quayside

Warnock said he reckoned they'd get four or five players by the end of the window. Just can't see one of them being Barton though. Would be horrible. I may be getting a bit optimistic here, but I would hope one of those players is one of our shitty expendables. Thought the same last night. Get some Premiership experience in Neil. Get Alan Smith. Or James Perch. Why not go crazy and get both? Stick in Lovepants in a three for the price of two (likely to be £zero tbh) and we are away......

Yes ridiculous. The only possible explanation (and this is an outsider) for this is that Pieters can play centre back as well and we see him as a utilty defender. But why would he come here to do that? Are we offering way £more than he's on now?

Exactly, I've said it before but Shepherd's appointments seemed very reactionary. Keegan's too cavalier, recruit the more pragmatic Dalglish. Dalglish has taken the fun out of it, recruit the sexy football merchant Gullit. Gullit has no idea what NUFC means to the city, recruit the local legend Bobby Robson. Robson's too soft, get that arsehole Souness in to smash some skulls. He kind of stumbled across Roeder and Allardyce being our manager always seemed to be on the cards for some reason, but the Souness appointment in particular was an example of bowing to public perception of how the club was being run and just getting a radgee in for the sake of it. :thup: But nobody - or no significant number of people - objected to Dalglish or Gullit at the time. Souness, yes, was a guaranteed disaster and, yes, a kneejerk reaction to the young guns' p*ss taking of Bobby. Tbh I had never thought that Souness was first choice to take over after SBR - wasn't he plan C or D? So I'm not convinced that there was a conscious move to bring a disciplinarian in. Souness was about to be sacked by Blackburn, other candidates for the job at Newcastle couldn't or wouldn't take the job. Blackburn didn't want Souness but he was still under contract so we paid Blackburn a seven figure sum for his services. That is my understanding of what happened

The fact of the matter is, since the club was first made available for sale by Hall and Shepherd, Ashley is the only one who has been willing to put the money down required. Where are these saviours who will buy the club and pour money into the squad? So far the only serious interest was NUST with their collective whip round which flopped, and Barry Moat who was told to take his begging cap to the pawn shop by the banks. That is the reality. And people should not rule out a scenario in which Ashley sells the club to someone worse, and by that I mean someone who somehow finds the asking price MA wants then f*cks up and can't afford to fund a recovery. It seems to be the case that people buying football clubs invariably get unpleasant surprises when they find out what it takes to keep them going let alone move them forward. Also a change of owner often means change of manager and not always for the best. I'm struggling to believe that Avram Grant was a better manager than Zola, and that Steve Kean is a better manager than Allardyce (and I'm purely looking at Allardyce as a Premiership survivor not with any great admiration I might add). So are we supposed to be grateful for the idiots we have. If clubs like fulham can be run sensibly and play in Europe with their resources and fan base, I will burn before I'm grateful for the shoddy way this club is being treat. You missed the point. It's entirely up to you whether you want to feel grateful to him for everything, some of the things or nothing that he's done here. But if he did get out there's absolutely no guarantee that he'll sell it to someone who will be able to run it better.

I cared at the time for sure. If the worst happens and we don't fill the gaps in the squad, as many seem to be certain will be the case, then nothing whatsoever will divert blame from Ashley and his posse. Apologies, that post wasn't aimed at you. I was referring generally to all the discussion about how stupid Shepherd was. No worries

I cared at the time for sure. If the worst happens and we don't fill the gaps in the squad, as many seem to be certain will be the case, then nothing whatsoever will divert blame from Ashley and his posse.

Yeah get off his back ffs But seriously, of course it isn't unreasonable to expect strong signings at left back and striker given where the club is now, it's a necessity. But you have to admit that for many years we seem to have been waiting for gaps to be filled as the end of August approaches. And it isn't just us, every year there is a lot of business done close to the end of the window as club chairmen decide at what point their brinkmanship needs to end. I've said on here before my real concern in the whole process of us bringing players in isn't Carr, Pardew or even Ashley, it's Llambias. And my reference to Sibs and Bernard was simply that it struck me that was the last time we had the same two gaps to fill and what came out of it was underwhelming to say the least.

