brummiemag1

They were in the CL spots at the time and that's why he wanted out of the UEFA Cup. When you look at the money involved in the CL it's hard to argue with his choice. We're they? Ok, well my memory is shite then, but even so, go for a trophy rather than aiming to be involved in one you have bugger all chance of winning. Poxy money. Couldn't agree more. Most of the villa fans I know were furious when they fielded a weakened team in Moscow

I put a speculative £3 on us to finish top 4 before the Liverpool game, odds were 20/1. Odds now are 7/1

There is no doubt we have sold well (Carroll) and bought well in the last 12 months or so, namely Tiote, Cisse, Ba, Cabaye and Ben Arfa. I don't think anyone would disagree that we received way over the odds for Carroll and we have paid below the going rate for incoming players. Great business no doubt about it, and no question we are a better team now than 12 months ago. But we can't expect to make further progress if we continue to sell our best players and replace them with lower cost alternatives. Its worked up to now but its unsustainable in the long term - if it worked long term then everyone would be doing it. If we continue with the current policy then I cannot see how we can make further progress. I think this summer is crucial - If we keep our best players and invest in 3 or 4 quality players we have a genuine chance of consolidating our position and making a realistic sustained challenge for Champions League football. This is what we should be expecting and demanding for a club of our size and potential. I don't think that will happen because I don't think Ashley has the ambition to match the clubs size and potential. Lets hope I'm wrong

Which in effect means to continue with the policy of selling our best players and replacing them with lower cost alternatives

Leazes is a knowlegable bloke who is articulate and speaks a lot of sense. I also agree with most of what he says and so do a lot of other people I know who don't use this forum The debates involving Leazes are easily the most interesting on here I also think he will be proved right. Absolutely pathetic decision to to prevent him posting - its a fucking discussion forum where people argue their point of view. This place will be a far less interesting place if he isn't allowed to post

Agree with a lot of your previous post JawD

we havent man I keep telling you its Arsenal Maybe it is Arsenal JawD, but it doesn't detract from the point I'm trying to make

The £29 million profit on transfers is since 2007 so its even worse Try the Ashley Transfer history thread page 1 - Happy Face has kept it up to date I'm sure I have also seen a graph on this forum which shows that over that same period we have the highest net inlay on transfers in the premier league So if you accept the figure of £29 million is correct, do you think that its a strategy that will lead to long term success?

You can keep saying that if you want but I've asked you to show me how we've done it over the last two years and you've refused to answer. So what about shutting the fuck up? Your figures are wrong, theres an net profit on transfers of £29 million. It shows a lack of ambition. What do you want me to explain? I think its the highest in the premier league Do other clubs not pay agents fees? How about shutting the fuck up yourself?

Of course I'm pleased with some of the signings we have made but a sell your best players and replace with cheaper isn't sustainable in the long run - if it was so easy then every single club would be doing it. A net inlay of £29 million in transfers and the shameful renaming of the ground tells you a lot about Ashleys motives and ambition.

You need to look at the bigger picture - a net inflow of funds from transfers of £29 million since 2007 - what does that tell you about the sort of ambition Ashely has for the club If the net inflow was zero it would still show a lack of ambition If we had not sold Carroll I would have still expected us, if we had any ambition, to strenghten the team, but as it is he has not even used all that money to back the manager. It cannot be sustained in the longer term. If it was so easy to sell your best players and replace with cheaper then everyone would be doing it. I cannot understand the amount of people who appear to be backing Ashley over this approach - he must be delighted

Why do you keep looking at these 2 or 3 particular threads if you find it so boring? The fact is that Leazes is spot on about Ashleys motives, his lack of ambition and the fact that his policy of sell and replace with cheaper will not be sustainable in the longer term, other than maintaining our place in the Premier League, which for a club with our support and potential is a fucking disgrace Back to the thread - do you think Andy Carroll is regretting his move to Liverpool and do you think in 2 or 3 years if both clubs maintain their current strategies, it will be us or Liverpool who are more likely to be playing Champions League football and winning trophies? As I've told you in the past, you are just Diet LeazesMag. Just as stupid but thankfully less prolific. If i'm not gonna get dragged into it with him, i'm definitely not going to with you. As I have told you before, you don't add anything to the debate, only negative piss taking comments Have you ever been on NO? I think you would like it there

Explain how he has carried out that policy in the last two years. Also explain why he spent £10m in the last transfer window if he is only interested in maintaining our place in the PL. Something like a £30 million net profit on transfers, I think its the highest in the Premier League, it says it all really. Explain how this could possibly be seen as ambition?

