Heron

Steve Bruce.

Proof will be this season when we see what Carroll's done at Liverpool, and what Erding & Ba have done here. We could have signed Ba anyway, and probably wouldn't even need Erding. But if Carroll doesn't live upto his price tag at Liverpool and Erding does a job here, that justifies it imo. I couldn't give a f*** what Liverpool do, nor what his price tag was. Carroll was banging them in for us, that's all I care about.

Okay, that's fair enough. Is this talking about transfers alone though or is this everything at the club?

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/2003-2011.html That's to 2003, so we're probably looking at about £10m spent net in 10 years if we consider the likes of Robert, Bellamy & Jenas? Fucking hell, that's nowt.

Is there any way you can calculate say 10 years?

Maybe this is just Jose's way of pressuring the board and he hasn't put a transfer request in because he genuinely doesn't want to leave. Maybe he's saying what a lot of fans are thinking.

He should expect reaction to his actions, and his actions have done nothing but make a mockery of our support 75% of the time. So this argument is a load of shit, in my opinion. No offence like.

When the inevitable Fabregas to Barcelona transfer goes through, Arsenal will have had an even less net spend as us since Ashley took over, maybe if they do offer for him to replace Clichy he should snub them for not showing the right ambition. It's a bit daft comparing a team who a 'there' with a one that are thousands of miles away... It's all relative though. You could argue if Arsenal spent their money properly they could win the league rather than simply fighting top 4, similarly us spending £35m might have helped us challenge 6th a bit closer, but we could still be more than capable of 8th or 9th. well yeah, it's pretty universal the criticism that Wenger gets for not investing properly to make them competitive. So not sure what point you were making there. Maybe it was another one of those situations where you argue for something you don't actually believe in? saying that, i could accept spending as little as Arsenal do on transfers if Ashley went out and hired Wenger and gave him the backing to set up his scouting and coaching network here as well as the big wages Arsenal spend. Oh well, I can dream. Arsenal have been in Champions league finals and all sorts, so they clearly have the talent to win the Premier' they just didn't have the bottle. I don't think they necessarily had to spend to have a better chance of winning stuff, they merely needed the consistency. So what's the difference between Wenger selling big and finding his bargains, and us doing the same? Arsenal can offer Champions League football, an increased possibility of winning trophies and also have household names from some of the top International sides in the world. Newcastle won the championship, have an unpredictable board that lies to it's fans, mediocre players (for the majority) and no European football. I fucking adore this club, and as much as it hurts to say it, that's where we are and where we'll continue to be for sometime, unless we start going backwards. The only other thing is to make a trophy signing, or a few quality signings to show we mean business.

When the inevitable Fabregas to Barcelona transfer goes through, Arsenal will have had an even less net spend as us since Ashley took over, maybe if they do offer for him to replace Clichy he should snub them for not showing the right ambition. It's a bit daft comparing a team who a 'there' with a one that are thousands of miles away... It's all relative though. You could argue if Arsenal spent their money properly they could win the league rather than simply fighting top 4, similarly us spending £35m might have helped us challenge 6th a bit closer, but we could still be more than capable of 8th or 9th. well yeah, it's pretty universal the criticism that Wenger gets for not investing properly to make them competitive. So not sure what point you were making there. Maybe it was another one of those situations where you argue for something you don't actually believe in? saying that, i could accept spending as little as Arsenal do on transfers if Ashley went out and hired Wenger and gave him the backing to set up his scouting and coaching network here as well as the big wages Arsenal spend. Oh well, I can dream. Arsenal have been in Champions league finals and all sorts, so they clearly have the talent to win the Premier' they just didn't have the bottle. I don't think they necessarily had to spend to have a better chance of winning stuff, they merely needed the consistency.

£6.5m on Erding, a few million on a back-up left-back. Not bad is it? I cannot really comment on Erding, but it sounds like he doesn't even want to be here from bits and pieces I've read. So, we're showing Jose the door knowing he is clearly one of the best left-backs around and proven in the Premier' but we try to sign Erding for £6.5million who also didn't want to come here? For what it's worth though, you're kind of right, assuming Erding is as good as he is supposed to be.

