Jayson

Nah, I think we're just dead against bowing to player demands when they've just had a pay rise. I get the feeling this was driven by the club in order to make Tiote's position more secure, and to reward him for a brilliant season. Bit different to the Carroll situation IMO. Its not really, giving the player more money to ward off any interest they might have in leaving either way. Whether they asked for it or its given really doesnt mean much. In one situation we were offered 35m, thats the only difference.

Carrolls situation was different anyway. You had a club desperate to fill the position of their star striker & potentially attempting to negotiate with clubs & go for a player + give out wages they wouldnt have tried to had they had far more time to work things out.

Dont see how anyone can see this as anything but positive news. Ive been as suspicious as anyone about quotes coming out. But at the very least this is a great sign of valuing our club from Tiote himself, which should have a beneficial effect on other players thoughts of our clubs ambition...in the same way Carrolls sale could have effect those thoughts negatively. I dont see any of the top 4 going for Tiote yet, its still just his first season & everyone else is far less likely to after this.

Absolutely brilliant news Hope he stays happy here. Brilliant player we've found.

hadn't they sold a few players for huge profits and maybe they paid huge salaries that kept those players and were lucky enough to finish high enough to keep them...we done that for a bit, if you drop down though it becomes a bit of a millstone if the payers have been s*** and you're paying them champs league wages. Season they sold Berbatov they brought in Modric 16m, Bentley 15m, Pav 14m, Palacios 12m, Keane 12m, Defoe 9m, Gomes 8m, Corluka 8.5m, Chimbonda+Dos santos = another 10m. Dunno about wages but they spent far more than they made. Spent more the season they sold bent also. Season before they sold Berb the same, far more. Redknapps just making much better choices in the transfer market now & its paid off. They also increased Bale's wage only months after he'd just signed another contract as ive mentioned before. I dont see much excuse for us losing our better players given Carrolls sale now also, depends whos in for them. We seem defeatist about it all already though & that should be far from the reality.

Tottenham were 8th the season before they managed 4th. They held onto the likes of Modric, Palacios, Lennon, Huddlestone, Bale etc All ended up having good seasons & getting interest from elsewhere. We should be following their example. Im doubtful that we'd really get bids from the big clubs yet, liverpool are the main issue for anyone we have. With tottenham the only big player they sold was Bent that season & he had been replaced by another striker already proven in the prem in Defoe. They then Also brought in Crouch - Same story. The striker they spent the most on was pavlyuchenko & he's now back up to the other two. Which highlights the risks of unproven prem players in that position regardless of their cost & ability elsewhere.

This has been done over so many times and some people just dont get it. We didnt even try to keep Carroll. You're living in a fantasy world if you think the time he signed his contract has any affect on anything. Clubs were offering stupid amounts & stupid wages, every single player in the game in his position is going to choose that move if the offer is not even close to being matched at where he currently is. Whether he was worth offering highes wages to is determined by our ability to replace him in a way that will improve our team. Theres nothing more to it atall. There are logical reasons why we both may have become a better side with Carroll in our future as there is that we may without him. We dont know yet.

Interesting stuff. Do like the sound of it. Tbf to Pardew, outside of the Arsenal game we've only conceded 3 goals in 7 games. Two of those in injury time & one v fulham down to player error. We could easily potentially have conceded 0 in 7. Which is amazing. Our defensive shape looks v good atm, so he does look to be doing a good job there. Dunno what happened with Arsenal.

No excuse if Joey Barton isnt a Newcastle player next season

If we cannot improve our side it doesnt matter how long hes played for & how much we made on him. Thats the whole point of the deal, it needs to be beneficial to us or its a poor one.

The Carroll sale is obviously debatable. But even those that disagree with it being the best option at that time can see the reasoning behind letting him go. Its moreso the quotes that the managers coming out with for me, theyre quite defeatist. He could easily come out and say "We still do not want to lose our best players, the Carroll transfer was an exceptional circumstance because of the sum being offered". Hes atleast setting up a situation where the clubs believe they have to spend a bit once again to challenge our position. Instead he is saying "Its going to be very hard to keep Enrique/Tiote" etc which is more or less letting everyone know you've accepted they'll likely be off & is a great tactic to set up a bidding war. Its a similar statement to "Ashleys trying very hard to resist offers" that came out on the transfer deadline day. Its pretty suspicious wording tbh As if you did want to set up a situation where you make other clubs aware of your players being ready to move & you being ready to sell, whilst still attempting to appear to fans as though you dont want to...saying it'll be "difficult" to keep hold of them is exactly how you'd word it.

I think many just hold overly severe opinions. Ive done the same before, try not to now. Realistically largely held views on this forum have been wrong so many times. Nolan was s*** & wouldnt keep up the goals in the prem, Carroll was never going to be good enough, Simpson wasnt prem standard, Ameobi wasnt prem standard, Best wont score goals at this level & is still s*** to lots, Loven the same, Colo at one point also, Barton hadnt ever actually shown any ability for us, Willamson isnt good enough for this level, Harper isnt good enough, then Krul isnt good enough & Harpers class, Gutierrez isnt influential enough etc Only Tiote/Enrique have avoided any real criticism out of our entire squad. Ben Arfa to maybe, but hes barely played to get any either. Theres been people on both sides of all these arguments, but most have backed some of these at some point. Yet these are the guys who have all partly helped us now start daydreaming about making Europe. We dont have a great track record in being on the money tbh Yet many still go around with 100% conviction in their ideas as tbh many just love slating a player.

From around when he signed Tev/Mascherano they had some decent words for him before it went wrong. So hopefully hes pretty good at being inspirational & selling a club to a player. He did alright at HT in the 4-4, though obviously other factors likely had a bigger effect. Chances are this may be more important for signings like getting in a striker as we currently need, as its much harder to find hidden gems in that position. The stats are far more obvious for managers/scouts to notice than other positions like Tiotes.

You guys are trying to argue that someone who chooses to become an owner of a football club, shouldnt be judged on their ability as an owner by whether they actually invest any of their own money to improve the team they have chosen to buy?

Aston Villa arent likely to be getting CL football

Dont expect an easy game. Though both Davies & Elmander have only scored once each in the 13 games since we played them, so hardly on form. Sturridge is flying though. Hopefully we'll have enough, would be a great win.

Always gives a good interview

Im sure these players would want to stay if we show some ambition as has been said. Spend a bit of money (that we should now have) wisely, put a few motivational words in their ears about where we want to go & we could likely keep them. Ashleys willingness to want people to do this in the face of a lot of potential money is doubtful to me still. No one outside of the top 5 should be able to nab our players with the performances we've put in this season. We have shown as much potential to be up there as the others around them & if not for two last minute equalisers thats exactly where we'd be.

Wilshere & Koscielny were brilliant

Lovely

Noiiiiiiiiiiice

Looks like theyve picked out clichy as a weakness, just use alves to overlap each time

Cmon Arsenal. Want a cracking game here

They hadnt lost at home for like a year had they till Everton beat them this season? Needed an og in that game to pull them out to, since then only Arsenal have done it. Now us. Great result really.

Won nearly all his headers tonight, got a great leap on him. He does a job & is getting the goals.