Interpolic

you talk like anything would change transfer wise if Pardew left. Erm, are you missing the point entirely? I'm saying that the scouting needs to be aligned with what the manager wants to work with.

I can't take that. I just can't. 20th richest club in the world iirc. 3rd largest crowds in the PL. But for some completely f***ed up reason you say we can't compete with the big clubs. And since not a single one of us expects to compete financially with Man City and Chelsea, I can only assume that by "big" clubs you mean the likes of Southampton, Fulham and f***ing Norwich. Just f*** off you cowardly, lying cockend. We all know that we could compete with them easily if we wanted, we're just owned by a thief who is creaming money out of the club and into his horrid, tatty, charva clothes shop. I take your points but I don't think there's anything wrong with the statement "We haven't got the finances of a big team," of itself. We're not bankrolled by Russian or Arab oil money. We don't have the commercial reach of Man United to sell an ungodly number of shirts in every corner of the globe. You're right that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing better in transfer windows. But there's nothing wrong with the actual statement. There is something utterly wrong with the statement though. He's insinuating that there's a problem with the fans expectations. Ie that we're being unrealistic. And that's simply not what's happening, we just don't expect to have our manager come out and say we can't compete financially with f***ing Southampton ffs. The money has always been there for players the club feel are the right fit. Stop right there brah. This premise here- this is a completely unproven and unprovable proposition that just so happens to fit your agenda. It is also the claim of proven liars who admitted to deliberately misleading and deceiving fans in the past. Its a load of shit really. I'm sorry, do we not sign anyone unless it's on a free? Er not unless the money is made back in sales no. Hypothetically, if we'd taken all the Carroll money and signed say, Ozil... - Ignore that he'd probably not come here. - Ignore that he cost a bit more than we made on Carroll. - Ignore that the gap between now and selling Carroll. - Ignore the wage bill. But if we had gone out and signed a top player like that. Showing the ambition that we all want to see. A real player of Champions League quality. Would we now be a better team than picking players for 5m here, 3m there? Where do you think we'd have been finishing in the league? Not sure what question you're asking here. I demand a crack at a Europa League place (i.e. finishing in one of the positions that may open up to qualify for that competition) as an absolute bare minimum. Once we get there, then the minimum requirement changes. I'm not overly arsed about who the personnel is that gets us there. Why would I give the slightest fuck about that? I've never been in the least bit interested in getting excited about "marquee" (vomit) signings - I was fucking foaming with rage the day we signed Michael Owen because I knew the squad wasn't good enough to meet that minimum requirement. Nor is this one. Fair point. Misinterpreted what you were after. You're not so bothered about one big signing, you just would rather we have a negative net spend as a show of some kind of ambition. Personally, I don't care about that. If we make a profit or a loss doesn't bother me (so long as it's sustainable). I just want the players we bring in to improve the team. I agree that Europa League is a reasonable aim. I also think that with the likes of HBA, Cabaye (who we actively held on to), Colo (who we actively held on to), Cisse, Remy, Sissoko, etc we have the makings of a decent squad that can push towards that goal this year. Everyone dropped a bollock last season. Our January signings (despite our collective creaming over them) weren't amazing when it came down to producing results. Now with them getting bedded into the squad we can expect better. Is this a wind-up? Every other club has spent and we have gaping holes in our squad, if we could make the squad good enough with no outlay then fair enough, but we couldn't so we have chosen to potentially lose lots of games before January to find out what we need to do to stay up. Seriously, it's really low to point the accusation at blatantly knowledgeable and sensible fans of the club that they just want to see big bucks spent and that's it.

Actually more to the point with LucaAlteri's Ozil post, I have no problems with our recruitment policy to a degree. The problems I do have with it are: - When it doesn't work it leaves us short. We sometimes have to pay something approaching a player's market value, especially when our initial approach consists of finding a player who is unhappy at their club, unsettling the player and pissing the selling club off. These stand-offs often happen and it's obvious why. - The scouting is not aligned to the manager. Either sack the manager or buy the cloggers he needs to make his system work. - We often buy players just because they're cheap rather than plugging the positional gap we need. When Robson needed something extra he got Bellamy and Robert and we went from 11th to 4th. The prevailing theme is we end up spending the same or less than we bring in. I think that's why we wanted to shift Cabaye. TV money might bring us a bit more Mike generosity eventually, and again it'll be spun like we should be grateful. We shouldn't. We're half the club we were when he took over in terms of the perceptions of the rest of the world IMO, and that's why you see unprecedented numbers of NUFC fans completely fed up, as the hope is disappearing. When you see NUFC aspiring to something you buy into it right or wrong, but at the minute there's nowt happening that inspires any confidence whatsoever that we're even much of a better club than Southampton. And we are a better club than Southampton.

