leffe186

We'd have loved to take him off their hands. Imagine if you're chasing a game and you have Bale, Walcott and Lennon behind Adebayor or Defoe. Up against, say, Williamson. Terrifying. Of course, I'm not convinced Walcott and Lennon have a football brain between them, but still.

Those clubs should just hire their own scouts man. That's what I thought when you nicked him off us . Hate to say it, but this is a top class troll - from either this French guy or West Ham.

I agree with that; it won't be such an impressive figure in the near future, and there's already a bunch of not-really-that-great players earning these amounts. Arsenal's wage bill is massive. Of course, so are all the other clubs in that echelon, but their net transfer spend doesn't tell all the story. They spent 143M on wages last year, which is probably more than a million a week more than us. No idea what yours was, but the year before you were at 54M. With all that, 100Kpw isn't really that much of a impressive figure for them already. Try four times that... (Suppose you mistook me for one of the resident NUFC fans) But yeah, that's huge for Arsenal given their current standing in world football. Sorry, forgot who I was replying to there...

I agree with that; it won't be such an impressive figure in the near future, and there's already a bunch of not-really-that-great players earning these amounts. Arsenal's wage bill is massive. Of course, so are all the other clubs in that echelon, but their net transfer spend doesn't tell all the story. They spent 143M on wages last year, which is probably more than a million a week more than us. No idea what yours was, but the year before you were at 54M. With all that, 100Kpw isn't really that much of a impressive figure for them already.

They've been paying huge wages to worse players over the last few years, tbh.

Well, one word, as per your post... If I never hear that word/words in a transfer window again, it will be too soon. Not sure where to put this, but the rumour is that we're loosely interested in M'Vila after the Sandro injury...but QPR have supposedly offered 80Kpw. Hhmm, A Spurs board? Would be Giggsed to high heaven. Naah, I thought you guys were interested, that's the only reason I put it on here. Not all that fussed tbh, if QPR are willing to throw money at him then whatever. I'm more worried when we lose out to Chelsea or Liverpool.

Well, one word, as per your post... If I never hear that word/words in a transfer window again, it will be too soon. Not sure where to put this, but the rumour is that we're loosely interested in M'Vila after the Sandro injury...but QPR have supposedly offered 80Kpw.

30 years ago we were in our 5th season? in the 2nd div. the club was on the up and pushing for promotion with Kevin Keegan . we went up the following season. At the top of the Game- Liverpool were as dominant- probs moreso than Man Utd are now. with the Likes of Forest Villa challenging, iirc Man Utd were no where near winning the league with Bo jangles in charge. Liverpool were still pretty dominant, but Man U weren't actually that far behind. Worth remembering that Heysel was just round the corner, and that signalled the rise of Everton. There were a lot of teams squabbling behind Liverpool, and they changed considerably each season. For example, the top six in 82-83 was: Liverpool, Watford, Man U, Spurs, Forest, Villa. The following year: Liverpool, Southampton, Forest, Man U, QPR, Arsenal. That's nine different teams in two years. In comparison, nine different teams have filled the Top six for the last six years - Man U, Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City, Villa, Everton...and you guys last year. Liverpool were very strong, but if there's only one team at that level there's more of a chance to break in. And, of course, the European Cup money was pitiful compared to that available nowadays (and nothing at all while we were banned). What's scary is that it seems to be becoming harder to break into the top six, let alone think about contending.

Similar to mine, mind yours has seemingly gone further. He'll keep track of results and news and watch if it happens to be on but just doesn't have the passion like he did 10 years ago. Still tells me about all the away day stories of the 70s/80s. Shame he doesn't have that level of passion but I think that will hold true for an awful lot of people. Mine's along the same lines too. He was taken to Spurs by his Uncle Cyril in the late 50s and onwards, and has always told loads of stories from the 60s...but they have become more wistful over the years. He and I were huge fans throughout the 80s (he adored Hoddle, and the 85-87 team), but there were signs of his disillusionment when the Premiership started. The thing is, he detests so much about the game at the top level now, and talks about walking away, yet he can't resist watching Spurs and has got Sky/ESPN etc etc again over the last couple of years. We start a conversation about the horrors of the modern game, but eventually it just becomes us talking about Spurs, just as it always was. He went to Barnet games with a friend for years, then got a season ticket at Watford with another friend because I think it reminded him of how football "should" be. He played decent football almost until his 50s, and was an excellent goalkeeper. I think it hits him harder because some of his identity comes from football, and so he just can't walk away. It's still something we share too.

