quayside

So is he - and he has something to prove. Really what is there to lose other than a lowish wage payout?

Depends on your definition of success but I don't think that's true at all. I think the club would like you to think it though. Well yeah, by success I was thinking European qualification and then pushing up into the top 4. If by success you mean getting promoted and potentially finishing in the top half, then pushing on from there... we're already doing that. Do you think Spurs are taking massive financial risks? Or even the mackems, who will probably still either bottle it or simply be caught by Liverpool, but are still very much in contention for Europe? Do you think Arsenal are taking massive financial risks? How would you have gone about running the club? Serious question. Thats a question to anyone bytheway. Don't sell the best players? Agenda aside id genuinely be interested in someones opinion as to what exactly they'd do differently. In terms of transfers I think we;ve been close to spot on in recent years. Even Spurs had to sell the likes of berba and carrick before they got estabilished. If the money is spent wisely then we're on the right way in my opinioon. Obviosuly the biggest if going. Aye, our transfers have been so spot on, we ended up going down. Jesus, man. We went down due to the utter managerial shambles post Keegan. The squad, although it contained plenty of over paid under performers, was still good enough to be in the Premiership. We'd have stayed up if we'd not sold Given, N'Zogbia and/or Milner. We'd have also stayed up if between them, Owen, Viduka, Nolan, Martins, etc. had managed one more goal between them which really shouldn't have been too much to ask? That's the second totally irrelevant reply you've made Nut. They didn't, so obviously it was too much to ask. If you go down, you go down. They don't let you off because it was a close shave. What was irrelevant about the first reply? You said we went down due to bad transfers, all I'm saying is that since we've came back we've made some very good ones. You're including Stephen Ireland on loan? We've just sold our most important player, you might have missed that. I think that tips the balance. So we'll see in the summer if they've returned to form (Jan 2009), or whether the signings his summer will follow what's happened more recently. Well the manager who made the good ones is now gone, so what's your money on? The scout who found them is still here though. Nah I'm not having that like. Just because it's Chris Hughton, he doesn't get credit for his signings? Who finds Man Utd's players then? Or Arsenal's? Not them two clowns in charge, I bet. That is unfair and ridiculous. Graham Carr wasn't even at the club when Keegan sent Hughton over to holland to watch Tiote. I'll take your word for it that Tiote was first scouted then. So Tiote was a Keegan/Hughton spot. And if Best and Perch don't work out they have to be down to Hughton of course.

Depends on your definition of success but I don't think that's true at all. I think the club would like you to think it though. Well yeah, by success I was thinking European qualification and then pushing up into the top 4. If by success you mean getting promoted and potentially finishing in the top half, then pushing on from there... we're already doing that. Do you think Spurs are taking massive financial risks? Or even the mackems, who will probably still either bottle it or simply be caught by Liverpool, but are still very much in contention for Europe? Do you think Arsenal are taking massive financial risks? How would you have gone about running the club? Serious question. Thats a question to anyone bytheway. Don't sell the best players? Agenda aside id genuinely be interested in someones opinion as to what exactly they'd do differently. In terms of transfers I think we;ve been close to spot on in recent years. Even Spurs had to sell the likes of berba and carrick before they got estabilished. If the money is spent wisely then we're on the right way in my opinioon. Obviosuly the biggest if going. Aye, our transfers have been so spot on, we ended up going down. Jesus, man. We went down due to the utter managerial shambles post Keegan. The squad, although it contained plenty of over paid under performers, was still good enough to be in the Premiership. We'd have stayed up if we'd not sold Given, N'Zogbia and/or Milner. We'd have also stayed up if between them, Owen, Viduka, Nolan, Martins, etc. had managed one more goal between them which really shouldn't have been too much to ask? That's the second totally irrelevant reply you've made Nut. They didn't, so obviously it was too much to ask. If you go down, you go down. They don't let you off because it was a close shave. What was irrelevant about the first reply? You said we went down due to bad transfers, all I'm saying is that since we've came back we've made some very good ones. You're including Stephen Ireland on loan? We've just sold our most important player, you might have missed that. I think that tips the balance. So we'll see in the summer if they've returned to form (Jan 2009), or whether the signings his summer will follow what's happened more recently. Well the manager who made the good ones is now gone, so what's your money on? The scout who found them is still here though. Nah I'm not having that like. Just because it's Chris Hughton, he doesn't get credit for his signings? Who finds Man Utd's players then? Or Arsenal's? Not them two clowns in charge, I bet. That is unfair and ridiculous. I am sure you are right that Ferguson and Wenger rely on their scouts. My point was that Graham Carr became our chief scout in February 2010 since when the players we have paid money to buy have been Ben Arfa and Tiote. Hughton may have gone but Carr is still here.

