Stuy_O

tbh I will believe it when I see it. I know Levy is quite clever at these things but i'd be surprised if Real would be taken for such mugs.

Absolutely incredible. Football is ridiculous. I think Bale is a great player and I hope he does well there, but thats just fucking stupid.

Of course it's a different prospect playing there every week, let's hope he's maturing as a player.

Moving him up the pitch isn't the worst idea imo. I know Haidara and Dummett are largely unproven but Santon is miles better attacking than he is defending. He get's caught out positionally so much and teams notice it. Hopefully he's learned.

They'll still be there. Ashley will have got us a striker on loan and another one who is available. I'll be pleased we have them, but that doesn't mean Mike Ashley has ambition towards Newcastle.

Which other clubs are borrowing from banks to fund transfers? The vast majority of funds into clubs appears to be coming from owners pockets. If I were a credit officer at a bank and was asked to write a loan to a football club to fund transfers, the request would be almost surely get shredded. I can barely imagine a worse use of funds. Not just transfers though is it clubs use money for though is it? Training facilities, stadium expansions are all areas a club would look to a bank to surely?

If we were gonna offer 2mil we'd have known fine well it'll be rejected and that will suit Ashley just fine.

When clubs like Norwich are spending something close to that and still are looking to do more, it clearly is Yeah, cos Norwich have zero debt. They're one of the most financial sound clubs in England. Completely different. Clubs like Norwich are sensing an opportunity with this new TV deal and taking full advantage of it. They'v been given the money, why not use it? I'd say even clubs with a smidgen of debt would still use that money on players.

Age and his current earnings was always gonna make this one tricky, but you'd have thought we'd have valued slightly higher than that.

Quite the opposite. It's the equivalent of some horror looking in your direction at 3am and all you'll agree to is not spitting in their face. Aye true, I was going more for the idea if we reluctantly signed him and for nothing. It's the age thing again, we consider 5mil far to expensive for someone Ashley doesnt envisage selling.

He was always one for if the other options were looking unlikely. 2mil is insulting though if true.

2million ffs. Nufc on the pull and at half 3 in the morning saying to some horror 'suppose you'll do'

Think they'll compromise. We're no doubt interested but his wages are very tricky to get around. I can maybe see a deadline day last ditch move if we're still struggling to get Remy or Gomis.

He'll end up at Fulham.

Since the Keegan affair Ashley's desire to invest in this club has depleted, and it's at an all time low at this moment. The impression I get is that if he can avoid spending any money at all on the team, he will. There is this story about how this summer's spending was fast forwarded to January. I'm suspicious that if we'd had a successful season last term that we'd have seen those players brought in. That investment was to save his skin from relegation, simple, and even then you get the impression Pardew almost had to beg him to cough up.

We are debt free to Banks unlike all the other clubs, we owe fatty the money.

Debt in football is acceptable if you're earning bucket loads of revenue to pay it back in doses. Man U, Chelsea are in heaps of it but the banks are quite happy to let them get on with it as they know the money is coming back and with interest. We are debt free but that's basically it, our revenue is bleak. The money is there, it's just all Ashleys.

Ashley should have just sacked him if he felt so strongly. Folk do have short memories, Joey Barton was all over the place for us when he got sent down.

Yeh I actually don't mind Barton and we all know Ashley's flaws but he's going on like he was the victim in all that saga. Joey needs to remember that apart from our first season back up he was mainly useless for us and was nothing but bad press. I did enjoy his attitude when we were promoted mind but it's a pity he never portrayed that throughout his Newcastle career.

At the start of that interview he claims he wasn't paid in jail then about 2 minutes later he says they had to sack him or keep him on the money he was on. So he was paid?

Off at HT and sort it out for City. Made of glass that kid.

Benny hobbling.

3 players, who by all accounts are available, and we are making an utter balls up of all 3 (if we're actually doing anything at all)

This would mean we had a Plan A and B. Let's be realistic here.

It's a combination. If you give a limited manager limited recourses then you're asking for it. When Pardew was asked about what Ashley said to him about the season prospects at the beginning of the last term, he said 'mike said do it all again but with less money'. Quite staggering really.