And yet it's the same every single summer. You're right, I remember starting the 05-06 season with Shearer, Shola & Chopra as our only 3 strikers for the first 4 games. Can you remember the thrill on deadline day summer 2006 when on the stroke of midnight word got out that we had signed Sibierski? This was shortly followed by news of the second coming of Olly Bernard. Great days....

Aye. I think Situ can also play as a defensive midfielder.

The fact of the matter is, since the club was first made available for sale by Hall and Shepherd, Ashley is the only one who has been willing to put the money down required. Where are these saviours who will buy the club and pour money into the squad? So far the only serious interest was NUST with their collective whip round which flopped, and Barry Moat who was told to take his begging cap to the pawn shop by the banks. That is the reality. And people should not rule out a scenario in which Ashley sells the club to someone worse, and by that I mean someone who somehow finds the asking price MA wants then f*cks up and can't afford to fund a recovery. It seems to be the case that people buying football clubs invariably get unpleasant surprises when they find out what it takes to keep them going let alone move them forward. Also a change of owner often means change of manager and not always for the best. I'm struggling to believe that Avram Grant was a better manager than Zola, and that Steve Kean is a better manager than Allardyce (and I'm purely looking at Allardyce as a Premiership survivor not with any great admiration I might add).

Name an available and willing alternative, shithead or not, and there could be a discussion. He's alright for now imo.

They aren't. It's just making the point that what's going on isn't that different and (back to to the thread topic) may actually have had a lot less nepotism than some of the shyte that has gone before. Ashley bought the club from owners who had been in situ for a number of years and in the latter part of their reign had shat on it. What else is there to compare it to? Open your eyes to things that have happened/are happening at other clubs. The whole business is morally bankrupt, get used to it.

Only one I have a problem with, really. With the others, its generally the standard that a new manager wants to/brings his own people/staff in. But Llambiarse, going from casino manager to Premier League football club MD, was and still is unacceptable. Agree. Also whilst they probably knew each other I've not seen evidence of a casino connection between Pardew and Llambias. I'm open to persuasion on that if anyone has anything. As Tron says above it's nothing new and so far Ashley hasn't involved any of his siblings or any of his offspring.

Same, I can't see why anyone would think he's even remotely under pressure TBH. Also, if he's as close to Ashley as everyone thinks then he won't be sacked anyway. What? Well no more than any other manager at the start of a season. We outperformed expectations last year, the only thing he's done wrong is allow Carroll and Enrique to leave, and he probably couldn't stop them anyway. Just can't understand how he's done anything other than a decent job, and as such he's under no pressure for me. The only thing he's done wrong? That and let us go into the new season with no real strikers, no left back, three centre halves... Aye, all Pardew's decision's them... Tbh I doubt there are many clubs where the manager gets anywhere near negotiating transfer fees, terms etc. It's a case of deciding who the targets are (in consultation with the scout and the manager) and the board take it from there. It's certainly what was done under Shepherd and from what you read it's what happens elsewhere. Managers don't control the purse strings so they can't negotiate financial terms. Edit: btw I did realise you were being a tad sarcastic.....

Yes - heard exactly the same. His first game with WHam was televised and he had a complete shocker and a lot of people remember that. But apart from that you don't want a 31 year old loanee coming in to fill a crucial position in the first team, he's got nothing to prove and nothing much to play for, it's just a gig while he pulls his wages - most of which which would still be paid by Man City I'd imagine.