I can't take that. I just can't. 20th richest club in the world iirc. 3rd largest crowds in the PL. But for some completely f***ed up reason you say we can't compete with the big clubs. And since not a single one of us expects to compete financially with Man City and Chelsea, I can only assume that by "big" clubs you mean the likes of Southampton, Fulham and f***ing Norwich. Just f*** off you cowardly, lying cockend. We all know that we could compete with them easily if we wanted, we're just owned by a thief who is creaming money out of the club and into his horrid, tatty, charva clothes shop. I take your points but I don't think there's anything wrong with the statement "We haven't got the finances of a big team," of itself. We're not bankrolled by Russian or Arab oil money. We don't have the commercial reach of Man United to sell an ungodly number of shirts in every corner of the globe. You're right that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing better in transfer windows. But there's nothing wrong with the actual statement. There is something utterly wrong with the statement though. He's insinuating that there's a problem with the fans expectations. Ie that we're being unrealistic. And that's simply not what's happening, we just don't expect to have our manager come out and say we can't compete financially with f***ing Southampton ffs. The money has always been there for players the club feel are the right fit. Stop right there brah. This premise here- this is a completely unproven and unprovable proposition that just so happens to fit your agenda. It is also the claim of proven liars who admitted to deliberately misleading and deceiving fans in the past. Its a load of shit really. I'm sorry, do we not sign anyone unless it's on a free? Er not unless the money is made back in sales no. Hypothetically, if we'd taken all the Carroll money and signed say, Ozil... - Ignore that he'd probably not come here. - Ignore that he cost a bit more than we made on Carroll. - Ignore that the gap between now and selling Carroll. - Ignore the wage bill. But if we had gone out and signed a top player like that. Showing the ambition that we all want to see. A real player of Champions League quality. Would we now be a better team than picking players for 5m here, 3m there? Where do you think we'd have been finishing in the league? Why are you ignoring that our net spend always basically amounts to nil? Nobody is saying that we want to sign £40m "marquee" players, that's the lazy shite Pardew has been coming out with in recent days that makes us look like idiots.

Sorry aye, what Dave said. Also, the media and Sky Sports News' transfer table having us bottom of the league, which was really unfair considering the £30m Mike put in during January.

Fans being disappointed about the lack of new players leading to negativity reaching the existing players in the stadium on match days.

In this summer transfer window, I agree. January; they were ace. Summer before that; shite again. Different situations, innit. If we're struggling in January we'll try to bail ourselves out again to preserve Premier League status, if we're midtable we'll plod along. Agreed. And it's frustrating. As fans we want to see the team go for broke. We want them to take the risks that might propel us back into the champions league where we feel we belong. I get it. I also get that it's much more sensible to build slowly and purposefully. I don't like us not bringing in the players required to improve us. I'm just saying I understand why it's is the way it is. Ultimately, if it were my cash on the line, I'd probably play it a little safer than my FM save too. "Going for broke" is a million miles off what anyone hopes or expects these days, improving on a squad that nearly got relegated did feature in most fans' expectations though. Seriously, why do all of these conversations fail to understand the happy medium which would make all of us, erm, happy?

I can't take that. I just can't. 20th richest club in the world iirc. 3rd largest crowds in the PL. But for some completely f***ed up reason you say we can't compete with the big clubs. And since not a single one of us expects to compete financially with Man City and Chelsea, I can only assume that by "big" clubs you mean the likes of Southampton, Fulham and f***ing Norwich. Just f*** off you cowardly, lying cockend. We all know that we could compete with them easily if we wanted, we're just owned by a thief who is creaming money out of the club and into his horrid, tatty, charva clothes shop. I take your points but I don't think there's anything wrong with the statement "We haven't got the finances of a big team," of itself. We're not bankrolled by Russian or Arab oil money. We don't have the commercial reach of Man United to sell an ungodly number of shirts in every corner of the globe. You're right that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing better in transfer windows. But there's nothing wrong with the actual statement. There is something utterly wrong with the statement though. He's insinuating that there's a problem with the fans expectations. Ie that we're being unrealistic. And that's simply not what's happening, we just don't expect to have our manager come out and say we can't compete financially with f***ing Southampton ffs. The money has always been there for players the club feel are the right fit. Stop right there brah. This premise here- this is a completely unproven and unprovable proposition that just so happens to fit your agenda. It is also the claim of proven liars who admitted to deliberately misleading and deceiving fans in the past. Its a load of shit really. I'm sorry, do we not sign anyone unless it's on a free? If we only signed frees we'd get relegated, if we only signed players that weren't "good value" we might lose money on them when they move on. Howay man.

