Phil

Ashley Young, Kieran Dyer, Jermaine Jenas and Tim Cahill spring to mind.

Really interested to see you take on the new manager Leazes; http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11678_6604813,00.html He talks about "having a big club mentality and holding onto our best players", so instantly thought of you and this thread. I know your issue has always been the boards willingness to back the manager, but in the brief interviews I've seen he doesn't appear to be the type of guy to toe the party line. Given our current board, we need a manager who will push the spotlight onto the board to twist their arm into making signings and retaining players. The HBA signing took a very long time, I wonder how it would have played out under Pardew?

Aye, he was shit in that little 4-3 over Chelsea I thought he was average in a team playing well. Given his age he should be loaned out for gain regular experience. CM is too much of an important position to break players into. I want to see Barton playing in a more forward role with Tiote sweeping. Vuckic is miles away from being near their standard.

He should win it, as he been the best forward by a mile. Bale is the only young player who comes close, but Milner won it last year when he was 24, so maybe Nasri (23) might be in contention.

Well played Stella, good for you. Border line mutter

I heard he was due back early Jan. It really depends on his fitness and the first team injuries/suspensions as to when we'll see him. No idea where the 15k offer is coming from, as Everton never made him a contract offer because of his injury, so he exploited a loop hole to leave on a free. Everton said several times they were miffed at him leaving for free.

Highest point: 5-1 Lowest point: Ben Arfa breaking his leg Game of the season: Chelsea in the cup Goal of the year: Shola vs Chelsea in the cup Refereeing thiefery: Wolves away Most improved player: Nolan or Simpson Most disappointing player: Xisco, he looked decent in friendlies then got sent off in the reserves.

Charlie Adam's is a centre midfielder. I doubt Blackpool would want to sell, but i know they fell out over his bonus payment, he ended up suing them. I thought Majewski (Forest) and Dorrans (WBA) were better than him last year. Neither have been that good this season so might be available.

He buys fading football club so he can stick his logo on their stand. While this acquisition policy is sickening, its massively harmful to nufc. You've cracked his master plan. Pay 300 million to advertise Sports Direct.

He was always injured.

Grant is doing the worst, but I dont think West Ham can afford to sack him. Maybe they'll make him Director of Football. West Ham > Fat Sam Fulham > Jol Blackburn > nobody Sheffield United > Hughton

Birmingham were told this week that they have to train on Xmas day, so their heads might be down. Birmingham 0-2 Newcastle.

I like the team better now but they had better quality players and more of chance to break into Europe when dickface first took over. No mate, they had players that we're perceived as better quality, when in fact they were by and large overpaid lazy has beens. Milner, Duff, Martins, Owen, Given, Beye, Bassong, and N'Zogbia all moved to clubs who have qualified for europe and/or stayed in the premiership while we went down. So much for them being "has beens". You don't half talk some shit. I bet they are so glad they left.

He buys failing companies cheap so he can stick their logo on his cheap tat. While this acquisition policy is ingenious, its irrelevant to nufc. ........ and he's no stranger to intentionally & systematically facilitating a company's demise either, by acting as an agent saboteur via his influence in the boardroom/strength of shareholding ie. blocking financial lifelines/rescue packages. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets...acks-board.html They've held out bravely for some time now, but it would appear as if Black's days are numbered. A headline to convert Leazes...

The mortgage and unpaid purchases accounts for 80m, or does that not suit your argument? Then you have things like sponsorship money spent years in advance, no European football revenue, an overpaid squad that has no chance of European football (Dyer on 80k, ffs) and a shite manager that the Shepards and Halls would have sacked or worse backed him with money we didn't have.

He buys failing companies cheap so he can stick their logo on his cheap tat. While this acquisition policy is ingenious, its irrelevant to nufc.

who goes to Sports Direct to buy anything then ? I bought two toon tops their this week for xmas gifts. £25 each.

Are you 12?

I think Ashley is running the club in a fashion that means in the coming years, there will still be a club. Simples. You can't really say how the old regime would have handled their overspending. Most probably a very high interest bank loan. What is clear, we wouldn't have been relegated and Taylor would be on 60k a week. When I look at how badly West ham is being run it does remind me of the things I didn't like about the old board.

