Hughesy

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?

I love the lopsidedness - makes it far far more interesting and striking.

I think that one horrendous error might be clouding your judgment a little on how Guthrie played that day and how rubbish we are as a whole during the match.

I don't quite get this guy... if this doesn't happen and he has said that it will - why would anyone ever believe anything he says? Surely he has been wrong enough times now for ppl to ignore him?

His articles are usually quite scathing about Sullivan and Gold. So that's a bit strange really...

50/50 really.

That is an odd article because I genuinely rate Samuel as being a decent journalist. Very strange. Can almost see where he is going with the first bit about us not being a 'massive' club, because we aren't... But the bit about West Ham and Nolan is just plain wrong.

I am not sure the presence of Kevin Nolan would make me any more willing to buy a season ticket.

No-one is forcing him to leave. He could just see out the remaining two years of his well remunerated contract.

if,say for example the fee is £2mill then his wages of, again for example £40kpw, there's over 4mill to reinvest in the club (hopefully) Just stuff a shirt with £10 notes and stick it on the pitch. it'd probably be more mobile.

I've heard it all now. Well - it makes sense.

How would a 'warning' from Barton help anyone?