Shays Given Tim Flowers

not enough players scouted and not enough signed. Essentially, though it's not clear how many players we scout, certainly not enough signed.

We don't appear to have a scouting system in the traditional mould. Again, the specific players recruited are not the problem with the current recruitment strategy.

Skirge wants Lambeezy back.

So we do have reasons for signing the player other than he's going cheap yeah? Ok fair enough, I know what you mean, it would be nice for price to be less of an issue than it is. I just hate the whole "oh no this club has bought a more expensive player than we have" thing, as if there's a league table for who has spent the most on a player. Who would you rather have, Ben Arfa at £5.75m or Stewart Downing at £20m? Price is always the most important factor. Balance of Price and Ability is, which is what we do and we do it well. Can't disagree with that. So well in fact we've finished in the top half once since 2006. New transfer system has only been in place since we went down. We've done very well in terms of transfers since then, not their fault the managers a loon. No, not one bit. At all. Not their fault there's one goalscorer in the squad either. Ronaldo's gripe is legitimate here. The players we actually sign represent good value. Barring last January has Ashley ever overseen a window where we bought what the squad has actually needed? If the emphasis is on value either all of the time, or disproportionately then the squad has and will suffer. We seemingly will only do a deal when it satisfies the 'value threshold'. Our transfer policy does not seem to allow us to pay a premium for what we need. I think you have to look at is as 'Are we maximising our potential with being daft financially?', 'Are we looking down every avenue in order to improve the club and move forward?' etc. I don't think anyone is advocating being daft financially, secondly the vast majority of the footballing infrastructure at NUFC suggests a lack of ambition. Doesn't require a huge leap of faith to assume the answer to your second question is no. RE: point 1, I know but it's the classic straw man argument thrown around here so much that burns my brain. Very few people are advocating 'going wild' - merely just spending the odd 1-2% of overall revenue of NUFC here or there. Plus as was mentioned t'other day there is decidedly less f***ing around (as shown in January) when there is true desire there to bring in players. when I think i'm agreeing with you here so apologies if I misconstrued your quoted post. Citing players who are expensive is hardly the point I was getting at. Sorry I wasn't clearer. A premium would be sometimes paying a little bit extra to get deals done when we need to. Take the Sissoko deal for example where we paid money for a player we could have gotten for free a few months later. Debuchy would be an example of when we didn't want to pay a premium (the summer before he signed). Of course the necessity at play in buying Sissoko was that we were looking at being relegated. The fact that the only window where we have bought what was necessary, was when we were staring down the barrel of our second relegation, indicates the ambition the powers that be have for the squad. This Summer a Centre Back, Striker and Left Winger Could be deemed necessary to move the forward. I doubt it will happen. I hope you can distinguish this concept of a premium from breaking the world transfer fee record or the British transfer fee record.

Darren Bent doesn't do what Darren Bent does for Darren Bent. Darren Bent does what Darren Bent does because Darren Bent is Darren Bent!

So we do have reasons for signing the player other than he's going cheap yeah? Ok fair enough, I know what you mean, it would be nice for price to be less of an issue than it is. I just hate the whole "oh no this club has bought a more expensive player than we have" thing, as if there's a league table for who has spent the most on a player. Who would you rather have, Ben Arfa at £5.75m or Stewart Downing at £20m? Price is always the most important factor. Balance of Price and Ability is, which is what we do and we do it well. Can't disagree with that. So well in fact we've finished in the top half once since 2006. New transfer system has only been in place since we went down. We've done very well in terms of transfers since then, not their fault the managers a loon. No, not one bit. At all. Not their fault there's one goalscorer in the squad either. Ronaldo's gripe is legitimate here. The players we actually sign represent good value. Barring last January has Ashley ever overseen a window where we bought what the squad has actually needed? If the emphasis is on value either all of the time, or disproportionately then the squad has and will suffer. We seemingly will only do a deal when it satisfies the 'value threshold'. Our transfer policy does not seem to allow us to pay a premium for what we need. I think you have to look at is as 'Are we maximising our potential with being daft financially?', 'Are we looking down every avenue in order to improve the club and move forward?' etc. I don't think anyone is advocating being daft financially, secondly the vast majority of the footballing infrastructure at NUFC suggests a lack of ambition. Doesn't require a huge leap of faith to assume the answer to your second question is no.

