Mevlüt Erdinç

[AyeDubbleYoo]

We've improved the quality of the squad this summer. However, the excuse making for the overall lack of investment to date is quite frankly staggering.

 

Why do we even need excuses, if the squad is better than before?

[johnnypd]

we shouldn't even be considering registering Xisco or Smith or Routledge ffs. the first two are write-offs, the latter is almost certain with a number of clubs bidding for him. worst excuse yet.

 

Obviously we'll register all three if they're still here, when does a club ever have that many highly-paid players not registered for the squad?? I think never is the answer.

 

Spurs with Woodgate. in reality Routledge will leave, Xisco will probably be off on loan somewhere, and Smith will probably be registered if we don't come to some agreement with the likes of Leeds to pay most his wages if they'll take him on a free. personally i wouldn't want him anywhere near the first team. is it worth taking up a squad space to have him embarras himself in 2 or 3 league games? Whether or not he is registered matters not one jot regarding his wages, we pay them whether he is or isn't.

 

Spurs knew they were going to be without Woodgate through injury regardless of whether he was registered, hence why they signed Gallas. I doubt Spurs would have signed him had Woodgate been fit enough to register.

 

still paying his wages.

 

Let's be honest, Smith is as good as injured these days. since his problems he looks like someone who should've retired years ago. are we seriously discussing this? you genuinely don't want us to sign players cos you believe deep down in your heart that Smith should be registered because we're still paying his wages?

 

this is what i was talking about -  you don't believe that, but the odd culture that's developed on his board means that you've found yourself advocating a position that is utterly absurd. let's stop hypothetically arguing for all the bullshit moves that Ashley would like to make because they're more likely to happen and start putting forward what we think would be the best course of action.

[The Prophet]

We've improved the quality of the squad this summer. However, the excuse making for the overall lack of investment to date is quite frankly staggering.

 

Why do we even need excuses, if the squad is better than before?

 

It is, but it could be better still if we made a substantial investment.

 

Edit: Also it's not just the fact it hasn't been invested, it's the fact the club gave the impression it would be. More smoke and mirrors.

[JH]

Why do we have to get rid of Smith/Routledge etc to replace them? We not allowed to bring in better players while they're still here like?

 

And what happens if we're stuck with them?

 

We pay them to be soopa backups until a) their contracts run-out or b) someone is stupid enough to buy them.

 

Like Man U did with the likes of Brown and O'Shea. It didn't stop them buying Smalling and so on.

 

They wouldn't be back ups though, they'd not be registered.

 

Cup competitions etc. And squad changes in January. The sooner we get them out of the squad the better.

 

Whether that is out of the register or off the wage bill, I don't care anymore.

[Guest]

we shouldn't even be considering registering Xisco or Smith or Routledge ffs. the first two are write-offs, the latter is almost certain with a number of clubs bidding for him. worst excuse yet.

 

So, that's what, £100k a week on wages doing nowt, £5m for the season? As if we'd sanction that.

 

Hold on a sec, I thought extra wages were coming out of the transfer funds? In which case it wouldn't matter. Now there is some barrier beyond which we can't sanction an extra signing because Alan Smith has 11 months left on his contract.

 

this really is getting beyond ridiculous now.

 

We're clearly penny pinching, so you honestly think we'd pay Xisco & Smith £5m for the season knowing we can't use them even in an emergency? Bollocks man. We're too tight to just give money like that away.

 

Are you defending what you think they WILL do, or what you think they SHOULD do..?

 

I haven't defended a thing. All I've said is until some of those senior players on the fringes go, we'll not be signing anyone.

 

Ok, so that's what you think they WILL do. Do you personally think that is what they SHOULD do?

 

I don't think we should be throwing money away like that, no, but I also think we'll see the likes of Routledge & Xisco in particular (and Enrique now) leave, so do think we'll bring in players to replace them.

[Hanshithispantz]

we shouldn't even be considering registering Xisco or Smith or Routledge ffs. the first two are write-offs, the latter is almost certain to leave with a number of clubs bidding for him. worst excuse yet.

 

there are a lot of people on here who spent the majority of their time making up excuses for Ashley, sympathising with Ashley, or making apologies for Ashley, while not at all considering themselves to be Ashley sympathisers or Ashley apologists. At what point to do you stop trying to appear like you are some sort of considered contrarian valiantly battling against the knee-jerkers, and just actually become an Ashley apologist?

 

 

 

I wasn't sure where to put this, but here it goes;

I'm f***ing sick to death of excuse after excuse being made for this fat c*** in charge. At what point does it all become too much?