In this summer transfer window, I agree. January; they were ace. Summer before that; shite again. Different situations, innit. If we're struggling in January we'll try to bail ourselves out again to preserve Premier League status, if we're midtable we'll plod along.

I can't take that. I just can't. 20th richest club in the world iirc. 3rd largest crowds in the PL. But for some completely f***ed up reason you say we can't compete with the big clubs. And since not a single one of us expects to compete financially with Man City and Chelsea, I can only assume that by "big" clubs you mean the likes of Southampton, Fulham and f***ing Norwich. Just f*** off you cowardly, lying cockend. We all know that we could compete with them easily if we wanted, we're just owned by a thief who is creaming money out of the club and into his horrid, tatty, charva clothes shop. I take your points but I don't think there's anything wrong with the statement "We haven't got the finances of a big team," of itself. We're not bankrolled by Russian or Arab oil money. We don't have the commercial reach of Man United to sell an ungodly number of shirts in every corner of the globe. You're right that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing better in transfer windows. But there's nothing wrong with the actual statement. There is something utterly wrong with the statement though. He's insinuating that there's a problem with the fans expectations. Ie that we're being unrealistic. And that's simply not what's happening, we just don't expect to have our manager come out and say we can't compete financially with fucking Southampton ffs. The money has always been there for players the club feel are the right fit. Part of being the right fit is not paying over the odds. If the players aren't available for what they want to pay then we just go without and make do. I can see why this frustrates some people. But the alternative is paying over the odds for players we might not want all that much. I don't think anyone on here would be in favour of another Albert Luque. That kind of transfer isn't sustainable for a club of our size. Man United/City/Chelsea etc can afford to spunk away money on players who may or may not turn out to be good enough. We can't. I believe that's more what he's getting at. I don't think even Pards is saying we can't compete with Southampton financially. We just have a different philosophy. I see this stuff getting trotted out now and again and don't understand why intelligent people can't see the trend that our outlay on transfers under Ashley's ownership is always basically nil at best overall. We won't simply pay out on transfers if the value is there, not if it's not taken back with sales. Christ, the desperate attempt to sell Cabaye should tell you that, we must be at a stage again now where we need a big transfer fee for an outgoing transfer to justify us spending any more money.

What the hell are you talking about man, it's not the "nth most valuable" or however wooly you want to make it sound, we pull in the 20th most revenue in Europe. But no, we can't compete with the superpowers that are Swansea, Norwich, Southampton or West Ham on transfer fees or wages. I was looking at a list of most valuable football clubs, apologies. Coincidentally we are currently 20th in that too. Anyway, however you slice it it's difficult to assess how much we can afford to spend based on that isn't it? Revenue is only one part of the financial health of a business. PS I'm not arguing we are reaching our full potential. You just pick out the bits you want to pick out, Ian. We have incredible attendances, we have one of the greatest pulls of any Premier League team for players and potential new fans (although this is waning by the day under the current owner), we had enough money in the coffers last time around to give £11m to a very rich man while leaving the squad short, we have pedigree in European competition and were streets ahead of the likes of Spurs and Everton not that long ago. You're just being pedantic for the sake of it on here, day after day, night after night. Some say you add a bit of balance, I say that's a heap of shite. Bring me a poster who actually has an argument, not someone who just asks daft questions or says "Well OK I think what Pardew says is reasonable" or "All managers say that" or "Actually Pardew talks rubbish, let's please stop talking about it because I don't like loud noises" or "Honestly, please leave me alone, I don't want to talk about anymore" or "I'm going to have a break from the forum because I'm sick of getting picked on". Take that break man, make it a long one because you're pointless. Jesus Christ. Have a word with yourself man, that's absolutely mental. It's not mental, read it again. And again and again and again. That's what you offer on here. Nowt.

