Isegrim

So that's one of the absolute wasters on silly wages gone. Very good.

Aye, assuming they are putting in a wage structure (and it's still hard to say as there's nothing really definite either way), it's bound to be painful and effect recruitment and therefore Premiership achievement for a season at least (maybe quite a few more). The worrying thing is that although some of FFS dealing were silly, at the same time we'll always be paying more all things being equal, which is being made worse by the money other clubs are throwing around now. Newcastle with a wage structure is like a dead shark. Huh? Going nowhere? Just don't get why having some structure is such a bad thing. Structures are fine, but they have to be flexible or we'll have to rule out all tier one players for the near future. I think the structure will be flexible for these players. The problem is that we had to pay silly money for tier three type of players, so that getting these tier one players is rather difficult at the moment with the club barely having anything attractive to them - bar money. That's why I still don't believe the story of Aimar refusing to sign because of insufficient personal terms. This to me looks like tabloid fantasy just as more or less everything that has been written about Newcastle this summer. Anal's hilarious Frings story being the best example.

Where's Shandy selling belts these days?

Please believe it, because then it's bound not to go through.

The Fish should buy a crate and start practicing... And wheat beer out of a bottle is just rank...

They can stick their Allah gristle up some dog's arse tbh.

I still think N'Zogbia could do really well in a free role behind the strikers because of his dribbling and shooting skills. But he certainly doesn't have the stature and authority as well as the intelligence to dictate a game. His passing is also far too bad for a "playmaker" role.

Ok let's try and get past that. You'll be bringing up old posts from another forum from a year and a half ago next. :D What, to prove that you got something right once? Did t'internet really exist back then?

Let's wait and see Rafa's well into the running of it by now and is unlikely to repeat past errors being the schrewd man that he is. If we hadn't drawn so many at the start of last season we'd have been in the running. Torres and Keane & Co will ensure that that won't happen this year. What past errors would those be? Buying players who aren't good enough? Because he seems ready to spunk big money on Robbie Keane and Gareth Barry. I like those two, especially the former, but I don't think they're going to win you the league by being added to the squad. He's also still adding third rate players like Voronin and this year Degen to his squad... Such players are necessary in any squad. No they aren't. If you want to fill up your squad with players those should at least in some form be good enough to maintain the standard. Otherwise you should rather use youngsters. The fact that Liverpool in fact even gave Voronin some playing time was very much part of why they are so far behind the other top teams. Dortmund fans are "laughing their arse off" (as their former manager Doll would say) how someone could be stupid enough to sign Degen who was an absolute liability to their team. That's why all top clubs have them then? You can only buy what you can afford. We got Degen and Veronin for free to bulk up our squad, not to star in it. Funny how all the mismanaged clubs critisize us ... yet wonder why they lack dept!?! Degen is the one laughing his arse off ... leaving that muppet show to join one of Europe's greatest clubs. Liverpool's benchmark shouldn't be other 'mismanaged clubs' but Manchester and Chelsea who have a far better depth in quality. As I said as long as Liverpool actually field those players in the Premierleague they don't have to complain about not getting the right amount of results to compete for the title. You're right about Degen being the happy one though. The job he got should have been totally out of his reach.

This is true, a few squad players wouldn't go amiss. i think he's just praying to get 4 new players, let alone 4 quality ones You can see he's not that involved in transfers. He might have given a list a month ago, but analysing these comments - the signings are in the hands of others. What part of these comments? The way everytime he's interviewed he harps on about the size of the squad. Everytime. Sure, but jumping to the conclusion he isn't that involved is a bit far fetched tbh. You may be right, but I wouldn't draw it from these comments. As for "everytime". He's just done a couple of interviews over the weekend for the first time since the end of last season anyway. He might be involved in transfers and still harp on about it - ie shouldering the blame, not shifting it. Tbh because of the rare public comments we just don't know what is going on behind the scenes. That's probably the main reason people are reeling in conspiracy theories... Fair enough. What do you think though? Will we get the players? We will get players, I am pretty confident. As everybody else I can only guess what happened so far. We were probably in for too many players who are beyond our reach, though this is difficult to say with only few players really known to have been definite targets. Why we failed I don't know. The people who are involved have surely not been able to sell the club to these players. But I don't know who and what is to blame for it. Some of the criticism and the assumptions are still quite absurd. For example to draw the conclusion that Aimar signed for lower terms for Benfica because we didn't offer sufficient personal terms. Eh? Is this meant to be some weird sort a punishment by the player? What very strange logic tbh. Like others I am disappointed because I expected more or better action. I also thing that the people have to reassess their recruitment policy as well player as moneywise. But (as Keegan) I still think that our transfer policy shouldn't be ruled by panic, i.e. simply throwing money at the wrong players.

