mrmojorisin75

So Ashley appears to have acheived his goals - he has control of the club, we'll be off the LSE soon, he's got his own men in charge and it's all systems go... Reports are circulating that he's gonna hand Allardyce 50m to spend this window in order to "revive the clubs fortunes" and that his dream is to see "a team of Carlos Tevez's at SJP". Lets imagine for a minute the reports are correct (I for one find it unlikely given the speed at which he is now moving things that he'll he'll settle for a 'consolidation period' and see how things go, I did but now I don't) and Allardyce has that kind of money to spend - my question is this: Based on the assumption that Fat Sam uses, oh lets 30m, to rebuild the defence do you want to see him go for a "Trophy Signing" to capture the fans imagination before the season kicks off? So the first part is a simple "yes" or "no" but I'm not after "get Ronaldinho" type answers 'cause no matter how much money we have that kind of signing is simply unrealistic for us right now, and perhaps forever. A trophy signing, for me, should be considered someone fairly/very high profile who will add something special to the team in the final third who, while we could get along with out their signature, with it we could be converted into an exceptional side. So I'm looking for names and football-based justifications for it. To answer my own question I think it would be a very good thing for the club to do, to sign a "trophy player" once the squad rebuilding is done. It would be a statement of intent from Ashley for the future of the club and also from Allardyce that he can step out of the bargain basement and get us challenging in the years to come. As for who it should be I'm not 100% sure. My first inclination is Huntelaar, a classy dutch goalscoring forward with a good all round game and potential to be at the top for the next 10 years. But I'm not sure that's the priority for us right now on the pitch. So my second inclination is to go with a playmaker to play between the midfield and strikers ala Kaka/Diego and I think this is where it gets difficult. We've all played Football Manager I'd imagine so we know these guys are great on a laptop but who knows how they'd fare in the PL. Van der Vaart & Wesley Sneijder are two other guys I've seen bits and pieces of but haven't really seen enough to suggest they'd cut it. For me in the modern game this type of players is essential, the guy who creates havoc in the space where he can't be picked up. Rooney/Kaka/Ronaldinho/Messi/Ronaldo/Gerrard etc... all do it and do it well and these are the teams who are winning the prizes. Chel$ki are an exception to this as they play a nullifying high pressure, high paced game and it's why I feel they're not winning the CL. I suppose I mentioned the guy at the start who I'd go for to meet my own critria and that would be Carlos Tevez - he fulfills everything I've talked about above and might, just might be attainable for us. Anyone else?

Ya Im happy with it. We've had all sorts of names linked with the job - quality operators like Sven, Ranieri, Ramos, no hopers like Warnock, Jewell and Coleman, complete muppets like Souness, and odious rag twats like Hughes and Strachan...Id have been happy with anyone from the first category. He's going to appoint the Sweden #2 (Roland Andersson I think his name is) to be his assistant instead of Grip tho...no sure if Grip will have a role as scout or something. Doubt it. Seriously tho, I dont know whats going to happen with the team. I think we need a new front 6, what I posted there is just what I would do. The tabloids have been playing pin the tail on the transfer rumour with us too...Owen, Harewood, Benayoun, NRC, SWP, Ljungberg, Anelka all in the news in recent days...No idea whats going to happen. But I think I'd borrow Mr Mojo's rusty spoons if we sign Harewood harewood, jesus remember when there were some proposterous rumours (arguably some of the most diabolically inaccurate rumours known to man) that NUFC were gonna pay anything between 7 & 11m for him under roeder?? i can, it still wakes me up in the night

would've been clawing my eyeballs out with rusty spoons at the prospect of this man in charge of nufc allardyce might end up churning out soul-destroying, will-nullifying football, but it's far from guaranteed as i'd suggest it will be with SGE expect 3 or 4 former players to be signed who will never be dropped regardless of fitness, form or tactics

what a priiiiiiiiiiiiiime kick in the balls that is 4 hours ahead of the uk here and have to be working at 6, not a snowballs chance in hell of me seeing any of it rats cocks

