Matt

There is no denying that our wage bill offered (and probably still offers) pretty poor value for money against other sides. However we can only hope Ashley does not see past losses as something which must be recouped. He over-paid for the club and trying to make up for that by throttling cashflow now and in the future will only lead to difficulties on and off the pitch.

Right you are.

Heard it all before from the NUST shysters, with their 'financial models' (I'd love to see that, by the way). Same story as we got last time, no real answers, just lots of empty promises. All I had for my £10 was a load of 'offers' and adverts into my inbox. I get enough spam for free, without paying for the privilege as well. They really have proven 'no you can't' and are as deserving of my money as Ashley is. Get to fuck.

I've walked past Ashley when he was blathering on the phone and can see why he keeps shut. Wrote the feem toon, sung the feem toon.....

I've been considering jacking in the ST this season anyway more due to travel cost than the price of tickets. I honestly can't see how anything will ever change as long as his business is successful- for Ashley that means punters in the gates and Sky cameras turning up for games. The whole concept of those 11 fellers on the pitch and what is require to build a team seem to be secondary considerations.

Contract offer followed immediately by speculation of a move? Whoddathunkit?

They were all for a switch to SJP for the money until Sky got involved. A shame, as I'd have liked us to rest a few players, but I think we really owe them one.

Are we lending the money to them in sterling?

Häppy Birthtag, Meenz!

The problem with super-competitive tenders is that the firm quite often doesn't stay in business long enough to see out the project.

I don't think the metro is much of an issue, it was used at the time as a good excuse why not to build out.

I think they had been at each other all game tbh.

Problem is, Simpson gets in advanced positions and is expected to act like a winger. He's not got the tricks to do that, nor can he without leaving us hugely exposed, particularly once Tiote and Nolan were in the book and unable to track back and 'take one for the team'. It's no good switching the play if there's no outlet. I'm not his biggest fan but Routledge could have got a bit more time yesterday, it would at least have allowed us to stretch the play a bit more.

Agreed PL, thought they broke with it quite well at times, esp through Salgado. The way we played Barton and Simpson left them a good avenue to exploit.

Looking at individual results is pointless - Hull won at the Emirates a few seasons ago. Looking at recent history is far more appropriate and you lot are a newly promoted side. You're doing pretty well still for a newly promoted side but don't get ideas above your station and expect to beat teams like us who've had a very good record over the last few seasons in the league. Especially ones that have now won their last FIVE in a row at your place. I think he might take the Danny B 'condescending twat' award here. Looking for a good result against Blackburn at home is not 'ideas above our station'. Don't you think Blackpool were looking to beat you the other week? Our home record got us relegated last time around- we have Liverpool and Chelsea to come in the next few weeks- so you surely can see why people felt this was an opportunity we needed to take. If looking at recent history is more important, why are you pointing to finishes in 2008 and 2006?

The Tories are just using the economic position to push through their ideologies. It's all cut, cut cut. They need to come up with how the private sector is going to providing all these jobs that have been cut. I'm not sure the UK is positioned to make shifts taken in the 80/90s when the traditional industries fell. That's why we've been relying on the public sector and to an equal extent, an oversized financial sector. We need to hear much more on the re-employment story.

You've not watched us much this season. Our football has been far from free-flowing, which is why we have had better results on the road. We do not have the guile in the side to break down teams who sit back and defend resolutely and both Stoke and Blackburn have done this season.

TBF Labour did a good job of making it look like it was solely a banking crisis. It makes for great copy, that's for sure. The economic downturn is cyclical, the lax regulation on banks meant there was no buffer and the whole monetary system was threatened because banks couldn't cope with the losses when the 'originate and distribute' market and wholesale funding dried up. Madmen were allowed to build empires, all with the approval of the Govt who counted the tens of billions in corporation tax receipts and the major UK pension funds who were pushing them to grow at abnormal rates in order to help plug those earning gaps in their schemes.

What a dumb post - does that make it 5 wins at Sid James on the trot for BRFC? Explain why you 'really should be beating' BRFC? You got snuffed out and stopped from playing. I hate Allardyce almost as much as you guys, but he did a good job for once last night. We should have won the game from the position we were in by the hour mark. Blackburn stayed deep but we had started to make inroads through the back line. It was sloppy of us to switch off how we did at a point of the game where the away drawbridge was going up. It's not a case of 'divine right' but any team needs to win these sorts of games to get the points to stay up- home games against any fellow bottom-half-ish side has to be a 3 point target, surely?

He should just claim he's Tom Huddlestone.

It must have been hell down there. It was bad enough being at one uni with all the wannabe world-changers there, imagine a congregation of them!

Grow up.

Christ there are some people with long grudges on there "Yes I do believe the rivalry between our clubs stems from the 697-98 season when Ethelred the Ever-ready was poached by Newcastle for an offer of 2 groats a week". And apparently Allardyce was 'treated badly by the club'. His bank account would disagree.

Ashley is convinced that there is someone out there wanting to buy us- if we can get to a position where relegation is looking highly unlikely then he will cash in- giving a manager a new contract will detract from his sale price should a new buyer wish to appoint someone else.

Is it not just the spiral car park access roads?