Phil

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.

Given the bar chart what are expecting him to do?

Yup. Think if he wanted to develop his game later in his career then Italy or Spain. If he stays in the PL it will be with us. Ranger has come on a lot in the last year IMO and the last 20 min against Liv he was a as much a handful as anyone. Unlucky not to score. He's in a similar poisition Carroll was before we went down, so we have to loan him out to get game time against lesser oposition.

Who do you think is over paid? I can only think of Smith.

Hopefully we'll stay up long enough for Ashley to balance the books. Like Leazes is always keen (and right) to say...there won't be a bus parade laid on if he does though. When do you see said balancing of books if we stay in the PL? £280m of debt...£5m a season profit.....56 years time I prefer to call it investment rather than debt. Don't let Leazes here you say 56 year plan

Like has already been said a lot of these debts were largely unavoidable. I doubt you'll find a single person on here who thinks Ashley has been splashing the cash to the tune of £168m through choice. Regardless of where you attribute blame. The projected figures look like they be one of the best in the league and really that's all that matters.

You have to have good players to attract players. Carroll is currently worth a lot more to us than 20m. I can't see many strikers wanting to come here to be paired up with Shola! Even if Chelsea offered us a couple of their players van Aanholt, Sturridge and McEachran, I still dont think it would be taking the risk of relegation. I'm keen to see how he links up with Rooney. That could double his price tag.

He is anything but slow. I think he's look pretty decent winning everything in the air and cuts out a lot of through balls. He'd look a lot better if paired with someone who can play the ball.

Jason Roberts will be happy

First time i've ever laughed at a manager getting the boot.... in his fat pork chop face....

West Ham are Championship bound, so he can have Perch and Best.

How much? £220 via the Zavvi outlet. Comet have them for £219, http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Xbox-360-Consoles...-Package/683485

I got one last week and it works very well. But be warned you need a lot of space. At least 6ft away to use it, 8ft for two player. When you played it in Tesco did you calibrate it to your body shape or just use it with the last persons body shape/height?

Think you might be getting a little carried away with cost cutting. None of them are on over 60k and Barton, Jonas and Colo are worth it. As far as negotiating goes, if any of the players get to their level then they should expect similar wages - i.e. Jose, Arfa, Tiote, Carrol (in a few years time). Taylor is widely believed to have been offered 40k and in my opinion he's not worth 20k. I said earlier in the thread, get rid of him and bring in Wheater who also has his contact up in the summer. I'm not sure if you were suggestion we shouldn't have players on 60k or our players aren't worth 60k, but 60k is what a top premiership player will expect too earn. If you have 15 players on 60k that's a wage bill of 46.8m. With our turnover that's fine. I'm not advocating having 15 players on 60k, but it show we have room to give pay rises to keep the better players. He's hardly been pulling up trees at Boro this season has he Whereas Taylor? What do you want him to do when he's injured? Not expect a pay rise...!!!

Rumour is Pardew will have 10m+ to spend in January with Landon Donavon being a target http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2010...ve-more-than-10

Think you might be getting a little carried away with cost cutting. None of them are on over 60k and Barton, Jonas and Colo are worth it. As far as negotiating goes, if any of the players get to their level then they should expect similar wages - i.e. Jose, Arfa, Tiote, Carrol (in a few years time). Taylor is widely believed to have been offered 40k and in my opinion he's not worth 20k. I said earlier in the thread, get rid of him and bring in Wheater who also has his contact up in the summer. I'm not sure if you were suggestion we shouldn't have players on 60k or our players aren't worth 60k, but 60k is what a top premiership player will expect too earn. If you have 15 players on 60k that's a wage bill of 46.8m. With our turnover that's fine. I'm not advocating having 15 players on 60k, but it show we have room to give pay rises to keep the better players. He's hardly been pulling up trees at Boro this season has he Whereas Taylor?

Not really. They didn't play yesterday. Barton has been the key, he covers Nolan which allows him to get forward, oh and he can cross.

Think you might be getting a little carried away with cost cutting. None of them are on over 60k and Barton, Jonas and Colo are worth it. As far as negotiating goes, if any of the players get to their level then they should expect similar wages - i.e. Jose, Arfa, Tiote, Carrol (in a few years time). Taylor is widely believed to have been offered 40k and in my opinion he's not worth 20k. I said earlier in the thread, get rid of him and bring in Wheater who also has his contact up in the summer. I'm not sure if you were suggestion we shouldn't have players on 60k or our players aren't worth 60k, but 60k is what a top premiership player will expect too earn. If you have 15 players on 60k that's a wage bill of 46.8m. With our turnover that's fine. I'm not advocating having 15 players on 60k, but it show we have room to give pay rises to keep the better players.

Williamson and Tiote had a much worse game against Blackburn and you can't cite the Bolton game as Tiote and Barton were missing, which meant the whole team played shite. I think we differ on what makes a good defensive partnership. Taylor and Williamson are too similar in attributes, they are both no nonsense defenders that put their foot through the ball. You can't play two of these as you end up giving the ball away to cheaply. You have to have someone who is comfortable on the ball and can pick out a pass, like Jose and Colo. This is why I think Sol and Taylor aren't working well. Several times Sol has been playing the ball out from the back, which is clearly something he's not used too. Pair him up the Colo and you'll see a different Campbell. Moreover, Taylor has threw himself at the ball twice and scored two own goals, if his reading of the game was better or he'd played more games with Sol he'd know to get closer - on both goals he was a meter too far away, defenders are taught to stay really close working in pairs to block passes and force mistakes.

I think he's a class act. Lacks a bit of pace and doesn't have the physical attributes of some but reads the game really well and is an excellent sweeper. Add composure and distribution to that list, he rarely hoofs the ball like Rozehnal did.

LOL, definitely had a bet on us....

It's just as well he likes to defend as Nolan doesn't. I'd be interested to see what him and Barton would be like in the middle.

Rumour mill says he's been offered the Sheffield United role; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...d.html?ITO=1490

Manford definitely. I enjoyed his stand-up. Dr I rekon you're right. I will walk down to the seafront tomorrow and get the tickets. £21 each Agree with the Doc - definitely Manford. Saw Peter Kay a couple of weeks ago and was a bit worried that it was going to be a bit shit after seeing him a few years ago but had a class night The only downside was that I didn't get to go to Nando's with manc-mag like I did on a previous Peter Kay evening I saw him when he was 19 in a pub in Manchester, he was very funny. I've seen him a few times since and he seems to repeat a lot of jokes these days. Michael McIntyre and John Bishop are my favourite at the moment.