bobbydazzla

or is Sports Direct a decent shop that sells great brands to people at bargain prices and you get value for money by going there or is Sports Direct a hellhole full of bargain basement tat and people only shop there because it's cheap and you think you're getting a bargain, but it's actually just gash

This. I'm not saying we're doing poor business in this tranfer window. We're buying actually good players for almost nothing. Sadly, by splashing virtually no cash, it seems to me that it's same old Mike Ashley. My thoughts exactly. He's running the club how he runs his other businesses with his market trader mentality. If it works then we've got a strong financial footing and a decent squad that cost very little and is on lower than average wages. If it doesn't work then it's the old case of penny wise, pound foolish. And ultimately football is a very different industry to flogging sportswear. What impresses me about Ashley is he's not afraid to back his judgement and make an unorthodox decision. He doesn't follow the crowd, he thinks things out for himself. At first, he got things wrong, but he's learned. At some stage since he bought the club, he must have asked why he was buying players for x millions when similar players could be available on a free or for fractions of the amount. Simple as that, really. All he's done is just apply his usual business methods to NUFC. Why bother selling decent sportswear brands in Lillywhites when you end up paying Nike, Adidas etc premium prices to stock their products ? Just buy yourself some sportswear companies that are available for very little (Lonsdale, Slazenger), stick the products in the shop at cheap prices, the masses flock to lap up the "bargains" and you make a massive profit for yourself. It makes financial sense but it's also a one dimensional / cheap & nasty approach. Personally I think given the history of NUFC's purchases under Shepherd we need to be more prudent and picking up players on the cheap is sensible, but to build a genuinely decent squad we'll also have to spend some money on decent, well researched signings who may cost more than £5m. And I'm not convinced Ashley is willing to do that going forward.

This. I'm not saying we're doing poor business in this tranfer window. We're buying actually good players for almost nothing. Sadly, by splashing virtually no cash, it seems to me that it's same old Mike Ashley. My thoughts exactly. He's running the club how he runs his other businesses with his market trader mentality. If it works then we've got a strong financial footing and a decent squad that cost very little and is on lower than average wages. If it doesn't work then it's the old case of penny wise, pound foolish. And ultimately football is a very different industry to flogging sportswear.

depends on how you view the signings: experienced players who have been vital to the positive dressing room atmosphere being sold or made available for sale and replaced by cheaper players who are unproven in England and some also have dodgy injury records. or older, overpaid players whose best years are behind them being replaced by younger, hungry talent who are being paid sensible wages and have something to prove in a new league.

I have know idea what he is saying. Newcastle bringing 3 players over for talks this weekend. His hotel is full so players staying at Marriott, will find out names on monday those blokes will get a bit miffed having to change hotels like. anyone been detailed to stake out ben arfa intternational airport ? pretty sure the club normally put players up at Jesmond Dene House don't they ? I think that might be the one I'm going to a wedding there today so could explain why there's no rooms available for players....

If we're on about how the squad will shape up then what's the thoughts on keepers ? I reckon Harper will be off, been very vocal to anyone who will listen about how he thinks his days are numbered. We going to have Krul starting and Forster on the bench ?

I have know idea what he is saying. Newcastle bringing 3 players over for talks this weekend. His hotel is full so players staying at Marriott, will find out names on monday those blokes will get a bit miffed having to change hotels like. anyone been detailed to stake out ben arfa intternational airport ? pretty sure the club normally put players up at Jesmond Dene House don't they ?

Carter USM were the first band I ever went to see live. Think it was 1992 / 93. It was ace.

It's a right load of nonsensical blather. You can tell it's the silly season. An as yet unidentified French footballer visits clothes shop in Newcastle and during conversation he says he's here discussing a possible move to NUFC. What's nonsensical about that ? I only posted it as I thought it might be Gevinho but I now know it wasn't him.

It's looking like the only option. It's doing both mine and my brother's head in not being able to work it out. If I find out it's that kid from Lens but his skin is actually darker than in the pics we've seen online then I'll be properly p*ssed off at how much time I've wasted....

Talk about being pedantic. In the post from 2007 I didn't say no-one knew about Smith signing, it was an update on what he said to my brother (the good friend) on how the negotiations were progressing well and that he was hoping to put pen to paper the following day. In the thread today I said I knew about Smith "before it was made public", which I intended to mean before the signing was confirmed by the club.