Really? OK, there you go, have the Venkys and Mark Hughes . Job done. Honestly, I think long-term success for you should be where we are now - challenging for 4/5 and in the cups. You managed it in the league last year, despite a threadbare squad and an unconvincing manager. You have a large stadium, a big catchment, some cachet to the name and some overseas recognition due to your success in the first decade of the Prem. Without any change in the top four (and arguably us, Liverpool and Everton) that would probably count as success. Obviously, the goal should be to win the Prem and all the cups, but I don't think that precludes a challenge for 4/5 from being a success. If it wasn't for Chelsea scraping the CL last year I'd have considered it a success, and there were a couple of weeks when it just looked like we might do the unthinkable and actually mount a proper challenge for the league. Our light at the end of the tunnel is the potential new stadium, but I must confess that if it wasn't in the offing I'd be resigned to hoping for the occasional CL place as the summit of my ambitions. One aside about the OP. I don't think that varying opinions of what success means are the root of most differences of opinions. There is simply a dearth of knowledge about what's going on, and people fill that gap with their own inclinations.

Not sure if it is ambition.....or desperation. Just money. Loads.

Shit, forgot this was a league match. Man U, Man C, Chelsea top 3 it is then.

Exactly what QPR need then. More talented, brooding, inconsistent players. To be fair, Redknapp isn't bad at getting the good stuff out of them.

Said this in the other thread - if Reading is postponed the only game you have between now and then is Villa away. I can't imagine the carnage on here.

Absolutely not. Probably our best chance of three points this season We need points on the board ASAP Of course, if you fail to win then you have 10 days to brood on it . If we fail to win we can stop thinking about the Championship and start preparation for it quite frankly. I said in my predictions, I have you down for a draw...yet I also have you staying up with (I think it was) 41 points. The Villa match is the biggy - win there and it's a double-whammy. They will think they're already down. Not an unrealistic prediction. I've been following Newcastle for long enough to have baseless superstitions about us - and I know, I know, that our Premier League status will be decided by us - not the teams around us. If our plan is to rely on three teams to be worse than us, it's already over. We're a very polarised team - when we're good, we're very good - vying for Europe and what have you, but when we're bad, boy there's virtually no one worse I really believe that. We need a win IMO. We'll see though Villa are capable of being quite astonishingly bad at the moment, though. It's only if something clicks there (e.g. Vlaar getting back making a huge difference, them buying a midfielder with some serious nous) that I see them surviving. If anything, they're worse at home at the mo.

Absolutely not. Probably our best chance of three points this season We need points on the board ASAP Of course, if you fail to win then you have 10 days to brood on it . If we fail to win we can stop thinking about the Championship and start preparation for it quite frankly. I said in my predictions, I have you down for a draw...yet I also have you staying up with (I think it was) 41 points. The Villa match is the biggy - win there and it's a double-whammy. They will think they're already down.

Absolutely not. Probably our best chance of three points this season We need points on the board ASAP Of course, if you fail to win then you have 10 days to brood on it .

You guys really want this called off? Unless they rearrange for midweek (and bearing in mind they have an FA Cup game at the weekend) that will mean that you have 17 days without a game. This board will have combusted.

Glad we got their away game out of the way, tbh.

Got a mate that's horrendous for that. Can have some good conversations, but as soon as you're sat watching a match as a neutral, for some reason it always comes to him trying to bait me. If I respond, I've bitten. If I'm quiet, I'm stressed. If I do the same to him though I just get looked and spoken at in the most condescending tone like I'm a 5 year old. Bores me rotten. Absolutely. This ties in with the changes in football - you can only really banter with people on the same level as you. If a City or Chelsea fan tried to belittle me and my club I would laugh in their face.

nah Ramos was in charge then with Comolli doing transfers Levy is supposed to have gone over there and given them an ultimatum...and it worked.

La Liga? Serie A?

It definitely helps being in the US. It's always there in the background though.

It is a neat illustration of all the things that are wronger, though. I wish I could walk away too, and my team is doing pretty well. I love playing the game, and I love watching the game, and if that was all I had to worry about then it would be ace. I'm with KI, and brummie has said similar things before too.

Makes pretty grim reading that. The text of the report suggests that that was in the Championship. The year before that you were 63rd, which would have been about a 40Kpw average.