Why do you keep looking at these 2 or 3 particular threads if you find it so boring? The fact is that Leazes is spot on about Ashleys motives, his lack of ambition and the fact that his policy of sell and replace with cheaper will not be sustainable in the longer term, other than maintaining our place in the Premier League, which for a club with our support and potential is a fucking disgrace Back to the thread - do you think Andy Carroll is regretting his move to Liverpool and do you think in 2 or 3 years if both clubs maintain their current strategies, it will be us or Liverpool who are more likely to be playing Champions League football and winning trophies?

If we were to match those league positions over that time period and enjoy regular champions league football then I would be more than happy to admit I was wrong. In fact if we were to get anywhere near it I would give credit but I just cannot see how it would be possible to get anywhere near that in the longer term with the current policy.

AH, post 1373, Leaze's very own personal bastion.... let's see.. Hmmm, it appears to be constructed from old points, which haven't even been extrapolated, or furthered upon. Ok, making a schoolboy error i know, but let's dig deeper. He/has/is/will continue to sell best players - guess his copter must have been double booked in January, cos i cant remember any of our best players leaving!! Not back the manager with money - didn't we get a new no9 in January, how much was he? He IS running the club as a vehicle to sit alongside Sports Direct - Interestingly enough this looks completely like conjecture and personal opinion, however I can't imagine LM dealing in anything other than FACTS, so i'm sure he'll be able to back this with solid proof. He HAS [and STILL IS] lowered expectations among foolish supporters - Well he certainly HAS lowered LM's expectations since Freddy, and it does say FOOLISH supporters, this must be what he means...... bless him. He will NOT match the league positions of his predecessors on a consistent basis - Okay, we're gonna need a bit of maths for this :- (93/94 - 3rd, 94/95 - 5th, 95/96 - 2nd, 96/97- 2nd, 97/98 - 13th, 98/99 - 13th, 99/00 - 11th, 00/01 - 11th, 01/02 - 4th, 02/03 - 3rd, 03/04 - 5th, 04/05 - 14th, 05/06 - 7th, 06/07 - 13th) Average finish = 7.57, strictly speaking should round it up to 8th, but that'll just give him something to moan about, so in a goodwill gesture to Fat Freddy we'll call it 7th!! Hmmm, I wonder if LM realised that was what it was??? Anyhow, lets fucking hope we can do better than that eh? I for one think we will! So I have collated and reviewed the data, and my conclusion is..... Leazesmag is/has been/will always be an UTTER BLEND Oh and Leaze's now I've responded to your holy grail of a post, are you planning on responding to the 10 or so questions of mine you have chosen to ignore??? He has certainly lowered your expectations He has consistently sold many of our best players over the last 4 years - what planet have you been on? He has not backed the manager - and instead has made a net profit on transfers of over 30 million Of course he is using the club as a vehicle to sit alongside Sports Direct - why do you think he has taken the shameful decision to rename St James' Park? Do you agree with it? There is no chance of him matching those league positions on a consistent basis - do you seriously think we can challenge for a Champions League position with a sell your best players and replace them with cheaper policy?