What the hell are you talking about man, it's not the "nth most valuable" or however wooly you want to make it sound, we pull in the 20th most revenue in Europe. But no, we can't compete with the superpowers that are Swansea, Norwich, Southampton or West Ham on transfer fees or wages. I was looking at a list of most valuable football clubs, apologies. Coincidentally we are currently 20th in that too. Anyway, however you slice it it's difficult to assess how much we can afford to spend based on that isn't it? Revenue is only one part of the financial health of a business. PS I'm not arguing we are reaching our full potential. You just pick out the bits you want to pick out, Ian. We have incredible attendances, we have one of the greatest pulls of any Premier League team for players and potential new fans (although this is waning by the day under the current owner), we had enough money in the coffers last time around to give £11m to a very rich man while leaving the squad short, we have pedigree in European competition and were streets ahead of the likes of Spurs and Everton not that long ago. You're just being pedantic for the sake of it on here, day after day, night after night. Some say you add a bit of balance, I say that's a heap of shite. Bring me a poster who actually has an argument, not someone who just asks daft questions or says "Well OK I think what Pardew says is reasonable" or "All managers say that" or "Actually Pardew talks rubbish, let's please stop talking about it because I don't like loud noises" or "Honestly, please leave me alone, I don't want to talk about anymore" or "I'm going to have a break from the forum because I'm sick of getting picked on". Take that break man, make it a long one because you're pointless.

I can't take that. I just can't. 20th richest club in the world iirc. 3rd largest crowds in the PL. But for some completely fucked up reason you say we can't compete with the big clubs. And since not a single one of us expects to compete financially with Man City and Chelsea, I can only assume that by "big" clubs you mean the likes of Southampton, Fulham and fucking Norwich. Just fuck off you cowardly, lying cockend. We all know that we could compete with them easily if we wanted, we're just owned by a thief who is creaming money out of the club and into his horrid, tatty, charva clothes shop. We may have some of the highest crowds but we also have the cheapest tickets (not including the free ticket mackems). In theory, Southampton could get half our crowd & make more money, same goes for a lot of clubs. Would it be better to have more expensive tickets but have 10,000 empty seats? Possibly the only good thing that Ashley has done in the last few years is to keep down the price of tickets. That said, even with lower ticket prices we should still have the cash available to invest in the squad & there are absolutely no excuses for the way in which the club have acted in failing to invest. That's rubbish about Southampton, there isn't a hope in hell they could charge twice as much as us and fill their ground.

That's exactly it, he exacerbates the idea of NUFC fans being impatient and unreasonable when it's patently not the case. The people that let him get away with it in our support are braindead, I'm fucking sick of it. This guy's taking the piss out of the fans and a lot of people can't even see it, many of them falling for the Kinnear decoy.

Well we patently won't keep everybody fucking fit, will we. But anyway: Aston Villa (a) Hull (h) Leeds (h) Everton (a) Cardiff (a) Liverpool (h) Sunderland (a) Chelsea (h) What you on about man Dave, every manager in the league acts like their whole squad will be fit for 100% of the season. Honestly, the first second 1 or 2 players are ruled out we'll be hearing "We woz unlucky wiv injuries" AGAIN.

What the hell are you talking about man, it's not the "nth most valuable" or however wooly you want to make it sound, we pull in the 20th most revenue in Europe. But no, we can't compete with the superpowers that are Swansea, Norwich, Southampton or West Ham on transfer fees or wages.

It will mean fucking nowt, he's a fucking gobshite. I'm impressed by the 180 he's done here like, I thought he might start to stand up for himself with the Kinnear stuff but nah. Coward who loves lying to the fans.

Write an email instead mate, time is ticking.

There are loads of them mugs knocking about at my work, I'm always saying "Enjoy your Ashley juice, tosser". Nobody knows what I'm on about.

Aye, it was a shame with Hugo Viana, he had a lot of class about him but there wasn't really room for him in that team. It seemed like he was brought in as Speed's long-term replacement but was more often played out on the left wing IIRC. Probably a bit too young for such a big move and it seemed to faze him quite a bit.

FOUL FUCKING MOUTHED?!

He's mentally raping people's wives? I think all owners do that tbf.

As I mentioned in the match thread, for the benefit of anyone still awake I'm going to change the scoring system for this a bit. For the first 4 games (including Villa) I'll look at the poll results and work out whether it's simply a win, loss or draw and that's all I'll record. Beyond that game the poll should just be win, loss or draw. The reason being that we can't have a situation where 40 people are saying draw and 100 people are saying different levels of win/defeat, yet the draw is seen as the common consensus. Goodbye.

Ashley's raping people's wives now? He is a fucking wrong'un him like.

Agreed, was like when Pardew ruled himself out of the England vacancy, showed a lot of respect for both country and club. Nice touch when managers can do this unlike Redknapp at Spurs. Especially good batch of crack today by the looks.