ChezGiven

Not all but yes. However, thats great for the club, loads of money in at the float and then fuck all out in dividends as the price of the share is so low.

The market would not pay £138m for the club so it wont happen. Private buyers were offering or talking about £80m and thats with the premium of outright ownership.

Commentator last night called him 'raw'. When his co-commentator got excited about this word i thought the conversation was going to take an awkward direction. Am going to say the lesson of watching Carroll develop from being fairly ineffective into a dominant centre-forward should give some pause for thought. The rapid development of Carroll as a player was not about suddenly gaining more control of the ball, his body or improved technique as a player. It was (presumably) based on his innate ability translating into performances through time on the pitch, scoring goals and gaining the ultimate state for a football player, confidence. When you watch Ranger's movement and then how he holds on to the ball, his awkwardness is probably due to his confidence. If he gets a run in the side and a goal or two then lets see what happens. Lets face it, what other hope do we have now?

A 50p shaped one to fit his heed? Pardew on the blower to a specialist tomorrow for a hexagonal helmet and an orthopaedic shoe for Ranger.

Well, at least we looked fresh after 7 days full board in the Algarve.

I bet you 2 new defibrillators for North Tyneside General we see him play there before he retires.

I didn't think things could get any worse.

Aye, that's the reason Not helping at least. Both teams defended well in the first. Did you have a point?

We all reap what we sow.

De Jong hospitlasing another player. Knocked Richards out

Wind and rain making it a shit game. Harper had a to head a ball he thought was coming into his box just before.

Spotted this on .com. Slight discrepancy between the two bits in bold iyam. Fucking toilet paper innit, he's literally not arsed what kind of shit comes out of his mouth. It's actually quite intriguing to watch someone who is as far detached from any form of accountability as he is just because of how bizarre it is. Ok, im having a thick day judging by the "brains" of the board understanding this and not me. Isnt the first bold bit stating that we didnt need the fee and the second bold bit saying we wernt going to fuck up the clubs wage structure for one player??????? Be gentle. That's my interpretation of it. The transfer request is the key to this whole saga. While i dont like or trust Dekka. A transfer request in writing is pretty clear - he wanted to talk to Liverpool. Him handing that request in was massive (and gutting) news for me but seemed to be brushed off by a lot of people as insignificant. I agree with you fwiw.

I thought it was accepted that he had been touted round as available. I know SpivHarry said it and I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere You dont get £35m for a player being touted round for sale. As i have said before, i only say things as i see them but the likelihood of that being true is 0% in my opinion. My understanding of this back in December was that the club had made it clear to other clubs they would only listen to offers over £20m, any less and they werent interested so dont bother knocking. This was the basis of my posts previous and why I said it was a done deal re the discussions at the Spuds game. Thats not touting for sale its merely making your position clear, people are wasting their time trying to bid less but talk our kind of numbers and you may get a deal. And that 'position' being clarified would have been a 'response' to hostile bids for the player. Not the other way round, otherwise no offer would ever get to £20m, they'd all be under that. I disagree, the world doesnt operate on this strict cycle that you're making out. Chairmen talk, owners know each other etc etc there will be conversations over a brandy, chats on the phone about unrelated issues. If I remember correctly thats how Cole ended up at Man U, Ferguson was talking to KK about another player and cheekily said something along the lines of "how much for Andy" where he was told a price that KK felt was too good to turn down. Next thing you know hes gone. Even if it is as a result of a "hostile bid" that doesnt mean the price drops, club A bids £10m and is told you wont listen to offers of under £20m (which I believe happened earlier last month with Spurs didnt it?) that in itself alerts other clubs but you're not touting him. I love my Vectra its only worth a grand but its the car Ive had for years and Im attached to it. You offer me £500 and I'll tell you to shove it, if you bug me to buy and ask what would it take to sell then I'll say £1300. If you then offer me £1500 I'll snap your hand off. Thats not the same as placing an ad in the Autotrader for £1k ono. Well i agree with all that so i think i must have been coming across badly. When the £25m bid came in, i can imagine when refusing the deal that an indication that the price which is too good to turn down would be indicated. My point was that contact is initiated by the buying club and that any form of 'touting' would decimate the player's value.