Depends on your definition of success but I don't think that's true at all. I think the club would like you to think it though. Well yeah, by success I was thinking European qualification and then pushing up into the top 4. If by success you mean getting promoted and potentially finishing in the top half, then pushing on from there... we're already doing that. Do you think Spurs are taking massive financial risks? Or even the mackems, who will probably still either bottle it or simply be caught by Liverpool, but are still very much in contention for Europe? Do you think Arsenal are taking massive financial risks? How would you have gone about running the club? Serious question. Thats a question to anyone bytheway. Don't sell the best players? Agenda aside id genuinely be interested in someones opinion as to what exactly they'd do differently. In terms of transfers I think we;ve been close to spot on in recent years. Even Spurs had to sell the likes of berba and carrick before they got estabilished. If the money is spent wisely then we're on the right way in my opinioon. Obviosuly the biggest if going. Aye, our transfers have been so spot on, we ended up going down. Jesus, man. We went down due to the utter managerial shambles post Keegan. The squad, although it contained plenty of over paid under performers, was still good enough to be in the Premiership. We'd have stayed up if we'd not sold Given, N'Zogbia and/or Milner. We'd have also stayed up if between them, Owen, Viduka, Nolan, Martins, etc. had managed one more goal between them which really shouldn't have been too much to ask? That's the second totally irrelevant reply you've made Nut. They didn't, so obviously it was too much to ask. If you go down, you go down. They don't let you off because it was a close shave. What was irrelevant about the first reply? You said we went down due to bad transfers, all I'm saying is that since we've came back we've made some very good ones. You're including Stephen Ireland on loan? We've just sold our most important player, you might have missed that. I think that tips the balance. So we'll see in the summer if they've returned to form (Jan 2009), or whether the signings his summer will follow what's happened more recently. Well the manager who made the good ones is now gone, so what's your money on? The scout who found them is still here though.

Depends on your definition of success but I don't think that's true at all. I think the club would like you to think it though. Well yeah, by success I was thinking European qualification and then pushing up into the top 4. If by success you mean getting promoted and potentially finishing in the top half, then pushing on from there... we're already doing that. Do you think Spurs are taking massive financial risks? Or even the mackems, who will probably still either bottle it or simply be caught by Liverpool, but are still very much in contention for Europe? Do you think Arsenal are taking massive financial risks? How would you have gone about running the club? Serious question. Thats a question to anyone bytheway. Don't sell the best players? Agenda aside id genuinely be interested in someones opinion as to what exactly they'd do differently. In terms of transfers I think we;ve been close to spot on in recent years. Even Spurs had to sell the likes of berba and carrick before they got estabilished. If the money is spent wisely then we're on the right way in my opinioon. Obviosuly the biggest if going. Aye, our transfers have been so spot on, we ended up going down. Jesus, man. We went down due to the utter managerial shambles post Keegan. The squad, although it contained plenty of over paid under performers, was still good enough to be in the Premiership. We'd have stayed up if we'd not sold Given, N'Zogbia and/or Milner. Not without coherent management we wouldn't. We were a complete wreck management wise that season. They all wanted out anyway.

If this is true I'm looking forward to his first interview to see whether the accent that was a 50/50 mix of Cockney and French has now got a bit of smog in it.

Depends on your definition of success but I don't think that's true at all. I think the club would like you to think it though. Well yeah, by success I was thinking European qualification and then pushing up into the top 4. If by success you mean getting promoted and potentially finishing in the top half, then pushing on from there... we're already doing that. Do you think Spurs are taking massive financial risks? Or even the mackems, who will probably still either bottle it or simply be caught by Liverpool, but are still very much in contention for Europe? Do you think Arsenal are taking massive financial risks? How would you have gone about running the club? Serious question. Thats a question to anyone bytheway. Don't sell the best players? Agenda aside id genuinely be interested in someones opinion as to what exactly they'd do differently. In terms of transfers I think we;ve been close to spot on in recent years. Even Spurs had to sell the likes of berba and carrick before they got estabilished. If the money is spent wisely then we're on the right way in my opinioon. Obviosuly the biggest if going. Aye, our transfers have been so spot on, we ended up going down. Jesus, man. We went down due to the utter managerial shambles post Keegan. The squad, although it contained plenty of over paid under performers, was still good enough to be in the Premiership.

Pissed off with Ben Arfa as well. And Tiote is just a card magnet. The sooner we purge the club of contaminated effluent like this the better. I understand the sentiment of the post, but Tiote is actually an overly aggressive card magnet who needs to stop being an idiot. Good player, but does some foolish things. Agree. There was a hint of irony in my post

Pissed off with Ben Arfa as well. And Tiote is just a card magnet. The sooner we purge the club of contaminated effluent like this the better.