Yes, of course that happened. Yes it did smartarse. He was in my brothers shop, my brother was chatting to him as he showed him round, he asked him what he was doing over here and he said he was discussing a contract. Same happened when Smith signed. I knew about that before it was made public. I also knew Keegan was returning when his name wasn't in the frame. My brother made a load of money at the bookies on that one. But we both lost a few quid when Steve McLaren appeared in the shop when he was managing Twente and we were supposed to be interviewing for a new manager. I was confused that one says 'a good mate' and the other is 'my brother' It's my brother. I was probably just deliberately being vague about the source and shop name etc on the Smith thread.

Of course, could be anyone if true, but the fact of the French fixtures does make a lot of players eliminated particularly those guessed at so far. It's true. My first thought was that it was the kid from Lens but my brother checked his pic and said it definitely wasn't. Then I thought Gervinho but if he's still got the dreads it wasn't him. So we are trying to suss it out but it's obviously a little bit tricky given there's more than a handful of black, french players. My brother has been looking at the pics of most players we've been linked with that fit the bill and we've not spotted him yet. He was a similar skin colour to Tiote and had the build of a DM / CB. Apparantly he reminded him of Essien but unfortunately for us it definitely wasn't him. Which is a shame. Could be that LB cheikh m'bengue. google him and see if it is him. Have passed the name on to him so he can have a look. Although it's his lasses b'day today so I suspect she won't be letting him spend the day staring at pics of black blokes on the internet. It's doing our heads in not being able to work out who it is so if we can't suss it he's going to check the CCTV to see if there's a decent pic of the blokes face !

Yes, of course that happened. Yes it did smartarse. He was in my brothers shop, my brother was chatting to him as he showed him round, he asked him what he was doing over here and he said he was discussing a contract. Same happened when Smith signed. I knew about that before it was made public. I also knew Keegan was returning when his name wasn't in the frame. My brother made a load of money at the bookies on that one. But we both lost a few quid when Steve McLaren appeared in the shop when he was managing Twente and we were supposed to be interviewing for a new manager.

Someone already asked that, it's Jules B. Loads of the footballers shop there.

Of course, could be anyone if true, but the fact of the French fixtures does make a lot of players eliminated particularly those guessed at so far. It's true. My first thought was that it was the kid from Lens but my brother checked his pic and said it definitely wasn't. Then I thought Gervinho but if he's still got the dreads it wasn't him. So we are trying to suss it out but it's obviously a little bit tricky given there's more than a handful of black, french players. My brother has been looking at the pics of most players we've been linked with that fit the bill and we've not spotted him yet. He was a similar skin colour to Tiote and had the build of a DM / CB. Apparantly he reminded him of Essien but unfortunately for us it definitely wasn't him. Which is a shame.

Exactly. If Gervhino has had his hair cut then he might have been here y'day, which wouldn't be a surprise given the quotes in the press. And if he still has the dreads then some other french bloke was here to talk about a contract but at the moment I have no idea who it was.

Your brother is an employee of the highest quality You must be prOud we've struggled to patch up our differences after he didn't bother buying me an Xmas present in 2001.

Which shop? Jules B.

He works in a clothes shop where a lot of the footballers go. He chats to customers when they're in there but doesn't need to ask them what they're called, he's there to do his job and treat the customers well, not come across like some desperate NUFC fanboy. And in the end this french bloke never bought anything so he couldn't see the name on the card etc. As i said in the first post, we're trying to work out who it could have been and I thought it might be Gervhino but only if he's lost the dreads. And the smartarse responses doubting the story aren't really helping are they....

Yes, of course that happened. Yes it did smartarse. He was in my brothers shop, my brother was chatting to him as he showed him round, he asked him what he was doing over here and he said he was discussing a contract. Same happened when Smith signed. I knew about that before it was made public.

Does he definitely still have them daft dreads ? There was a french player in a shop on Acorn Road in Jesmond y'day - mid 20's, black, quite a big lad. Said he was here to discuss terms with NUFC. But he didn't have dreads. It wasn't that new kid from Lens so trying to suss out who it could be.......

Fuck off.

we have an underperforming, de-motivated, want-away, threadbare squad we have an awol, clueless owner who is a tightarsed cunt our recruitment director is scared to be seen at the ground our manager was a last ditch, scraping the bottom of the barrel appointment who has been out of the game for years and wasn't even that good when he was in the game we have tossed away hugely important points at home to teams we should really be beating we rareley win on the road we have relegation written all over us. how the fuck can anyone say otherwise ? since the season went sour people have been saying we had winnable games coming up and should steer ourselves clear of trouble. Well guess what fucknuts, we didn't.

at least a fruitless cup run won't interfere with our all important relegation battle.