Punk77

Fuck Easter!!!!!

There is a middle ground between throwing millions on players such as Owen, Luque etc, and buying absolutely fucking nobody. We are well-run if you completely ignore the sports aspect, and by doing that you are completely missing the point of running a fotball club. Its not supposed to be ran like a normal business. I understand what you mean here, and I concur. Not buying, as in actually paying money for, a forward is unforgiveable given our back-up options if Ba and Best are injured for any length of time. You're forgetting Loven

You have to consider the attacking options at his disposal since the sale of Carroll: Loven, Best, Shola and a useless Ranger. That makes his results highly impressive. I don't think anay other manager would have coped better with such an impotent strike force. It's only when Ba, Mav and HBA return to full fitness that we could start to judge our attacking play. Right now I'm saticfied with a tight defense and us scoring on the chances we get. .

Good post by nufcblog.co.uk . Spot on imo. Pard has done excellent, circumstances considered:

I don't think that is how a "pay as you play" contract works in Ba's case. His contract contingencies must be related to his knee in particular. If he's not playing because of knee troubles, he doesn't get paid. But if he's benched due to a strategical choice made by Pards, he's paid like the rest of the bunch.

This! If he fix his concentration, he could be a solid attacker. Hopefully his injury problems are now over.

That is not sure: If the defense functions, that security/confidence could spread to the rest of the team too..

Jeah, only time will tell..

Good article indeed. . I think the current squad is promising, we've improved in all areas, even in attack (Ba is obviously Carroll's replacement). But as we all know, the failure to buy the second striker fucked up what could have been a fantastic window. However, with HBA returning, a Vukic who now really seems to realize his talent and Ba, we actually have three more players to use in attack than we had in the 2nd part of last season. The BIG problem is course the lack of depth. A long time injury on Best or BA is a disaster. On the other hand, we have started this season great, our defensive play has never looked better, so if we're lucky with injuries we might be capable of cementing a a spot in the upper tier of the table, which will make us more attractive for the best talents in the January window. Hopefully our economy has also improved, making it possible for us to pick the best talents in attack and on left back. Tbf it looks like they've been spot on with all the other purchases, which is impressing. Still it's fucking irritating that they're so stubborn in their approach, they refuse to may more than the player is worth..But luckily this also mean that we never will experience another kind of nightmare: Buying a shit player like Crouch for £10 mill, or wasting £4 mill on Jerome. In other words MA is now taking a huge risk, but his strategy MIGHT also result in a huge payoff if we're lucky with injuries and the squad reaches its potential. He's taking a gamble, but with budget discipline and a strong focus on buying the correct players at correct price, the club COULD recover faster. The coin has two sides in other words.

If you look at the quality of the players we now got, I don't think MA is falling on his fat arse yet. HBA, Mav, Sammy, Sparky, Vukic, Ferguson, Colo, Santon, HBA, Cabaye, Taylor, Obertan and Krul. Except colo, all are young players with great potential.. The futre is bright, the future is black and white

I've read it before, the club were in a bad way but could have turned it round by reducing purchases and getting rid of a few players like we had in the past. We broke the bank to get Owen and that was a mistake. That doesn't excuse from the mistakes and f*** ups that Ashley has made and how he has made the problems more difficult by how he has run the club. On that we agree..MA did some bad decisions himself. But everything was already set in motion by FS. Answer me this, are we in a position knowing what we saw in the books for relegation and the changes that have occurred, to pay off some of the debts last year and this year and still have more money than we have spent on transfers this window. The answer you and I both know is yes and unless we suddenly buy some high paid, costly players in the January window will be yes again for the next year. So why didn't he. If he had I would have had no complaints but instead we are stuck with a squad that isn't big enough still worrying about relegation with a paper profit. True..But we all know that money is available for a transfer..We had TWO £10 mill bids accepted. Sadly, both players decided not to join us. The problem is that we're so starved for success that we demand that the club display some sign of "ambition." But sometimes there's no connection between money used and ambition or success. I don't want the club to use money just for the sake of it. The supporters of stoke are quite happy with using £10 mill on Crouch, but I'm not. He doesn't represent what this club now stands for. Too many times we've bought players without performing due dilligence. I want hungry, young and good lads to play for us, like Cabaye, HBA and Santon.. All three chose us, despite better offers from other clubs. If we have to wait until Christmas to get the correct player in, so be it. That Erdnic and Gameiro didn't want to come to England, is hardly our fault. If they donn't want to paly for us, fuck them! And we should neither pay them stupid money either, hoping that will change their minds. We all saw how that went (Owen, Luqe etc)

I've read it before, the club were in a bad way but could have turned it round by reducing purchases and getting rid of a few players like we had in the past. We broke the bank to get Owen and that was a mistake. That doesn't excuse from the mistakes and fuck ups that Ashley has made and how he has made the problems more difficult by how he has run the club. On that we agree..MA did some bad decisions himself. But everything was already set in motion by FS.

