Belfast Mags

Come on man, keep up, it's: Lubo Satka

Enough said, ordering now. So many highlights to consider, can't wait. Just received 3-0 ManU and 4-4 Arse game last night . Didn't have time to watch properly but had a quick look. Picture quality That bad? I was gonna order them when I got in like, if you could be my DVD guinea pig and let me know if it's worth my money I'd appreciate it. 3-0 game looks better quality but the 4-4 game looked woeful tbh. Having said that it's probably just SD so if you can handle that, then it's OK. Think I have just been spoiled watching games in HD. Still looking forward to watching them mind (and in the little taster of the 4-4 second half, Tiote's work-rate was absolutely immense)

Any word on when the home kit is going to be launched?

Enough said, ordering now. So many highlights to consider, can't wait. Just received 3-0 ManU and 4-4 Arse game last night . Didn't have time to watch properly but had a quick look. Picture quality

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit . . . . . .

Nice .CAT web address there

Tiote??? Catts for me like

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ScHH8BGvB2c/T378r8YbSDI/AAAAAAAABXE/IF-K2gCucWE/s1600/mother+of+god+meme.JPG

This Excellent post. In addition, the mission statement that was made (this time last year I think) contained a very interesting change in policy with regards to transfers. Basically it was along the lines that transfer fees would be paid in full, up front, in a timely manner. THIS IS KEY. It's a step change away from our previous dealings (as was alluded to in the statement) with part payments/staggered payment etc being the "industry" standard. Now it's inconceivable to me that this policy wouldn't be enforced for out going transfers as well. It's simply our "terms and conditions" of transfer business. Obviously we'll never see the finer details of the deals (although I'd like to) but if this is the case, it puts us/Ashley/NUFC in a great position when it comes to the in's and out's. Imagine a situation like Cisse, valued at £12 million. Let say *unnamed FC" offer £11 million, NUFC offer £8.5 million. We've no chance of doing that deal, right? Well, let drill down into *unnamed FC's" deal. They're offering £4 million up front, another £2 million at the end of next season and then yearly payments of £2 million until it's paid. NUFC, £8.5 million, BACS transfer into your account by the end of the week. Job done. Certainly changes the landscape when you view it like that. Equally, demanding full payment up front for outbound transfers narrows your window for buying clubs but increases your chances of getting that payment as your dealing with clubs with a big enough leverage on debt to swallow your terms to get the player.

"We're going to make mistakes at some point but we haven't made many. And I think the supporters can see that with this policy, if we sign three or four players we should have at least two who are very good ones. That is our ratio at the moment and it is a pretty good ratio."

"then it happened and I honestly felt like I had lost a testicle" Actually the more I think about it, that's a pretty good description of whats happen there.

Facebook page

Watching the build up on Sky Dat Stadium

If they are then fair play indeed, hope it all doesn't work out for them It's all a number games really, here we are posting away with maybe the potential of say 10,000 people reading these posts over time (a lot of time I'm guessing) and with the click of an Enter key, Man U can "directly" reach 25-million supporters. That's half the population of England, at the stroke of a keyboard. That is powerful stuff.

Noticed in one of the Man Yoo home games a few weeks back, something like manutd.com/arabic circulating the pitch on the digital hoardings. It a big world out there guys and we're not even a pimple of the arse of it. Would be interesting to find out what other think about it though. I'm I really arsed about having Asian fans that couldn't find Newcastle on google maps? No, not really but by the same score, if those "fans" were the difference between signing good players and really good players (next level type thing) then it changes the complexion of it. Clearly football is heading in a highly money driven direction so my fear would be, being left behind by the big guns. There's no reason why we couldn't big a reasonable big global brand if we marketed ourselves correctly. Not sure if it's on the agenda though. We feel more "local celebrity" to me.

Looks like Yo has just shown HBA the last fifteen pages of the Sunderland thread on his Ipad. "Uncal Mick - ce qu'est un twat"