That £10m was just for the striker though, there was the Neil Taylor interest that coincided with it at the time. So that's at least £11m for pure transfers and goodness knows how much else when every other aspect under the sun has been included in the figure (which tends to be the way we're doing things on here these days). As I keep saying, I'm happy enough with another quality striker, cover for left-back, a replacement for Jose if he goes and then a further centre-back and right-back. However, things should have been better than that considering the wedge we got for Carroll. I agree.

When the inevitable Fabregas to Barcelona transfer goes through, Arsenal will have had an even less net spend as us since Ashley took over, maybe if they do offer for him to replace Clichy he should snub them for not showing the right ambition. It's a bit daft comparing a team who a 'there' with a one that are thousands of miles away...

£10million won't go far though on a squad that requires at the bare minimum one proven top drawer striker and cover for left back...

I wasn't sure where to put this, but here it goes; I'm fucking sick to death of excuse after excuse being made for this fat cunt in charge. At what point does it all become too much? I was chuffed with the way we finished last season, and had a genuine feeling we could push on from there if we re-invested the Carroll cash wisely and now I can't help but feel like we're going to struggle this season and just narrowly stay up (hopefully). I know it's knee-jerk, but we were one transfer window away from really putting our stamp back on the Premier League, instead we're seemingly becoming your run of the mill, mediocre club who either yo-yo's from division to division or just around mid-table in the Premier'. If we get relegated again in the next year or two, it will cripple this club.

End of the day Jose isn't disgusted enough with our lack of spending to hand in a transfer request. People are calling Modric all sorts (including Wullie I believe) but when he wanted away at least he had the nuts to hand one in and give up his loyalty bonus. It's about money and f*** all else. If Enrique puts in a transfer request people will just call him a greedy c*** and gloss over the fact that one of our best players wants to leave. Absolutely untrue. I have always been one of Enrique's biggest fans and I am gutted that he is leaving. I have no problem with him going if he can do better but to have done it this way just makes him look a mercenary looking to squeeze the most money out of the situation possible. If you are going to defend that how can you criticise Ashley for doing the same thing? It's quite simple for me; I don't believe he would want to leave if we were showing ambition to match his own. That doesn't mean trying to break into the top four this season coming of course, because I don't think it would be possible without money we don't currently have access to. But even just using the money from selling our most promising young local talent and trying to get up there would suffice. Aim for the stars and miss but you might still hit the moon and all that. All players want to play at the highest level possible, it's nonsense to imply most are happy to settle for being also-rans. There's always an excuse for why our best players want to leave. How many more good players will go before the penny drops?

At least Enrique has never lied to us...

I'm 100% behind Jose on this one.

