thenige

:clap:

I asked this before but never got an answer - was he ever told/awarded anything in regards to him being our 'Player of the Season'? What a legend.

this. whatever people think of charlie's attitude give him enough time on the pitch in the right position and he'll do SOMETHING i've got a huge blind spot here with duff, what the f*** is keegan doing? maybe trying to shop window the little guiness swiller into oblivion, no other explanation, none Duff hasn't had a pre-season for a number of years, he had a pretty nasty injury and finally looks a bit like the £5m 'bargain' we snatched from underneath Spurs noses. I'll totally agree I was hoping we'd get rid at the start of the summer, and this is certainly his last chance for us, but why not give the player one last chance if he actually is finally showing some promise for the club?

Never thought I'd say this, but on pre-season form Duff would walk into our team. Looks sharp, quality has been there and looks as though he's remembered how to beat a man. Unfortunately against Man Utd, they'll already know he'll ALWAYS look to go on his left foot...

They were twats weren't they? Riled me right up at the start when one of them was like "Steven Taylor, who I think was the clubs Player of the Season last year..." It's like nobody knows Beye exists and if they do they just don't give a crap.

No offence mate but Edgar was dreadful last night. Couldn't do anything right, his passing was awful and he just looked lost for most of the game. To be honest from that display I'd rather have Ramage there.

Can't really see these pre-season matches as anything more than fitness games simply because we can't honestly judge a nine-man team. Playing with no strikers to speak of whatsoever really doesn't help.

Still can't believe people are so gutted that we might have to play Andy Carroll. I say give him his shot, he can't be any worse than Smith and Shola connection, and he needs the experience. His spell at Preston last year was a bit of a nightmare, so let him prove his worth.

Probably Owen, especially for reputation, but I'd say Given would still be in the mix.

Er, no. In fairness Guthrie, Bassong and Krul all had decent enough games from what I heard - what he said was a stretch but it wasn't as bad as say a Tottenham fan saying that they'll sign David Villa.

And one other thing, I'm fairly certain the TV revenue payments are paid out throughout the year these days, not in one lump sum as they were in the past.

