mrmojorisin75

This. Edgar should go on a 3-month loan to the Championship next season. one of the promoted clubs would make more sense, see what he's made of...they'd bite our hands off at a utility defender like him surely?

neither were any worse than luque! or marcelino! or maric!

the Brazilian league is very physical, perhaps moreso than the EPL believe it or not. I`ve watched a lot of Brazilian games and some of the fouls and tackles that are committed in that league make the EPL like a ballerina league fair point, suppose i was just thinking they don't tend to produce your common garden hard as nails defender at a high level do they? most of the ones that make it are good on the ball and can defend, they rarely tend to produce a samuel, cordoba or any number or argies...for a flying fullback i'd consider looking to brazil like (suppose disproves the hard thing a bit!) this is an inexpert opinion of course, just a view...the brazilian league tends to be slow when i've seen it, making the pace hard to get used to rather than the physicality?

can see the point of the post - if i had anything to do with this new scouting policy we've got going i'd have someone right off to argentina/uruguay/chile/mexico/colombia primarily watching defenders or defensive midfielders generally speaking they have the physical attributes to succeed in england and are as hard as coffin nails...mascherano and example of having one not the other can see more the wisdom of being wary with midfielders/attackers as you'd be hard pushed to tell whether they'd cope with the physical aspect, you wouldn't have that concern with most defenders as it's part of their game (brazil excepted perhaps)

Great news for the Newcastle police (unless they wanted overtime), council street cleaners, train passengers and anyone wanting to go to Newcastle on the day of the match. cracking me up this, rangers now being seen as the scum of the earth (literally) what's up with a little riot from time to time? everyone needs to let off steam..! this plus the sectarian chanting carry on with uefa eh? gonna take some good PR for the club to come back from that combination must be mint being spanish, italian & dutch where you can routinely go about stabbing fellow fans to death, dropping scooters on policeman, attacking your own players when they don't win, being overtly racist to opposition etc... without anyone batting an eyelid!!!

not sure what's worse, him writing that or people on here thinking it'd be a good idea if we sold the guy!!!

on a wider point than vokes, bobs right - the modric move suggested to me we had targets and would move for them quickly in order to not lose out i'm not being at all alarmist but what the fuck is stopping us like? people have mentioned the papers, well i've always wondered what all this bullshit like "club X is preparing a bid for player X" and that, how hard is it to prepare a bid? "hello, galatasary? yeah we'd like turan, 18m you say? hm, how about 10m?" repeat til fee agreed then meet player and start again our powder can never have been drier...and someone mentioned earlier keegan said "everyone" is on holiday for a few weeks - if dennis bastard wise can take time to go and see chelski in moscow the stunted little fucker can take time with his other cohorts to sign some players if the club don't know who they're going after or what we're willing to pay for targets now somethings wrong, if they don't know who we're going after something is very wrong indeed there's such a thing as playing the transfer market but i'd ask anyone to point me to an example of when playing it cool and waiting SAVED the club money, and that's the only reason i could accept for us not to be moving fast

