Hughesy

Maybe, who knows, the point is that just because we didn't plan for the Carroll money doesn't mean we should now spunk it up the wall as quickly as possible. Why is using some of it to finance the general running of the club over the next X years (which we couldn't afford before) so terrible. When running a football club, all that stuff has to be balanced with spending on the first XI, that's all I've ever argued. Ian - for the sake of your own sanity, I'd give up to be honest. You can only bang your head against a brick wall so many times..

One striker target based in France and one in Spain.

Apparently Ba wasn't free there isn't a such thing as free transfers according Newcastle United Football Club, they are actually really expensive and take up a large chunk of 35 million pound... Do you genuinely not understand what people mean when they say that signing a player on a free transfer costs the club money or are you trying to be funny?

I assume because they are increased costs to the club and they want to account for them out of the revenue streams coming in. The wage bill has gone up so something needs to cover that. It doesn't really matter 'where' it actually comes from - it just comes from the funds we have.

Carroll was on about 30k? Nolan was on 50k? Sol was on about 20k? All estimates but it'd be around that. But Tiote is probably now on 50k (from 20k?) and I assume that Ba, Marveaux and Cabaye are all on at least 40k per week.

Otter's version was more positive...

I wouldn't say that is guaranteed, but I agree that it is highly unlikely. Not quite sure how you can be so certain as to rule it out though. Maybe I should clarify and say the traditional 'I don't want to see us 'do a Leeds''.

Well - obviously any fan wants us to play well and win. That's pretty clear. I don't think any fan goes to a game, watches us get twatted by a team and sits there happy in the knowledge that we are on a financially stable footing. Ultimately I want us to be a stable financial footing so that: 1) We always have a club to support 2) The club runs itself in a sensible fashion and is then able to progress by sensible investment over a period of time. In order to fulfil 1 and 2 above, our finances do need to be respectable.

everything in moderation Couldn't agree more, but you can't just ignore the financial realities of the situation because it's football. Which seem people seem very very keen to do. personally i'm keen for them not to ignore the footballing realities but whatever floats your boat. just look at everything else the club is doing, now we're getting rid of badly needed squad players for no other reason than to stop paying them wages, EVERYTHING is geared towards cost cutting for f***s sake, EVERYTHING. when does this become not good enough for our club? after 10 more seasons 'trying to attack the top ten and challenging in the cups' ? Not sure where that little temper tantrum is going. All I am pointing out is that it is utterly ridiculous for people to ignore the financial realities of running a business. The fact that this particular business is a football club doesn't alter the fundamental principles on which the business should be run. People making statements about not caring about balance sheets, the wage bill or levels of debt are deluded.

everything in moderation Couldn't agree more, but you can't just ignore the financial realities of the situation because it's football. Which seem people seem very very keen to do.

I don't think there is a problem in a fan identifying a player who will increase in value and could be sold for more than the purchase price. It doesn't make a fan any less keen for success. I hope the club does identify and buy players who increase in value. I don't quite understand the 'bubble' some other fans live in. The whole 'fingers in the ears, chanting 'I don't care about balance sheets'' is so shortsighted and simplistic, I can't actually believe people think it, let alone say it out loud.

From the same Luke Edwards article on Telegraph. "It is thought as much as £2 million was paid to agents to land Ba, with a similar sum paid up front to the Senegal international. The same applied to Marveaux. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/8618782/Alan-Pardew-defends-Newcastle-spending-policy-but-fans-fear-team-will-suffer-without-significant-reinvestment.html

Although I am generally in the camp whereby I don't think a full £35 million MUST be spent - I do find it very strange that we have given such large agent and signing on fees to 2 players who are injury prone. Think one of the articles suggested we had paid £2 million to Ba's agent and £2 million upfront to Ba himself. That can't make good business sense if we have done that.

I obviously didn't mean that. I'm not positive about the results, but I'm positive that we're trying for some decent players. We can't make NUFC any more successful and appealing than it is, and we won't pay over the odds in wages. Therefore if we go for top players they are quite likely to reject us. It's all part of the process. No wonder you're happy with the running of the club if you really believe that. Come on, that's obviously not what I meant either. I mean we can't make NUFC a Champions League club right now in order to appeal to those players who want that, so we have to accept some might turn us down. Clearly in the future we can make the club more successful and appealing, didn't think I would need to explain that TBH. So now top players only go to Champions League clubs? Did Andy Carroll? Did Luis Suarez? Did Luka Modric? Did Darren Bent? This defeatist attitude is embarrassing. If you pay good money, good players will come, and that's how you improve. Simple as that. We have the fanbase to be in amongst the best teams in the country and I for one will never accept less than that. You're a good bloke Ian but you talk in contradictions. You claim we can't compete with the clubs at the top because they spend loads of money but you say we shouldn't spend money because that's not the way to improve the team. Surely even you can see that the current management of the club is not going to get us back into the top six? You must have been awfully depressed over the last 50 years then..

I obviously didn't mean that. I'm not positive about the results, but I'm positive that we're trying for some decent players. We can't make NUFC any more successful and appealing than it is, and we won't pay over the odds in wages. Therefore if we go for top players they are quite likely to reject us. It's all part of the process. No wonder you're happy with the running of the club if you really believe that. Because throwing large amounts of money at players who don't want to come has worked so well in the past. Oh wait...

Quite simply - it's unprofessional and he should stop. He's embarrassing himself at this point.

Exactly this. Barton needs to wind his neck in.

Over the moon, a very decent signing. You do sound very confident..

It is ridiculous that Ashley doesn't just spend on all his money on NUFC. I mean we only owe him £100-200 million. He must keep bankrolling us!!

Should have renewed your season ticket a bit earlier really... ;-)

There was one. He didn't sign it. It was subsequently withdrawn.

It's pretty much the same thing...? By not signing an offer on the table, you are essentially turning down the offer by conduct.

Most of those clubs named don't actually have a huge net spend at the moment. Arguably Liverpool will by the end of the transfer window.

He's a clown always has been. Only one clown around here at the moment, mate.

Was reading that Arnautovic is available? Don't know much about him apart from what I have read via World Soccer etc - but is he worth a punt?