 

I was chuffed with the way we finished last season, and had a genuine feeling we could push on from there if we re-invested the Carroll cash wisely and now I can't help but feel like we're going to struggle this season and just narrowly stay up (hopefully). I know it's knee-jerk, but we were one transfer window away from really putting our stamp back on the Premier League, instead we're seemingly becoming your run of the mill, mediocre club who either yo-yo's from division to division or just around mid-table in the Premier'.

 

If we get relegated again in the next year or two, it will cripple this club.

 

I still don't realy see where this Ashkey "excuse" and "apologist" business is coming from like, but I agree with the rest.

[Disco]

We've improved the quality of the squad this summer. However, the excuse making for the overall lack of investment to date is quite frankly staggering.

 

Why do we even need excuses, if the squad is better than before?

 

It is, but it could be better still if we made a substantial investment.

 

Although the squad is (marginally IMO but still) better more or less everyone knows we could really kick on this pre-season rather than just playing it safe and settling for staying up.

[Guest]

we shouldn't even be considering registering Xisco or Smith or Routledge ffs. the first two are write-offs, the latter is almost certain with a number of clubs bidding for him. worst excuse yet.

 

Obviously we'll register all three if they're still here, when does a club ever have that many highly-paid players not registered for the squad?? I think never is the answer.

 

Spurs with Woodgate. in reality Routledge will leave, Xisco will probably be off on loan somewhere, and Smith will probably be registered if we don't come to some agreement with the likes of Leeds to pay most his wages if they'll take him on a free. personally i wouldn't want him anywhere near the first team. is it worth taking up a squad space to have him embarras himself in 2 or 3 league games? Whether or not he is registered matters not one jot regarding his wages, we pay them whether he is or isn't.

 

Spurs knew they were going to be without Woodgate through injury regardless of whether he was registered, hence why they signed Gallas. I doubt Spurs would have signed him had Woodgate been fit enough to register.

 

still paying his wages.

 

Let's be honest, Smith is as good as injured these days. since his problems he looks like someone who should've retired years ago. are we seriously discussing this? you genuinely don't want us to sign players cos you believe deep down in your heart that Smith should be registered because we're still paying his wages?

 

this is what i was talking about -  you don't believe that, but the odd culture that's developed on his board means that you've found yourself advocating a position that is utterly absurd. let's stop hypothetically arguing for all the bullshit moves that Ashley would like to make because they're more likely to happen and start putting forward what we think would be the best course of action.

 

But Spurs would have been in a situation where they'd have effectively only had 24 players registered had they stuck Woodgate in, given that he couldn't play.

[Cajun]

I assume we have a wage budget set out and with a few players earning far, far too much (which is the boards fault for awarding stupid contracts) we are close to what is available.

 

We do have quite a big squad, the problem is a fair portion of it isn't good enough.

 

Not that we will be spending mucn but I reckon transfer fees are under completely different consideration to wages so even if we had £20m to spend (I know that's unrealistic but just for arguments sake) we still need to shift deadwood to free up the funds allocated to the wage budget.

 

Is this right? Well it's certainly not ideal and as said, the dead wood is the boards responsibility in the first place but I am also not a big fan of adding more and more expense in certain areas.

 

We still should have shifted a fair bit with the likes of Nolan and Carroll being sold. From what Brummie said earlier it sounds like a similar situation at Villa.

 

This is also why I wasn't unhappy we didn't offer Nolan a big long term contract because as much as I rated and defended him I could see him being Smith like in a few years so we could end up in a similar scenario with a player on vast wages but sitting out 2 years being completely useless.

[johnnypd]

We've improved the quality of the squad this summer. However, the excuse making for the overall lack of investment to date is quite frankly staggering.

 

Why do we even need excuses, if the squad is better than before?

 

disgrace if the standard the summer's business is to be measured against is any improvement at all. I think that would be a good comparison any other summer, but not one in which we've received a once-in-a-lifetime windfall of £39m by selling our two highest scorers. We should be measuring it against the best potential use of the money, or against what our team would be had we not sold Nolan, Carroll, or soon to be Enrique.

[Guest johnson293]

 

f*** off man. Don't let facts get in the way of a vendetta.

 

You want facts? Check our record for transfer spending since Ashley joined.

 

Also, since you are suddenly so big on facts, why are you including Erdinc in our squad like he's already signed?

 

Spent about £48m (up to now) haven't we, in the 4 season he's been here?

 

That's not a bad outlay for someone who many claim won't spend on players.