mind boggling

Sidwell. Modric. Woodgate. You have 2 managers who have expressed dissatisfaction with the support given to them by officials at the club. Allardyce complained of them not moving quick enough etc etc Keegan made the comments he made 2 weeks ago Still, you know best NE5 didn't sidwell sign for chelski very early last summer, before the club had even changed hands? anyways a wider point here i think you seem to sidestep is, in my opinion, mort was never brought in to be the type of chairman you expect him to be - and that's not a dig, what i mean is the historic english chairman who does all the transfer deals you know? personally i reckon ashley has identified that in the past people brokering the deals in football were lacking expertise in both football and legal/negotiating/financial matters and he's brought in a team he believes will benefit the club to take care of all that i think they've been intentionally cautious in the market as part of this overall strategy - i mean i'm actually glad they didn't come in gung-ho 'cause if they'd let fat sam blow 50m i think we'd all be a lot unhappier now? anyway all that said i can forgive a period of cooling off as they surveyed what was around them, i can forgive it no more; it's time to stop the headlines about boardroom appointments and joey bartons gaol time and start the headlines about players SHOW ME THE MONEY MIKE!!!!! both statements taken from wikipedia whatever the impact or otherwise of these dates [which shows the Ashley - and Mort - had control of the club when Sidwell went to Chelsea] its the comments from Mort which are more alarming to me. Allardyce complained about them not understanding how things work in football, so has Keegan the other week. I've always said that the first thing you want from a chairman is the desire to punch the clubs weight. It doesn't matter how nice a bloke he may be, if they don't do that they are a waste of time. Hope Mort does OK as he seems like a nice bloke but I'm not bothered he's left the club. If his successor is the same, then its Ashley's desire to run the club like a tight ship, and believe me, unless you compete with the big boys you won't get in amongst them. This is obvious, and is so obvious I just don't understand how people keep making excuses. We will find out soon enough. You can make good decisions and bad decisons, but if you have to atttempt it. If you don't buy a ticket you don't win the raffle. other people have pulled the sidwell facts, and isn't it accepted knowledge that we offered more in fees and wages for modric than spurs? woodgate was a last minute job wasn't it and he'd already agreed to go to spurs? i stand to be corrected on the second two mind anyway back to point, i think you've made my point for me "I've always said that the first thing you want from a chairman is the desire to punch the clubs weight." - because you say it doesn't make it true, you've made the role of chairman at NUFC that of punching the clubs weight in the transfer market, it might not be part of his remit under ashley in reality it's perfectly clear to me why mort was brought in and it wasn't to go out and broker deals to bring the best players in the world to SJP so i can't understand your criticism of him i guess...i'll guarantee if you got an audience with ashley he'd tell you the guy did exactly what he was brought in to do your criticism of him is almost like me criticing beye for not scoring double figures - it's not strictly speaking in his job description but i've decided he should be doing it so why isn't he? (petty i know dude)

Sidwell. Modric. Woodgate. You have 2 managers who have expressed dissatisfaction with the support given to them by officials at the club. Allardyce complained of them not moving quick enough etc etc Keegan made the comments he made 2 weeks ago Still, you know best NE5 didn't sidwell sign for chelski very early last summer, before the club had even changed hands? anyways a wider point here i think you seem to sidestep is, in my opinion, mort was never brought in to be the type of chairman you expect him to be - and that's not a dig, what i mean is the historic english chairman who does all the transfer deals you know? personally i reckon ashley has identified that in the past people brokering the deals in football were lacking expertise in both football and legal/negotiating/financial matters and he's brought in a team he believes will benefit the club to take care of all that i think they've been intentionally cautious in the market as part of this overall strategy - i mean i'm actually glad they didn't come in gung-ho 'cause if they'd let fat sam blow 50m i think we'd all be a lot unhappier now? anyway all that said i can forgive a period of cooling off as they surveyed what was around them, i can forgive it no more; it's time to stop the headlines about boardroom appointments and joey bartons gaol time and start the headlines about players SHOW ME THE MONEY MIKE!!!!!

guys a lawyer, did a lawyers job in my opinion transfers aside, which i don't think he can be at all blamed for as the club didn't give him the expert support he obviously needed in that area, i reckon he did a bang up job

boooooooo, you're not welcome here son!

wow what a love in, can't someone insult someone's mam or summat? i'm starting to feel uneasy (not my mam you set of bastards) 10/10 NE5 - lets talk about crop rotation in the 14th century!! just doesn't have the same ring does it?

where do you live? the english PL, whether you want to believe it or not, has a higher profile than the german bundesliga and spanish PL...ergo elano will get more exposure for his "handful" of decent games (jesus) good insight on petrov, perhaps because of the lack of exposure i get to the spanish league (ahem) i still thought he was the pacy, tricky, quality left winger spurs were looking to pay 10m for and who turned to out to do a decent job in england in the end your point about luque only backs me up - you really think a player would leave deportivo where he played in the CL semis and challenged for the spanish title simply 'cause they missed europe and we were in the uefa qualifying rounds? get a grip man

never had much to do with 'em but those two chelpers that come on here omit such arrogance/confidence (call it what you will) i've started to hate the lot of them, pity 'cause when the lad jol isn't lording it up he sometimes has some reasonable points to make