Cracking news we get to spend years living within our means not looking for Europe or trophies as that might mean we have to spend some cash. But hey what does trying to win things mean when Ashley can be in profit WAHOOOOOOO Some people have to accept that we're a mid-table club - which is actually quite good considering our position (you know, newly promoted etc) Sorry if I'd rather accept that we finished mid table last year, got rid of dead wood and could have actually improved the squad with the funds that were made available due to the sale of key players. It's how a club should progress by improving each year. I'm not expecting us to be fighting for Europe this year but I am expecting the club to try and improve the squad to eventually get there, not sit round looking for profit. We did improve the squad though? No we didn't, we improved some of the positions in the first team 11. If we improved the squad we wouldn't be struggling for a striker despite needing one for 8 months. We wouldn't be one of the only clubs I know who don't have a recognised replacement to come in at centre back. We also weakened some of the first team such as left back and upfront with the sales of enrique and Carroll. Santon will turn out better than Enrique in time, trust me. Steven Taylor is in career best form, so is Tim Krul and Colo has been amazing. Our midfield is better than it was last year, and midfield is where most games are won and lost. You guys will eat your words when we finish top half this season. I said the same to a Sunderland fan who told me that Wickham will be great in the future. We need someone now. If he isn't going to be able to cope in the PL straight away then we're screwed down the left. You appear to fail to even mention the worries of one of Taylor or Colo getting suspended or injured. Hell what happens if they both are missing, it's happened before. If you lose your only two centre backs and are left with the back 4 of Santon, r Taylor, Perch and Simpson we're going down simple as that. Defend from the midfield all you want but we will concede bucket loads and that is the fault of the two at the top. Unlike Wickham, Santon is actually ready to play PL now though. It's not as if the guy has played 7 times for Italy and 50 times or so for Inter All I was saying is that he'll get better and better, eventually reaching a level that is better than Enrique. If Taylor or Colo gets injured we're f***ed, but let's just hope it doesn't happen. Am I not right in thinking that was all before Jose left Inter, since then he's been left to play on loan and people in Italy aren't as impressed as they once were ? Yes he may come good but who knows. But after these past two windows we shouldn't be in the position where we have to hope it doesn't happen. We've made huge profits. I won't cheer about huge profits when the first team squad needs huge investment. When a company has more than £100 mill in debt, it's not successfull in my eyes. For once we managed to get more money in than out, but it's the decade with overspending without results on the pitch that we're now paying for.. A debt which is still at such a peak because of Ashley though Is that really relevant? A debt is a debt, it needs to be repaid. The club has to be very careful for the next few years - anyone that actually spent we would spent the majority of the Carroll money was in cuckoo land. Exactly! The club has to take incremantal steps towards recovery. I do not want us to be like Liverpool. They're going "all in" as we speak. Imagine the economical chaos if they don't win anything. People have said the same about Chelsea, and Man City and Man Utd yet them seem to all be doing fine and have been for a while now. I'm not and most people are not asking to go all in just spend some of the money say £13m on a striker and a loan defender and we would have been covered and still made a huge profit. Ashley has no intention of progressing the club, i said it from day one when he took over. His intentions are to make himself lots of money he really doesn't care if we fight relegation each year, and once the club is able to support himself he would;nt care about another season in the championship either as the club could still run a profit off parachute payments. Cannot compare us with those clubs. ManC and Chelsea are supported by owners that have A LOT more money than Ashley. Abrahimovich is approxemately 10 times richer than MA. Chelsea was in an economical s*** storm too when he bought them in 2003. The difference is that he had the funds to literally buy them out of an economical disaster. Those clubs are not earning money, in fact they're totally dependent on a steady influx of owner capital. In 2009/2010 Chelsea's had a deficit of £70 millions (!!). And it's well proven fact that MA, unlike Fat Fred, has never taken a dime from the club. It's the other way around. The club was capable of making large purchases and still staying solvent under FS, he would usually have spates where we didn't spend much one season but then the next we were back after changing funding or reducing wages. And I didn't compare, another who can't read. FS almost bankrupted the club..Thank god MA didn't check the books proparly before he bought it. If he did, he would never have touchd us. This is an interesting article about NUFC finances from an esteemed blogger: http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2010/12/newcastle-uniteds-finances-in-black-and.html The aricle is quite clear in its conclusions..FS mismanaged the clu.

