dbsweeney

It's gotta be true first ...

All the buzz on Twitter and Google news says it's an 18 million bid from Arsenal. I can't imagine that'd go through. If he was to leave, it'd be for PSG. My belief is that we've got Demba until the end of the season and then he'll be gone to PSG.

More please. Fuck, if this is true ... it's one spoon of sugar, then one spoon of castor oil.

You can't say that. You could say that about caveat and verbose if you're going to say that, but Alex is quite clearly a nice bloke. He's been at it again, this time with.......nihilistic I think I'll start reading The Guardian. Someone will know what it means. Either I've got a shite vocabulary or Alex has an outstanding one, probably a bit of both. I wouldn't care I got an A for GCSE English Language. You guys need to read more.

Well, the day of action seems to have had an effect:

Cheers! Dembgoals, are you a Toon fan?

A promising point to remember is how the Club behaved during the winter transfer period in our Championship season. We were looking healthy for an automatic promotion but needed to make sure that we made that little extra oush to make sure injuries didn't fuck it up. I'm not gonna say that we got in anyone special (van Aanholt, Pancrate, Routledge etc.), but Ashley did seem to have the foresight to realise that extra bodies were needed ... so he provided.

I'm always the cautious pessimist ... let's wait at least 'til 1 Feb. to say the likes of that.

What becomes of the brokenhearted?

minus Krul, if current rumours are to be believed ? Then what ? To be honest, the current rumours suggest he'll be leaving in summer ... and they're from The Guardian, which I know is Leazes' favourite paper.

but why are people, who are supposed to support the club, happy with 27m quid of what ought to be the managers transfer money, disappearing ? Isn't this hindering progress ? It hasn't disappeared. Chez's explained this to you far more eloquently than I could on several occasions. That's not a defence of the owner per se but it's the reality of the situation as I see it. how much more revenue do you need, further to 14th biggest in football, to not have to sidetrack money from sales to other areas of the club and back your managers ? Or pocket it. However it disappears........ What's the odds someone else will be sold for big money again, and the scenario continues. Well, in an ideal world more money would be available, maybe it is tbh - I live in hope. I haven't done the maths but I think it's fair to assume not all of the Carroll money has gone directly into player recruitment. But then again, the club was running at a massive loss when we went down. Now, that's Ashley's fault (relegation at least) but I make the point because the Carroll sale can't be taken in isolation - i.e. to ignore all that went before and demand the full £35m goes on transfers just isn't realistic. I mean you haven't even figured in the £6m-ish spent on Ben Arfa in the same window Carroll left. s that fair? I'm all for criticising Ashley when I think it's due but the criticism has to be fair otherwise it'll just be shown up for what it is - bias. I still don't like or trust him btw, before you accuse me of fallatio the ultimate proof will be when he starts to keep the core of best players, and start to build and improve, rather than sell and replace. This is what Toonpack hoped/thought he would do last summer, when he said for ages he would "revise his opinion of Mike Ashley after the deadline" then scuttled into his hole when it didn't happen. We all HOPE this will happen, but it won't. I stand by what I've always said. This is the point, he will not build properly. He is happy with using the club as a vehicle for Sports Direct, making small profits and will sell a player if this is not achieved, because its easier than gambling on Champions League qualification. I'm not knocking this approach from his point of view, just saying what he will do, and saying that this is not what I as a supporter of the club want. I don't know why people get so defensive about this, its as if they simply can't bring themselves to admit it or something ie the fact he will NEVER do as well as his predecessors. As i said yesterday, its a blind spot they seem to have, but its a fact whether it suits them or not. I agree about hanging onto the players like. It's a concern because there's only a handful of players been here more than a couple of seasons. Until that trend is reversed the accusations of us being a selling club etc. won't go away. There's also the wage ceiling which is problematic to say the least once a 'more ambitious' club comes knocking. However, I was specifically talking about what's happened post-Carroll ('cherry picking' if you like ) so while I'm cynical about the longer term, I'm at least happy to give some credit where it's due. You surely must be happy about the players we've brought in recently (on the whole). To reiterate, it's on the pitch that matters, no? I can see that you are still hopeful that he will start to retain and build, rather than sell and replace. unfortunately, I'm 100% it isn't going to happen and saying so. I've said for over 4 years this was the aim so I'm not changing my stance now. It's fine to be cautious, which is what alex is saying. But to maintain that things that are no longer true HAVE to be true because you've spent the last 4 years saying they are..... Well that's just stupidity. Reminds me of blinded religious dogma ...

Indeed. Not a big fan of Ashley's (esp. the communication with the fans), but I will admit that we currently seem to be in the best position we've in since SBR and don't seem to be harming the financial footing of the club while doing so. It also all comes down to if we take steps to hold onto the likes of Krul, Ba etc. It's that which has bitten us on the bum in the past.

Same ... haven't heard/read a single thing about it.

That's just beyond cruel and moving into another realm of nasty.

good business for Mike Ashley. Where is the other 27m quid ? barely covered the losses on wages to Owen, Martins, Viduka and duff the year they got us relegated. and 3 of those players moved on to clubs that played in europe too............while we were relegated. "Good business", obviously. Not the best three players to say that about. Owen is doing fuck all at Man U. Martins is unwanted wherever he goes. His season at Wolfsburg saw him hardly played, while the club flirted with relegation. He's now in the middle of Siberia and not getting any games. Viduka never moved to any other football club. He living it LARGE in Melbourne. Good weather and coffee there, though.

That talk's just setting you up for a big fall. I hope not ... but you've got a whole lot of eggs lined up with no chickens yet. One Chicken is in the coop already But there's a fox just around the corner.

That talk's just setting you up for a big fall. I hope not ... but you've got a whole lot of eggs lined up with no chickens yet.

Agree with all of that - I think you sum up the situation perfectly Just needs Leazes to quote and state "Exactly" and we'll have a full set And Leazes' king-of-the-sandpit arrogance ...

A tweet from Georgie Bingham:

Right, let's turn this into the HBA show.

This is turning into a chore.

Yohan's milking this for all it's worth.

Shouldn't be rude, but the QPR keeper looks a little chubby.

Seems okay to me?

I have the fear... Withnail-style