oldtype

Does this guy even post other than to make idiotic threads?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Marine_Brigade_(Republic_of_Korea) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tra_Binh_Dong We did okay.

Oh this should be fun

Luis Suarez

We've done every stupid thing in the books since Ashley bought the club, but we haven't really been in the business of signing overpriced, over-the-hill players excluding that first summer.

Mmm, Wearside v. Sewelly. Where's that bucket of popcorn.

Those quotes do look quite grim when put all together in one post. I slowly feel that after several months on the "cautiously optimistic" side of things that my emotional pendulum might have begun to shift in the other direction. I really am a fickle, emotional football fan, just like everyone else.

I don't think he means "just two more players until the end of the window." I think he's just referring to the two deals we're working on right now.

It's just like FM. You player search for "expiring" contracts up until June 30th, snap up some unattached players on July 1st, then you start actually buying players for money after that

This is Wenger we're talking about. That's exactly what he'd do.

That's the look of someone who's just realized that he's gone from living in one of the world's most dynamic and vibrant metropolitan centers to.... Sunderland.

IMO I think there's a pretty good argument for just getting rid of the transfer windows. Perhaps just implement a single "transfer deadline" midway into the season.

Simultaneously our second-choice center-forward(we play one up front) and one of our brightest youth prospects, so pretty highly. He usually plays better for the national team than at club level though. Won rookie of the year in his debut season but had a pretty dire half-season this year before he was sold.

Good to see that the brainwashing has worked You seen this by the way? At Sunderland. They love their average midfielders. Hand on heart I was speaking to the Birmingham fan (I say 'the' because I only know of one in real life) today and quizzed him over the Gardner deal and he said that he was baffled as to what Bruce is playing at. Gardner is basically a slightly more downmarket version of Gibson - both of them wallop the ball towards the goal if they get the slightest chance and break down loads of attacking moves doing so. He said he feared for Gyan next season because he'll never see the ball if they're going to play a midfield of both Gibson and Gardener Then again he did say he thought Gardner would be a good addition to our team because he does Nolan's job ("Scores goals and...well, he scores goals" were his words). I think Bruce is a bit simple tbh. Annoyed that his midfielders have done nothing all season he's gone and bought the two midfielders in the league he can afford that can shoot/score goals. Simplistic solution that doesn't take into consider that they are both utterly average players. For my money Meyler is their best midfielder and he's more or less ruined him by rushing him back from a very serious injury twice in 12 months. I kna someone (Look at me, I'm the new cwarr07!) who works at the club and has said it's fairly common knowledge Bruce fell out with and then sacked Sunderland's head physio because he stood up to the lesbian looking w***** and told him he was rushing players back from injury. He whinges about their crocks but they're almost all his own doing. God forbid the Mackems get a manager who is semi-capable. Imagine if Short was backing someone like Martin O'Neill? Agree with the sentiment, but O'Neill for his virtues pisses away more money than sense He spends money like it's going out of fashion, but he cultivates a decent team with it. With the hundreds of millions wasted on Keane and Bruce, O'Neill could've put together a side with European ambitions, with the odd reserve player on £70,000 a week. Aye fair point like. If the current deals go through as rumoured (Garnder, 3 Man U players, Korean guy) Bruce will have spaffed the Henderson money away. All it would take for him then would be to spend whatever he had left on N'Gog and Roger Johnson. Speaking of which the same bloke who told me about Bruce sacking the physio says the Korean lad has been bought for no other reason than to give Sunderland a platform to break into the Asian market. It wasn't actually a footballing decision, so much so that Bruce didn't speak to the player or his agent - it was all done via Ellis Short and one of his lawyers who was sent out to Korea last week to tie up the deal when other clubs began to show an interest. Oldtype will not be impressed. Those sort of theories inevitably come up every time an Asian player is signed, but they're inevitably bullshit. Contrary to the stereotypes, signing an Asian player does not mean that 10 million glory hunter mugs from his country will suddenly be buying your shirt. There are exactly as many Wolves, Spurs, Reading, Fulham, Boro, West Brom, Wigan, and Bolton fans in this country now as there were before they signed their Korean players:zero. (well, not counting British ex-pats and the like I suppose) It worked for Man United and Park because Man United is Man United and Ji-sung Park might as well be the son of God in this country. Sunderland isn't Man United and most non-football fans in Korea barely even know that Ji Dong-Won exists.

Good to see that the brainwashing has worked

I don't disagree that 8m for Wickham is a pretty decent value. Even if he only turns out to be as good as... say, Bobby Zamora, they'll still probably get somebody to pay 8m for him at some point down the line. That said, regardless of the potential return on investment, it's only a good use of money if you've got enough left over to spend on areas that need to be improved immediately. I'd be decently happy if NUFC got Wickham for 8m, but I wouldn't be happy if that was where the majority of our transfer budget went. Sunderland need a goalscorer. So far they've bought two very young strikers who have everything to prove for a combined total of 11.5m. Like i said earlier, it could work out but unless they have a bottomless pit of money this summer, it could also be a big mistake.

It's very similar to when Ashley first arrived, actually. We brought in quite a few players in the first window under Allardyce but in reality all he was doing was recycling the Parker, Dyer and Solano fees. We only spent net like £30,000 or something. I don't think that's true. Barton, Smith, and Enrique alone cost a total of something like 20m if I'm recalling correctly. Dyer and Parker alone cost 7m each whilst the three named above were 18 million in total. Cannot remember who else left but I know Faye, Beye, Viduka, Geremi only cost about 3 million between them. Just checked again, Under Allardye, We spent 18.9K but we got 18.2K back in. Net deficit of700K Just going off NUFC.com stats, Barton and Enrique were 6m each, Smith was undisclosed but we all knew he cost 6m, Rozhenal was 3m, Faye 2m. That's 23m, not counting whatever we spent on the bunch of youth failures we signed and the fat signing bonuses we no doubt handed out to Viduka and Geremi. Outgoings was 7m each for Parker and Dyer, some undisclosed fee that was most likely below 5m combined for Solano and Luque, and 500k for Huntington. I have no idea where you got your numbers.

The really terrible thing is that the commentator they usually put on our derbies over here is a Sunderland fan. The sound of him flooding the broadcasting studio with jizz would make me throw up.

They've basically used the money from selling one of the Premier League's most proven goalscorers towards two youth prospects. That's the sort of investment that could pay dividends, but it could also backfire massively. And no, I'm not just bitter because they've signed a Korean player before us.

It's very similar to when Ashley first arrived, actually. We brought in quite a few players in the first window under Allardyce but in reality all he was doing was recycling the Parker, Dyer and Solano fees. We only spent net like £30,000 or something. I don't think that's true. Barton, Smith, and Enrique alone cost a total of something like 20m if I'm recalling correctly.

Surprising if true (our local press have nothing on it so far). As good a player as he is that seems like far too much money for someone from a relegated side in the last year of his contract. Would be very disappointing if he stayed in France, even if it was for a Champions League side.

Ameobi + Martinez, the big donkey and the little donkey up front!

Sure, but not so much if we get near to 10 million for him. Sell them both, start Harper next year. Save wages, bring in fees, profit.

I'm sure somewhere in his head there is insight deeper than "anyone we sign is terrible and anyone I think is good won't sign for us."