Cracking news we get to spend years living within our means not looking for Europe or trophies as that might mean we have to spend some cash. But hey what does trying to win things mean when Ashley can be in profit WAHOOOOOOO Some people have to accept that we're a mid-table club - which is actually quite good considering our position (you know, newly promoted etc) Sorry if I'd rather accept that we finished mid table last year, got rid of dead wood and could have actually improved the squad with the funds that were made available due to the sale of key players. It's how a club should progress by improving each year. I'm not expecting us to be fighting for Europe this year but I am expecting the club to try and improve the squad to eventually get there, not sit round looking for profit. We did improve the squad though? No we didn't, we improved some of the positions in the first team 11. If we improved the squad we wouldn't be struggling for a striker despite needing one for 8 months. We wouldn't be one of the only clubs I know who don't have a recognised replacement to come in at centre back. We also weakened some of the first team such as left back and upfront with the sales of enrique and Carroll. Santon will turn out better than Enrique in time, trust me. Steven Taylor is in career best form, so is Tim Krul and Colo has been amazing. Our midfield is better than it was last year, and midfield is where most games are won and lost. You guys will eat your words when we finish top half this season. I said the same to a Sunderland fan who told me that Wickham will be great in the future. We need someone now. If he isn't going to be able to cope in the PL straight away then we're screwed down the left. You appear to fail to even mention the worries of one of Taylor or Colo getting suspended or injured. Hell what happens if they both are missing, it's happened before. If you lose your only two centre backs and are left with the back 4 of Santon, r Taylor, Perch and Simpson we're going down simple as that. Defend from the midfield all you want but we will concede bucket loads and that is the fault of the two at the top. Unlike Wickham, Santon is actually ready to play PL now though. It's not as if the guy has played 7 times for Italy and 50 times or so for Inter All I was saying is that he'll get better and better, eventually reaching a level that is better than Enrique. If Taylor or Colo gets injured we're f***ed, but let's just hope it doesn't happen. Am I not right in thinking that was all before Jose left Inter, since then he's been left to play on loan and people in Italy aren't as impressed as they once were ? Yes he may come good but who knows. But after these past two windows we shouldn't be in the position where we have to hope it doesn't happen. We've made huge profits. I won't cheer about huge profits when the first team squad needs huge investment. When a company has more than £100 mill in debt, it's not successfull in my eyes. For once we managed to get more money in than out, but it's the decade with overspending without results on the pitch that we're now paying for.. A debt which is still at such a peak because of Ashley though Is that really relevant? A debt is a debt, it needs to be repaid. The club has to be very careful for the next few years - anyone that actually spent we would spent the majority of the Carroll money was in cuckoo land. Exactly! The club has to take incremantal steps towards recovery. I do not want us to be like Liverpool. They're going "all in" as we speak. Imagine the economical chaos if they don't win anything. People have said the same about Chelsea, and Man City and Man Utd yet them seem to all be doing fine and have been for a while now. I'm not and most people are not asking to go all in just spend some of the money say £13m on a striker and a loan defender and we would have been covered and still made a huge profit. Ashley has no intention of progressing the club, i said it from day one when he took over. His intentions are to make himself lots of money he really doesn't care if we fight relegation each year, and once the club is able to support himself he would;nt care about another season in the championship either as the club could still run a profit off parachute payments. Cannot compare us with those clubs. ManC and Chelsea are supported by owners that have A LOT more money than Ashley. Abrahimovich is approxemately 10 times richer than MA. Chelsea was in an economical shit storm too when he bought them in 2003. The difference is that he had the funds to literally buy them out of an economical disaster. Those clubs are not earning money, in fact they're totally dependent on a steady influx of owner capital. In 2009/2010 Chelsea's had a deficit of £70 millions (!!). As long as we're not supported by a super duper rich owner, MA's strategy is the only way to success I'm afraid. And whats' the fun of supporting MAnC? They bying silverware. And it's well proven fact that MA, unlike Fat Fred, has never taken a dime from the club. It's the other way around.

