bealios

Haing read the various posts over the last 24 hours or so I'm absolutely astounded that anyone can think that the club have done the right thing in all of this, regardless of your view of Barton's role in all of this.

Or Ginola after being turned down by .... Jon Salako

He was on about £3m a year, so I imagine they have settled for a figure significantly less than that - benefit to him is that he can go off and get a new contract, with (for example) £1.5m in his pocket. Benefits the club as they save some money from the £3m, and benefits the player (he gets to find some match time and still gets a fair bit of wedge, plus a new contract elsewhere). Seems like a decent bloke, but a disaster here. Only concern is that the fantastic spirit everyone talks about seems to have been based upon Nolan, Smith, Harper, and to a lesser extent Carroll and Barton. Two of those gone, two of those are likely to be a bit pissed off about contract situation, which leaves Harper, who I imagine will be under a lot of pressure from Krul/Forster next year.

If Ferguson wants rid he will be off, regardless of whether he wants to stay and fight for his place. His wages will need to be removed from the bill to help Ferguson rebuild to match Barca next year. Would love this to happen, I have visions of a Beardsley type situation where we sign him on a 3 year deal and it just brings out the best of everyone playing around him. However, can't help feel Mr Mojo is spot on - the Ashley regime will simply see a circa £17m+ outlay with no resale value. Too short sighted to see that having Berbatov sign might convince a couple of wonderkids we are tracking that we are an ambitious club. It isn't as simple as just £17m going out, convincing even one young foreign star like Ben Arfa or Tiote that we are a better option than Valencia for example might offset a large chunk of that £17m once they move on.

The situation has arisen because of the Carroll sale. After that, none of the players can be sure that the club won't ship out the core of the squad, and are more apprehensive of it than they might have been if the Carroll sale hadn't happened. Nolan is in that core. He is without a doubt one of our most important players, at least this season, and the players most likely view him as an important player for next season.

Robert did have some truly awful games where he just didn't look bothered. Although I am sure Ginola did to. Ginola edges it for me, I remember less awful games.

I think if he left this summer (not that he will), he will probably claim that he left us in a better position than when he arrived. He's probably right as well.

Jury is still out, but hasn't been as bad as I thought he might be, far from it. And I have to admit, as much as I liked Hughton, he has done it with a far worse squad to pick from, in my view. Loven and Shola as first choice pairing, enough said.

Out of interest, if he was sent off with two yellow against Chelsea, would that mean he missed West Brom on an automatic one game ban (and not trigger the 3 game ban for the bookings?)

Do you honestly think that if Enrique hadn't had his head turned the club would force him out? Enrique wants to leave, all the club can now do is maximise the amount we get for him, and replace him properly. Does it not worry you, the amount of players who seem to want to leave Newcastle? Should the club not be doing something like... making them want to stay by showing ambition? It does, but it is not surprising. In an ideal world Carroll would have stayed, and Barton and Enrique would have signed new contracts, along with Tiote. We're a newly promoted club, who seem to be just coming back from the brink of financial catastrophe. In that context, what is showing ambition? I don't think anyone can argue that the club seem to be focused now on cementing top ten finishes over the next couple of years, and I don't think anyone sensibly doubts that we will be in the top 8 spending wise this summer. The Carroll deal seems to have clouded things, and it is difficult to say if we are showing ambition or not because of that. If it wasn't for that one deal, which was ridiculous money for Carroll, then I'm not sure there is any evidence of the club showing a lack of ambition. Ben Arfa has been signed permanently, Tiote has a 6 year deal. I realise I'm falling into the "see what happens in the summer" camp, but the Carroll situation was unique really, so we do have to see what happens with replacements for Carroll (and perhaps Enrique) to see what sort of club we have to look forward to for the next 5 years.

Which bit do you disagree with? Carroll wasn't motivated by money? Liverpool are not going to be challenging for the title? Carroll would have signed for Liverpool if they had offered him £30K a week?

Do you honestly think that if Enrique hadn't had his head turned the club would force him out? Enrique wants to leave, all the club can now do is maximise the amount we get for him, and replace him properly.

course he's not, HE got exactly what HE wanted. He certainly did, an ambitious club desperate to progress and 80kpw Icing on the cake, good luck to him Bollocks, the cash was the main motivation. If it was all about picking the right club he would have hung on until a club likely to be challenging for the league in the next 5 years. Liverpool won't be, despite this recent good run Dalglish has them on. He will now spend the next 5 years at a club challenging Tottenham for 5th at best every year, because I can't see them keeping up with Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea or Man City. If Liverpool came in and offered to match his NUFC wages, do you think he would have slapped in the transfer request?

