Baggio

Reims midfielder Romain Amalfitano says reports claiming he has already agreed a summer switch to Newcastle are wide of the mark. The Magpies have been strongly linked with a move for the highly-rated 22-year-old. They are not the only club to have expressed an interest, though, and the battle to secure his signature is expected to intensify as the summer transfer window draws ever closer. Amalfitano will drop into the free agent pool at the end of the season, making him even more of an attractive proposition to interested parties. Dream He admits he would welcome the opportunity to try his luck in England, but has made it clear that no deal to take him to St James' Park has been put in place. "I am a Reims player and I will be out of contract at the end of the season," said Amalfitano. "I want to finish this season strongly. "Newcastle are a fantastic club and to play for them would be a dream come true, but nothing is done as yet. Let's wait and see what happens."

I don't think Barton was up to much anyway but it is an area we need to upgrade, I think he only managed 2 assists after Carroll left which isn't much for someone that takes the set plays.

Who knows? At the same time who could have predicted we would improve so much this time last year if we had got rid of Barton, Nolan and Enrique? I don't see the point in people worrying about players leaving, especially after some thought Tiote would go in January.

Let's agree that our expectations are different then. Why are yours different? Surely progress is judged on how much better you are with your manager and transfers on how much better off you are compared to last season? I know that's how are squad strengthening and manager change will be judged.

You're using it to say how ahead of yourself you are compared to last season, as I said while it's nice to win it it's not really something you judge the quality of your progress on. Like I said 58 points and a 6th place finish is what you should be judging your progress against and considering the money spent along with no Hodgson you should be bettering that by quite a bit, well that's what I'd expect anyway.

We're already ahead of ourselves and you (atm) by qualifying for Europe, and with a piece of silverware. Without wanting to talk down winning silverware considering we don't win any, but it's only the carling cup and it was won by Birmingham last year so it's not really a sign of how great a team is at the moment. The progress under Dalglish should be judged against last seasons league form, you finished 6th on 58 points despite having an awful manager in Hodgson for a good portion of it or so your fans think, it will be interesting to see how much better off you finish with the money spent.

I've been reading their thread on the finances on villatalk and I must admit I'm enjoying reading their suffering.

Villa have just announced a loss of £53.9 million for last year.

Don't see how the money spent will show anything by the end of the season, nothing that means anything anyway. It's not as if we had a squad of similar strength before this season and your superior dealings will see you pull away, I think it's guaranteed that the gap between us will be closer at the end of this season than it was last.

Yeah, last I remember of him he told everyone he was on deaths door.

I don't see much different at Liverpool other than a feel good factor from having a manager that the fans like, I don't really see the better football either since they've struggled for goals. They could have done so much more with the money they spent.

Are you nit going to answer the question then Leases? What's the difference between the Enrique and Bernard situations when neither would sign a new contract?

the success of the overall policy, is determined by league positions over time. Mike Ashley has a long, long way to go before you can even start to compare, but who is talking about the old regime here ? I'm talking about the lack of ambition of the current regime, something you won't accept, and you have also forgot about yourself proclaiming non-stop a few years ago how this DOF system would bring automatic success, before it was binned by Redknapp at the Spurs you held up as the perfect example under Ramos and Comolli, and also used it as some sort of proof that the NUFC regime headed by Wise was superior to that managed by Keegan, at the time. So what was different between Enrique refusing to sign a new deal and Bernard doing the same? Although the irony of you complaining about a DOF while in a thread praising the transfer policy of a club that employs a DOF does tickle me.

I thought the signing of Bent is what saved them last season tbh. They were bottom 4 when he signed but he scored 9 in the second half of the season to help them put a run together and finish the season on 48 points. Hopefully it's delayed the inevitable.

Cisse currently has one less league goal than Carroll this season, despite making 20 appearances less.