Let's wait and see Rafa's well into the running of it by now and is unlikely to repeat past errors being the schrewd man that he is. If we hadn't drawn so many at the start of last season we'd have been in the running. Torres and Keane & Co will ensure that that won't happen this year. What past errors would those be? Buying players who aren't good enough? Because he seems ready to spunk big money on Robbie Keane and Gareth Barry. I like those two, especially the former, but I don't think they're going to win you the league by being added to the squad. He's also still adding third rate players like Voronin and this year Degen to his squad... Such players are necessary in any squad. No they aren't. If you want to fill up your squad with players those should at least in some form be good enough to maintain the standard. Otherwise you should rather use youngsters. The fact that Liverpool in fact even gave Voronin some playing time was very much part of why they are so far behind the other top teams. Dortmund fans are "laughing their arse off" (as their former manager Doll would say) how someone could be stupid enough to sign Degen who was an absolute liability to their team.

Let's wait and see Rafa's well into the running of it by now and is unlikely to repeat past errors being the schrewd man that he is. If we hadn't drawn so many at the start of last season we'd have been in the running. Torres and Keane & Co will ensure that that won't happen this year. What past errors would those be? Buying players who aren't good enough? Because he seems ready to spunk big money on Robbie Keane and Gareth Barry. I like those two, especially the former, but I don't think they're going to win you the league by being added to the squad. He's also still adding third rate players like Voronin and this year Degen to his squad...

They are from the north of Germany and gave themselves daft English names IIRC.

The horrible thing is that they are also successful outside of Germany though.

This is true, a few squad players wouldn't go amiss. i think he's just praying to get 4 new players, let alone 4 quality ones You can see he's not that involved in transfers. He might have given a list a month ago, but analysing these comments - the signings are in the hands of others. What part of these comments? The way everytime he's interviewed he harps on about the size of the squad. Everytime. Sure, but jumping to the conclusion he isn't that involved is a bit far fetched tbh. You may be right, but I wouldn't draw it from these comments. As for "everytime". He's just done a couple of interviews over the weekend for the first time since the end of last season anyway. He might be involved in transfers and still harp on about it - ie shouldering the blame, not shifting it. Tbh because of the rare public comments we just don't know what is going on behind the scenes. That's probably the main reason people are reeling in conspiracy theories...

This is true, a few squad players wouldn't go amiss. i think he's just praying to get 4 new players, let alone 4 quality ones You can see he's not that involved in transfers. He might have given a list a month ago, but analysing these comments - the signings are in the hands of others. What part of these comments?

If Man Utd hadn't have came in he'd have signed for us, he said that in his book. They were always going to and it's easy for him to say that now. According to my ITK Rooney was close to signing for us. We had a decent team then remember... We might have had a chance if we had been able to finalise a deal before it went public, but the moment Everton revealed that they had accepted a bid from Newcastle it was clear that ManU would come in and hijack the deal. Don't ever remember them accepting a bid from us... Remember them telling us to go forth and multiply... Pretty sure Everton weren't budging until Rooney slapped in a transfer request (which I'm pretty sure he only did because Man Utd told him they would lodge a bid as soon as he said he wanted out). Looking back now, I don't think he would have left Everton for us. If he would, why did he wait a week to submit his request? I am pretty sure they accepted a bid. It was just before we played Norwich in 2004. I was in the pub with Matt that day and the moment it was reported via SSN I said "Watch him sign for ManU now."

Bring back half backs tbh. I thought you would have said the sweeper. Modern day malarky. And while we are at it. What happened to square goal posts?

Bring back half backs tbh.

Seriously, where do "journalists" get these kind of stories from? The story that Frings is touted to other clubs by his agent looks so far fetched it has to come from peasepud towers tbh.

That's where it went wrong. We presented him a contract but when he saw that his name was spelt wrongly he stormed out because Benfica offered more 'a's.

I can read this one! Maybe - if you are nice to him - he'll use italics just for you tomorrow.

Not sure where that last bit comes from. Unless you're on about him being injury-prone. I don't see the relevance anyway as it's about your knowledge rather than your own physical fitness, strictly speaking. He might not be the best man for the job but I do share Wacky's sentiments and I'd rather have him than the 'non-football' people Allardyce was so keen on. Plus, I don't think Keegan necessarily has the final say on this sort of appointment in the way he would have in the past. And I don't think Ashley would give a bloke a job just because he used to play for us. You say it yourself, you'd rather him than "non-football" people. I'd assume that was because non-football people wouldn't have the applicable knowledge from actual experiences. In the same way I'd rather Gary Speed was a fitness coach than Robbie Elliot. He has got or is currently getting a degree in sports science so I imagine that's part of the reason he got the job. http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastl...61634-21355542/

Not too fussed to be honest. I think there are better players around, but he's ok unless we actually sign one of these better players. I'd love to see him sold just to witness the suicidal meltdown over at N-O though...