oldtype

Probably going to be in London on business from September 12th-16th, which means with some luck I might be able to make Villa away and maybe even QPR away Wish there was a home game on the week of the 17th so I could take a couple days off to go up to Newcastle, but still, life is good.

I don't care about the rest of the transfer window, we need to sign the "Hebrew Hammer" Or at least get some random Israeli bloke and name him that. We could have "the mighty Muslim" That would be Demba Ba I'm sure we can find a Powerful Protestant and a Catholic Cyclone while we're at it.

I don't care about the rest of the transfer window, we need to sign the "Hebrew Hammer" Or at least get some random Israeli bloke and name him that.

Bannon on the wing? I'm only looking at the line ups. Thought he was CM and strange with Albrighton on the bench. Got a fiver on you guys to win. Albrighton on for second half. Bannan frequently plays wide. Pitch looks horrible. Stadium now full of plastic Chelsea fans. "Mongolian Blues" FFS You're playing Blackburn in Mongolia? Do they even have stadia or have you just drew up chalk lines around some patch of grass in the Orkhon Valley?

Don't know who did the research on Park, but he was born in Suwon, not Seoul. That's like saying that Jordan Henderson was born in Newcastle. And his nickname is not 'sweet potato,' don't even know what that's supposed to mean. ...I'm probably forever alone in my rage here

Precisely the sort of situation Wor Chris thrives in then.

can't wait to see that Vukcic goal on video

VUKIC OMG WE DONT NEED TO SIGN PLAYERS ANYMORE

Colombus have got "massive bananas"

Almost spit out my morning coffee in the office

Tiote! The Coat Deevorian!

I grew up in America. I speak American English. It's still funny

I need to copy and paste this for usage when appropriate. Have to say Ronaldo, you've been talking a disproportionate amount of sense lately. You needlessly tried to be repetitive and condescending instead of bringing relevance to the discussion. It's a recurring theme in virtually of your posts and it's extremely annoying, not to mention a complete waste of space.

I need to copy and paste this for usage when appropriate. Have to say Ronaldo, you've been talking a disproportionate amount of sense lately.

IMO, if he really wanted to stay in Paris we wouldn't be able to get him to try and bypass his agent after the initial talks broke down. (Assuming that rumor is true)

:lol: What's funny? The bit in bold is correct. Carroll made what, four league appearances for Liverpool? He was unplayable against Citeh. Why not compare the way Carroll was playing in the first half of the season, for us, to how Ba played for West Ham?! Because it's completely irrelevant as support for my point that Ba is being underrated even though we can't compare the quality of the two players in the abstract?

I suppose that not content with merely being unable to read all the posts in a thread, Colocho has now stepped up to being unable to read all the words in a post.

:lol:

I think it's reasonable to accept that a large part of Pardew's salary is performance based, it's Ashley's MO and that's what the rumours were at the time (and also the rumours as to why Hughton was reluctant to sign the contract he was offered in the Summer) - relatively low basic pay with big bonuses for achieving performance targets. Now of course for a manager of a football club, the performance he can most directly affect is the team's progress in the league and cups. Given an agreed budget, and control of the incomings & outgoings, that's fine and acceptable, however if the management above you is going to, for example, constantly try to cut costs, and get rid of your biggest resources in achieving your targets for the year (and the bonuses associated with that), you're going to get rightly p*ssed off that the targets you thought were achievable are being sabotaged. So if that were the only way of achieving the bonuses you were relying on to make your wage competitive, you'd quit. The management at Ashley's companies are incentivised by the company's profit margins. If they can perform their jobs at an adequate level with lower costs (ie in our case the target is to stay in the Premier League), then they are contributing to the profit margins. They may get a slap on the wrist for too many complaints, but they probably don't get bonuses for customer satisfaction. It's not really a stretch to think that it would be part of Pardew's contract to get a bonus if the club makes a profit rather than finish higher in the table. That doesn't make any sense. If he doesn't have any influence on transfers there's nothing he can do directly to influence the club's profit margin at the end of the season... ...other than finishing higher in the league In any case, would make absolutely no sense for him to have a bonus based on profit margin.

I'd like him to prove that he can do anything of consequence in a competitive football match first. Desperately want him to succeed but so far we've seen nothing.

you dont like it? it's f***ing lunacy. 2 were available on a free and one had a release clause under 5 million and has never played in england, i'd have been f***ing livid if we'd spent 30m on those 3 It really wasn't necessary to pick out and respond to the most utterly inconsequential part of my post.

I don't like the claim that "people would be happy if we paid 30m for Ba, Cabaye, and Marveaux" but I do believe that the lack of transfer fee contributes significantly to people badly underrating Ba. Fact of the matter is he was one of the most in-form players in the league for the last third of the season and scored in excess of 1 in 2 for an abysmal West Ham side. I realize that stats are only useful when they suit your opinion(), but his form for the last three months of the season pisses all over Carroll's, in both goals scored and general play. I don't consider myself qualified to judge conclusively whether he's better or worse than Carroll, but just because we got him for free doesn't mean he's suddenly unexciting.

We're all disappointed we didn't sign him, but in a way I feel that a lot of people are overrating him. That's understandable given that he put two past us and then went on a ridiculous run of form towards the tail-end of the season when everyone was watching. Regardless, he was hardly setting the league alight all season and was really just the best player on a poor Wigan team. I've no doubt he'd improve us, but not signing him is not the end of the world.

Same, but I don't think it rings true. Similar with the Bridge/Shorey links, it just seems like lazy linking to me. Can't see Ashley sanctioning the signing of any of those players. Expensive, high-wages, old, English international. Might as well be rat poison for Ashley man!