I don't really dwell on Enrique leaving as he wanted out and refused to negotiate a new deal, the thing is Leazes makes out this is exclusive to Ashley's time at the club but that isn't the case. I can remember Ollie Bernard refusing to negotiate a new deal and insisting he hadn't seen the contract, it was all bullshit of course but he wanted out and was prepared to run down his contract to get the move away he wanted and I think we ended up accepting an offer from Southampton in the Janaury for them to keep him until his contract ran out in the summer just to get some money for him. Bernard was every bit as important to the team back then as Enrique was last season, but then if players are determined to leave there really isn't much you can do about it. I won't mention the quality of the replacement for either player as that's not really important, the important thing is we made a net spend on replacing Bernard and not on Enrique, so we obviously showed more ambition with the replacement.

Without meaning to turn this into a 20 page debate but I don't remember Shepherd splashing big wages on any new signing before 2004, he done it trying to dig himself out of the hole made by employing Souness and it was hardly a success. Now why didn't he need to do it under Robson?

I'm not in a rush to see us play 4-3-3 again just to accommodate him, especially after his performances against Brighton and Blackburn in that formation.

Completely fed up of the Ben Arfa situation now, how he's treated by some of our fans reminds me of how the media were treating Joe Cole going in to the last World cup like he was the saviour being left out that would change our fortunes when he gets in, that is until he gets on and does fuck all and then slowly the penny starts to drop that he isn't the saviour after all. Like I said in the other thread, his whole play yesterday was picking the ball up, cut inside, shoot, rinse, repeat. That's not to say Obertan or Ryan Taylor are the long term answer either and a right midfielder should definitely be on the shopping list this summer. I can see HBA going to Turkey or Russia in the summer.

English European Competition Qualification 2011/12 1st Champions League Group Stage (currently Manchester City) 2nd Champions League Group Stage (currently Manchester United) 3rd Champions League Group Stage (currently Tottenham) 4th Champions League Third (Final) Qualifying Round (currently Arsenal) 5th Europa League Third (Final) Qualifying Round (currently Chelsea) League Cup Winners - Europa League Qualifying - Liverpool FA Cup Winners - Europa League Qualifying. If winners achieve Qualification via League Position the runners-up will take their place in Europa League. If both have achieved qualification via League Position the slot goes to the highest placed team not qualified by other means. How can NUFC get in to Europe? Champions League: NUFC Finish in the top 4. Unlikely. Europa League: NUFC Finish 5th NUFC win FA Cup NUFC reach FA Cup Final but lose to Champions League Qualified Team NUFC Finish 6th with Liverpool winning the League Cup and finishing 5th NUFC Finish 6th with two teams contesting the FA Cup Final who have already qualified for Europe (CL place or Europa Lge via League or League Cup) NUFC Finish 7th with two teams contesting the FA Cup Final who have already qualified for Europe (CL place or Europa Lge via League) AND Liverpool win the League Cup whilst finishing in a position that would afford them European Qualification.

Played 26 Points 43 One point gained but I came away feeling like we had lost, we shouldn't be throwing 2-0 leads away against anyone and if it becomes a regular thing the calls for him to be sacked won't just be confined to another forum. Nice to see Ben Arfa get some playing time even if it was predictable - pick the ball up, cut inside, shoot, rinse, repeat. Santon is really starting to look the part btw, I'd still stick him at right back long term as despite being a right footed left back isn't a problem in general (see Irwin and Pearce) it's not as balanced for us as we've got Jonas ahead of him who prefers to cut back in on his right too, which means we're not taking full advantage of the space. Good to see Sunderland battered before their visit here, roll on next weekend...

If we win we could be 4th by tomorrow evening, 5th if Chelsea beat Bolton. Chelsea vs Bolton West Brom vs Sunderland Arsenal vs Spurs (Sunday) Unfortunately we need Liverpool to win the Carling cup too if we want 7th to remain open.

Good Work I'm still lost. Is it better for our european hopes to finish 7th behind Liverpool than 6th ahead of them No, but there is a risk that we could come 6th and not qualify with Liverpool coming 7th and they qualify by winning the Carling cup. That depends on the finalists of the FA cup.

2-0. Ba with both.

You should change the title to the summer transfer thread, CT. There's always gossip about us in the transfer market and your exclusive will be the first post.