acrossthepond

I'd be happiest with Warnock out of the 3 replacement LBs mentioned, but he's really not much better than Simpson. What happened to this M'Bengue bloke? He'd actually cost a fee, so we're out of the running? As for Crouch and Defoe, I'd rather have Defoe but both are past it.

Thankfully. In other news, PSG have announced they signed Blaise Matuidi and Jeremy Menez, so there's another of our supposed targets gone.

Does anyone think it's a coincidence that Keegan, Carroll, Nolan and Enrique were all 'out for themselves?' Keegan, a man whose love for our club is equalled only by SBR's. Carroll, a Gateshead lad. Nolan, the club captain, and Enrique, the fan favourite who said he wanted to retire at NUFC. Four men - five if you include Barton! - who had no reason to walk away are all gone or going, and the common factor is not that they are mercenaries and not that they are out for more money. It is that they have all been continuously shit on by the liars who run our great club, not that it will be great much longer. But the club tells us that they were only out for themselves. Barton and Nolan want a 5-year deal which we can't afford. Carroll handed in a transfer request. Keegan would've destroyed us with his lawsuit. Enrique didn't respond to our 'fantastic' contract offer. I wonder who we should believe: the players who gave it all on the pitch and the manager who put his heart and soul into this club, or the 'businesspeople' who have been proven liars again and again and again. Only an idiot couldn't see where we are heading, to be quite honest. We have an owner and chairman who know nothing about football, a manager who was last seen in the 3rd fucking division and who doesn't have a thought that Derek Llambias hasn't had first, and the spine of our first team is being stripped and sold for profit. No wonder they want out. Who can blame them?

Can't say this idea excites me. This is an example of us clearly "settling" for a second-rate player instead of having the drive to go out and get a better one. Should we be taking PSG's castoffs now after they get the player we actually wanted? Most likely we'll get him and that'll be the end of our transfer activity, which would be simply insufficient to improve on last season's league position even before we start talking about the 35 million and how it was (or wasn't) spent.

Marina Virtually unknown over here although I did hear one of her songs on an advert the other day. Best turn I've ever been done by a mackem was JamesD coming on here with her as his avatar, prompting a furious 'who is that girl' search.

We were unhappy with signing him when we were still in the Championship, ffs. Now he's supposed to be a key part of our attacking lineup? One good game against a Championship-level team (West Ham) and a flukey goal against Arsenal don't mean he's any less shit then he was then. He's better than Lovenkrands and Ranger though, so I'm by no means saying let's get rid, but let's not try to convince ourselves that he's any better than a backup player either. We'll sink like a stone if we try to pin our hopes on Leon Best.

How about a radio link?

Have seen him play many times for Algeria. He used to have a touch of class about him but his ego is immense and injuries have limited his playing time and pace. He got loaned out to some second-rate Turkish club in January and that should tell you all that needs knowing about him. I wouldn't say no on a 'free' though.

Too many 'negs' on this board, imo. Get off football manager, kids. We've got a great manager who promises we're hunting top-quality signings, plenty of quality in the squad (especially in our youth system) and we have the best scout in the British Isles, Graham Carr, unearthing new Tiotes and Ben Arfas. We're financially sustainable thanks to Mike's out-of-pocket spending and once we win the FA cup this season, we'll have no problem complying with the Fair Play rules, and our training ground is second to none. Here's how I imagine we'll line up: Krul PWHBY - Colo - S. Taylor - PWHBY PWHBY - Cabaye - Tiote - PWHBY Ben Arfa PWHBY *PWHBY = Player we haven't bought yet Nee bother, right lads?

Pardew and Llambias have both confirmed that the club are 're-investing' the Carroll money in transfer fees, wages, the training ground, and other assorted projects. So what is being 'bought into' here? Wages That isn't an answer. Is the Carroll money being re-invested into wages or is it not? If it is, what's being 'bought into?' If it isn't, and people are 'buying into' the idea that it is, then why are Pardew and Llambias saying that it is? Is that supposed to be some sort of smokescreen? Unless you think we pay players five years in advanced the Carroll money is going into the bank, which means paying off the over draft. So the club are lying to us, then, about spending the Carroll money on the squad. Is that it?

It all becomes clear now. Thanks Chez (and the other two I guess, but he explained.) I'd heard a lot about those rules, but to be honest never paid much attention because for one, they don't affect us and I don't really care about other teams, and also I imagined the rules would be extremely lax and blind eyes would be turned all over the place in order to allow the powerhouses to keep playing in UEFA competitions, which is what UEFA really need.

Means 'unity' according to Wiki. That's right, although it is very closely related (of course) to the word that means 'united' as in 'United Arab Emirates', which is 'mutahida.' It sounds OK for a stadium, sort of like 'the Emirates' or 'the Britannia.' If it has to be sponsored (which I abhor as all rightly-thinking football fans should), then a name like that isn't too bad. But still, it's cringeworthy, and you can hardly say Man City needed the money. More like free advertising. Hopefully this doesn't give Fat Mike any ideas.

Always preferred a CB as captain. Colo is a good choice if it couldn't be Barton.

Pardew and Llambias have both confirmed that the club are 're-investing' the Carroll money in transfer fees, wages, the training ground, and other assorted projects. So what is being 'bought into' here? Wages That isn't an answer. Is the Carroll money being re-invested into wages or is it not? If it is, what's being 'bought into?' If it isn't, and people are 'buying into' the idea that it is, then why are Pardew and Llambias saying that it is? Is that supposed to be some sort of smokescreen?