 

 

How much did we rake in in incoming transfer fees in that time?

 

Your point seemed to be about our spending, not recouping of fees.

 

You know what I meant, or should have..

 

Sorry, I'm not a mindreader. 

[Rich]

Aye, there's levels of "better" - as Prophet and Disco have alluded too. I share in the feeling that we really haven't maximised the opportunity given to us by such a strong return showing in the PL. I'm not getting too downhearted too soon though, as I haven't forgotten the two £10m+ bids we had on the table for Gameiro and Gervinho. Even if it was a case of one or the other, to me that's still at least £10m that the extraordinary minds who run NUFC have set aside for transfers. And, of course, goodness knows what the agent fees, signing on fees, image rights, wages, bonuses, national insurance, tax and insurance fees were for those two deals...

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Aye, there's levels of "better" - as Prophet and Disco have alluded too. I share in the feeling that we really haven't maximised the opportunity given to us by such a strong return showing in the PL. I'm not getting too downhearted too soon though, as I haven't forgotten the two £10m+ bids we had on the table for Gameiro and Gervinho. Even if it was a case of one or the other, to me that's still at least £10m that the extraordinary minds who run NUFC have set aside for transfers. And, of course, goodness knows what the agent fees, signing on fees, image rights, wages and bonuses were for those two deals...

 

I feel about the same as this. Fans always want more transfers, and I think we have tried to do some good deals. N'Zogbia seems like an exception, but I can see why we didn't go for him after signing Marveaux and getting HBA back.

[Heron]

£10million won't go far though on a squad that requires at the bare minimum one proven top drawer striker and cover for left back...

[Disco]

Aye, there's levels of "better" - as Prophet and Disco have alluded too. I share in the feeling that we really haven't maximised the opportunity given to us by such a strong return showing in the PL. I'm not getting too downhearted too soon though, as I haven't forgotten the two £10m+ bids we had on the table for Gameiro and Gervinho. Even if it was a case of one or the other, to me that's still at least £10m that the extraordinary minds who run NUFC have set aside for transfers. And, of course, goodness knows what the agent fees, signing on fees, image rights, wages, bonuses, national insurance, tax, insurance fees were for those two deals...

 

Pretty much my stance too at the moment but if we get Erdinç and nothing else changes I'll be pretty fucked off.

 

My frustration changes from day to day on the incoming front but I'd love to know how much we're doing to get some of the shit like Lovenkrands, Perch, Smith etc out the door.

[Rich]

Aye, there's levels of "better" - as Prophet and Disco have alluded too. I share in the feeling that we really haven't maximised the opportunity given to us by such a strong return showing in the PL. I'm not getting too downhearted too soon though, as I haven't forgotten the two £10m+ bids we had on the table for Gameiro and Gervinho. Even if it was a case of one or the other, to me that's still at least £10m that the extraordinary minds who run NUFC have set aside for transfers. And, of course, goodness knows what the agent fees, signing on fees, image rights, wages and bonuses were for those two deals...

 

I feel about the same as this. Fans always want more transfers, and I think we have tried to do some good deals. N'Zogbia seems like an exception, but I can see why we didn't go for him after signing Marveaux and getting HBA back.

 

You've killed me there, I've added in a few more humourous extra "fees" since the quote. Was going to stick pet insurance in there, but felt it may be a step too far.

[Rich]

£10million won't go far though on a squad that requires at the bare minimum one proven top drawer striker and cover for left back...

 

That £10m was just for the striker though, there was the Neil Taylor interest that coincided with it at the time. So that's at least £11m for pure transfers and goodness knows how much else when every other aspect under the sun has been included in the figure (which tends to be the way we're doing things on here these days).

 

As I keep saying, I'm happy enough with another quality striker, cover for left-back, a replacement for Jose if he goes and then a further centre-back and right-back. However, things should have been better than that considering the wedge we got for Carroll.

[Guest]

£10million won't go far though on a squad that requires at the bare minimum one proven top drawer striker and cover for left back...

 

£6.5m on Erding, a few million on a back-up left-back. Not bad is it?

[Heron]

£10million won't go far though on a squad that requires at the bare minimum one proven top drawer striker and cover for left back...

 

That £10m was just for the striker though, there was the Neil Taylor interest that coincided with it at the time. So that's at least £11m for pure transfers and goodness knows how much else when every other aspect under the sun has been included in the figure (which tends to be the way we're doing things on here these days).

 

As I keep saying, I'm happy enough with another quality striker, cover for left-back, a replacement for Jose if he goes and then a further centre-back and right-back. However, things should have been better than that considering the wedge we got for Carroll.

