Consortium of one

I'm so happy to read that Pards was out scouting strikers that we won't sign in January. I will not be shocked if new Erdinc rumors start up in mid December and run right through the January window.

The Red Sox front office is one of the most sophisticated in it's use of statistics to evaluate talent so it would not be a surprise of John Henry would want a statistics driven approach for his football club as well.

I see no reason why can't be near the top of the Premier's financial table and, by golly, that is something to be proud of. Thanks to the Carroll money we'll probably be second to only Arsenal. The clubs net profit and PPW (that's "Pound Per Win" for you financial table n00bs) will be something to be admired!

I'd take Carroll back. We'd have to change the way we played a bit though. Probably what I'd do is switch Jonas back to the right side and start Marveaux on the left. Let Marveaux play as a classic winger and cross. Jonas can play much as he does now, perhaps look to cross a bit more since he's on the right. HBA could be devastating playing off of Carroll.

I disagree at this point. The point of these games was never to win (though obviously that's always something you want). The point was to figure out who will figure in the team going forward and to get them acclimated. For example, they were doing extremely intense 2-a-days for the last week in training. Knowing full well it might mean players were going to be too tired during the actual game, but he wanted to see who would be able to handle the intensity and who can play the way he wants to play even under adversity. These kinds of things take time - I'll be worried if qualifying starts next year and we still look so ramshackle. Until then, in Jurgen I trust. I hope you are right. I can't shake the feeling that the longer he stayed out of football the more his stature grew in the eyes of some. He certainly had success rebuilding the Germany squad but that was 5 years ago.

Klinsmann was a mistake. An inevitable mistake.

Oh no! Someone had a different opinion to you on an internet forum. They must be getting paid. If anyone on Ashley's payroll would like to contact me about disagreeing with HawK, or any other user, I'd be willing to listen to offers. The Carroll deal seemed to work well for everyone involved. We got a s*** load of cash, Carroll got a massive wage rise, Liverpool got a young, English striker and his agent made a fortune. As it has turned out, the money we received hasn't obviously been reinvested in the squad and we've not replaced him in the team and Carroll hasn't settled yet at Liverpool and hadn't come close to finding the same form for Liverpool that got him the transfer in the first place. I couldn't care less if it was 500m, he was a brilliant player for us, he wanted to stay. If a player wants to stay then no club should force them out, unless not doing so could cause serious financial difficulties. Our owner is a BILLIONAIRE, there is no excuse. Did he want to stay? Maybe he wasn't looking to leave at first but I'll bet the thought of moving to Liverpool really turned his head. We'll probably never know the real story. I'll point you again to this post : http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,58769.msg3202678.html#msg3202678 He said he wanted to stay, what more do you want? He also pointed to that fact that he had just signed a contract in October as a reason why he wanted to stay. Why then did he want to renegotiate again? I also wouldn't expect him to say that he couldn't wait to leave. Didn't he say he was happy to be with Liverpool? If he was gutted to leave, he got over it quick enough. I'm sorry, I just don't think the answer is cut and dried. It's not as simple as stay or go. I'm not defending the club. I'm not defending Andy Carroll either.

Oh no! Someone had a different opinion to you on an internet forum. They must be getting paid. If anyone on Ashley's payroll would like to contact me about disagreeing with HawK, or any other user, I'd be willing to listen to offers. The Carroll deal seemed to work well for everyone involved. We got a s*** load of cash, Carroll got a massive wage rise, Liverpool got a young, English striker and his agent made a fortune. As it has turned out, the money we received hasn't obviously been reinvested in the squad and we've not replaced him in the team and Carroll hasn't settled yet at Liverpool and hadn't come close to finding the same form for Liverpool that got him the transfer in the first place. I couldn't care less if it was 500m, he was a brilliant player for us, he wanted to stay. If a player wants to stay then no club should force them out, unless not doing so could cause serious financial difficulties. Our owner is a BILLIONAIRE, there is no excuse. Did he want to stay? Maybe he wasn't looking to leave at first but I'll bet the thought of moving to Liverpool really turned his head. We'll probably never know the real story.

I think many on this forum have a good idea of how the club will answer the questions.