Cracking news we get to spend years living within our means not looking for Europe or trophies as that might mean we have to spend some cash. But hey what does trying to win things mean when Ashley can be in profit WAHOOOOOOO Some people have to accept that we're a mid-table club - which is actually quite good considering our position (you know, newly promoted etc) Sorry if I'd rather accept that we finished mid table last year, got rid of dead wood and could have actually improved the squad with the funds that were made available due to the sale of key players. It's how a club should progress by improving each year. I'm not expecting us to be fighting for Europe this year but I am expecting the club to try and improve the squad to eventually get there, not sit round looking for profit. We did improve the squad though? No we didn't, we improved some of the positions in the first team 11. If we improved the squad we wouldn't be struggling for a striker despite needing one for 8 months. We wouldn't be one of the only clubs I know who don't have a recognised replacement to come in at centre back. We also weakened some of the first team such as left back and upfront with the sales of enrique and Carroll. Santon will turn out better than Enrique in time, trust me. Steven Taylor is in career best form, so is Tim Krul and Colo has been amazing. Our midfield is better than it was last year, and midfield is where most games are won and lost. You guys will eat your words when we finish top half this season. I said the same to a Sunderland fan who told me that Wickham will be great in the future. We need someone now. If he isn't going to be able to cope in the PL straight away then we're screwed down the left. You appear to fail to even mention the worries of one of Taylor or Colo getting suspended or injured. Hell what happens if they both are missing, it's happened before. If you lose your only two centre backs and are left with the back 4 of Santon, r Taylor, Perch and Simpson we're going down simple as that. Defend from the midfield all you want but we will concede bucket loads and that is the fault of the two at the top. Unlike Wickham, Santon is actually ready to play PL now though. It's not as if the guy has played 7 times for Italy and 50 times or so for Inter All I was saying is that he'll get better and better, eventually reaching a level that is better than Enrique. If Taylor or Colo gets injured we're f***ed, but let's just hope it doesn't happen. Am I not right in thinking that was all before Jose left Inter, since then he's been left to play on loan and people in Italy aren't as impressed as they once were ? Yes he may come good but who knows. But after these past two windows we shouldn't be in the position where we have to hope it doesn't happen. We've made huge profits. I won't cheer about huge profits when the first team squad needs huge investment. When a company has more than £100 mill in debt, it's not successfull in my eyes. For once we managed to get more money in than out, but it's the decade with overspending without results on the pitch that we're now paying for.. A debt which is still at such a peak because of Ashley though Is that really relevant? A debt is a debt, it needs to be repaid. The club has to be very careful for the next few years - anyone that actually spent we would spent the majority of the Carroll money was in cuckoo land. Exactly! The club has to take incremantal steps towards recovery. I do not want us to be like Liverpool. They're going "all in" as we speak. Imagine the economical chaos if they don't win anything.

Cracking news we get to spend years living within our means not looking for Europe or trophies as that might mean we have to spend some cash. But hey what does trying to win things mean when Ashley can be in profit WAHOOOOOOO Some people have to accept that we're a mid-table club - which is actually quite good considering our position (you know, newly promoted etc) Sorry if I'd rather accept that we finished mid table last year, got rid of dead wood and could have actually improved the squad with the funds that were made available due to the sale of key players. It's how a club should progress by improving each year. I'm not expecting us to be fighting for Europe this year but I am expecting the club to try and improve the squad to eventually get there, not sit round looking for profit. We did improve the squad though? No we didn't, we improved some of the positions in the first team 11. If we improved the squad we wouldn't be struggling for a striker despite needing one for 8 months. We wouldn't be one of the only clubs I know who don't have a recognised replacement to come in at centre back. We also weakened some of the first team such as left back and upfront with the sales of enrique and Carroll. Santon will turn out better than Enrique in time, trust me. Steven Taylor is in career best form, so is Tim Krul and Colo has been amazing. Our midfield is better than it was last year, and midfield is where most games are won and lost. You guys will eat your words when we finish top half this season. I said the same to a Sunderland fan who told me that Wickham will be great in the future. We need someone now. If he isn't going to be able to cope in the PL straight away then we're screwed down the left. You appear to fail to even mention the worries of one of Taylor or Colo getting suspended or injured. Hell what happens if they both are missing, it's happened before. If you lose your only two centre backs and are left with the back 4 of Santon, r Taylor, Perch and Simpson we're going down simple as that. Defend from the midfield all you want but we will concede bucket loads and that is the fault of the two at the top. Unlike Wickham, Santon is actually ready to play PL now though. It's not as if the guy has played 7 times for Italy and 50 times or so for Inter All I was saying is that he'll get better and better, eventually reaching a level that is better than Enrique. If Taylor or Colo gets injured we're f***ed, but let's just hope it doesn't happen. Am I not right in thinking that was all before Jose left Inter, since then he's been left to play on loan and people in Italy aren't as impressed as they once were ? Yes he may come good but who knows. But after these past two windows we shouldn't be in the position where we have to hope it doesn't happen. We've made huge profits. I won't cheer about huge profits when the first team squad needs huge investment. When a company has more than £100 mill in debt, it's not successfull in my eyes. For once we managed to get more money in than out, but it's the decade with overspending without results on the pitch that we're now paying for.. A debt which is still at such a peak because of Ashley though The club was already in a world of hurt when he bought it. He made the condition worse due to his inexperience with running a football club. But he's slowly turning the ship around.

