Matt

About a year and a bit ago some of my friends were moving into swanky flats in the middle of town. I'm thinking about moving out soon and while such an investment is well out of my range, I'm keeping tabs on the market. It might just be me, but it seems that the average price for city centre flats is falling- is anyone here in the business and able to prove/disprove the theory? These sorts of places are the first to feel the pinch of a slowdown and with the recent rate rise being approved unanimously I wonder if these are signs of a wider slowdown of the market.

Analesque.

Most famous man to drink in the Brockwell Seam after Andy Leeson.

Usually its one side who need the points a lot more than the other and deals are done to ensure the right result. The odds can be misleading for in-play games, there's no guarantee that the 'winning' team scores the first goal.

The games are rigged, it's the same every season.

Where's Chez when you need him? What's the level required to transfer the debt of the purchasing company onto the target and would Shep holding on prevent such a move taking place?

Better players out there. Used to be a fan when he was at Charlton but what I've read from Hammers is that his ability and attitude have been below par.

Did football die on Saturday, when Wimbledon won the FA Cup or at the height of catenaccio?

So football is dead. By which logic I assume it was alive and kicking after last year's thriller. That's a notable feat when you consider it was dead 12 months previously as Arsenal and Man Utd snoozed their way to penalties.

Ramage- ends up in the wrong hole

To be fair to the lad, Roland's come a long way since 'Just Say No'.

What do you mean by "in the absence of anything resembling a search"? Do you think Allardyce resigned for personal reasons? Why on earth would our chairman choose to meet him in such a high profile location, one which is almost permanently manned by photographers? To make it appear that he is in negotiations now, as opposed to the reality that a deal has been done for weeks and was agreed when he was still Bolton manager (which would make us a target of legal action or at least a bit extra on the compo).

Betfair have them as favourites!

If you add everything from long-term debt, transfer instalments to gas bills yes, though this figure is a little misleading, as it isolates only one side of the balance sheet. People could read that and think there are people banging down the door for £150m, which of course is a million miles from the truth.

Depends how you define 'debt'- anything we owe for any reason over any length of repayment or specifically structured instruments? The former is meaningless on its own, the latter was highest when we got the funding for the ground expansion, that was best part of £60m, plus any other loans in place at the time. I've had reckoned it to be about £80m at the highest amount (currently £48m).

Newcastle's not that busy really. It's not a patch on the fun and games they have in the South East. Who'd be an Air Traffic Controller, eh? £50k to sit on your arse reading the paper while occasionly telling a pilot to take the same actions you told the last 150,000 pilots.

(finance-type joke, probably only for Ginger Boy) The office intern was sent to find the company's top accountant from the Far East office and seeing an Asian gentleman in the lobby asked him "Are you the Japanese accountant?" "No, I'm Chinese actuary"

I think I am getting it. And why the sudden revelation? These rules have been in place for years now, and they were in place when we signed Owen. It's just there have only been a handful of cases when players have exploited the right. Why are you delivering it like it's a newsflash? My point, which still stands, is that the effect of this ruling is will be little more than a slight variation in eventual compensation, be it from club or player. The mechanisms are different but the end result it much the same. So he leaves and we get £5m, if we sold him with a year to go we'd get maybe £8m at best, knowing he'd be a free agent in a year? Or more realistically the club and agent agree to an arrangement that keeps the fee higher and allows for a cut to be diverted to the player and agent.

Eh? Of course you can, you don't sell him. You refuse all offers, you put a ridiculous price on his head. At least you are supposed to get some money if they do go while under contract, that is the point of this thread And you expect him to play 100% for the club while not happy? That's no good for us or the player. Then after a year he walks on a free. That's without factoring in the ability for agents to get stories in the press. If players want to go, they'll go and a price will be found eventually- even in some cases with players waiving signing on fees and the like.

If he really wanted to go, we couldn't stop him anyway. Harsh reality is that the big players have big influence.

So not free then. We'd be entitled to a figure close to Owen's final year salary by way of compensation, so around £5m and I don't think we'd be getting much more on the transfer market with a year left on his deal.

If I were hiring Allardyce I would ask that he ends his BBC boycott when taking the job. It just keeps the stories about him fresh in the mind every time he refuses to talk to them. He's manager of a different club now.

See Ray Ranson's still got Olly on his speed-dial.

Off to the coast for a bit I think, blow the cobwebs off. How was the curry train Boyo?

The fact Harper looks a bit like Given from a distance has enhanced his career at Newcastle no end.