You wouldn't get a strong willed manager. If Pardew left, Ashley would want a manager who would do as he was told. That right there would eliminate almost any manager worth his salt. Probably he'd hire a manager who was just happy to have a job. Oh wait...that was Pardew wasn't it? Still I think Pardew has done a pretty good job and right now, if he left, I don't think we could get any better...only worse.

personally not that bothered if they add the SD s*** in front but they shouldn't take down the NEWCASTLE UNITED imo, i actually think they're ahead of the game with regards this tripe...it will become the norm to add a sponsorship to stadium names/stands etc... just as per usual they're doing it wrong Yup, the Premier League is shifting to the American sports model. Just a matter of time before every stadium name is sponsored and every inch of the stadium is filled with ads. I'm amazed it's taking this long to be honest. Wait til you have endure canned music and calls to cheer every time there's a dead ball.

I've come to loathe it when journalists base their articles on "unnamed sources". It's carte-blanche to fill in the blanks with made up stuff. That being said, I don't think we want Pardew identifying transfer targets. I hope we don't just focus on France. Can't we get intensive scouting in other countries? The January window will be primarily used to negotiate with Bosman's for the summer? It is likely we'll attempt to sign a striker on the cheap in January or bring in an unpopular loan for the rest of the season

You think Llambias does anything Ashley doesn't tell him to do? outside of the occasional extra lick of Ashley's hairy starfish, no.

They'll say their hands were tied in regards to Maiga, Roux, Cisse, et al. and that Ruiz was a done deal but that his agent took a left when he should have taken a right and got lost on the way to the helicopter which scuppered the deal.

Don't worry, there's plenty of time til the next window closes...

"NUFC have announced that Alan Pardew contract has been terminated with immediate effect. The Club would like to thank Alan Pardew for his efforts and wish him the best of luck. An announcement regarding a caretaker manager will be made with days. Until then, FUCK OFF."

Maybe he just lacks confidence. That second against Fulham was a beauty. There is something we aren't seeing because it looked like he was going to be shipped out earlier in the window because Pardew didn't think he deserved to be in the squad, IIRC.

Spot on

When someone has the money and intent to buy... As proved previously... Not as many people around that we'd like to think... It would take a major idiot to pay more than what Ashley paid originally, which is why I think we're in for a painful long-haul. You can buy another club for half the price and race past us with a few transfers. Why else do you think there was a 10-year season ticket offer? How many other clubs own the stadium and training facilities? I ask because I really don't know. It's not just the club but the total package.

You're deluded if you think Bendtner is better than Best and Ba. I think I could make an argument for Ameobi too. Deluded? Look in the mirror.

Right, so the only way that Ashley can reduce the 140M loan is to take money out of the club and/or sell the club for more than the price he paid for it which was 138M. So let's say Ashley were to talk to a prospective buyer. If I were him, I'd show him the books. I paid 138M for this club and all it's holdings. This is the financial condition it was in then. It had 80M for outstanding loans, it had already spent revenue from future periods and was still making player payments for past purchases. Here is what the books look like now. The finances are stable and in proper working order. The business is a going concern that has turned a small profit. I've increased revenue streams (naming rights) and made capital improvements to the facilities (bore holes and such) and have placed a price tag of 200M on the franchise. Assuming that, Ashley has cut a big chunk off of the amount of his loans to the club, 60M. That would mean if sold at that price, he would now lose 78M as opposed to 138M. Of course if he's been taking money out of the club it has been to further reduce that debt and the prospective 78M under this scenario be less. It's quite possible that all the Sports Direct advertising is being used to reduce that debt (depending on how Ashley has structured Sports Direct). Also, the more (or less) he can sell the club for will have a direct impact on how much of his debt he can recoup. For now though he has done a lot to make the club more attractive to a buyer. We haven't seen the books yet but we can assume that the club was probably around break even (or a slight loss) last year and his goal for this year is to be break even or a slight profit. That is very important in the eyes of a prospective buyer as opposed to the financial condition when Ashley bought the club. If I was the owner I'd be doing pretty much what Ashley has done (from a financial perspective. His public relations has been s***). One thing I would do differently was to make a push for Europe. With just a little more money he could have gotten the striker the club needs to get that. That extra sparkle of continental football would be enough for a prospective buyer to seal the deal at Ashley's price. Edit: pretty much the same as Zero said above.

What Fat Bastard doesn't understand is that it was bad business NOT to bring another striker in. To fail at building upon the early, low budget transfers actually devalues those transfers. He's failed to maximize the potential of those transfers by not spending some of the Carroll money.

Sounds like we just got involved far too late. We should have been in on him much sooner than having a chopper waiting a couple of hours before the deadline. I predicted the night before that we'd pip Fulham for Ruiz. If the club really wanted him why did they wait so long?

Would have been quite happy with Bendtner. He wasn't exactly what we needed but was far than than what we got.