So we do have reasons for signing the player other than he's going cheap yeah? Ok fair enough, I know what you mean, it would be nice for price to be less of an issue than it is. I just hate the whole "oh no this club has bought a more expensive player than we have" thing, as if there's a league table for who has spent the most on a player. Who would you rather have, Ben Arfa at £5.75m or Stewart Downing at £20m? Price is always the most important factor. Balance of Price and Ability is, which is what we do and we do it well. Can't disagree with that. So well in fact we've finished in the top half once since 2006. New transfer system has only been in place since we went down. We've done very well in terms of transfers since then, not their fault the managers a loon. No, not one bit. At all. Not their fault there's one goalscorer in the squad either. Ronaldo's gripe is legitimate here. The players we actually sign represent good value. Barring last January has Ashley ever overseen a window where we bought what the squad has actually needed? If the emphasis is on value either all of the time, or disproportionately then the squad has and will suffer. We seemingly will only do a deal when it satisfies the 'value threshold'. Our transfer policy does not seem to allow us to pay a premium for what we need.

Highly unlikely since Gomis is a competent footballer, who would actually help us, and Gignac is a blob. Probably right and I don't really like the speculative nonsense that particularly plagues the close season. Just unusual for their to be a link between all three.

Would there be any scope in Gomis being a pawn in our pursuit of Gignac? IIRC we are documented with a bid for Gignac that exceeded what we have offered for Gomis. Just seems odd that we got this close but it hasn't happened. Maybe Gomis wants to go to Marseille but he knows he can only go if they sell Gignac who we have been linked with.

Not like either of them will make space for the other.

Kemen.

sad but true Agree, but I still couldn't stand him being our manager. he'd be your Pardew

With Caretaker Manager, Glenn Roeder.

Drinking in an Irish Bar no doubt. Edit: With Jerry Francis

Going to this.

10th As though it isn't bang average.

Squad. You call having Shola Ameobi as your 2nd choice striker a f****** squad! Exactly. We target whoever we can get for less than they're worth. I hate it. It's no way to build any sort of effective footballing unit. The players we recruit are quality for decent prices. The quantity and structure of our recruitment is woefully inept. They're rarely what we actually 'need'. that's it.

Squad. You call having Shola Ameobi as your 2nd choice striker a f****** squad! Exactly. We target whoever we can get for less than they're worth. I hate it. It's no way to build any sort of effective footballing unit. The players we recruit are quality for decent prices. The quantity and structure of our recruitment is woefully inept.

I'd generally agree, but they really have progressed two of our player very well. At the least i'd be happy for some of our players like Richardson to go there. Campbell probably needs a year of playing games and then should be looking to go to a championship club the season after.

Arsenal are a step-up for Suarez but his form suggests he should be playing at a higher level than either Arsenal or Liverpool.

I disagree. I'd give my left nut for CL qualification, but I just disagree with celebrating it harder than the team that actually won the title. So you'd sacrifice your left testicle for something but wouldn't celebrate it if you subsequently got it? Perfect logic.

Can the necessary parties take a transfer bath please?

How can you say that about a case you know f*** all about unless you were the one raped To be fair, there is a popular conception that conviction rates in rape cases are low. Basically of reported rapes (i.e. someone complains to the police) about 13% will result in a conviction. That being said when a rape is actually charged (ie the CPS decide there is sufficient evidence to prosecute) the conviction rate is actually around 60%. Note Remy has not, and may not be charged. What does this mean? Well it's difficult to form a clear opinion on the figures. That being said that 60% conviction rate includes cases where people plead guilty. So the conviction rate after a trial is placed at about 50%. In Remy's case on the face of it there are 3 people accused. If they all have the same story then it's likely a jury couldn't be sure. But until we know what the evidence is (I.e. what is actually said in the Courtroom) it is difficult to predict.

I hope not, but of course we are. Fraid so. Given the drought of good news this summer would make more sense to just enjoy the moment.