it is one of the finest things on this site at the moment, they should copy it and stick it on the main page, site would get more hits than a ginger kid in school

i've got a different take on the bent deal to most it seems - based on the assumption that owen leaves, or indeed martins for that matter (so therefore we're getting 9m or 13m back to put towards the bent deal) bent is 22 years old and can score goals consistently in the PL, he's got pace, scores goals on the run but more importantly scores "owen-type" poachers goals as well as having a better all round game than lego man therefore if we signed him for 16-17m we'd be laying out a maximum of 8m extra for a new striker with 10 years ahead of him and a far superior fitness record to lego man mickey so in summation if we sell someone (my preference would be little mickey) then go for it, get the boy in

This. What the hell has Owen actually done wrong? He's not said he hates the club, he's not said he wants away, he hasn't refused to play, when he's played for us, he's scored goals. It's actually quite ironic because people who say 'don't believe everything you read in the paper' have been influenced by what the papers have said about what Owen wants, he's never actually said himself 'I want to go', it's been the papers saying he wants to go. owen is well known as one of the most PR savvy people in the game and to me this is an example of him playing a (not so) clever little game over his future if he says nothing and stays then he's vindicated as he never said he wanted to leave if he says nothing and goes then he's vindicated as he never said he wanted to stay reverse that and you get the reason for his silence he says he wants to leave but no-one stumps up the cash so he's forced to stay at the club, he's hated he says he wants to stay but someone meets the clause and he goes, he's hated make no mistake michael owen will do what is considered best for michael owen, and michael owens england career, and that last part is why i couldn't care less if he never plays for us again maybe i'm doing the lad a massive disservice and he's just waiting to see how things look under allardyce/ashley before commiting himself, but to be honest the only thing that will convince me of his intentions is signing a new contract with no release clause and i just can't see that happening

read both posts man, you'll answer your own question

the point that you completely miss, is that you totally underestimate the worth of having someone running the club who has ambition and is prepared to show it. I realise that you may not have experienced NUFC when we had people like this running the club, but you have certainly saw a club 12 years down the road run in such a manner. We are quite lucky to have Ashley, if what we all hope he does actually happens. We could have been taken over by someone with no real ambition or courage for the club, but to not acknowledge such a thing was possible is extemely naive. I do agree with your summing up in general or rather your prediction as to what will happen to shepherd now BTW. And whats more, I think it is the absolute right thing to do. It is also a bit of a bugger that those who refused to give any credit whatsoever to the outgoing board for anything, have to admit to themselves that Ashley has seen some worth in them ie Shepherd, even it is just a transitional period while he and his own men learn the ropes. The interesting thing also, is that I think I asked MICK who he would give the credit to if NUFC win a trophy in Ashleys first season and Shepherd was still chairman ? And who he would blame if we didn't under the same circumstances ? Needless to say, I don't think he replied, and I can't say I'm surprised. you're right, i came along just as hall etc... were taking over the club, just my age group i'm afraid i take your point about ambition 100% and ultimately the actions of shepherd have led us to this point - the question is have we reached it through accident or design? again without looking too much into it i'd imagine shepherds tenure has seen the club lose value year on year from the original flotation, thus putting the club in a better position to be taken over like it is right now so basically, as i see it, shepherds ambition, while admirable, has been largely at the expense of the club rather than his own finances and at the end of the day has failed...the flip side being if his ambition had succeeded and we'd been challenging at the top the likelhood is we wouldn't need taking over whichever way you spin it, despite his (perhaps) admirable intentions and ambition, he's failed and THAT is primarily what has brought us to be taken over i think you're right about shepherd getting some credit if we win a trophy next season because he picked allardyce before the takeover, but he'll not be solely responsible as it'll only be money spent rebuilding the defence sufficiently that will see us getting a trophy, and we'd not have seen that without the takeover in my opinion....so if it happens 50/50 and that's being generous

still don't see anyone in a better position than us (i.e. man u, chel$ki, liverpool, arse) stumping up the 9m perhaps arsenal but i doubt it, wenger prefers his strikers to have a better all round game than owen