What a fucking idiot.

Ah - the George Osbourne plan for deficit reduction Good analogy.

Stevies Poll 50 / 50.

Is it not fees to agents that they have to disclose?

Fuck no. I'd happily rip Ashley's arm off and beat him to death with the soggy end for selling Carroll.

What? Is there anyone on here who is happy that he has gone?

Not sure there is much point in second guessing their intentions, they are opportunists and imo didnt see the Carrroll situation coming but have taken advantage of it financially based on a (risky) belief that the objective of this season was survival and we can do that without Carroll. Three more wins and that risk will have paid off at the detriment of a promising position this season. My main concern is that this episode has shown a total lack of focus from Ashley, if the plan was really to get us onto a firm financial footing by 2012, why accelerate it? Stick with the programme. Suggests to me there isnt much of a programme and he is running us off the cuff. Selling Carroll is not consistent with firming up contracts for existing players, bringing in Ben Arfa, having a punt on Ireland, Tiote etc. Too easliy knocked off course to have any faith that there is any sort of plan at all, financial or otherwise.

I thought it was accepted that he had been touted round as available. I know SpivHarry said it and I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere You dont get £35m for a player being touted round for sale. As i have said before, i only say things as i see them but the likelihood of that being true is 0% in my opinion. My understanding of this back in December was that the club had made it clear to other clubs they would only listen to offers over £20m, any less and they werent interested so dont bother knocking. This was the basis of my posts previous and why I said it was a done deal re the discussions at the Spuds game. Thats not touting for sale its merely making your position clear, people are wasting their time trying to bid less but talk our kind of numbers and you may get a deal. And that 'position' being clarified would have been a 'response' to hostile bids for the player. Not the other way round, otherwise no offer would ever get to £20m, they'd all be under that.

I thought it was accepted that he had been touted round as available. I know SpivHarry said it and I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere You dont get £35m for a player being touted round for sale. As i have said before, i only say things as i see them but the likelihood of that being true is 0% in my opinion. You think there is a 0% chance it was known that Carroll was available at the right price? I think there is a 100% chance that you have underestimated the possibilty Sorry i was called away for something whilst posting. There is a 0% chance that Ashley let it be known that Carroll was for sale, the buying clubs arent 'signalled' into the market by information from the seller. This is always a hostile business exchange and the seller gains nothing from it being anything else. If you let it known you want to sell something, the price falls, if you let it known you dont want to sell something, the price rises. Even if the club wanted to sell Carroll this would be the last piece of information it would either share or 'signal' to the market. All players have a price but the idea that a player has a price and the idea of a player being touted round for sale are very very different things. Each bid for Carroll over the window from Spurs or Liverpool were uninvited bids, hostile bids if you like. During that process, the buying club will gain an insight on willingness to sell and at which price. Above a certain price, everything is for sale.

I thought it was accepted that he had been touted round as available. I know SpivHarry said it and I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere You dont get £35m for a player being touted round for sale. As i have said before, i only say things as i see them but the likelihood of that being true is 0% in my opinion.

Its doubtful whether we would have got £35m for Carroll if we actually planned to sell him. As soon as you search the markets, the agent inform each other and then offers for Carroll would be lower knowing you are prepared to sell. It only the lack of 'preparedness' from a willingness and planning perspective that drives the price so high. Bit of catch 22 in a way as there is no way of planning for his departure without signalling a weakness in negotiation to the market.

I dont know how we were losing that much when the wage bill dropped by as much as the fall off in TV money in the championship. I know we lost out on other revenues but not to the tune of £20m. I'm no Gemmill but when i looked at the finances the last time, i thought we would have had bit of cash to spend this year. Maybe thats where the £5m for Ben Arfa came in though. However, the Carroll money should mean a revenue of over £100m this year. Lets keep that figure top of mind.