JawD

Mr Barrett at his finest

Nee snow in Durham yet like. Though I'm off out with the bairn shortly so that should open the clouds and it will hoy it down.

tbf we havent been playing well of late. Much of it though has been because we have had fuck all up front and AP has been messing with the formation. Hopefully with Ba back he will get back to 442.

Demba Cisse's gone to see, With the toon badge on his knee; If he can gan an score for me, Pappis Demba Cisse.

Fantastic. Bairns who never saw him should watch that.

No, nothing wrong with perpetually analysing it to death, but what can you or I or the others do about it? Indeed. I enjoy football, or I try to. Why know its more than just a game, it tribal. Way I see it is that you have those like LM who can see the doom and history repeating, the potential collapse around the corner. Sure we might win a game, but we might lose the next 5. Sure we sign what might be a decent forward, but we might sell three players next season and so on. Or you have those like I think most of us here where who knows what will happen next season, who gives a fuck about last season let alone 5 seasons ago. They are gone now. Sure we might sell Colo, Tiote or Ba. But, fact is they are here now. We are in 5th at the moment. So I dont watch a game and worry about next week. Surely you have to enjoy the moment (without getting all poetic about it). If you were given 1 year to live. Would you enjoy the time you had left, or sit at home moping because you knew it was coming to an end?

on an annual basis, it wasn't much man. They backed their managers, that is how they attracted them and made the progress they made, in the first place Hang on, they did back their managers, rightly or wrongly. Thats not an issue and I agree with you on that. But how can you say their dividend was small and then question every million quid in and out of the Carroll deal? I didnt begrudge the halls and shepherds the dividends at the time, but you cant say they didnt make a good living off the back of the club.

Arsenal 2 Blackburn 1 Norwich 1 Bolton 0 QPR 2 Wolverhampton 0 Stoke 1 Sunderland 1 West Brom 0 Swansea 1 Wigan 0 Everton 0 Man City 2 Fulham 0 Newcastle 2 Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 1 Man Utd 1 Liverpool 1 Tottenham 2

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40191515@N05/ Pics from todays training

Howay LM man. small dividend

First of all we are slowly assembling a decent squad. We have strengthened again in January and we will strengthen again in the summer. Wouldnt half help get a few transfers over the line if we could promise CL football. Also without derailing into the usual LM fest, so far no money has been taken out of the club so I see no cert that suddenly he is going to pocket any CL money. Mind not for a moment do I think he would derail our new fiscal set up based on one CL qualification and rightly so. Dont get me wrong, Im not in the camp of thinking Ashley pockets the money. It wouldnt surprise me if he toko out little chunks at a time money of his own that he has put in to the club, but I cant say factually either way. FFS/H&S took money out as dividends on a regular basis so I dont see the big deal if he did? Anyway, thats a side issue. More what I mean is I dont think (again, my opinion only) that they have a pot for transfers and sales/purchases come to and from this pot. I think if cash is needed to fund another part of the business then it is. Much like Arsenal. Look at their spend since getting the new stadium. Money had to come from somewhere. If we did qualify (which we wont ) I do think we would add a couple of players of the same ilk (well scouted, £5M-£7M) but I wouldnt expect a sudden influx. Anyway, its a moot point. We wont qualify and if we did we dont have the squad for it. But hey, there's no harm in trying and what an achievement to even be talking about it.

Im with you on that one. A player is only worth financially what someone will pay for them. What they are worth on the pitch is performance based. You could argue that we have had Cisse and Ba for Carroll and in every which way that is a cracking deal. We have two players, not one. We have arguably more quality in both. We have change to spare for use as they see fit. Yes this is in hindsight and yes I was pissed off when we sold AC but now can look back and say it was a good deal.

Aye but what about March, April & May? I agree that we'll be clinging on to the top 7 not pushing away from 5th. We have a patchwork team most games. Thankfully getting Tiote back will help and of course now having Ba and Cisse. Even if we did qualify (which we wont) we aren't good enough to compete and its no good saying the money would bolster the squad as we all know the answer to that one.

Pro's and con's is just fantastic

Get out. Some of my fave lyrics are by Pink Floyd. Someone mentioned Dark Side of the Moon, Time has to be up there lyrically as one of their best imo.

Get out.

All this hype about Demba-Demba nailed on 0-0

you got rid of Fred, didn't you , which you wanted, and said anybody would be better, didn't you ? Now, you have what you wanted, so stop moaning about Mike Ashley, because this is what you wanted. You wierd and stupid idiot. Im sure it wasnt DR G that got rid of FFS tbf. Wasnt it SJH? FFS didnt want to sell but his hand was forced by SJH.

I dunno, such is our shitty system I reckon he'll just get fined.

He done well for the goal like. Lacking in confidence you'd think he'd have looked to lay it off. Took it well.

Far too much time, far too much

Tbf LM, I think most would struggle, or should struggle to criticise what H&Ss done for the club. Rescuing it from the mire and propelling us into a top 6 side. Much what you say is correct. However at the end of the tenure things were not so rosey. For managers we attracted Souness and Big Sam. We dropped down to 14th, got back up to 7th and then dropped back to 13th. We looked a very different side to the one regularly qualifying for Europe. We all know that FFS and the board done very well personally out of the club. Many raised eyebrows over what they took out, what Douglas and his wife took out and the dodgy car loaning between the different companies. but, did anyone really give a shit? No, not when we were playing in europe. It's easy to gloss over these bit when we are doing well, and rightly so. FFS shouldnt be immune to criticism but equally should be applauded for what he achieved.

Can I ask you a question which is probably a bit personal. Are you a millionaire yet? Fucking nee chance. I take a reasonable wage, but I dont take the piss. Money stays in the business. Has to if I want it to grow etc.

Fucking hell, is this a Makem going on about trophy success?

has it impacted us more than the likes of Stoke, Bolton, Blackburn etc ie forced us to lower our ambitions to such levels ? Last I looked, we were still at least twice the club that these are, wouldn't you agree ? Was it the reason Spurs told Chelsea to fuck off when they asked about Modric ? Id agree we are yes. I can imagine (I dont know factually) that it is harder to sell corporate hospitality, season tickets, advertising and so on and so the clubs income from operational activity has been dented. Not just us of course, any club. You have to take the likes of Man City out of the equation as they dont operate "normally". I will be interesting to see what happens when the fair play rules come into force and how quickly clubs will make a mockery of them by finding loop holes. Re Spurs, good on them for remaining strong. But there would have been a point in which they would have broke. Look at Man Utd selling Ronaldo etc. But is 11/12 Spurs have recovered near £20M in transfers. Selling £27M and spending £7M. The year before the net figure was a £17M spend and before that a £5M spend. They do seem to sell a lot but spend it in just as good measure. Without looking at figures, Bolton are near relegated so whatever their policy, isnt working. Blackburn? Same. I dont think our ambitions are the same as these two, do you? Yet, their spend in last couple of years looking at the net figure is likely greater. Yet we are in 6th? So Im not sure which you think is better. To me, as Ive said before. For all I dislike the stuff off the field, on the field, where it matters the policy is currently working. Spend less than Bolton and be in sixth or spend more and who knows? Im well aware our wheels could come off and the house of cards come crashing down if we sold Colo and Ba tomorrow for example. But Im not going to worry about what ifs. Only if things do happen and so far this window, we've bought a £9M (ish) forward and are looking for a defender. Currently more than any other team in the league.