Aye, the idea of Zoggy as a centre-mid sickened me from the off, and it still does. One of the many, many factors of Roeder's actual downfall itself, was the treatment of N'Zogbia; and i don't think there's any other individual factor that makes me so angry, other than that one. This'll sound a bit out there, and i'll probably get slated, but we had a young guy there who had the potential to be better than Ginola and Robert put together, imo. He was just that good in 05/06. Then to convert him into centre-mid? Gar. Pisses me off just thinking about it. Really hope Sam tries to sort him out. I'd have hope for Sam sorting him out, or at least getting through to him that his best position is on the wing. Agree with you about Roeder's handling of N'Zogbia, complete disgrace. Better than Ginola and Robert put together is pushing it though. N'Zogbia has their ability plus a fighter's instinct, priceless in a left sided midfielder. I completely agree that he is one of our biggest assets totally mis-managed. I am pretty certain that Allardyce will have seen it as well. i hope to fuck you're right with a bit of luck allardyce will get his hands on him before arsenal have a chance to recover from the thierry henry carry on i'd say arsenal was probably the only place he'd be likely to go in this country (possibly spurs) so if allardyce can sort his head out and show the lad he's wanted we'll get get him back on track

are you sure apathy is the right term? we've just got 10million for the fucker, with the prospect of another 9. he's turning into a nice little earner blueyes.gif Unless we sell him for 18million we've lost money. that's what i'm thinking, the 10m is not profit at all, it basically covers what we've already lost in wages/rehab to the little lego man so if we take an 8m hit on his transfer fee we still lose 8m whichever way you cut it

hold on, what am i missing here? maths was never my strong point owens wage is 105,000 a week or something right? which equates to almost 5.5m a year or just over 8m for 18 months so if we got back 10m total then our compensation was around 2m? am i right? if so then it's not as great as it sounds is it? although still better than nothing

Aye, the idea of Zoggy as a centre-mid sickened me from the off, and it still does. One of the many, many factors of Roeder's actual downfall itself, was the treatment of N'Zogbia; and i don't think there's any other individual factor that makes me so angry, other than that one. This'll sound a bit out there, and i'll probably get slated, but we had a young guy there who had the potential to be better than Ginola and Robert put together, imo. He was just that good in 05/06. Then to convert him into centre-mid? Gar. Pisses me off just thinking about it. Really hope Sam tries to sort him out. I'd have hope for Sam sorting him out, or at least getting through to him that his best position is on the wing. Agree with you about Roeder's handling of N'Zogbia, complete disgrace. Better than Ginola and Robert put together is pushing it though. agree with both of you about charlie a lot of people here and elsewhere have slated the lad for his ego and various other things but at the end of the day a "manager" should know how to handle different types of player and roeder didn't seem to know how to handle ANY type of player oldest cliche in the book but don't people think romario or some else like him had an attitude? fuck the attitude, learn how to harness it on the pitch i'll never forget zogs goal vs blackburn, the cheeky little rollover at pace....hope his treatment hasn't pushed him over the edge at our place 'cause he can easily get that back again

Spot on; the potential that Roeder's squad actually had was surprisingly high. that's the damning indictment of the man ain't it? we scored 38 goals last season with the players we had - fine owen and ameobi were out but a manager worth his salt would have found a way to get martins/duff/zog/dyer/milner/carroll/solano working better to create more chances and goals we can't really blame him too much for the defence, assuming he never had any money to rebuild it, but the poor quality/record of our all round forward play tells it's own story

that's the question isn't it? for example how have owens wages been paid for 2 years? the first injury he got (broken foot) was for us against spurs so we'd have got nothing for that other than our own insurance (if that even applies at club level which i doubt) so his wages will have been paid for a year, in fact just less than a year dunno something fishy there if you ask me - does it include the clubs own insurance for owens wages or just from the fa? too vague to be trusted

the more you think about it the more you realise we have a lot of VERY good assets in the sqaud that have been so badly under-utilised if we can add some semblance of a quality, settled defence to the squad we might very well be in business next season a lot will depend on how fast we hit the ground running, if it all falls into place at the start we'll be laughing but if it takes a while to settle in then next season might be one of frustration

