ChezGiven

Jack Rodwell. Not sure the relevance of the 17-22 year old age bracket for 9 years from now. Most of the players who will be having an impact in 9 years are in 14-17 age bracket i.e. unknowns.

3 clubs a year get relegated, it does happen and not every owner then decides well i'd better spend 30m of my own money sorting this out because it was my fault. Many (not all) relegations can be put down to idiotic decisions at the top. We carried a wage bill of 50m whilst in the lower division (an unprecedented sum in world football is my guess). That cost him a lot but got us straight back. If he's decided to re-pay the limited debt to himself now because he thinks we have a strong enough squad to 'survive' then fair enough. If that's the plan why doesn't he just say it!! Also, money was there for Gomis but it was probably '7m and not a penny more' hence the inability to get him signed.

Is it like a high pitched whine? http://www.toontastic.net/board/topic/34529-has-the-internet-turned-the-average-football-supporter-into-a-moaning-girls-blouse/

Who has been making 20% on their investments for the last 5 years? Name names.

A lot of them would return a lot less too. Only the bullish equity markets this year have returned the majority of investment funds to profit over the last 2 to 3 years.

Woeful return? If he takes 18m a year, that's above the market rate of return on 300m. Except his investment isnt really 300m, seeing as most of those are loans, not acquisition of capital. So 18m a year on lets say a 200m investment. Thats fucking 9%! He gets 9% a year and his initial investment grows in value. If he spends 10m in January, he's not a total cunt but is still making excellent returns.

Sign me up!

I've always been a big fan of your work SLP. Good innings.

I've done worse inside the House.

Tbf Bent looked utter shite last week.

The fact of the matter this summer is that no one in British or European football who reads the English football press would have one iota of respect for Kinnear. Imagine actually having a conversation with him, the moment he said anything about himself you'd just start laughing thinking of the car crashes on Talksport etc. Young business-like super sharp negotiation-trained agents having a conversation with someone who had multiple lies exposed in the most famous interview of the summer. Ineptitude & morons.

If he lost Lambrusco over some disagreement and then was left with a need to appoint someone asap, its plausible Kinnear was the 'football person' he thought of. This is the criminally stupid act. It also plausible that is some Machiavellian play in response to the 8 year contract that he didnt want Pardew to get. I doubt that. He's appointed Kinnear because he doesnt have the self-awareness to realise that the thought process came from his arse and Kinnear has failed to bring anyone in as the bloke is a total moron.

I dont know, within that there is the implicit view that is common amongst Americans that making lots of money somehow translates to some underlying value in the character. I dont agree, i've met people who earn hundreds of millions who are thick as fucking pigshit and total arseholes. Mid-west, mid-size business owners who make money from selling some shit widget in some shit process that for some reason has made their fortune. Its entirely plausible that Ashley is both 1) not that clever and 2) a total fucking arsehole who thinks because he has money that the thought process he just had must be a good one. Its entirely plausible that when pissed, Joe talks a good enough game to convince Ashley that he can do a job for him and that Ashley is stupid enough to believe it. its further plausible there was a bit of cash to spend (certainly seemed like it) but that the ineptitude of the total arseholes in charge meant they failed in their task.

If everyone knew the squad was strong enough to finish top 10 at the start of the summer, why appoint a Director of Football?

Edward and Tubbs are going to get you Odin.

"We are delighted to have brought Joe Kinnear to the club in this window and we believe he will form an exciting and effective partnership with Alan Pardew. "Mike has worked hard on numerous targets, particularly an additional offensive cunt. However some of the options that were available within our financial means were not as good as the offensive wankers we already had and there is no point bringing in new arseholes unless they can improve us and take us forward. "We did the majority of our business in the January window, signing five excellent first team players. Despite that, i still thought fuck it and got Joe in. "With the strong squad we have we should all approach the season in a positive, optimistic frame of mind. Your sincerely Alan Mike"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e8j3-TuzCs

I quite like it, surprisingly good melody to fit with the lyrics.

Shut Up And Play The Hits is on Film 4 on Friday night. Not seen it before but can't wait for it. I had tickets for the last tour in Paris but my best mate was playing at Ministry of Sound so decided to go there instead. Incorrect decision in retrospect.

I think this discussion is really cathartic.

The bottom line is that there was money available for spending and he is going to keep it to pay himself back. However, that doesn't mean that all of the club's decisions have been made to the detriment of the football team. We have some very good players, spend about the 8th highest amount on wages and have a very valuable squad. The squad value is important and represents the willingness to not sell Cabaye for 12m and bring in Barry on loan (or whoever). We could still have made a profit on Cabaye and spent 10m this summer. We'd have been much higher up SSN's 'Spending league' (ffs) but more than likely have gone backwards. The strategy is indefensible in the broader context of the last 10 to 15 years and the potential of the club. We could be so much better than we are and i understand the frustration everyone has with that. Given the good baseline i've just talked about, an extra couple of million for Gomis and we'd be looking far stronger.

Best figures i could find at short notice on wage bills. Teams like Wolves, Blackburn, Wigan, Bolton were prem teams for the period when the last accounts were available are now not relevant. Norwich £37m Swansea £35m West Brom £50m Southampton 52% of around £33m (2 sources) Newcastle £64m. Yes other clubs have risen since then but so have we, we'll be close to £70m now. Same as Everton, Villa, Sunderland. A case in point for the Pardew haters being he should get more out of that relative advantage.

I felt absolutely no frustration or anger yesterday, its been like this for ages. When people start saying, i bet the club says "they brought forward the summer spending from January" i wonder what is going on in their heads. The club did say that. Thats what happened. If we could get high value from a deal for Gomis at 30% under his market rate, we might buy him because he would, at his age, just about hold some value. The club is the least ambitious in the premier league on one statistic, the amount spent in the transfer window. There are 2 other metrics of ambition which we are certainly not at the bottom for. The first is simply wages. The second is current market value of players, since this represents the past investments and the foregone transfer fees. We arent bottom on that either.

Now you're calling me a plank? First a keef and now a plank? I've never been so offended! Whats a keef btw?

Which we may sign in January given thats what we have done for the last 2 seasons. I was ridiculed when i said we might sign a striker in January 2 years ago and was trying to be positive. Everyone was slagging off Ba and saying we looked shit. We signed Cisse and came 5th You never know in life.