BigWalrus

Playing Simpson will allow us to catch them by surprise early on as they struggle to contain their fits of giggles. If we can score 4 before they manage to compose themselves, we have an outside chance of a draw.

You may have just had a wild stab, but you're right that he is calling the shots. He is using his own physio and medical team, refusing NUFC's medical care.

Love it. Love it all. Love Shola.

Ashley threads are pointless. Everyone has their opinion, which is basically set in stone and impossible to change. These threads only serve to polarise opinion and make people over-critical or over-defensive depending on their standpoint. I'll be keeping out of this one.

At the same time, even if he was doing a horrendous job, there's bollocks all I can do about it, so I don't get fret up about it. Out of my control, so I don't worry about it.

He's clearly learning and seems to be making more good decisions than bad. But yes, "football genius" is step too far. Reasonably happy with the job he's doing though - we could certainly do a lot worse.

They won't have more than they thought. The alternative would have been for them to stay at Upton Park, which would have cost them even less.

I suspect the amount of data available will not allow any significant conclusions to be drawn. A spending decision depends on cash availability or whether the deal is paid for over several years or in one lump. Then wages have to come into it. The model of Everton, for instance, is to pay their players massive wages at the expense of signing new players. This doesn't mean they're not investing, but a net spend analysis would suggest this was the case. There are so many different factors at play its almost impossible to draw any conclusions from it. Transfer fees being largely undisclosed now is also an issue. Ben Arfa cost us less than £3m in transfer fee, but a chunk for agents fees. Ba was free but cost £2m in fees. These should all be added as part of the consideration as the clubs would definitely include them. There just isn't the available data, I fear.

What is the purpose of it? Is there something you're trying to explain / show?

I agree that loyalty probably never entered his head personally. That doesn't stop someone from actually being loyal though.

£20k a week is roughly what he is on now. He certainly would have earned a lot less a few years back. I always think its different for keepers to outfield players. 1st choice keepers tend not to get injured very often and its not as if there is another position you could stand in for temporarily. Additionally, you don't see keepers getting a run out in the second half once a game is won. If you're a second choice full back, you know you'll get a run out every now and again to show what you can do. Harper could have left. But he would have no guarantee that he would be first choice. PL clubs change managers so often that things could change and he call fall out of favour. I reckon there is a slight lack of ambition, but there's also a sense of self-awareness. He knows he isn't a world beater and knows that NUFC is about the best level he could aspire to. He also knows that he is financially sorted here and gets to stay close to family and friends. So yes, I think he has shown a slight lack of ambition, but so what? I would have done the same, given his ability as a keeper and his happiness at staying in the north east.

Haha.

Eloquently put. Yes.

Not sure about your original question, but are you sure the Cycle to Work scheme allows you to get any accessories you want? I thought it was restricted to certain items.

Need to take wages into account, otherwise its very limited in its use.

BBC website is running a story that he would like to go into management. I suppose he's pretty experienced at watching games from the dugout, so he has a head start on his peers. Peers as in those in a similar position to him, not friends. Michael Owen has no friends.

He will be back next week.

Or has a fanny.

The band are atrocious, they do my head in.

And our home supporters, to be fair.

It was his colours that entered the debate. He brought the break on himself.

For what it's worth, I don't think the CBI really know what they want either...

The CBI didn't support austerity. What they wanted was for a rebalancing of the budget. They wanted the net spend to remain consistent, but more spend to be directed towards infrastructure at the expense of other areas. This isn't an all out appeal for increasing spending, but it's not a backing of austerity.

My thoughts, regardless of the view of any politician (to be honest they all seem to be converging into one anyway...) is that austerity is not the way forward. The traditional conservative approach is to let market forces take over and what will be will be. However, the influence that public spending and public sector money has on the private sector is massive, particularly in the north east. As a specific example, I've done some work with a couple of big car dealership chains up here and they collect data on the occupations of their customers (for general trends rather than any marketing purpose). It's staggering how large a proportion of their sales are to public sector workers. Cut the number of public sector workers up here and the car dealers sell less cars, they employ less staff, they make less profit and they pay less tax. The staff that they have to let go not only don't contribute to the tax pot any more, but they need to be paid job seekers allowance. It's a simple flow chart, and as soon as you go down the austerity route, it's a long row back. The recession may not have been initially caused by the UK, but we can't rely on being rescued by the global economy suddenly returning to growth to pick us up. Our exports simply aren't strong enough for that to happen.