Agreed, which is what makes him so frustrating the rest of the time when he seems to just drift through games doing nowt. Could be a motivation thing, hopefully Sam will light a fire under his arse. also agreed could be wrong but when turkey were shit hot didn't they play a couple of midfielders in with emre to basically chop people up and let him concentrate on playmaking and getting the ball to the likes of hasan sas? seem to remember when we played inter at home emre ran the show as well and he was more or less allowed to take the ball and think about the attacking side of the game even though they were away from home could be interesting indeed if barton/butt do most of the legwork and hard tackling leaving emre to look for owen/martins/viduka/milner/zog or whoever else plays

was my first thought as well get shot

anyone looking at shepherds record at the club in isolation can see he's basically made a total arse of being in charge, it's only when you (or rather NE5) start comparing it to other periods in the clubs history that anyone can make any kind of case for his tenure people with more time than me can debate the finances all day long but the bottom line is that he's not been good enough on and off the pitch, end of story if he's staying then it's 'cause ashley wants him to stay or he's demanded it to sell the shares - if it's the former then i can only think it's 'cause ashley sees the need for a transition period within the staff at the club and a familiar face might make certain upcoming events/sackings/restructurings easier to take and he can use FS as a fall guy if it's the latter then i'd expect ashley to ship him at the first given opportunity and bring someone more competent in all signs point towards diminished power within the club and then getting punted, pity he's being allowed to get that much to be honest

aye mate, it's all opinions like the souness fallout was obviously what prompted him leaving, granted, but his subsequent behaviour after that is inexcusable and unforgiveable i seem to remember him spouting platitudes left right and center about celtic when he was on loan but wasn't willing to join them permanently, instead he went to BLACKBURN where he had arguably his most productive ever season only to repay them by walking right out the door, he repaid liverpool their faith in him by hitting riise with a golf club (agreed amongst other things such as scoring the winner in the nou camp) i was with you, i thought craig bellamy was 100% newcastle and he played like it but the way he's carried on since leaving (sending text messages to shearer after the club he supposedly loves gets humped in the fa cup cup semi being another example) lends me to think craig bellamy has no loyalty to anyone/anything but himself i think he'll join west ham for a pay rise and talk a lot about the "passion" of the fans and the "history" of the club, then he'll batter some lass or racially abuse a waiter or whatever on a night out and get moved on again anyway i wasn't after opening the bellamy debate again as such, just that i was wondering with the forward line we have in place right now and the money we all expect to come flooding into the club then would you have him back? you obviously would but i wouldn't, i think if we're we're replacing any of the forwards we have now we should aim higher than bellamy, simple as that

