oldtype

Who is, at least in the UK, a better candidate? Nice last minute qualification there, you're on a roll!

Agree with this 100% Can't see how anybody can consider Jose's outburst good for the club in any way? It's not good for the club (unless it in some small way contributes to MA eventually leaving). Doesn't make it the wrong thing to have done though. Of course it does, surely as fans we want what's best for the club before wanting bad things for the owners. These comments help no-one, if he is unhappy he can express his frustration by handing in a transfer request, that says what needs to be said. Obviously it would rule out a loyalty bonus but if he isn't worried about money... I wish Joey Barton was a bit less free in the press, and I admired Chris Hughton's ability to keep schtum (but with honour)... but it's not always a great thing to be uncommunicative. As some of the criticism of Jose (and indeed Ashley) in the past shows. Is the silent approach of Michael Owen the role model you wish all NUFC staff to emulate? That was a glorious straw man.

I'm disappointed and badly annoyed that we're not getting him, but again we shouldn't be determining the success or failure of our entire transfer window based on whether or not we sign Charles N'Zogbia.

On the bright side, it's still somewhat hilarious that they appointed Alex Mcleish

It's still ridiculously rare and all of those players have since proved that those seasons were absolute flukes. You can't realistically say "we need to sign a twenty goal striker!" Aye, I agree with the principal of what you're saying. Only Pardew though has claimed Ba will net 15-20 goals for us, although he has a 1 in 2 record for an absolutely shoddy as f*** West Ham side, so those assumptions in theory aren't too badly wrong. May I respond with the classic "Pardew claims a lot of things."?

It's still ridiculously rare and all of those players have since proved that those seasons were absolute flukes. You can't realistically say "we need to sign a twenty goal striker!"

I've decided to approach this in the same neutral manner I approach every transfer. If we don't sign him, he'll be awesome If we sign him, he'll be shit ...God, I hate long drawn-out transfers

I try my best not to be unreasonably negative, but I have to say, it's sort of annoying. Aston Villa = reinvesting incoming transfer fees Newcastle = not reinvesting incoming transfer fees (so far)

The French league is notoriously difficult to score in. His track record isn't bad. Besides, it's ridiculous to suggest that fifteen goals is the "minimum" for a good striker. Very few teams have fifteen-goal strikers on their books. Twenty? I'm pretty sure the only players to score twenty goals in the league from outside of the top four in the past decade are Darren Bent and Alan Shearer.

I can understand why we don't want to be in for him with the fee involved and the excess baggage he still has with this club. Think it might be a mistake though.

Something fishy about the fact that he always needs to go back to France for his injuries. You'd think a simple ankle twist could be dealt with by the club physios.

Most football clubs themselves will never be profitable, and we certainly won't be unless we somehow fluke our way to the Champions League several times in a row somehow despite him investing near-nothing. The only reason to own one is to leverage the brand value(Man Utd) or if you like the attention. We have no brand value to speak of and as far as I can tell Ashley doesn't like the attention at all. If Ashley is indeed squirreling away the "Carroll money" somewhere, it will be for the purpose of paying off the clubs debt to him and making it more marketable. The only reason the club hasn't been sold yet is because no-one is daft enough to pay him what he payed + the debt + extra. No doubt in my mind that he wants out and would in fact never buy Newcastle United if he could go back in time.

Only if he wants to sell it Can't see why he would want to hold on to it if he can get his money back.

Worst case scenario, Ashley paying off his debt by making a profit makes it easier for him to sell the club. Silver lining to every cloud. Right?

Wasn't he supposed to be dating some American movie star? Could that be an incentive for him to want to move? ... Please?

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/936109/netherton:-the-power-of-phil-brown?cc=4716 I'm staring at the screen. Blinking. Trying to figure out whether this guy is serious or if this all some elaborate piece of satire.

Person, not people. On both cases. I'm sure I could find someone on a Bolton forum saying Kevin Davies is better than Rooney Message boards as a whole should not be held responsible for their most stupid members. Just imagine

I think we can answer the question now: there is most certainly something to like about Man City.

Great 12 months for Uruguayan Football. ...

You know, I can kind of understand where Wearside is coming from when he said we'd gone backwards by selling Nolan and replacing him with Cabaye. Based on the two matches they saw him, Kevin Nolan probably scares the fuck out of them.

I don't think there's any doubt that this is a case of a player trying to force a transfer/cover his ass with the fans in anticipation of a move. It's deeply unprofessional and I'm certainly disappointed with Enrique in that aspect. That said, questions need to be asked about what is going on within the club that makes him feel that he needs to burn his bridges so decisively. Lots of players leave their clubs in acrimonious circumstances, but very few feel the need to kick the door in so loudly on their way out. The comments on the club's transfer policy aren't worth a whole lot, but you have to wonder what's been done to him that makes him feel that he needs to explicitly call the club leadership "liars." It's one thing when a confirmed nutcase like Barton does it, but this guy was a model professional up till just a few months ago. As fans we're never privy to exactly what goes on behind closed doors at the club. All we can do is look at indicators and try to derive some kind of conclusion for them. At the very least the indicators seem to say that there's something seriously wrong with how the club manages its relationship with its employees.

Great response... Thanks for proving what I already thought. Everything you've said has been completely spineles. Yumago, samanes-seki. Really? You've really googled Korean swear words? Regardless of everything else that's kicking off in this thread I must say that this just makes you look like a dick. Those aren't actual Korean words. Nor are they Japanese or Chinese words. Surprise surprise.

Nowt wrong with the thread itself

Dear god, he's found yet another moral high horse to jump on

Shameless post. Seriously man, some embarassing insinuation here. The only embarrassing thing here is every single word that comes out of your keyboard. Just FYI, "insinuation" implies subtlety, and I sure as hell wasn't trying to be subtle. I believe the word you're looking for is "accusations," genius.