Harry Redknapp June 2011: "The chairman has made a statement. He can't backtrack on that. He means that - I know he means that. Luka's not going. Daniel has made that statement - he can't come out and suddenly sell him. Everyone will go, 'What's the use of listening to what he says?' He can't sell him. He's said he's not going to sell him and that's good enough for me. Daniel and Joe Lewis own the club. They're not selling Luka - end of story, as far as I'm concerned. It's not easy to keep a player who's not happy but the chairman has said we're not going to sell him so we've got to stand by that now. He can't be saying that and then we sell him. If we sell Luka Modric where are we going as a football club? We'll have to accept then that we're a middle-of-the-table team that will finish in the top half next season and really that's not what the chairman wants, it's not what I want. It's not, most importantly, what the fans want."

I think there's a fair amount of incompetence mixed in with the naivete. That's not to say that the transfer market isn't a complex place but you need to have someone who knows what they are doing fronting the negotiations. I really doubt that Llambias is up to it if the deal is not straightforward. When you add in the other stuff you hear such as the logistics of the US tour and the strange story about the bonuses it all points in one direction. Ashley could solve quite a few problems if he binned Del and brought in a proper chief executive who knows how to work the transfer market and how to run a football club. Seems to me like Del does know how to work the transfer market, at least in the way that Ashley wants him to. He plays hard ball and looks for bargains, he's probably doing his job well in Ashley's eyes. Clearly Ashley likes him because he continues to employ him to do the day to day management of the club. He comes from a background of running casinos which is not football (or anything like it). I think you can play hard ball in the transfer market, look for bargains and follow Ashley's financial policy without dicking around like we do.

I think there's a fair amount of incompetence mixed in with the naivete. That's not to say that the transfer market isn't a complex place but you need to have someone who knows what they are doing fronting the negotiations. I really doubt that Llambias is up to it if the deal is not straightforward. When you add in the other stuff you hear such as the logistics of the US tour and the strange story about the bonuses it all points in one direction. Ashley could solve quite a few problems if he binned Del and brought in a proper chief executive who knows how to work the transfer market and how to run a football club. And isn't so transparently a complete dickwad. There is that as well....

I think there's a fair amount of incompetence mixed in with the naivete. That's not to say that the transfer market isn't a complex place but you need to have someone who knows what they are doing fronting the negotiations. I really doubt that Llambias is up to it if the deal is not straightforward. When you add in the other stuff you hear such as the logistics of the US tour and the strange story about the bonuses it all points in one direction. Ashley could solve quite a few problems if he binned Del and brought in a proper chief executive who knows how to work the transfer market and how to run a football club.

F*ck right off

No he was always mentally unstable IIRC. Raging against the world in his better moods tbh. We need more of those, this forum can be depressingly positive at times.

If Sturridge is available on loan then I would think there is a hefty loan fee and maybe the club don't want to pay a chunk of money and watch the player go back to his own club next season. I'm not saying I agree with that, I'm just offering a possible explanation. Also we may well still be paying a good chunk of his Xisco's wages at Depor tbh.

There is also the flip side, where we sign a new LB before Enrique goes.... Liverpool then know we have two 'first choice' left backs... one of which desperately wants away, and they start throwing lower offers in for JE. Its just that fine balancing act of trying to get the best price for our player, but also trying not to pay over the odds for the next one. Liverpool know how it works because they've got football people running their club whereas we're run by people who have little experience. In January Liverpool had a similar situation with trying to offload Torres and buy Carroll. They made it clear they weren't prepared to sell Torres until they signed Carroll. They played it perfectly, getting exactly what they wanted whereas we were left short. They've just taken Enrique and Lo and behold we've been left short again. Anyone spotting any patterns here? At least we've not sold him on deadline day I suppose.... I'm not disagreeing with your main point about managing the timing of transfers, but I'm really not convinced that paying £35m for Carroll could be called a good end result for Liverpool.

Yes Whats he getting credit for then, he hasn't come out and told us special like, he had to do the column for the programme, i suppose its better than nothing but he shouldn't get praise for that, he has to do it, be different if he said to NUFC TV or a local paper. He's made a commitment, put his name to it and not got Pardew to do the talking.