oldtype

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

We whinge about not paying big money for players. They whinge about paying big money for everyone

Pardew's gone up in my estimation

So basically he's another #10 that Pardew can put on the bench?

A good, functioning team should be able to play both long-ball and slow buildup depending on the state of the game, which was what we did yesterday. Relying entirely on one or the other is generally a sign of desperation or stubbornness.

Definitely not. Blackburn maybe.

Don't think the club would sell for just 15m.

Surely that's sarcastic

Or maybe sneak out of the training camp for a night on the town and then get sent back in disgrace. I kind of feel bad for imagining these scenarios, if a Korean player ever did anything to try to get out of international duty I'd be absolutely livid

Wants to have 19 for his entire career. Obviously we're going to have to go find another free transfer that can score 20 goals a season to be our number nine

Shame that going away for the ACON will probably torpedo any chance he has of finishing top scorer.

Really hope he steps up now and comes back to goalscoring form now that Ba is out. We all know he's capable of putting them in when he has confidence, and it would be fantastic to see him succeed.

Did his job. Didn't look pretty in the process but we wouldn't have won without him.

Well, not really bothered after that He's starting by default beginning next match anyway.

Fucking legendary night.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2149h6o.png Problem? That so good, can we add it to the list please With whatever "Problem?" is in Spanish in red letters under it.