Getting in free to the mosque? pre season tours these days are all about trying to build fan bases, countries that like football with large muslim populations could be ripe to try and turn them from man utd,liverpool by using those three as a charm offensive. I've always been skeptical of how much foreign support actually brings to the club. Most of them wear fake merchandise and never attend games. What are the positives of big foreign fan bases? Globalization of the game makes it worthwhile if you're prepared to make the effort and support it with pre-season friendlies etc. China & India have populations of roughly 1 billion each (or something of that order) so even if their upwardly mobile middle classes topped out at say 5% of the overall public, that's a shed load of people looking towards aspirational living, of which the PL is a big, big draw. Agreed, as you say, fake shirts, not attending games is true but their "underlying support" can still be monetized (great word btw) There will always be "fake" goods but for the upwardly mobile, there's kudos in buying "official" kit and when the audience is so mindbogglingly large it's no wonder clubs are sitting up and taking notice. I'm no fan of Facetube or Twatter (mainly because I can see them for what they really are) but their ability to "go direct" to the consumer (to monetize ) is massively powerful and shouldn't isn't be ignored by the big guns. Facebook is all about social networking, the opportunity for big business to "tailor" their offer direct to people who actually want to buy their product. That's why it's floating at $100 billion + It's a interesting topic for football clubs actually, might even be worth a thread. I'd go the opposite and say the appeal of targeting markets like China/India etc. is for sponsorship/pre season tour reasons not for shirt sales etc. The general population of these countries, as you say, have access to fake merch (which looks real) and there is no chance the middle classes would wear shirts etc and even if they did I don't think it'd make the difference. Far more B2B than B2C IMO. I'll not disagree with that, fair point. For clarity, by "kit" I was referring to merchandise in general but appreciate I didn't make that very clear. You're right to highlight B2B, a massive driver for sure, but B2B (mostly in this sphere) looks like this: B2B2C. Ultimately they're all looking for the dollar, it's just a case of picking a good "partner" to drive your revenue stream with/through. Did a quick search on Facebook "likes" for the big 4 Man Utd - 25-million Arsenal - 10-million Liverpool - 9.7-million Man City - 2.7-million Now, you could argue that it's only a "click" on a site and means nothing in reality however I couldn't "like" them as I'm not on Facebook. Ergo, I must be live on the system so I can "dock" with them as myself. Once I'm locked on (like it or not) I'm basically fair game henceforth. Doesn't matter if I'm in Manchester or Mumbai, I still get the same first class slick marketing treatment. "What's that, you're coming to a City near me in pre-season?" WOW!! "I'll sign up for that" "What's that, I get discount of my home insurance as a club member?" WOW!! "I'll sign up for that" "What's that, your developing a footballing academy in my country with a summer course, this summer" WOW!! "Samir, would you "like" that?" "What's that, would I "like" a low (spelt LOL) rate club credit card that also doubles up as a clubcard at my local branch of *names southeast Asian supermarket chain*" WOW!! "Yes, please, I'd "like" that" It's a marketeers wet dream. FYI NUFC - 275-thousand

Getting in free to the mosque? pre season tours these days are all about trying to build fan bases, countries that like football with large muslim populations could be ripe to try and turn them from man utd,liverpool by using those three as a charm offensive. I've always been skeptical of how much foreign support actually brings to the club. Most of them wear fake merchandise and never attend games. What are the positives of big foreign fan bases? Globalization of the game makes it worthwhile if you're prepared to make the effort and support it with pre-season friendlies etc. China & India have populations of roughly 1 billion each (or something of that order) so even if their upwardly mobile middle classes topped out at say 5% of the overall public, that's a shed load of people looking towards aspirational living, of which the PL is a big, big draw. Agreed, as you say, fake shirts, not attending games is true but their "underlying support" can still be monetized (great word btw) There will always be "fake" goods but for the upwardly mobile, there's kudos in buying "official" kit and when the audience is so mindbogglingly large it's no wonder clubs are sitting up and taking notice. I'm no fan of Facetube or Twatter (mainly because I can see them for what they really are) but their ability to "go direct" to the consumer (to monetize ) is massively powerful and shouldn't isn't be ignored by the big guns. Facebook is all about social networking, the opportunity for big business to "tailor" their offer direct to people who actually want to buy their product. That's why it's floating at $100 billion + It's a interesting topic for football clubs actually, might even be worth a thread.

Outside sjp mate. Mickpoleon Dynashite one's not though. I suspect it's "on the estate" somewhere.

Just occurred to me, if those photos were taken on a iphone (unlikely I know) you should be able to find out where the were taken using an freely available open source program. Pity we don't have any photos mind

Fixed that for you

He's about as entertaining as finding out you have terminal cancer.

Noticed that too, just assumed it was bollocks Spurs

nufc.co.uk mentioned about Kadar being called up on International duty and I was like "wasn't he released". Anyhoo, we're supposed to be putting a broom through the reserves & youth teams so it all makes sense. Question is, will it do any good?