 

I agree.

[JH]

£10million won't go far though on a squad that requires at the bare minimum one proven top drawer striker and cover for left back...

 

That £10m was just for the striker though, there was the Neil Taylor interest that coincided with it at the time. So that's at least £11m for pure transfers and goodness knows how much else when every other aspect under the sun has been included in the figure (which tends to be the way we're doing things on here these days).

 

As I keep saying, I'm happy enough with another quality striker, cover for left-back, a replacement for Jose if he goes and then a further centre-back and right-back. However, things should have been better than that considering the wedge we got for Carroll.

 

Can't see more than two from that list coming in, which isn't enough IMO.

[Teasy]

f*** off man. Don't let facts get in the way of a vendetta.

 

You want facts? Check our record for transfer spending since Ashley joined.

 

Also, since you are suddenly so big on facts, why are you including Erdinc in our squad like he's already signed?

 

Spent about £48m (up to now) haven't we, in the 4 season he's been here?

 

That's not a bad outlay for someone who many claim won't spend on players.

 

We make an £11m transfer profit on average per year.

 

I make it £75m spent vs £109m sold since he arrived, so far, around £8.5m a season (though the massive majority of the disparity between bought and sold was in the Championship season).

[Heron]

£10million won't go far though on a squad that requires at the bare minimum one proven top drawer striker and cover for left back...

 

£6.5m on Erding, a few million on a back-up left-back. Not bad is it?

 

I cannot really comment on Erding, but it sounds like he doesn't even want to be here from bits and pieces I've read. So, we're showing Jose the door knowing he is clearly one of the best left-backs around and proven in the Premier' but we try to sign Erding for £6.5million who also didn't want to come here?

 

For what it's worth though, you're kind of right, assuming Erding is as good as he is supposed to be.

[The Prophet]

I disagree with the Enrique 'tweet' but his sentiments are correct, we're settling. The lad is obviosuly ambitious, he wants to see the club push on and challange for a European place and as a fan I want to see the same. I was willing to give Ashley a chance this summer and granted it isn't over yet, but so far he's yet again failed to deliver. Yes the squad is better, but it could be better still with substantial investment. Why settle for a mid-table finish when we could be so much more with a bit of investment, investment which was all but promised following the Carroll sale.

 

Top sides carry debt because they invest in quality, yet we seem to have bought into this notion that we're in some form of financial crisis. There's nothing wrong with a running a tight ship, similarly it's accepted the market has gone a bit mental but at the same time failing to re-invest any of what you've brought in when there's genuine quality about is bad crack. Buy cheap, sell big, it looks to be the future, and it that will do little to convince the likes of Enrique we're going anywhere fast.

[JH]

I disagree with the Enrique 'tweet' but his sentiments are correct, we're settling. The lad is obviosuly ambitious, he wants to see the club push on and challange for a European place and as a fan I want to see the same. I was willing to give Ashley a chance this summer and granted it isn't over yet, but so far he's yet again failed to deliver. Yes the squad is better, but it could be better still with substantial investment. Why settle for a mid-table finish when we could be so much more with a bit of investment, investment which was all but promised following the Carroll sale.

 

Top sides carry debt because they invest in quality, yet we seem to have bought into this notion that we're in some form of financial crisis. There's nothing wrong with a running a tight ship, similarly it's accepted the market has gone a bit mental but at the same time failing to re-invest any of what you've brought in when there's genuine quality about is bad crack. Buy cheap, sell big, it looks to be the future, and it that will do little to convince the likes of Enrique we're going anywhere fast.

 

Spot on

[Disco]

I disagree with the Enrique 'tweet' but his sentiments are correct, we're settling. The lad is obviosuly ambitious, he wants to see the club push on and challange for a European place and as a fan I want to see the same. I was willing to give Ashley a chance this summer and granted it isn't over yet, but so far he's yet again failed to deliver. Yes the squad is better, but it could be better still with substantial investment. Why settle for a mid-table finish when we could be so much more with a bit of investment, investment which was all but promised following the Carroll sale.

 

Top sides carry debt because they invest in quality, yet we seem to have bought into this notion that we're in some form of financial crisis. There's nothing wrong with a running a tight ship, similarly it's accepted the market has gone a bit mental but at the same time failing to re-invest any of what you've brought in when there's genuine quality about is bad crack. Buy cheap, sell big, it looks to be the future, and it that will do little to convince the likes of Enrique we're going anywhere fast.

 

Spot on