quayside

Barton's tweet is comedy. But I missed Shearer on MOTD, anyone going to put up what he said?

Yes why are you confused?

I think most of us know by now what Jonas does for the team, with all the weird rumours about the morale of our squad it was good to see him totally committed - can't ask for more.

I think he's the cause of a lot of the PR crap that the club goes through. He's put his name to that stuff and if it happens I'll give him some credit - otherwise he's shot himself and Ashley in the bollox yet again.

Yep, Souness brought Terry Mac back. If I remember correctly he was the velvet glove to the iron fist There was all manner of pervy sh1t going on with them two tbh.

Which one could have been one of our best teams ever? The one he picked up from Shepherd and co that cost £70 million a year and finished 13th? The one that Keegan took to 11th with Butt and Geremi playing in a 4-3-3? The one that got relegated, promoted and then finished 12th? What best team has Ashley destroyed?

It's him or no one. He does his best imo but he gets hung out to dry.

Welcome to the real world of Premiership football. So who do you trust? Agents? Players? Apart from the Man City lot, who have money to burn, are there any owners out there you really think are the dog's nuts? The Spurs boys know how to run a football club but it's a mistake to think they will sacrifice the money motive for the football motive when push comes to shove. Maybe John Henry looks solid but coming off Hicks and Gillet anyone would. Lerner was looking like an angel until financial reality kicked in. Arsenal seem to be in a "transitional phase". Anyone else pulling up trees out there?

Don't push your luck.

Sorry I thought it was obvious that my point was we went for years without a left back, and now we may be without one for a week or two. It's crap planning but I think we will get someone in who can play left back before the end of August 2011.

Small fee because he wants out and only has a year left on his contract. He's gone because Liverpool are a higher profile club globally, and have been for years. If they have a wage cap it's higher than ours, so he's probably pulling something like an extra £1.5 million a year. It's a comment on where we are. FFS we haven't been a f*cking honeypot of a club for about 8 years. Bizarrre how people throw hissy fits about us not having a recognised left back in mid August. We went for about 3 seasons under Souness, Roeder, Allardyce and Keegan without a left back we wanted to put on the pitch. He needs replacing but Jose going has been on the cards for months and it's time to move on....

Love it how some people actually think thats the only reason he is going. Same all this clearly loves the place stuff, he is a footballer he is entitled to do what he wants and imo(and no doubt his) he had no chance of making the Spain squad while here much like when Robert got ignored a lot here. The addtional £20k or £30k a week might have got his attention as well.

The problem does exist and not only for us, any side in the league can be shafted by rainy evenings in Stoke or in fact games in any weather at any time of day in Stoke. On the evidence we have so far Tiote is the nearest thing we have to a street fighter, Barton (if committed and still at the club) can give it out and Colo isn't a pushover either, although he is not a massive physical specimen. Be interesting to see whether some of the new boys fancy it as the winter kicks on. Fwiw I don't think we're remotely in the frame for relegation. to be fair most of the new boys will have experience of harsher winters than we are used to thanks to the gulf stream. (though if your point is about stoke as opposed to the weather then i bow to your point) It was a Stoke point - allied to a s*** winter afternoon point, horrible combination wonder if theres a french equivilent of stoke ? The thought that there might be any football club like Stoke anywhere in the world is not one I'd like to dwell on tbh.

The problem does exist and not only for us, any side in the league can be shafted by rainy evenings in Stoke or in fact games in any weather at any time of day in Stoke. On the evidence we have so far Tiote is the nearest thing we have to a street fighter, Barton (if committed and still at the club) can give it out and Colo isn't a pushover either, although he is not a massive physical specimen. Be interesting to see whether some of the new boys fancy it as the winter kicks on. Fwiw I don't think we're remotely in the frame for relegation. to be fair most of the new boys will have experience of harsher winters than we are used to thanks to the gulf stream. (though if your point is about stoke as opposed to the weather then i bow to your point) It was a Stoke point - allied to a shit winter afternoon point, horrible combination

The problem does exist and not only for us, any side in the league can be shafted by rainy evenings in Stoke or in fact games in any weather at any time of day in Stoke. On the evidence we have so far Tiote is the nearest thing we have to a street fighter, Barton (if committed and still at the club) can give it out and Colo isn't a pushover either, although he is not a massive physical specimen. Be interesting to see whether some of the new boys fancy it as the winter kicks on. Fwiw I don't think we're remotely in the frame for relegation. Well we obviously didn't have those 'street fighters' last season when Stoke humped us. Too true. There are sides who will force results by sheer physicality and Stoke are one of them, they will continue to pose a horrible threat in this league.

The problem does exist and not only for us, any side in the league can be shafted by rainy evenings in Stoke or in fact games in any weather at any time of day in Stoke. On the evidence we have so far Tiote is the nearest thing we have to a street fighter, Barton (if committed and still at the club) can give it out and Colo isn't a pushover either, although he is not a massive physical specimen. Be interesting to see whether some of the new boys fancy it as the winter kicks on. Fwiw I don't think we're even close to being in the frame for relegation.

These days contracts don't imply a commitment from either the player or the club. For all we know they've got him to sign a new contract so they can sell him to a struggling Premiership or top Championship club. If he's got 2 years to go on his contract then the club would get some sort of fee. But I'm not bothered if he goes or stays tbh, it doesn't sound like the club see him as the answer to our striker shortage and that's fine by me.

IMO at the absolute worst he'd give us what Routledge did - at the best he's the new Ronaldo. My money is on him being quite a bit better than WR but possibly a bit short of Cronaldo

MUFC were clearly waiting for Obertan to go before moving for Sneijder.....

Lovely to see Derek around too I'm sure everyone will agree. Oh yes. Interesting that he pitches up grinning for a photo opportunity when we sign a player. Meanwhile any shitty questions from the media about £35million and our transfer policy are all left to Pardew.

If what you have described is what happens (it's a big if) then we are clearly the winner. Try this scenario: Barton (advised by his c*nt of an agent) sticks his lip out, gives it large on twitter looking for a free transfer and a decent signing on fee. He and the agent are expecting Champions League clubs to form a queue. But there is a problem, no one really wants to pay his current wage rate and they all view him as a major PR risk. Most worringly Stoke appear to be the club most interested in doing some sort of deal. Suddenly the Newcastle January offer looks a lot more attractive?

Maybe Babayaro could get a game at left back?

Been there, done that, sick of being fed bullshit (or weren't you paying attention on the last few deadline days) Tbf the business we did for our season in the Championship (especially in the January) was exactly what we needed at the time. Ben Arfa and Tiote weren't shabby additions to the squad last summer. With more than 3 weeks to go I haven't given up on this window yet - although it's pretty obvious plenty have.

It has to be a nightmare being the club spokesman. Even at the opening press conference after his appointment he was stuck out there all on his own. In the mean time the man who apparently runs the club, the sly creep Llambias, skulks around in the shadows and hangs the bloke out to dry. AP has supported the board and he now needs some support. Let's see it. I know some on here say he deserves any crap he gets for being part of a conspiracy to oust Hughton. But I don't buy that, he didn't make the decision to sack Hughton. He was offered a job and took it. I also think he's a better manager than Hughton but that's another issue I guess.

All the sound ones want him to stay. Don't get personal here dude. It's all in good jest!