Dr Gloom

stopped reading after this bit tbh

I think we'll be alright this season. However a big part of the reason we've done well without Tiote and Carroll is that we were already playing quite well, have a lot of points on the board already and are benefitting from the confidence that comes with that. Carroll is a big part of that and the reason I'm worried about next season (and the foreseeable future) already. I woke up this morning and had a few moments where I thought I'd imagined the whole thing. Im trying to be logical and positive about it and thinking it happens at every club whether it is spurs losing Berbatov, Man u losing Ronaldo and Teves or Liverpool losing Torres. Still hurts when its your club though. The unknown is whether we are just part of the big merry go round like the clubs ive already mentioned or whether this marks a return to 1980's style sell offs. it hurts even more when the best replacement strikers on your books are ameobi, best and ranger.

towing the party line. the main reason he was appointed. hughton was the master at deflecting difficult questions but he would have struggled here. probably why he isn't out boss anymore. he isn't a liar and he saw this coming.

Just offered to bet anyone at work who'll take it that he will - I never believed his "injury" from day one - shades of Given. In the cold light of day I still find people believing the club line to be astounding. aye. i was thinking the same all month but didn't think the club would be so stupid. they should have just come clean, admitted they wanted to sell him and take the stupid money on offer in the middle of the window. then they could have reinvested it so we weren't stuck with shola as our front man striker. it would have been way easier to accept if they'd just been up front about it all and ensured we replaced him with a half decent striker worth around £10m or so. instead we end up with this farcical situation where they try to convince us it was an eleventh hour move that carroll helped engineer himself when in reality they were probably touting him all month. and we end up with no replacement striker for the run in. it won't surprise me at all if carroll turns out for them in the next week or so.

spot on. they must take us for mugs with all this "reluctantly accepted" knackers. agree about sky's role as facilitators too. i would get equal pleasure from dropping a heed on any of david craig, jim white and mike ashley

I'm going to be at this match. Got seats in the 'neutral' end. I can see us winning. The lads will rally against all the off field crap just like they did after hughton was sacked. Shola brace, victory for the mags.

i still don't get why the fuck we weren't in for robbie keane.

Any notch replacement would do. Just a replacement

Perhaps we'll see the start of a new fluid 433 with ben arfa and jonas supporting a rejuvinated shola up front from out wide with Barton and Nolan offering support and tiote holding. A dynamic front 6 that fires us to Europe. Perhaps Carroll will prove an expensive flop, weighed down by the price tag of 35m. Perhaps I'll flap my arms and fly to the moon.

Thicker than deadman

Farce

Tbf I would have him straight back but he can't play up top can he?

Pm me too please. I did start the thread afterall

Some good news at last but what's the use if Carroll isn't replaced?

in a nutshell

Why fucking Liverpool? Man U or Chelsea I could understand but fucking Liverpool ffs. It's not much of a step up.

I agree with leazesmag. It's a sad day for the club, particularly if some of the money isn't revinvested quickly and wisely. However, it does look a stupid fee and hopefully one we look back upon as too good to turn down. It just sends out all the wrong messages about the direction the club is taking... Again

I doubt this is a last minute deal. But for how long was it in the offing? Was hughton sacked because he knew it was on the cards and squared up to the fat man. Did Carroll really hand in the transfer request or was it a face saving pr stunt by the fat man? Or was this really just an offer too good to refuse which a want away striker helped facilitate?

If we do get someone in last minute, it's bound to be someone shite like Heskey or Carlton Cole

I don't him to go but 35m is a riculous price for him. Everyones got a price - who'd say he would go for anything near that 18 month ago? Can't see us turning that down. The farce is that we won't have anyone lined up to replace him.

i was Dan

there's a few old names there that bring back some memories - sparks, shearergol, aimaad21, chip2388, the_serbian_mag, hughesie, wullie what happened to them all?

i was one of the original toontastic/toon chat posters before it merged to form newcastle-online. then i got a pm from craig (known as chayton at the time iirc) asking me to join his new breakway board. they only wanted the cool original posters from the original toontastic joining haven't looked back tbh. this place is blatantly the best toon forum around. i never bother looking on newcastle-online anymore. too many young charv jokers

ridiculous. man u and arsenal have been doing it for years.

The slow transition to we won't be signing anyone, be grateful we haven't sold anyone is now complete fucking joke innit. sad thing is there have been several players made available this window that would have improved our first team. shame we aren't competing at the higher end of the market these days. And they were loans. And they'd have come here. Who? the likes of swp and Vela i'd assume would be amongst them. bentley was a loan option. i think swp too? larsson was cheap as chips as he was 6 months away from being out of contract. we wouldn't have had to break the bank for any of the players we've been linked with.