maggiespaws

Must be true then But you take my point though. It's not good business sense to tell everybody how much you have to spend at the beginning as everyone wants the biggest slice they can get. It makes far more sense to play your cards much closers to your chest and let the press divert attention away from you. At the end of the day, the papers don't give a rats ass, not even about accuracy any more. They just need something to fill the inches and shift the papers. Edit: I thought I posted this after Gemmil, not Ewerk. My comment was referring to the Sunday Sun.

Just a thought, but could the £10m be a ruse? Think about it, we have a new billionaire owner and everyone is expecting us to spunk loads of cash because we have it (I've gone into this in more detail in another post so I wont repeat myself)and because of this, people put their prices up. What better way to minimise this than to say "Sam, you only have 10m to spend this time around as we are strategically reviewing the business". Then whilst sniggering behind their hands, say to Sam "actually you can have a bit more, but don't tell anyone". Like I say, just a thought.

Yeah, I thought that too. I know he's mates with the bloke from Spuds but wasn't there a rumour early on of someone like Dein coming in or did I imagine it? Can't remember exactly who it was, but I seem to recall it was a known name. Someone I thought would run us properly.

just read the bit about due diligence. I still can't believe someone would invest nearly £140mil in a company without getting it checked first. Bad business sense - something I can't believe MA has.

I'm sure they've found some very minor nasty surprises. Any due diligence team worthy of the name will have uncovered all of the major issues before the bloke spunked all his money on the club. There's no way they've found any massive hidden costs/undeclared liabilities in the books of a PLC that is audited by a decent firm (make all the jokes you like about Arthur Andersen etc, but it's very rare that these firms miss big errors, particularly not in a business as straightforward as a football club - this isn't a bank with complicated hedge funds or anything). The article is total bollocks imo. QFT - think about it man. Billionaires don't get to be billionaires by spunking a load of cash into a business before they have it checked out. How many normal, everyday people would buy a house without getting the necessary surveys done? The man gives nothing away, we've bought no-one and the only thing they have to write about us in the papers at the minute is the Lord Stevens enquiry and even that seems to be dying a death. Whats left??? our lack of transfer activity and that is related to our recent takeover. Put two and two together and make five. That's Journalism 101 for you.

That had crossed my mind tbh. you're only agreeing with me because we've now met and buried the hatchet I have to say, it was the first thing that crossed mine too. Tracking what players do on and off the pitch, extensive medical tests etc. A bit too much for people to find out about Mr Dyer perhaps?

Had to call for the fluffer ? na, that'd have been sensible! More like

I had a close call once. Frightened the sh*t out of me as I had no idea what I'd have said to her. Stalled for a bit and 'came up' trumps in the end.

My sentiments exactly. I really don't think he's that good, the only reason I would keep him would be if Krul is going out on loan somewhere to get some matches under his belt. I'd disagree. He's not mature enough yet. Give him a few years and yeah, ok. But for now, we need someone more reliable if/when Shay is out. Krul really pulled it out of the bag for us last season with his 'unbelievable' performance but it's a bit much to expect that more regularly. For now, Harps is a capable replacement. I agree with the earlier post on him not being as good and the the other post about them being neck and neck at one point. Why do you think that? I reckon a season out on loan to a near by club would do him the world of good, all I've seen of him is the Palmero game but by all accounts he's been looking good in the reserves. He won't wait around forever and if he spends the next few seasons playing reserve football I think he'll be looking to move. Harper isn't going to improve any further to be a real threat to Given's place so I think we have to start looking to the future. Sorry, I meant he's not mature enough to take over as Shay's no2. The best way he will achieve this is to go out on loan - absolutely. I think a loan season or two with a championship club will bring him on a long way. Incidentally, I wonder when Harps contract runs out? I'd check but I'm off to make my house look less like the shit hole it is in time for the workmen coming to measure up

My sentiments exactly. I really don't think he's that good, the only reason I would keep him would be if Krul is going out on loan somewhere to get some matches under his belt. I'd disagree. He's not mature enough yet. Give him a few years and yeah, ok. But for now, we need someone more reliable if/when Shay is out. Krul really pulled it out of the bag for us last season with his 'unbelievable' performance but it's a bit much to expect that more regularly. For now, Harps is a capable replacement. I agree with the earlier post on him not being as good and the the other post about them being neck and neck at one point.

The point is though, it's just my opinion. I might think that with more games and more exposure he could have been no1. However, he might not be interested in it and is therefore not something he has pursued; whether he thought he could do it or not. I used to work with a bloke who was 10 years my senior and technically better than me. Problem was he wasn't interested in the limelight even though we both knew he was the better of the two of us. At the time he was getting paid more than me too. He was happy where he was, even though he knew eventually I'd over take him. When I first began contributing to this thread I wasn't doing so with the purpose of defending him and I'm still not. I'm just offering an alternative explanation based on a loosely associated experience

tbh, I reckon if Shay hadn't stayed so fit and Harper had played more games he'd be Englands No1. As is he's been overlooked. Perhaps if he was career minded enough to want to be England's No1 he'd have moved already. Maybe he just has different priorities and imo, we shouldn't criticise. When Shay get's injured I'm not too worried about his understudy. We have far greater things to worry about on other areas of the pitch. Harper always gives his all when he plays and does a good job. We are lucky to have him.

things is though SLP, if he doesn't have the new faces he wanted to work with, he has to begin preparations with who he has got. Ramage would be dropped the instant we got someone capable in.