I'm only going to respond to one point of this typical Ashleyite garbage as I really can't be arsed repeating what I and a number of people who have managed to remove theitr heads from the sand have said thousands of times before. But this one is just not sinking in is it ? FFS he didn't "Loose" any money paying off "our" debts. It's his debts, debts he should have been aware of when he purchased the club if he'd done his due dilligence. If he hasn't budgeted enough money to pay for a club who were in debt, that's his stupid fault but I don't think he's that stupid. All the evidence points to trying to make a quick profit on the club, a little investment in the first team would change that perception, with only 20 days to go till the start of the season, we are still waiting. Debts yes he was aware of, and aware enough to know that he'd get money down the line (in this case TV money) to replace the money he spent paying off the debt. Why the hell should he be expected to come into a club, throw loads of money at a debt he's aware of and just write it off? He bought the club because he managed to get it at a lesser value - because of certain debts. We're only speculating but I'd say a clever man would only buy a club if he had the opportunity to make that money back somewhere down the line. If he doesn't go on a mass spending spree and keeps the TV money or whatever, then he's done that. I couldn't care less if I'm called an 'Ashleyite', I just want someone at the club who is spending within the realms of what it can financially afford - and that was something that wasn't happening under the previous regime. We all know nobody should invest in football if they're looking to make a profit, unless it's a quick sell. To be honest, if Ashley does want to make a quick sale, I really wouldn't be that bothered. He's invested in our youth team, changed a vast majority of the infrastucture at the club and generally made us a much more sound business and football propersition. Some people seem to have both very limited patience, and very very short memories. We have a squad already which is capable of performing to a decent level, it's just under Big Sam we never used our players to their potential. Yes I'm aware the squad is small, and that certain positions are lacking back-up, but that's why we're investing in youth, so we don't have to spend millions on backups and stars when we have them coming through and learning from the players around them. I know it's probably pointless for me to even post this, you'll disagree and you'll be bitching and whining until we go out and sign some superstar on crazy wages - but we have to back Keegan and his players, we have to back the way the club is run at the moment because it has been so much worse in the past and we really don't know what direction we're heading in. There just isn't any point having a go at the board when they're taking their time and trying to do things right in terms of getting stability. And I don't often do this, but ffs if you're going to make a massive point about a word by highlighting it, please at least spell it right 'Loose' is not the same as 'lose'. I'll agree , I don't know what's up with my spelling and typing this morning, I'm even worse than I usually am this morning. Anyway how many times do I have to repeat the same thing before you take it in ? HIS debt, not ours, HIS debt. When he agreed a price for the club factoring in the debt should have been in his equation. I don't give a flying f*** if he has had to write off debt. Yes there is a balancing act between paying off the debt and investing in the team. The problem is we are seeing no attempt at balancing this out, investment has been pathetic so far when revenue generated by sales is taken into account. TBH I would rather he invested some of the cash he's apparently used to pay off the debt on a few more signings. A club going places with a manageable amount of debt is far more preferable to a club who is debt free but sinking into nothingness. At the end of the day what we should expect is for him to invest wisely in the club, if by his investing he makes a nice profit then as long as there is success on the pitch, few could complain. Not too many of us are asking for him to spend bucket loads here, we accept that the club needed a restructure. All we are asking is for him to start spending enough for us not to have to accept yet another season of mediocrity. We have a paper thin squad and the time for action is now, if you can't see that he needs to get a move on then I'm sorry but you've got your head so far up Ashley's arse you can see Dave's feet. What is mediocrity though? For me playing entertaining football and finishing 8th would be better than playing shocking football and finishing 6th. I'm part of the 'entertainers' breed, I just want us to play football on the deck and score some goals. Also I think the lack of faith people have in the current squad is somewhat depressing. I really think we have a much better squad than people give us credit for. Fair enough there is some total pap (Shola and Smith you know who you are), but there is quality elsewhere. We could do with a quality CB, back-up full backs and IMO we're crying out for a creative midfielder, but if we don't get these players I still think we have enough to push on and do something this year - when we played Chelsea last year we showed we could compete until we went down to 10 men (Smith again). I think Jonas could shock a few people and Guthrie could be a player who can step up and be a real ball player. Maybe I'm frustrating you in particular because I'm being perhaps overly optimistic, but I love this club and I believe in the direction we're heading in. Maybe I'll end up with a massive egg on my face, but I'm willing to stick my neck out and say I believe in some of the players we have at this club.

I'm only going to respond to one point of this typical Ashleyite garbage as I really can't be arsed repeating what I and a number of people who have managed to remove theitr heads from the sand have said thousands of times before. But this one is just not sinking in is it ? FFS he didn't "Loose" any money paying off "our" debts. It's his debts, debts he should have been aware of when he purchased the club if he'd done his due dilligence. If he hasn't budgeted enough money to pay for a club who were in debt, that's his stupid fault but I don't think he's that stupid. All the evidence points to trying to make a quick profit on the club, a little investment in the first team would change that perception, with only 20 days to go till the start of the season, we are still waiting. Debts yes he was aware of, and aware enough to know that he'd get money down the line (in this case TV money) to replace the money he spent paying off the debt. Why the hell should he be expected to come into a club, throw loads of money at a debt he's aware of and just write it off? He bought the club because he managed to get it at a lesser value - because of certain debts. We're only speculating but I'd say a clever man would only buy a club if he had the opportunity to make that money back somewhere down the line. If he doesn't go on a mass spending spree and keeps the TV money or whatever, then he's done that. I couldn't care less if I'm called an 'Ashleyite', I just want someone at the club who is spending within the realms of what it can financially afford - and that was something that wasn't happening under the previous regime. We all know nobody should invest in football if they're looking to make a profit, unless it's a quick sell. To be honest, if Ashley does want to make a quick sale, I really wouldn't be that bothered. He's invested in our youth team, changed a vast majority of the infrastucture at the club and generally made us a much more sound business and football propersition. Some people seem to have both very limited patience, and very very short memories. We have a squad already which is capable of performing to a decent level, it's just under Big Sam we never used our players to their potential. Yes I'm aware the squad is small, and that certain positions are lacking back-up, but that's why we're investing in youth, so we don't have to spend millions on backups and stars when we have them coming through and learning from the players around them. I know it's probably pointless for me to even post this, you'll disagree and you'll be bitching and whining until we go out and sign some superstar on crazy wages - but we have to back Keegan and his players, we have to back the way the club is run at the moment because it has been so much worse in the past and we really don't know what direction we're heading in. There just isn't any point having a go at the board when they're taking their time and trying to do things right in terms of getting stability. And I don't often do this, but ffs if you're going to make a massive point about a word by highlighting it, please at least spell it right 'Loose' is not the same as 'lose'.