Second half of the season I thought he was quality. The then picked up a really bad hamsstring injury, iirc. You just knew if Jose was playing, we were safe that side on the pitch and he'd be orchestrating attacks. Thats how I remember it too. If you had him and Bassong on you felt relatively safe. Beye would have been included there if he didnt get that injury, thought Jose was one of few to come out with dignity when we got relegated. I expect even Habib Beye would admit his mistake in leaving the club. I honestly can't remember a better back 4 than Beye, Colo, Bassong and Jose. If they'd have stayed, who knows. Where's Beye now? Still at Villa warming the bench? Ten times the player Danny Simpson is. I don't see a great deal of love for Simpson. Think it was 'Unitedgate' that done him with some fans. Pardew has to work on how Simpson deals with players running at him. I think he was protected by Joey too often last season and didn't get found out as much as he should've been, had he had a poor RM in front of him. He's a sound player but I question whether if he looked different would he be lambasted even more? Aye on paper but Colo was like a fish out of water that season and Jose wasn't at the level he's at now. I don't blame Beye for fucking off like some fans by the way. Neither do I. For all the bullshit after the Leyton Orient game where he was blamed as one of the ones who didn't want to stay who was 'disrupting team morale', he gave it all on the pitch during the relegation season, which some of the others who were criticising him couldn't claim.

Pardew and Llambias have both confirmed that the club are 're-investing' the Carroll money in transfer fees, wages, the training ground, and other assorted projects. So what is being 'bought into' here? Deano, remember this quote from the other thread? (From here.) Pardew is directly telling us not to bother trying to add up the fees, spendings etc because he knows doing so will obviously reveal that the 35m has not been spent on the team, as was promised. It was a lie from the start and this is the spin.

Don't think Ben Arfa, Ba, Barton or Enrique will play. Ferguson, Airey and Gosling will feature, Abeid too maybe. Very excited for the start of the new (pre)season, despite the inevitable disappointment of this transfer window. I know it'll be radio only for this game, but I think the USA games might get an airing on TV (I really wanted to go to Columbus, but it's so far...New York to Columbus is nearly 65% of the distance between Land's End and John o' Groats, for reference, and Kansas City and Orlando are even more distant.) Too skint.

Keep. We'd get pennies for him at best and we don't need to sell. We could've used him in the second half of last season at several junctures...I'm thinking of the game against Bolton where R. Taylor played right wing and was sent off for a dreadful two-footed tackle. Had Routledge played instead of Raylor, I think we would've won that game.

Yes, they do. It never stops at just one lie. They lied to us about Carroll not being sold, so then they had to lie to us about the 35m being fully reinvested, so now they have to lie to us about all the ways they're reinvesting it. If there had been any straight talk at any point during Ashley's reign, we wouldn't be in this position. They could've just told us bluntly, "Look, the club is skint, we need the money to cover operational costs and there's no guarantee we'll re-invest any of it" (if that were indeed the case.) It would've been hugely disappointing, but it would've been honest. Instead we've had so many lies about "we are not a selling club" and "we won't let young Geordie talent like Shearer, Gazza and Carrick (?) go to other clubs" that we now have to have more lies to explain why selling our local hero, no. 9 and best player doesn't make us a selling club. We've had lies about managers, lies about players, lies about linked players, lies about the fans, lies about everything under the sun. Every so often these lies contradict each other and Happy Face updates his blog, but it makes no difference. The brutal truth is that Mike Ashley is not interested in seeing the club succeed, not interested in progressing, and not interested in running it as a club of our size and stature should be run (or indeed even how a club of Wigan's size and stature should be run.) He is only interested in making money off us, and anything else that comes out of his, his crony or his puppet's mouth is another lie.

Ticks all of the boxes for Ashley's stated transfer values: young, talented, good resale value. Unfortunately, he fails the unstated criterion, which is "available on the extremely cheap."

I don't think it matters what Pardew knows or doesn't know, I imagine he has very little input into incomings or outgoings. He's probably been told, "we're getting you two new players," with no more specificity than that, and that's what he repeats.

That's a good point actually. Seems to be a lot of sour grapes from within our masses. I bet the same people who are coming out with 'he's shit' would have been rubbing their hands had he come here instead. Moot point however IMO, he doesn't fit into Ashley's structure. northern soul doing his level best to epitomize that Sour grapes? Spunking transfer kitty on unproven players is hardly a progression for the club is it? Come off it man, we'd be over the moon if we'd signed him. No telling whether he'll come good or not but this is a sign of planning for the future, buying one of England's most highly rated prospects. I do question why anyone would buy Wickham for 8m or whatever the initial fee is when Sturride is reportedly available for 6m, but either way it's a sign of investment in the future.

Just thought I would add this: From Soccernet's live transfer blog, http://blogs.soccernet.com/onthemove/archi...f_a_downing.php The player was previously linked to us in 2008, don't know much else about him.

I don't think 'we all know this.' I think there's a lot of people on here who could do with some reminding of just what kind of operation our owner and his crony-in-chief are running.

Sending Ranger out on loan to Hughton sounds like a great plan to me, if we have enough backup at striker. I'd rather keep Guthrie and Best as I feel they'll make more impact in the first team.