Jackie Broon

Thomas Gravesen, Olivier Bernard. What goes around comes around.

I think there's a good chance of that now. Spurs have signed Modric, so they're not going to want to splash out £7m+ on another left winger. I can't see Arsenal being interested at the money we would want either. That leaves who in London, West Ham? Well their money seems to have dried-up so probably not. Certainly not Fulham and Chelsea wouldn't be interested. So it looks like he'll struggle to get his move down to London.

I doubt that's true. Tbh, if I were a top player, with no connection to Newcastle, the club would have to do some selling to get me to come here rather than London.

Lots of people have been bigging it up but I do have my concerns about our new structure and the lack of involvement of Keegan in transfer dealings. With his passion and enthusiasm for Newcastle United he could sell the club to anyone. But Wise and Jimenez? They have no connection to the club or the region. They live in London and I'm sure if they were required to move up here they would resign rather than leave the big smoke for a 'northern backwater' like Newcastle. How are they meant to sell Newcastle United to top players?

Oh right. So that's why Chelsea won 2 titles then... Playing 451. Our 433 is completely different. Ours isn't really a 433 it's more of a 442 diamond with a Owen at the tip of the diamond, Viduka up front and Martins free to drift around and provide width.

French woman,,objected and got it stopped,. think she has now departed, god rest her soul... its too late now tho,, its st james forever It would've been contrary to the city development plan, as the area is designated as a conservation area. So it would've gone to a public enquiry whatever, which gives the final say to the secretary of state. A few people protesting against it wouldn't have made one bit of difference. There are objectors to virtually every major planning application, if they had the power to stop things nothing would ever get built. When planning applications are refused it is for planning (and sometimes political) reasons, not because of individuals protesting. But the application for Castle Leazes wasn't refused. For whatever reason John Hall pulled the plans before the process had really started. Who knows what the final decision of the secretary of state would've been, Liverpool's stadium on Stanley park was approved at public enquiry, despite local residents objecting to it. Tbh, I think it was probably pulled for financial reasons more than anything, when it became clear there was no money in the 'sporting club' idea. As for other sites. Well, the area of moorland over the road from the BBC isn't designated as part of the town moor.

They finance themselves, the money they spend they generate, they have a strict pay structure and they don't spend more then they generate. 3/4 New kits EVERY season generates a lot of money, add that to their sponsorship deals. We make roughly double what Spurs do from merchandising. Anyway, merchandising and sponsorship are only a small proportion of a club's revenue, the majority comes from match-day revenue and TV money. Because they charge London prices they make a bit more from match-day revenue, but not much. Yes but we pay out over half our income on wages they don't. They don't, yet. That'll change if they carry on as they are.

Can I change my vote to Diego?

They finance themselves, the money they spend they generate, they have a strict pay structure and they don't spend more then they generate. 3/4 New kits EVERY season generates a lot of money, add that to their sponsorship deals. We make roughly double what Spurs do from merchandising. Anyway, merchandising and sponsorship are only a small proportion of a club's revenue, the majority comes from match-day revenue and TV money. Because they charge London prices they make a bit more from match-day revenue, but not much.

Oh well. Plenty more fish in the sea.

If that's true, I wonder where it leaves N'Zogbia? It looked like he was off to Spurs with Modric coming here as his replacement. If they get Modric they'll probably have no interest in signing Zog.

The council handle the process but have to get the OK from English Heritage. Anyway, the club don't own it. It's a prime piece of real estate, f*** knows what it would be worth if the uni decided to sell. It's a non-starter for a plethora of reasons. If we want to expand the stadium the only realistic way to do it is above the gallowgate.

Bramble has been quite good for Wigan, other than a couple of mishaps. Certainly no worse than Rozehnal and Cacapa.

I hope not. The world transfer record is £47m.

Obviously it has got to be Beye, by a long way. But I'm surprised Viduka hasn't had any votes. OK, he's has his problems with injury but he scored some vital goals early on and has been instrumental in our recent resurgence.

He was very highly rated when he was here. I remember lots of people being gutted when he left because of some sort of falling out with Peter Beardsley.

After the Blackburn match I thought we were going down, I never for a second thought we would be safe with three to play. But I always had 100% faith that Kev would turn us round and get us playing great football again, eventually. I expected that eventually to be next season.

http://www.vsilly.com/vault/vault_files/Pictures/sportingevent2.jpg

Not necessarily. The likes of Viduka, Smith, Barton, Butt, Duff will all be on big money contracts with 2-3 years to run, £40-50,000 pw or more. No one else would be willing to pay any of them that sort of money and they'll probably be quite happy to stay and keep the money rolling into their retirement funds.

That team would get murdered by and premiership side! The midfield three would offer no width and no cover for the back four. Owen and Martins have shown on numerous occasions they can't play 'in the hole' and Viduka might be big and strong but a lone striker he is not. D- Must try harder.

We've still got to play Spuds, Everton and Portsmouth away. Don't think we'll get more than a point or two at most from those.

Got the same team as you ,if the other bunch of c***s cannot do it I.E Duff ,Smith lets try another bunch of c***s. Butt has been the worst of the lot! Every time he gets the ball he attempts a 40 yard cross-field pass to no one. Without fail! We'd be better off with ten men.

Everyone seems to be going for a 4-4-2. What about an Everton-esque formation with two defensive midfielder giving the other three in midfield a bit more freedom to attack? Our main problem is the quality of our central midfield. Nowadays, in a 442 you really need two players who are complete, all round, box-to-box players equally comfortable defending or attacking. We just haven't got that. We'd be better off playing two midfielders whose job is simply to cover the back four and allow the front four to attack. ------------ Harper Beye - Cacapa - Taylor - Enrique -------- Geremi - Faye Duff ----------------------- N'Zogbia ------------- Milner ------------ Martins

Of course it's his job to motivate them, I don't see a problem with motivation, I see certain players who are not good enough, I blame Keegan for repeatedly picking the same s*** week after week, one s*** player is a handicap, three or four isn't giving us a chance. OK, Smith and Butt are s*** but what was the alternative today? N'Zogbia and Geremi? Well he has tried N'Zogbia in the centre without success and Geremi has hardly shone when he has played there either. Faye is an option too but then that leaves us having to play Taylor and Cacapa in central defence. Smith and Butt are rotten, absolutely dreadful. Keegan is no mug, he'll see that too and he's ruthless enough to do something about it in the summer (if we stay up) but for the moment those are the players he is stuck with.

Sell up to whom? I don't think there'd be many takers.