"There are less good players playing there, but still the likes of van der Vaart, Diego, Ribery, Toni plus the majority of the German national team players. Of course the English league is the better and more attractive one, but teamwise that more or less only applies to the top teams, i.e. the so called big four. The rest are not more attractive than the top clubs from the domestic league. People who think that a club like Newcastle is more attractive just because it is playing in a more attractive league are really blinkered. What could Newcastle offer a player like Gomez to be a stepping stone (or the likes of Diego or van der Vaart who hilariously get named here as possible signings again and again)? They know that their performances get noted at their clubs, they play in European competitions and already earn good money. All that they are waiting for are offers from top European clubs, but not from mediocre ones." were manchester city a bigger draw than atletico madrid when petrov signed for them? were we a bigger draw than deportivo when luque signed for us? this european competition bullshit is getting blown out of all proportion - you agree an acceptable fee with the club they'll let him leave, you pay the guy enough and convince him you're trying to build something he'll come i agree that the fact newcastle are in the PL isn't a massive draw in itself but if we agreed a fee for a 21 year old and brought him to SJP, showed him around, he meets the likes of owen etc...and we spin him a line of bullshit about how much we're gonna do and he's the first building block then why wouldn't he come? we might be in the gutter but it shouldn't stop us looking at the stars my friend... you don't offer enough of a fee or enough wages you don't get the player, end of story... one final question, out of van der vaart and elano who do you think had the higher profile across europe/worldwide this year given the nature of exposure the german and english leagues get respectively? i know where my money would be

i'll be interested to see when the club actually tie one of these deals up personally; whether they know it or not i reckon they've got a lot of convincing to do...no idea when the ST renewals are but if i had one still and got to the day before renewals were due with nothing happening i'd be wondering what to do... basically you'd be looking at a set up that underwhelmed with transfers last summer, did nothing in january and might not have done something before the renewals up people are talking about the euros as a 'deadline' for transfers, i see this one as more pertinent...i'll personally be amazed if they don't make at least one significant splash before renewals are due as a number of interviews he's given mort's mentioned the need to keep ST sales high, well they're not gonna do that with smoke and mirrors unless the whole keegan as manager thing was an attempt to dredge another year of ST money out of the fans with not enough being spent on the squad? mate of mine said it a while back, january i think, it's time for mike to "show us the fucken money" man, i've had enough...fine the wage bills high well make your manager get rid of the wasters that are dragging us down, for nothing if you have to, then start again

I've heard similar, but not quite so black and white. Big money will be spent on younger players only, though older players will be signed if they are available for lower fees and aren't looking for a massive payday (so Dunne would be considered but Henry not etc) i've no problem with it either, you? get on with it i say...should have been going on like this for years The policy is good, but if it stopped us signing someone like Rio or Terry for example because they are 30 or approaching it then I'd be peeved as they would aid the deelopment of the rest of the team. So in prinicple I'm behind it, but I hope there's flexibility for exceptional cases yeah i guess, defenders and goalkeepers are the best examples of when you'd break such a policy, you could feasibly sign a 30-32 year old CB/GK and get a good 3 years out of them through know how and organisational skills i'd be very reluctant, if i had anything to do with it, to be spending big money and/or wages on midfielders or attackers as in today's pacy game they'd struggle to have as much impact (IMO)

I've heard similar, but not quite so black and white. Big money will be spent on younger players only, though older players will be signed if they are available for lower fees and aren't looking for a massive payday (so Dunne would be considered but Henry not etc) i've no problem with it either, you? get on with it i say...should have been going on like this for years

a mate of a mate who's ITK (i know i know, so don't read on if you don't want to) reckons during the meeting that keegan was "summoned" to he was told in no uncertain terms there's an age limit being imposed on transfers, 24 years old was mentioned but that seems a bit obstructive to me, comes from someone working at the club point is, whether you believe this or not, it's highly highly likely to be true in some way or other given the noises this board are making about wages/player signings/developing the youth system i'd be fucken amazed if we went for the likes of deco/henry, so much so i'd actually bet money we'll not sign anyone of that nature unless they come without a transfer fee and are on short/flexible contracts we'd better get with reality kids, i just can't see transfers like this happening no matter how good they may be....