What does excuse Ashley spending the £50m we and Fulham apparantly have is we have a wage bill which is probably four times the size of theirs. Likewise as people have said, we were heavily in debt which Ashley paid off, so it's only fair if he chooses so to take some of that money to replace the money he 'lost' paying off our debts. He's under no obligation to splash money aimlessly, already we have a squad which is competitive to the upper etchelons of the league, yes we need the odd player but how else are our youth players ever going to get the chance to come through if we go out and sign 3-4 average squad players to stand in their way? I'd rather have one or two years of relative averageness whilst the team is rebuilt rather than spending loads, having one have decent season then going into a relative freefall when we realise we're pretty much broke and all our players have got the 30+ stage. Just so a little bit of bloody patience - if you don't like it, don't go to matches and stop supporting the club - but if you've been through the Shepherd and Souness era then you'd be mental to quit now just when we have the opportunity to turn this club around.

We can only get in who is avaliable and who wants to join our club for the right reasons. Although it may be easy to sign players on FM it's not so easy in real life. I suggest calming the fook down, reading everything in the press with a pinch of salt and enjoy pre-season. Spouting off angry rubbish on an Internet forum isn't exactly the most productive thing to do in this case.

It's got nothing to do with whether you've spent much. It's more to do with whether you've improved your team. You could argue that the only people we've got shot of wouldn't have played anyway, and therefore we've improved our team (not squad). Spot on. We could have quite easily gone out and signed five or six players, but if they're all worse than the players we've already got - what's the point? And think back to this time last season, we got quite a few players in - but how many of those do you now regret the club signing?

Absolutely gutted for him. RIP Oba's mum.

Fantastic thread.

What he said minus the bad grammar.

Shows exactly how fickle so many people on here actually are. From being the clubs best player consistently for around five years, after one horrifically bad injury he's now practically become a dead weight. Absolutely mental.

Totally agree with this to be honest. Great servant for the club, said he'd give it a couple of seasons when O'Neill was appointed and did so. Now he wants the chance to play at the highest club level which is totally fair enough and Villa just can't get there. Feel sorry for the fans, but they have to realise sometimes players need to go up in their career, much like we did with Gazza, Waddle and Beardsley back in the day. Just shows how much football has changed over the years that returning players struggle to get warm welcomes when the come back.

Total rubbish I know, but what's to stop it helping the other team at the same time? Are they going to ask the crystals only to unleash their fantastic power on players in light blue shirts only?

So Martin Dahlin to sign yeah?

I always considered 'True Faith' to be alright, but for them to have voted Butt the player of the season is total madness. Another thing that has annoyed me is that almost across the board Beye was voted our player of the season (including on the official site) but was there ever actually any confirmation that Beye was told this? Was he presented with an award or something? Or did they just give it to Michael Owen behind closed doors to pretend we love him the most and he'll sign a new contract? Butt is a hard-working player, but for most of last season he was a liability, especially when in possession of the ball. Also from almost every interview I ever see of him he's a grumpy bastard - fingers crossed this is just his media face and he's actually a nice bloke who passes on invaluable nuggets to the youngsters.

If Andy Carroll finds himself behind the pecking order to Smith he'd do well to consider retirement to be honest.