He played almost like he had been missing for most of the season and was just coming back from an period out through injury.... Top class Premier League defender, no. Defender who most clubs in the 7th - 16th bracket would snap up, yes. Therefore is worth his contract, for games such as this when we have a lot of people missing and we need to piece together a team from what we have left.

It might be the fact that I've stumbled upon a documentary on BBC2 called "Wonders of the Universe" which is narrated by Mark Lawrenson that has weirded me out a bit, but for the first time this season I find myself having massive confidence in Pardew seeing out his 5 year contract (more than Hughton anyway)

.com now updated to say back on the 5th

.com says he's out until the 19th March. Is that confirmed, or is there a chance he'll be in contention for Everton?

The fact that a midfielder at a newly promoted club is the premier league's joint third highest scorer, and is still getting so much criticism is frankly ridiculous. We've had years of apparently hard working players who struggle to score from midfield and we moan about it. We now have a player who can score from midfield, and we want rid for a harder working player who looks a bit fitter. Pointing to the fact that Nolan looks better because Tiote does the graft in midfield misses the point slightly. Tiote also looks immense as a defensive midfielder as he is given so much of that work to do in the system that the team play. They are both doing their jobs fantasically well at the moment.

Surely the safest way for him to take his loan money out would be to refinance part of the loan and gear the club to a sustainable level i.e. borrow (say) £60m from Barclays and use it to pay off his own loan. You can see him writing off the balance (given that he was at one point writing off the whole thing). This is easy enough to sell to supporters since most clubs are leveraged to a far lesser extent, and still manage to pay the interest.

Well that's fair enough, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it's normally argued on here! Because not all posters are armed with the Big Sam Sledgehammer of Logic

And I will happily bet that Tiote will stay in the summer unless he submits a transfer request, at which point he will be sold for a silly amount. Refer to my earlier post, if a player gets his head turned and wants to move on, all that a club can do is maximise the sale price and try and appease the fans.

Not a swipe at Ashley/Lambias. Just a dose of realism about how the modern game works. It is exactly the same for every club who isn't Man City or Chelsea. Arsenal go through the same thing every summer with Fabregas. Liverpool have just had it with Torres. As soon as the club can't match the player, they're off. Which is why I definitely agree with you. Enjoy the likes of Tiote, Enrique playing for us. If they go, then so be it. It means we made a great signing rather than a Boumsong. Eventually if we do it consistently enough, then less players will move, more will stay, and that is how the club develops. It happens slowly and sustainably. We will moan a bit on the message boards, but in the short term I would rather everyone was moaning about our relatively obscure signings turning into great players and leaving, than our relatively obscure signings drawing £60K per week and fading into oblivion.

Get used to it. We used to be a club who bought players for large fees, give them massive career fulfilling contracts, and then could never get rid of them. We are now a club who aims for players on lower fees, on lower wages, but with potential to be a hell of a lot better. It is a natural consequence of the second option that we will worry about the players we sign who turn out to be great player, and then leave for bigger and better clubs. Do it consistently enough for a long period of time and you might get lucky and hit the sweet spot between the Arsenal model and the Man Utd model! No, I won't. I'm not saying it is a bad thing, I prefer the fact that we managed to buy under-rated players who perform well for us and generate a lot of interest. Anyone who thinks we (as a newly promoted club) can unearth gems like Tiote, Enrique, hopefully Ben Arfa, and can resurrect Barton's career, and manage to keep all of them, is not realistic, and should refrain from Football Manager for a bit. Give me an example of another recently promoted club who unearthed players of that quality and managed to keep them for longer than a season, and I will stand corrected.

Get used to it. We used to be a club who bought players for large fees, give them massive career fulfilling contracts, and then could never get rid of them. We are now a club who aims for players on lower fees, on lower wages, but with potential to be a hell of a lot better. It is a natural consequence of the second option that we will worry about the players we sign who turn out to be great player, and then leave for bigger and better clubs. Do it consistently enough for a long period of time and you might get lucky and hit the sweet spot between the Arsenal model and the Man Utd model!

It has got fuck all to do do with club ambition when you have a world class player on your hands. If you have a player better than many left backs in the Champions League, then they are not going to commit to a club like Newcastle because they believe they might get there in 10 years time. The only reason they MIGHT do that is through a sense of club loyalty, or if they are promised they will be allowed to leave if a proper bigger club comes in for them (i.e. not Villa or Liverpool)