then it's anyone's guess where the blame lies. Although, given that talks with Simpson have supposedly broken down, I'm slightly inclined to go with the latter.. I just choose the safe option and always blame everyone.

It's got nothing to do with ambition and everything to do with crazy insane owners who can't deal with personalities stronger than them existing within the club.

Ace, he's our replacement for both Barton and Enrique.

Incredible when you think about it. It's like a fucking Stalinist purge here.

Haha, probably they both won't be playing in the same league as us come next August. Oh come on, we're not going to get relegated In July, when all this started, I said we'd be in a relegation battle, probably relegated without Joey. I stand by that. Nah, I'm looking forward to a decade of stressless lower-mid-table mediocrity.

Haha, probably they both won't be playing in the same league as us come next August. Oh come on, we're not going to get relegated

Oh well, we'll survive. Just like we survive after every shitshow that's happened over the past few years.

I refuse to lower myself to the state where I'm analyzing cryptic Twitter quotes from Joey Barton.