Depends on your definition of success but I don't think that's true at all. I think the club would like you to think it though. Well yeah, by success I was thinking European qualification and then pushing up into the top 4. If by success you mean getting promoted and potentially finishing in the top half, then pushing on from there... we're already doing that. Do you think Spurs are taking massive financial risks? Or even the mackems, who will probably still either bottle it or simply be caught by Liverpool, but are still very much in contention for Europe? Do you think Arsenal are taking massive financial risks? Spurs and Arsenal are both very well run clubs and are not taking massive financial risks. If there is to be any semblance of hope for us under Ashley it is that he is attempting to mould us into something based on how those clubs operate. I understand that plenty will scoff at that suggestion. But imo he is either doing that or getting ready for a sale. I honestly don't know which.

The accounts are obviously going to look a lot better this season (even if you ignore the Carroll deal) but up until now I think the only thing that was stable about the club's finances was that the debt was owed to the owner rather than a bank. Relegation wasn't necessary to get us where we are. Not that i want to get into a whole "relegation was good" debate but without relegation would we of realisitcally moved on the high earning wasters that were embedded at the club?! I say this because I can't see a scenario where any players who we'd have liked to of offloaded were offloaded and replaced without compromising on the quality of the squad allowing us to compete in the divisiopn anyway. Basically if we had cut our losses on the deadwood, i didnt envisage a situation where they'd of been replaced adequately enough to compete in the league anyway. The drop in quality of football allowed us to not strengthen as much, cut the wasters and still keep enough quality to get us back in in a much better situation. I think a reduction in the wage bill and a "cleansing" of the squad was quite possible without relegation. I would imagine that the players out and players in might not have been the same as they were but a big reduction in the wage bill could still have been possible. The next set of accounts will show the drop in revenue when the club got relegated. I will be interested to see what it is but if I had to guess I would say about £30 million down on the previous season. That's a huge chunk of money. Imo it was not necessary to surrender that revenue in order to put the club on a footing whereby it is not haemorrhaging money.

The accounts are obviously going to look a lot better this season (even if you ignore the Carroll deal) but up until now I think the only thing that was stable about the club's finances was that the debt was owed to the owner rather than a bank. Relegation wasn't necessary to get us where we are.

and he is/was(?) engaged to Leilani Dowding And according to Wiki his current partner is a software engineer from Manchester called Mark Boyd

Aliadiere has an astonishing English accent. His interviews always used to crack me up - well worth the effort for that alone imo.

Good player who has everything to his game....except goals which might be a problem. Yeah, that can be a problem for some strikers. Haven't followed his career much. Has he not got a gig these days simply because he's been crap? Edit: Ok got the answer to this now. Got injured and didn't take up an offer from Boro.

Means nothing. There were more than 3 teams worse than us in 2009 and we still went down. No there wasnt. We were f***ing terrible when we went down and were rightly so relegated. This time, we have been much better and have players to come back into the team that will make a huge difference to our game. Missed the point. Of course we were terrible but only because of the managerial screw ups and our players grossly under performing. Apart from Boro and WBA who also went down we had better squads than Hull, Sunderland, Blackburn and that's without even looking into it in any depth. I don't think we'll go down either btw. I had us down as coming 15th right at the beginning of the season and I would still stick with that.

I have said much the same on here before. We could easily end up with someone worse. Has anyone paused to think what might have happened if Baz Moat had got his mits on it? In football terms the man is an out and out pauper. At least Ashley can fund his own cock ups.

would take him till the end of the season but looks like he`d doing a Winston Bogarde and just prefer to pocket the cash despite not even being registered. A lump of lard with nothing to gain from putting in a shift is exactly what we need.

Means nothing. There were more than 3 teams worse than us in 2009 and we still went down.

Players were not brought in because, other than Ben Arfa, there were no good value deals to be had. There seldom is value to be had in January unless you are selling a player. The high profile transfers in the last few weeks have all been done at what could conservatively be described as very full prices. The club's current buying policy is based on looking for value and nothing else, if no value is to be found then they will plug gaps with a loan. If none of that is available they will do nothing. The lateness of the Carroll deal meant that there were no loan players left who were worth looking at let alone a player for sale at a decent price. There was clearly a high expectation that Routledge would be replaced but Ireland isn't really that replacement. Gaps were not plugged in this transfer window they were opened up. It's going to be an interesting 3 months.

Can we only judge him when we play well? Fair point - he must be judged on what we do on the pitch. I think there was a negative vibe around tonight and he didn't overcome it so yes he came up short I suppose.

Tonight just isn't a great night to be trying to judge what Pardew can or can't do. We're all pissed off about Carroll and we're all pissed of about losing a nailed on 0-0 with Fulham. F uck it tbh.

As he has been whenever he's been on the pitch for us this season....

I've only known one West Ham fan and he hates him with a passion and couldn't wait to see him go. Ah well that's the problem with trying to find a proper sample to get an objective opinion

I'm not sure how good he was for West Ham, he got them promoted but almost relegated them while refusing to play Teves and his mate. I do think a lot of their fans liked him. The feedback I get is that he liked to set up sides to attack and he's good at the media stuff. Fair point about Tevez and Mascherano but he didn't sign them and, as it turned out, neither was legally registered as I understand it.