Cracking news we get to spend years living within our means not looking for Europe or trophies as that might mean we have to spend some cash. But hey what does trying to win things mean when Ashley can be in profit WAHOOOOOOO Some people have to accept that we're a mid-table club - which is actually quite good considering our position (you know, newly promoted etc) Sorry if I'd rather accept that we finished mid table last year, got rid of dead wood and could have actually improved the squad with the funds that were made available due to the sale of key players. It's how a club should progress by improving each year. I'm not expecting us to be fighting for Europe this year but I am expecting the club to try and improve the squad to eventually get there, not sit round looking for profit. We did improve the squad though? No we didn't, we improved some of the positions in the first team 11. If we improved the squad we wouldn't be struggling for a striker despite needing one for 8 months. We wouldn't be one of the only clubs I know who don't have a recognised replacement to come in at centre back. We also weakened some of the first team such as left back and upfront with the sales of enrique and Carroll. Santon will turn out better than Enrique in time, trust me. Steven Taylor is in career best form, so is Tim Krul and Colo has been amazing. Our midfield is better than it was last year, and midfield is where most games are won and lost. You guys will eat your words when we finish top half this season. I said the same to a Sunderland fan who told me that Wickham will be great in the future. We need someone now. If he isn't going to be able to cope in the PL straight away then we're screwed down the left. You appear to fail to even mention the worries of one of Taylor or Colo getting suspended or injured. Hell what happens if they both are missing, it's happened before. If you lose your only two centre backs and are left with the back 4 of Santon, r Taylor, Perch and Simpson we're going down simple as that. Defend from the midfield all you want but we will concede bucket loads and that is the fault of the two at the top. Unlike Wickham, Santon is actually ready to play PL now though. It's not as if the guy has played 7 times for Italy and 50 times or so for Inter All I was saying is that he'll get better and better, eventually reaching a level that is better than Enrique. If Taylor or Colo gets injured we're f***ed, but let's just hope it doesn't happen. Am I not right in thinking that was all before Jose left Inter, since then he's been left to play on loan and people in Italy aren't as impressed as they once were ? Yes he may come good but who knows. But after these past two windows we shouldn't be in the position where we have to hope it doesn't happen. We've made huge profits. I won't cheer about huge profits when the first team squad needs huge investment. When a company has more than £100 mill in debt, it's not successfull in my eyes. For once we managed to get more money in than out, but it's the decade with overspending without results on the pitch that we're now paying for..

Very good post.. And I don't think people would have been happy if we had blown our money away on players like Crouch, Jerome or SWP either.. I'd have been quite happy to have blown that money on Ruiz though instead of watching Fulham blow us out of the water while we scrabbled about at the last minute like clueless spastics. In Ruiz' case it wasn't about money. We offered a better contract, but Fulham nursed him for months.. Well yeah. It's what you do when you genuinely want a player rather than piss about under-bidding for players who aren't available. We did the same thing with Gameiro and Erdnic..When the player himself doesn't want a move, the club can't do nothing about it. On the other hand, Santon said that the way we treated him was a reason why he signed for us, even though he had better offers. So it works both ways. Players are humans too, some you manage to connect with, others not.

Very good post.. And I don't think people would have been happy if we had blown our money away on players like Crouch, Jerome or SWP either.. I'd have been quite happy to have blown that money on Ruiz though instead of watching Fulham blow us out of the water while we scrabbled about at the last minute like clueless spastics. In Ruiz' case it wasn't about money. We offered a better contract, but Fulham nursed him for months..

Very good post.. And I don't think people would have been happy if we had blown our money away on players like Crouch, Jerome or SWP either..

Get in you negative bastards!!

We've dealt with Twente before, and I don't think the bid is any problem as long as it is identical with Fulhams

Make that 3,5 years.

Whaat? Raylor is clearly better at defending. Even at LB he shows that. Simpson is decent going forward yes, but lacking calmness and positioning. Also has a couple of absolute p*ss poor passes during a game. Raylor's not better at defending. Absolutely no way. Simpson is unable to hit a semi-difficult pass..He hoofs the ball if he's under the slightest pressure, or hits a support pass..Raylor is more constructive in his choices, as we saw against Fulham where he and Colo had some nice combos..