The reason why we sold Nolan had little to do with him being happy or not. NUFC was sensible and didn't want to give him a 5 year contract, but West Ham did. His fitness is questionable and will be even more so as he gets older. The same goes for Barton too. Neither SAF or Wenger hand out lengthy contracts to players in that age group, and nobody is branding them as idiot for following that policy. With todays salaries, it's the sensible option imo. Having two aging, expensive permacrocks (worst case scenario) on the bench that no other clubs want, is not good for the club. It's this scenario we're now experiencing with Smith. He's cashing in, and we cannot reinforce the squad without him leaving. But nobody is interested in him. I'm not very business minded, but I know in any business it's important to have a contingency plan. It's all very well doing the above - but what we need to be doing is spending the cash or at least signing the players to cover these positions. In life the majority of things that have any quality also have a higher value. If we want to keep key players, we have to do so by showing some form of intent in the market. If key players are unhappy or unsettled we should be signing players to cover them then f*** them off or doing what's required to please them. This seems to have been the case with Nolan and possibly Barton, but certainly not with Carroll and seemingly not with Enrique as of yet. As far as I'm aware Jonas and Fabricio are good mates with Jose, so surely this news/ongoing saga is unsettling them too? If Jose goes, this wont be the end of it all - surely? Whilst I agree on following an Arsenal style model, you have to be incredibly skillful, experienced and even a slight but lucky to develop something the way they have. I wouldn't exactly say Newcastle has ever really been renowned for doing well as far as a scouting network goes. What I'd like to know is what is going on behind the scenes. Our management has pretty much came out and said these key players have all been offered good deals and/or that the players are want-away rather than the club simply wanting to cut the wage bill. I'd take a guess that it's somewhere between what the board tell us and what the players tell us, but whilst we're in the dark, I think I'd be trying to find the pitch with the players rather than the boardroom with Mike and Dekka. Let's not forget these are the c***s who've openly admitted to lying and misleading the support of this great club... The business plan is to replace older players with younger, hungrily and yes, cheaper versions whilst looking to promote from within. Same as most businesses really. You've just got to hope that the powers that be recognise where and when its actually right to spend a bit more cash on a particular area when the time calls for it. Again like most other businesses I agree. To a certain extent that's why I could 'take' the Nolan departure despite how much I liked him. To promote within you have to coach from within and bring players on by having someone to look up to. Jose Enrique is this for any up and coming young player and is not yet 'old' enough to be shipped out. So, just as you're saying we should be spending money on cover for him, and developing a squad rather than a team. This 'squad' is paper thin as it is, if we lose more players through injury and more kep players through sales, we could have a long hard season ahead of us.

The reason why we sold Nolan had little to do with him being happy or not. NUFC was sensible and didn't want to give him a 5 year contract, but West Ham did. His fitness is questionable and will be even more so as he gets older. The same goes for Barton too. Neither SAF or Wenger hand out lengthy contracts to players in that age group, and nobody is branding them as idiot for following that policy. With todays salaries, it's the sensible option imo. Having two aging, expensive permacrocks (worst case scenario) on the bench that no other clubs want, is not good for the club. It's this scenario we're now experiencing with Smith. He's cashing in, and we cannot reinforce the squad without him leaving. But nobody is interested in him. I'm not very business minded, but I know in any business it's important to have a contingency plan. It's all very well doing the above - but what we need to be doing is spending the cash or at least signing the players to cover these positions. In life the majority of things that have any quality also have a higher value. If we want to keep key players, we have to do so by showing some form of intent in the market. If key players are unhappy or unsettled we should be signing players to cover them then fuck them off or doing what's required to please them. This seems to have been the case with Nolan and possibly Barton, but certainly not with Carroll and seemingly not with Enrique as of yet. As far as I'm aware Jonas and Fabricio are good mates with Jose, so surely this news/ongoing saga is unsettling them too? If Jose goes, this wont be the end of it all - surely? Whilst I agree on following an Arsenal style model, you have to be incredibly skillful, experienced and even a slight but lucky to develop something the way they have. I wouldn't exactly say Newcastle has ever really been renowned for doing well as far as a scouting network goes. What I'd like to know is what is going on behind the scenes. Our management has pretty much came out and said these key players have all been offered good deals and/or that the players are want-away rather than the club simply wanting to cut the wage bill. I'd take a guess that it's somewhere between what the board tell us and what the players tell us, but whilst we're in the dark, I think I'd be trying to find the pitch with the players rather than the boardroom with Mike and Dekka. Let's not forget these are the cunts who've openly admitted to lying and misleading the support of this great club...

Tbf, I think all he is getting at is that this is the biggest derby in England due to the hatred. unfortunately, I'm of the opinion that without hatred, we'd have no passion. Just as we wouldn't without love. Love breeds hate and vice versa.

Either that or just put the American date/time or English date/time. People can work it out for themselves from there. I appreciate whoever it was, was trying, but erm...a little tip for next time sweet cheeks x

I guess I missed something too. I thought that was all he had said...

Ah okay. Someone sort out the thread title then. Which useless fucker put the wrong date on it?

I'm confused... So the game is tonight at 00:30?

I'm confused. So the game is tonight at 00:30?