given the wage bill issue you'd imagine there are two major criteria for whether we keep a player or not this summer, or at least you'd hope there is: is he on big wages? and is he doing it on the pitch? if the answers for a player are yes & no then for me they go at all costs, if the answers yes & yes then they stay unless the manager wants rid, no & no up to the manager... this can lead to no other conclusion than duff & smith have to go, carr has already gone for the those reasons, emre should go, maybe cacapa/rozenthal depending on wages...anyone else? leads me to think the likes of milner/zog will stay unless the club CHOOSE to sell them on for the money to replace them with better players that's my little insight into how i see things being run under ashley/mort, and i don't think it's a bad way to go...i think the days are gone when a manager can say i want to keep player 'x' when he's doing fuck all on the pitch and contributing to the poor financial state of the club - i feel sure this point will have been made to keegan during discussions, surely during the recent "crisis" meeting?

original question answer; institute a 1 for 1 policy on the fringe players (or shite) we've named above, specifically when replacing a player they need to be replaced by young-ish pacy players with potential to improve to me there's no point in looking to replace smith or duff with similar versions of themselves on similar wages OR big signings for big fees on big wages other than that we need to target the 3-4 quality first teamers keegan talks about, that's where the REAL money has to be spent...we're not man u, we can't afford to have 17m players coming off the bench, we need a nucleus of 11-14 established first teamers & the rest of the squad has to be as described seems the wage bill is an issue now so realistically this is surely the only thing that's going to work?

fact is in the modern game our current system is more effective than 4-4-2 and we should try and stick with what works - for the first time in a long time we've hit upon a system that gives enough protection to our defence while at the same time allowing flexibility further up the pitch wingers become a moot point if you sign another pacy striker and/or midfielder as they are the ones who stretch the opposition defence (ala martins) and allow owen the space to come in and sneak goals imagine anelka as another of the three up top with martins and owen; defences wouldn't know what to do with those three, if you then improve the midfield 3 so we've a bit more energy/athleticism you've an easy recipe for success i'd say a final way to look at it is which one would be easiest to get working next season? it's commonly accepted we're not gonna spend 100m & zog will probably go so is it more feasible to replace zog/duff/milner (last two considered not good enough perhaps) and sign at least one more winger...or is it more feasible to sign a pacy striker, creative midfielder, defensive midfielder minimum to add to barton, butt & geremi? for me it's a no-brainer...we could lose duff/zog/milner and sign the 3 players i've just mentioned and be a far better team, to think we can ship those three out and replace them with 4 top quality wingers is fairytale land

fair point that, and we'd not be paying wages while he was doing time unlike an injury - comes out with a clean slate i suppose

As far as I'm concerned we would have had the poor Keegan results under Allardyce, I don't feel that confident about the better results under Keegan being repeated under Allardyce. Yes some of the better results have came against poorer teams but these are the same poorer teams who were getting results against us earlier in the season, we are still the only team to lose to Derby in the league and we've only got 3 league games left for that to change. Like you say "results alone don't tell the whole story," we played some very difficult games off the belt and Keegan hadn't really a chance to know his players, under the circumstances I think he's done a brilliant job. We’ve actually started to play football that is worth watching, players who were not performing are starting to look like footballers, mostly Alan Smith isn’t getting a game and that has been a bonus as we now take to the field with 11 players instead of 10 on a good day, not that we had many of those as we had so many under performers. We can now go to a game knowing that even if we do get beat we’re going to go about it the right way and try to win instead of trying to contain the dregs of the league, which to be fair, we had become one of them. i'm in agreement with this - we were always losing the games we lost under keegan the only question was how long would the bad run last and could keegan pull us out of it personally i had my doubts (the villa performance/result was a big influence on that opinion as it happens) and they were based on genuine questions about whether keegan could still perform at the top level and turn us around without money; 3 years out of the game, underwhelming at man city without cash etc... he's sold me on the fact that he should be the man to lead us into a new period with recent results but brummie makes an excellent point frankly some of the pro-keegan stuff during his losing run was an embarrassment (as is some of it now), it was like you'd insulted someone's mam for being shit at her job and the only reason the people were defending her was 'cause "she's me mam" the landscape has changed now somewhat - anyone not behind the guy is clearly an idiot