From what I heard, it's nothing to do with money. He's happy and settled in the area, his family are settled and he doesn't want to move them. He's doing/did whatever degree it was he wanted to do and doesn't see the need to move, as long as the club wants to keep him. To be fair to him, that's what I'd heard. Just maybe, he holds his family stability above his football career? Maybe he enjoy's NUFC and I'm sure he'd love to play more games but not everyone want's to chase their career so single mindedly. I've met people who are better software architects than me but lack the ambition to take it further. They are happy where they are and feel less pressure as a result. A bit of a safe zone maybe.

GTA III San Andreas and Guitar Hero II - tastic. Listened to an eclectic mix of stuff recently. But currently, ACDC - Uncut from VH1. A live TV set from the mid 90's. Smut galore

They could "do the job" but neither of them are right backs. We shouldnt be in a position where players are playing out of position unless injurys force them to. FFS we have money to spend, I really dont understand what the problems are because we're not an attractive prospect for players? because we're trying to buy players when all teams in the market know of our new financial situation because we're trying to buy players when all teams in the market know of our desperation in certain positions. Indeed. This is part of the problem with the transfer market - it's a sellers market; and we need to buy. As soon as Chelsea had money they had to pay more for players and clubs knew they could take advantage. The difference now is that there are a few clubs in the Prem with money so it will be interesting to see how that affects the market. I think that as clubs like Liverpool now have good money they stand a better chance of catching up with the top 2. Unfortunately, the rest of us have an even bigger mountain to climb. Spurs are going about it the right way, but have been for the last 2 seasons. It takes time.

I think it's a combination of factors really. The takeover will slow things down. IIRC, didn't MA send Chris Mort in to do a strategic review before we did anything else? That wont have been a quick job. That and the transitional period of handover wont have helped. MA/CM/SA need to get to know each other and SA needs to get MA/CM up to speed on his plans and vice versa. This is a period of flux for us and the timing isn't great (close season) as it has clearly slowed things up. My guess is that we were far enough down the first signings for the takeover not to halt them. Add to that, all we've really spent is 2m by the time you balance the incoming/outgoing and SA was probably allowed to complete the deals before the Strategic review. Lastly, the takeover both works in our favour and against us. It signals a new era, which for some means a new NUFC and better prospects. Others with see this as a transitional, possibly shakey time for us as there is a lot of change and it does not always go smoothly. Players may see this as another stage in the 'rocky ship' history of NUFC and stay away. Others may see it as a revolution, similar to the Chelski one. Time is marching on and you can see SA is getting a bit frustrated. One or two of his comments suggested that the new board were spending time bedding in before spending (normally good business sense) but in the case of an industry where you only have a finite period in which to recruit personnel and make larger changes to your business strategy for the next 6 months; time is of the essence and a luxury you cannot afford to waste. We've clearly missed out on a few targets and had some turn us down, possibly for the reasons I've mentioned. I'm optimistic though that MA/CM will not delay too long and through SA we can still buy some good players in what's left of the window. Bridge getting injured wont have helped for example as we maybe would have signed him. Same can be said for a couple of the injuries we've had, they wont have helped. I'd like to think we could end this season top 6. Some will say we should expect this given some of the players, but there is a lot of change this season and a steady ship first will make the ground we've lost over recent seasons, much quicker to make.

Hallo stranger. Y'alreet? And have you had that hair cut yet?! Not bad pet. Loads to tell you. I've had my hair cut load of different ways, half of which I've hated. I'll PM you as there's load more interesting stuff than my hair

Switched

class cover. you hear "diamonds are forever" at glasto the other night? I was there and it was canny like. Not a huge fan of the Arctics - but they were tight.

Easy to say isn't it. It's like Reading fans claiming they're happy to see Sidwell go. Yeah I know what you mean. I think part of their response to me was based upon a little bit of bitterness as he has been by far and away their best player. Perhaps, with better players in front of him they will play into the space his passs would create. Then again, I remember having this exact conversation about passing on this board about Bowyer. Time will tell. I dont like him as a person, but he now wears our shirt so I will give him time. I'm not going to get all excited over him, but then I'm not going to get on his back the first time he does something wrong on the pitch either. He, like the others, will need time to settle in and work with SA.

hmm, I'm with manc-mag on this one. I hope this doesn't come back on us. My sister in law's husbands side of the family (keep up ) are all citeh fans. They are pleased to see the back of him. Not very strong in the passing department apparently.

Got to say, with everything going on at the minute, the release of the fixtures has got me a little more excited for the start of the season

I know, the irony. Make you wonder how they come up with the fixture list.

IIRC it wouldnt have mattered would it? If WH won their last game they definitly stayed up. It never should have gone to the last game. WH should have been relegated long before then. If it was us I'd be furious and feel completely cheated. The only reason WH weren't relegated was because of Tevez. The very person who should not have been playing for them.