quayside

We probably offered him less than what he's earning at Cardiff. Our thinking would have been he's a fringe England player, we are a step up for him and hence his England chances will increase so he'll go for it. Obviously didn't work - anyone that bothered?

I also had a go at Hughton when he made a mistake, that’s life. The thing with Hughton was that he didn't have the flaws that were seeing from Pardew. I do not believe for one minute that we would have seen the display against Stevenage under Hughton and we wouldn’t be going into the mackem game thread bare. I have no doubt at all that we wouldn’t be going into the mackem game without Tiote if Hughton was still here. My point is, Hughton makes a mistake and the majority stick up him. Pardew makes the same mistake and he gets criticised. For what it's worth, I'm not defending him here, just playing devils advocate. I think he's at utter c*** and should learn to keep his mouth shut, the Stevenage performance was absolutely disgusting but I won't criticise his results overall because he's won 3 of the 4 of the games I'd have expected us to win - he's not doing a bad job. As it stands I agree with a lot of that - but the bit I really disagree with is that the majority stuck up for Hughton when he made mistakes. Don't think they did at the time.

Taken from HERE Of course it would be far better to say that Shola is fairly shyte but he's all we've got so he's playing.

Being a ref. He's s*** hot at darts isn't he? played cricket for seaham or easington aswell didn't he ? Very low handicap at golf too.

Could Nolan not get into bother for saying stuff like that? Managers who criticise referees get fined so if a player does the same, and in fact goes further by criticising the appeal process, he is surely asking for it? Mind you a fine won't make much difference to Nolan or anyone for that matter.

Yup - two absolutely massive signings. But those really were different times. Bobby was allowed to gamble a bit and had a margin for error, and he earned the right to do that. But that's not the way it's done now. And I don't just mean us. Only Man City are playing that game and we all know their financial situation. Most clubs are trying to keep it tight and transfer dealings are subject to much more scrutiny. Rafa Benitez was the last of the old style "let's have a punt" managers and he looks like nothing more than an anachronism now, with the current squad at Liverpool as his legacy.

If the decision to sack CH is going to have any credibility then the replacement manager has to convince us that he's making a difference. Up until Stevenage (which was a complete embarrassment) I was onside. We'd lost to two very good sides but we'd done the scousers which, even given their problems, was a good result. We'd also lifted maximum points off Wigan and WHam without Andy Carroll. IMO the key to making a difference is getting important results when key players are missing and AP had done that. It's hypothetical (of course) but you have to wonder if Leon Best would have scored that match changing hat trick if CH was in charge that night, in fact would he have even been on the pitch? Now the test is for AP to get some acceptable results without Tiote. And yes you have to question the wisdom of bringing Tiote on in the Stevenage game. Obviously AP thought Tiote would kill the midfield and totally prevent Stevenage having the ball and so give us a chance to get back in the match. It backfired horribly. Sunderland away is a tough game and if we gets anything he's done alright. We've then got the Yids at home and Fulham away. For me anything over 3 points is an ok return from the next 3 games.

There was just something different about last season that I can't quite put my finger on... Yup point made. But we have watched Simpson step up this season and astonishingly witnessed Leon Best score a Premiership hat trick (and some very good Premiership strikers have never done that). So maybe Danny Guthrie will be the next one to shove it up our ar5es - he was a KK signing too (allegedly). I can't see it, the lad has always had no engine at all and I can't see that changing. He doesn't get the space in this league and doesn't have the energy or sprint to make up for it. The jury is still very much out on Best, Simpson definitely looks much improved but then he has the attributes to improve upon. I can't disagree with that. I was simply making the point that a number of us have been surprised by some of our squad (Caroll included).

So Pards makes the call but Llambias won't close the deal. F*ck me where's all this going?

There was just something different about last season that I can't quite put my finger on... Yup point made. But we have watched Simpson step up this season and astonishingly witnessed Leon Best score a Premiership hat trick (and some very good Premiership strikers have never done that). So maybe Danny Guthrie will be the next one to shove it up our ar5es - he was a KK signing too (allegedly).

Even if his contract is running down he's worth more than £6m to us.

As sensible an addition to this current talk as any. Wages are wages, unless they're going to bankrupt us - unlikely with Ashley in charge - then I couldn't give a s***. Sure, some of them are robbing a living but they would be even if they were on £10k a week and that's classed as nothing these days. People talk about wages like they are playing FM (I bet half of the time that's where they get their 'info' from) and it's embarrassing. Dave in our accounts it said our expenditure on wages in 2008/09 was 72M, that is fact. So the figures bandied around are not far off the truth tbh when you fill in the blanks, also it was widely reported the ashley forgot to put relegation clauses in the players contracts hence why the papers reported how much some of our players would be earning in the championship. I'm shocked we had I would say Enrique, Nolan, Guiterrez are all on around 50k. Smith, Barton and Coloccini around the 60-70k mark. Carroll and Saylor on around 40k mark now. Raylor, Simpson, Routledge, Shola etc 25k. Your man in accounts is right about the total wage bill in 2008/2009 being about £72m but I doubt it is anywhere near that level now. Owen, Viduka, Geremi, Duff, Martins, Butt, Beye, Cacapa have all gone and been replaced with cheaper models. ;D

As sensible an addition to this current talk as any. Wages are wages, unless they're going to bankrupt us - unlikely with Ashley in charge - then I couldn't give a s***. Sure, some of them are robbing a living but they would be even if they were on £10k a week and that's classed as nothing these days. People talk about wages like they are playing FM (I bet half of the time that's where they get their 'info' from) and it's embarrassing. Dave in our accounts it said our expenditure on wages in 2008/09 was 72M, that is fact. So the figures bandied around are not far off the truth tbh when you fill in the blanks, also it was widely reported the ashley forgot to put relegation clauses in the players contracts hence why the papers reported how much some of our players would be earning in the championship. I'm shocked we had I would say Enrique, Nolan, Guiterrez are all on around 50k. Smith, Barton and Coloccini around the 60-70k mark. Carroll and Saylor on around 40k mark now. Raylor, Simpson, Routledge, Shola etc 25k. Your man in accounts is right about the total wage bill in 2008/2009 being about £72m but I doubt it is anywhere near that level now. Owen, Viduka, Geremi, Duff, Martins, Butt, Beye, Cacapa have all gone and been replaced with cheaper models.

A bit harsh. For the Southampton area she's about as good as it gets.

Think that's someone else's wife Pards was shagging (allegedly).

Whatever Pards may or not be as a football manager he's got reasonable taste in women (allegedly).

I've certainly heard a rumour that this alleged affair was one of the reasons Pards was booted out of Southampton. So it sounds like in return for having a stab at his wife Pards made a promise that he would get Fonte a lucrative move to a Premiership club - and they are all mates now

Yup - expected better on here tbh.

Pardew had him at Southampton. Was no one safe from the randy f*cker?

Yup that was a good win for you lot. I saw you played with two up front which iirc has not been your usual tactic this season.

Routledge is ganning to the scousers man, £8 million deal.....

Its a squad thing. Its about having serious options as, when Taylor went off last night, we had Williamson coming on instead of someone like Ramage or Huntington.

I´m very nervous to see what type of players he will bring. really nervous. I don't know why - he made some very good signings at West Ham. HAYDEN MULLINS [/first] He didn't cost them much. I was thinking of Reo Coker, Green, Harewood, Cole. All of them were cheap, the club made huge profits on Reo Coker and Harewood and the other two are still there and, whether they should be or not, both are England internationals. He also signed Dean Ashton, a great player who was desperately unlucky with injuries.