During the last round of the Bellamy saga, I think I made it clear that I saw Bellamy as part of attacking unit that was built around Shearer, guys like Nobby,Dyer, Jenas & Robert who I think did not mention last time. The man who came in & built this team around the clubs most effective goalscorer deserves the most credit, next the guy who scores the most goals & maybe then Given or Bellers. Look at the words I quoted "injury prone and has completely wasted his ability". Injury prone - His knee's were goosed & he had two major knee ops - I class that as bit prone to injury. Wasted - Lets see where he is playing football next season & see if he has left another big club for the 2nd time(I am classing us a big club). I also more or less agreed with this too. The important point being that he was a key player in a team that qualified for and competed well, in the Champions League. What is wrong with this statement ? What do people mean by saying things like "he's only average in a top 4 team" [not particularly you, but others] Do they realise what they are saying ? Whats wrong with being "average in a top 4 team", where are we just now ? And, I know others disagree - at least until he pulls on a black and white shirt again, if it happens - but his personality and the fact that he fell out with an arsehole of a manager, has absolutely nothing to do with it. We now also don't have an arsehole of a manager ..... question; as things stand right now at the club would you resign bellamy tomorrow? for the right fee, no doubt about it at all interesting - any suggestions about your idea of a right fee? Whats the going rate ? Owen for 9m, Henry for 16m, Forlan for 15m [maybe that is wrong], Bent for 17m ? I'd rather have Henry, but not Forlan. I'd also rather have - if we are going to enter this sort of price bracket - Tevez. So its difficult to say. As we bought him for 6m, kicked him out for about 4m, and he's cost 6m when going to Liverpool, as a matter of principle I dont' think we should allow Liverpool to rip us off, so for 6 or 7m quid it would be about right. Don't you think that with Owen and/or Martins possibly on the way out , it is wise for us to be looking ahead at other strikers ? I do. i do indeed agree that we should be looking at other strikers in the event of owen/martins leaving just my own personal opinion on bellamy is not to touch him for any price again the historical revisionism that goes on about shearer the egomaniac etc... astounds me in comparison to calls for bellamys return if we did resign him and he had a good season he'd want out at the first sign of interest from someone 'bigger' or another club he'd 'supported all his life' and that says nothing about him basically being a poisonous human being and professional footballer

During the last round of the Bellamy saga, I think I made it clear that I saw Bellamy as part of attacking unit that was built around Shearer, guys like Nobby,Dyer, Jenas & Robert who I think did not mention last time. The man who came in & built this team around the clubs most effective goalscorer deserves the most credit, next the guy who scores the most goals & maybe then Given or Bellers. Look at the words I quoted "injury prone and has completely wasted his ability". Injury prone - His knee's were goosed & he had two major knee ops - I class that as bit prone to injury. Wasted - Lets see where he is playing football next season & see if he has left another big club for the 2nd time(I am classing us a big club). I also more or less agreed with this too. The important point being that he was a key player in a team that qualified for and competed well, in the Champions League. What is wrong with this statement ? What do people mean by saying things like "he's only average in a top 4 team" [not particularly you, but others] Do they realise what they are saying ? Whats wrong with being "average in a top 4 team", where are we just now ? And, I know others disagree - at least until he pulls on a black and white shirt again, if it happens - but his personality and the fact that he fell out with an arsehole of a manager, has absolutely nothing to do with it. We now also don't have an arsehole of a manager ..... question; as things stand right now at the club would you resign bellamy tomorrow? for the right fee, no doubt about it at all interesting - any suggestions about your idea of a right fee?

During the last round of the Bellamy saga, I think I made it clear that I saw Bellamy as part of attacking unit that was built around Shearer, guys like Nobby,Dyer, Jenas & Robert who I think did not mention last time. The man who came in & built this team around the clubs most effective goalscorer deserves the most credit, next the guy who scores the most goals & maybe then Given or Bellers. Look at the words I quoted "injury prone and has completely wasted his ability". Injury prone - His knee's were goosed & he had two major knee ops - I class that as bit prone to injury. Wasted - Lets see where he is playing football next season & see if he has left another big club for the 2nd time(I am classing us a big club). I also more or less agreed with this too. The important point being that he was a key player in a team that qualified for and competed well, in the Champions League. What is wrong with this statement ? What do people mean by saying things like "he's only average in a top 4 team" [not particularly you, but others] Do they realise what they are saying ? Whats wrong with being "average in a top 4 team", where are we just now ? And, I know others disagree - at least until he pulls on a black and s**** shirt again, if it happens - but his personality and the fact that he fell out with an arsehole of a manager, has absolutely nothing to do with it. We now also don't have an arsehole of a manager ..... question; as things stand right now at the club would you resign bellamy tomorrow?

i posted that in a thread on its own the other day and got fucken slaughtered for it still think the glastonbury one and all