For every Tiote, Cabaye, and Ba there's a load more bargain basement nobodies we've acquired with little return. We've done good business in the transfer windows but its pure luck if you ask me. We broke the bank to bring in our best players in the mid 90's, there were a few flops but what about Ginola, Les, Shearer, Asprilla we wouldn't have come so close without spending the money on these guys. If a football club operates on a shoestring then they can kiss goodbye to pushing for Europe again, it isn’t going to happen. I would accept the current situation if we would at least hang on to our home grown talent, that cost us nothing anyway. We could have kept AC and signed Ba on a free anyway. Yes I agree 35 million was an unreal amount of money to take for Andy, but WHERE IS IT? We may as well have sold him for 300 million, the money hasn’t been reinvested so what’s the point!? Agree entirely - selling your best players and replacing them with cheaper alternatives is not sustainable in the long term if the club is to realise its massive potential. If it were that easy then everybody would be doing it.

If Liverpool continue their ambitious approach by backing their manager and we continue to make a net profit on transfers I think its fair to say that in 2 or 3 seasons, maybe sooner, Liverpool will be playing Champions League football and we will be mid table. Yes Liverpool will make some expensive mistakes on the way and yes we will make some great underpriced purchases but in the longer term our unambitious approach of selling our best players and buying cheaper replacements is unsustainable. If it was that easy everyone would be doing it. As one of the best supported clubs in Europe we should be setting our sights a lot, lot higher

Of course it shows ambition - it may well be a poor decision, they have probably paid over the odds and the money could and should have been better spent, but it does without question show ambition Would you be happy if it were us spending that sort of money on the likes of Henderson? I would be happy if we spent that sort of money and even happier if we spent it better

You may well be right, but why put so much faith in presumptions? Who knows what the future may bring. Basically giving Ashley stick based on future events that may or or may not happen. For one I didn't see us spending £10m on a player during January. That's certainly a bold, positive move. Of course it's all about building on what you've got though, but I'll worry about that when the season is over. I'm not giving Ashley stick based on future events - its based on what he's done so far

Of course it shows ambition - it may well be a poor decision, they have probably paid over the odds and the money could and should have been better spent, but it does without question show ambition

The point is that Liverpools approach and ambition will in the long term ensure that they remain a sucessful and trophy winning club. Ashleys zero ambition up until now, will ensure that we don't build on the good season we are having and we don't try and push for the top 4. They may well have overpaid for Carroll and we may finish higher than them this season, but Liverpool's ambition and approach will ensure that that in the longer term they will once again be qualifying for the Champions League and they will continue to win trophies. Our approach of not backing our manager, making a net profit on transfers of over £30 million in 4 years, selling our best players and replacing them with less costly alternatives, (and no doubt we have we have made some shrewd purchases) cannot be sustainable in the long term and it shows Ashley's policy for what it is - don't try to compete at the highest level and realise the massive potential of the club, but do enough to stay in the premier league and recoup as money as possible in the process. If Ashley continues with his current policy and Liverpool with theirs, then in a couple of years time we will be the mid table team and they will be playing Champions League football.

why do people put Owen down as their example of "failure" ? Ba, Tiote and Cisse will all be sold for cheaper, and so it will go on. One day, people like you might just wake up. Unless we pay someone to take Ba, we won't sell him for less than we paid for him. Correct, the likelihood is we will sell them on for more than we paid for them and then fail to give the proceeds to the manager to invest in the team. Thats why we will never realise our potential under Ashley and thats why teams like Liverpool will continue to win trophies

Actually it was the Cubs I was referring to and not the White Sox in my earlier post. Maybe the Detriot Lions have a case as well. With regard to Man U, I'm not sure they have always had the highest crowds - It was Newcastle who set the highest average crowd ever recorded at that time for an english football season when back in the 1945/46 season we had an average of over 56k (it was actually in the 2nd Division as well). I think this stood as a record until Man U beat it in the 1970's.

Schalke maybe? I know they won the Waffa in '97, but in every other respect they're basically us. Comparing lack of success in terms of trophies with fanbase, I struggle to think of a club in world sport let alone just world football that is as well supported as Newcastle. (Maybe someone like the Chicago White Sox but I don't know what sort of crowds they get). Its a much overused word these days but our support is unbelievably good and I don't think any other club in Britain, including Man U, would get the same level of support as us if they had a similar lack of success over such a long period