Giraffidae

could be a merry-go-round? Hughton to Brum Moyes to Villa McCleish to Everton ’tis the silly season!

that’s probably a huge wage bill for them 3.

Henderson’s worth £20m and N’Gog £7m — jeeez!

Could imagine Coloccini's being somewhere near that figure. yeh, I’ve heard a few reports of around £90k.

is it just about the high earners wages, or is it more about who is the boss? even though it was ‘player power’ that turned NUFC around getting promotion and staying up, are they against the power the players have? is this just the Ashley regime, like the contempt shown towards the fans in level 7 — now the player power? smells like it to me.

wow that’s ridiculous! did you factor in the fee for buying him too, because that should be divided into every year he’s been here, and we’ll never see any return on that.

our ever so knowledgeable owner will be gutted his favourite player is leaving. wonder who his second favourite is so he can wear it on his replica shirt? ....Perch?

subs appearances weren’t improving him, he clearly needs to go out on loan to get match time as he’s only a young lad. The club really value his potential hence his contract. Them not wanting to loan him out is very strange. I reckon he’s done something way OTT that‘s provoked this response by the club.

Lille have signed Benoit Pedretti as replacement for Cabaye, no messing about with them like.

gold, WTF — our club crest is our club’s crest, not gold or anything else, just our club’s crest.

different transfer window openings throughout europe, UK is open now, French players can’t transfer ’til 6th June, etc

can never be a true ‘great’ because of one major flaw in his game, a central midfielder who can’t tackle to save his life. absolutely exceptional player when his team has the ball though.

the wages offered to him were a lot less than he’s on now, to compensate for that he wanted a longer contract. — or as Toonpack said. So it's not about the wages then? of course it is, length of contract multiplied by weekly wage equals total sum of wages.

Didn't want to pay what he's worth?? He got a new deal after a successful season in the championship and had only played half a season in the prem not to mention his off field issues. I guess we should wait and see if he proves himself to be an 80k per week player what, so an England international footballer should accept £20k a week, even the club said he was going to review his contract again because he had advanced as a player so much. It’s about the money and the clubs ambition.

the wages offered to him were a lot less than he’s on now, to compensate for that he wanted a longer contract. — or as Toonpack said.

it’s not just Barton* that’s the issue here, it’s the dramatic shift in attitude to wages. as well as getting rid of players in the last transfer window when we already had a threadbare squad: they want Barton to take a wage cut from what they are already paying, putting 2 and 2 together — Enrique won’t be signing a new contract because they want to cut his wages as they don’t want to pay him what he’s worth anymore. His contract situation is exactly the same as Barton’s but the impasse on wages is just a difference in the clubs and players PR. we sold our star centre forward, as well as the £35m, the club didn’t want to pay him what he’s worth, and by my reckoning Collocini and Jonas within the next year are next up for this dilemma. As well as the wage restructuring for these players it’s only 2 seasons ago when we stopped paying the wages for Duff, Martins, Owen, Viduka, et al. If we have a good player on his books Ashley won’t pay them what they’re worth. Now I know to an extent this is the same for most clubs, but the fall in standards is shockingly severe. A crazy gang siege mentality by the players has got us through a real rough patch, but the way Mike and Derek operate they’ll ruin even that. *oh, and Joey Barton is 28, he’s not 29 until september.

I agree with you Newcastle wont pay all his wages. It will be something like Newcastle pay 60% and Liverpool will pay 40% of his wages. Man City have done this a few times. not even for £30k a week will anyone touch Jole Cole, same goes for Alan Smith. you’re stuck with him.

Joe Cole has been crocked for years and is on £100k a week, even Mike Ashley isn’t that stupid. you’re stuck with him unless you pay off his contract, same situation as we’re in with Alan Smith.

McKay is N’Zogbia’s agent too isn’t he? as well as close links to Freddie and Kenny Shepherd! Looks like a long summer — and the transfer window hasn’t even opened yet.

100% 63k-25k = £38k saving. Fucking sick. He's really proved what a player he is this season, and now he's going. FFS we're saving 40k on Campbell fucking off. Makes nee sense Barton has shown willing to meet half way, he's at the optimum age for a footballer with 4 or 5 top years left, and this happens. Bunch of wanks, wish my form wasn't in noo tbh don’t get me wrong I think Larsson is a good player, but he isn’t anywhere near as good as Barton. But when you’ve got numpties running the club who sit there in an Alan Smith replica shirt not realising the irony that it’s them that are paying ridiculous wages on a rubbish footballer — what else can you expect. Barton is what SBR would of called one of his ‘blue chip players’ and would have built a team around him and done what is really ‘good business’ in a football sense, rather than a bean counters deluded interpretation.

it’ll be Barton out and Larsson in. “well they both play in the same position and Larsson won’t want as much in wages, that’s good business” — of course it is Mike and Derek, because you know so much about football.

looking forward to this final especially because both teams play reasonably fairly rather than so many teams with their spoiling tactics. As has been pointed out Park should play because of the graft he puts in, especially compared to that selfish tart Nani. Park and Valencia’s craft and graft makes them a real threat. Defensively with Vidic and Ferdinand they’ll read Messi’s movement, but I think ManUres weak spot is right back, Fabio isn’t right mentally yet, and O’Shea playing there is just shite. Evra at LB is obviously class.

I’ve never cried, but the weirdest thing I’ve seen is 2 of my mates at the Troyes game at SJP — both spontaneously having nosebleeds due to the stress of the game!

don’t get all this metal shite — it’s all just ‘Cock Rock’ to me.

Jose Enrique’s agent is scheduled to meet club secretary Lee Charnley this week as United step up their efforts to cling onto the left-back. The club fear his head has been turned by rival clubs, but the player is yet to give any indication that he wants to leave. A prospective move to Liverpool has been complicated by the Reds unwillingness to match his wages – after Ashley Cole he is the best paid left-back in the league. to me it’s all about make Jose look greedy, he’s on far more than the club want to pay and don’t want to match it, they’ve only offered him a cut in wages, to show it’s not their fault they’ve put out to the Journo that he’s on, and demanding more than Evra et al — yeh right! You trying to tell me some idiot signed a young Spaniard on a contract paying more than Man Ure pay Evra — hahahaha.