It still amazes me that people will apply for the apprentice without doing a bit of research on what Sugar does... "erm... computers"

I wouldn't be surprised if Bordan Tkachuk (cool name) pulled up his company records to see his high turnover company makes fuck all profit and they just didn't broadcast it.

Given the bar chart what are expecting him to do? I'm expecting him to do nothing, or next to nothing, because it is quite clear he has no serious ambitions for the football club. would be highly ironic if, despite the protestations of those who insist the Halls and Shepherd were taking the club towards administration, that it is Mike Ashley who succeeds in accomplishing it in the end. Which would mean, the Halls and Shepherd having saved the club from administration, rescuing the club from decades of falling revenues and 2nd rate standards, we then see someone else coming in and accomplishing that very thing through reversing everything they put into place which gave us such a massively expanded football club, stadium, and profile in the game. This is the way the club is heading, again, unless he sells out. Charts are by in large for idiots. Smart people look at numbers not pictures. The bar chart shows a massive lump into debt, but anyone looking at the numbers knows the issue encountered was we had a massive wage bill and low income. Now we are back in the premiership and the wage bill is significantly lower, we are actually in a much stronger position. Hopefully Ashley will have learnt from our relegation season and bring in a striker. Aren't you the person who thought they were paying 70% income tax, and couldn't work out what the VAT increase meant, in the politics thread? Apologies if I'm mistaken like. That's me. A VAT rise from 17.5% to 20% is a rise of 2.5%, but is not a 2.5% rise.... ...and on the tax front I thought I said tax not income tax and I stand by that statement - PAYE 40%, student loan 9%, national insurance 11%... is 60% alone, then you add all the indirect taxes VAT, Petrol, Booze, TV license, health care benefits etc... it's well in excess of 70%... and Labour still couldn't balance the books. With regards to charts and graphs maybe it more that I'm of the opinion they are generally used to prove a point and made to lead the viewer in a certain direction, I don't think i've ever though I need a graph to understand these numbers better. In this charts case it's crystal clear people in this thread are using it to forecast the next few sets of accounts, yet anyone with half a brain knows this shouldn't be done given our circumstances and the fact the accounts are out of sync with a season - they can be very misleading. So we have people saying 'ugg, line go up, bad Ashley'. Yet everyone agrees Ashley has cuts loads of corners to save money, so why are some people blaming him for debt, he inherited a shite overpaid team that wasn't playing in Europe managed by Fat Sam. </end rant>

ta.... Quite surprised Bolton are doings so bad, they've been playing well.

Not sure how accurate they are, but we've had 3rd highest through the gate. http://itv.stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/attend.html

Given the bar chart what are expecting him to do? I'm expecting him to do nothing, or next to nothing, because it is quite clear he has no serious ambitions for the football club. would be highly ironic if, despite the protestations of those who insist the Halls and Shepherd were taking the club towards administration, that it is Mike Ashley who succeeds in accomplishing it in the end. Which would mean, the Halls and Shepherd having saved the club from administration, rescuing the club from decades of falling revenues and 2nd rate standards, we then see someone else coming in and accomplishing that very thing through reversing everything they put into place which gave us such a massively expanded football club, stadium, and profile in the game. This is the way the club is heading, again, unless he sells out. Charts are by in large for idiots. Smart people look at numbers not pictures. The bar chart shows a massive lump into debt, but anyone looking at the numbers knows the issue encountered was we had a massive wage bill and low income. Now we are back in the premiership and the wage bill is significantly lower, we are actually in a much stronger position. Hopefully Ashley will have learnt from our relegation season and bring in a striker. Charts are for idiots? That's up there with teachers teach you how to be thick. The numbers represented in the chart show we're yet to see any evidence of a wage bill under control.... Wages have not gone down at all, in real terms the amount rose slightly. Turnover has taken a significant dip (and these numbers precede relegation) so the wages to turnover ratio shot up in the last set of results and is likely to increase again, despite the exoudus, because turnover would have been so much lower again in the championship. No one who runs their a company uses graphs. They are for middle managers in medium to large companies. Any clown can tell our income has rocketed and we haven't added anywhere near that to the wage bill. You can stare at as many graphs as you want, but common sense knows promotion was a massive step towards resetting NUFC on the correct path. fwiw, those that can do, those that can't teach.