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Salah, Cabella, De Jong

With these three we cannot go wrong

But wait, here comes Joe

To fuck up the show

He's bought Carlton Cole for a song!

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Another angle on all this.5 months off a World Cup it could be a big risk for Cabaye to join a new team, settle in etc etc.Regardless as it's all immaterial now Joe has said no ones leaving.

Not like he has a track record for talking cobblers is it? :lol:

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Dear me :lol:

 

Sorry for sounding positive being in 8th seven points of a CL spot with a couple of winnable games to come and a really doable March.

 

As for optimism being ill founded, you're welcome to your view. I think the transformation over the last few years is there for all to see every Saturday.

 

Surely if we continue with the transfer policy of the last few years, we will only keep improving?

 

Whether that's good enough to sneak a CL spot is a different matter but given an Arab taking over it seems the best way forward to me.

 

Ashley has learned a lot of lessons which he deserves credit for. Last January we were coming off the back of an atrocious set of results staring at the relegation places with very little that looked like turning it around. Ashley sanctioned a further £10m+ of spending on top of re-investing the £7m we got for Ba. We saw an immediate upturn in performances and results and scraped to safety. That's in stark contrast to the year we were relegated when he took a hammer to the squad and was more interested in a £20m quick buck from the sales of Milner, Nzogbia and Given.

 

There is a glass ceiling hampering our rise that there has to be a desire to break through though, if improvements are to continue. We've been in this position once before (11/12) and were given cause for optimism in the January by the signing of Cisse which suggested we might be willing to start investing the higher sums required to galvanise a squad chasing Europe, however the following summer was poor and exemplified the height of ambition within the club.

 

That's been reiterated this season with our lack of summer investment, our lack of interest in the cups, and our constant complaints about what a hindrance it is to do well enough to get into Europe.

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Ashley has learned a lot of lessons which he deserves credit for.  Last January we were coming off the back of an atrocious set of results staring at the relegation places with very little that looked like turning it around.  Ashley sanctioned a further £10m+ of spending on top of re-investing the £7m we got for Ba.  We saw an immediate upturn in performances and results and scraped to safety.  That's in stark contrast to the year we were relegated when he took a hammer to the squad and was more interested in a £20m quick buck from the sales of Milner, Nzogbia and Given.

 

There is a glass ceiling hampering our rise that there has to be a desire to break through though, if improvements are to continue. We've been in this position once before (11/12) and were given cause for optimism in the January by the signing of Cisse which suggested we might be willing to start investing the higher sums required to galvanise a squad chasing Europe, however the following summer was poor and exemplified the height of ambition within the club.

 

That's been reiterated this season with our lack of summer investment, our lack of interest in the cups, and our constant complaints about what a hindrance it is to well enough to get into Europe.

Hold on, we got Remy in the summer. Shouldn't matter to me or you how it was financed. We thought we'd signed him in a January only for the player to do the dirty. At least Ashley didn't let that stand in the way of bringing him in.

 

It's also not Ashleys fault that Cisse has gone wrong or Ben Arfa for that matter. They are two players who on form should be starting every game.

 

You would like to think that if they were on form we would possibly be already occupying a CL spot this season.

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Everyone complains about how we don't want to be in the Europa league but should be pushing for a champions league spot, do people really believe Ashley will be willing to splash some cash to actually compete in that competition?

 

Because he will certainly have to.

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It is a hindrance for any club trying to compete in the premiership with an annual revenue of 80 to 100m.

 

I'd argue we need 5 to 7 more high quality players to compete effectively in Europe and domestic cups.

 

Lets say all on 50k a week, that 350k additional weekly spend on wages alone (+ costs). Thats an additional 18m. If you agree that a healthy wages to turnover ratio is around 60% then you need an extra 30m in revenue to carry those extra players required to cope with the addtional games.

 

Our wage bill is around 60m and our revenue is around 90m. The clubs competing in Europe all have wage bills in excess of 100m. Clubs like Swansea with 65% ratio and low income will struggle. As you can see from their current flirtation with the relegation places.

 

I am really enjoying whats happening to Swansea this season, not got anything against them but its lovely to see so many people proven wrong about Pardew this season on all fronts.

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I am really enjoying whats happening to Swansea this season, not got anything against them but its lovely to see so many people proven wrong about Pardew this season on all fronts.

 

Me too. Lad on NO paid out our bet this week - He gave me 4-1 that Swansea would not finish 5 points behind us.

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I think regards the Europa league - it's interesting to see what it takes to overcome the fixture congestion - look at Spurs i.e they have more midfielders than any other club on earth and their squad is huge.

 

For last season the 'injury excuse' didn't wash with most fans, especially on twitter & you get to the end of the season and see that we lost twice as many days to injury as any other club. As much as Pardew didn't perform there were a lot of contributing factors and to ignore them is borderline retarded,

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Hold on, we got Remy in the summer. Shouldn't matter to me or you how it was financed. We thought we'd signed him in a January only for the player to do the dirty. At least Ashley didn't let that stand in the way of bringing him in.

 

It's also not Ashleys fault that Cisse has gone wrong or Ben Arfa for that matter. They are two players who on form should be starting every game.

 

You would like to think that if they were on form we would possibly be already occupying a CL spot this season.

 

So you are saying Ashley should expect to be occupying a CL spot on a seasonal spend of £0?

 

That's a reasonable level for us to be optimistic of advancing further?

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So you are saying Ashley should expect to be occupying a CL spot on a seasonal spend of £0?

 

That's a reasonable level for us to be optimistic of advancing further?

 

Im pretty clear what Im saying :lol: I'll repeat it though.

 

"If Ben Arfa and Cisse were on top form this season and starting every game you would like to think that we may be doing even better than we are and therefore already in a CL spot.

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Im pretty clear what Im saying :lol: I'll repeat it though.

 

"If Ben Arfa and Cisse were on top form this season and starting every game you would like to think that we may be doing even better than we are and therefore already in a CL spot.

 

If my auntie had a cock she'd be my uncle.

 

Is that the saying?

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The priority for the club imo has got to be a proper striker (centre forward) whatever else the term is nowadays we all know over the years NUFC have been renowned for having a top goalscorer from Milburn, MacDonald, Cole, Ferdinand, Shearer, Carroll and many more. Now which ever way it happens either this window or the summer this seasons top 2 goalscorers for the club are going to be away. So far this season Remy's scored 11 goals Cabaye's scored 7 (Gouffran's got 6) this is particularly worrying when you consider our total goals so far 28. With Remy & Cabaye out of the picture were are the goals going to come from ? We can't rely on Cisse who seems to have forgotten how to score so we are potentially left with Gouffrans goals the odd Ben Arfur wonder goal and an occasional Tiote thunderstrike thats why the priorty should be a proper striker .

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The priority for the club imo has got to be a proper striker (centre forward) whatever else the term is nowadays we all know over the years NUFC have been renowned for having a top goalscorer from Milburn, MacDonald, Cole, Ferdinand, Shearer, Carroll and many more. Now which ever way it happens either this window or the summer this seasons top 2 goalscorers for the club are going to be away. So far this season Remy's scored 11 goals Cabaye's scored 7 (Gouffran's got 6) this is particularly worrying when you consider our total goals so far 28. With Remy & Cabaye out of the picture were are the goals going to come from ? We can't rely on Cisse who seems to have forgotten how to score so we are potentially left with Gouffrans goals the odd Ben Arfur wonder goal and an occasional Tiote thunderstrike thats why the priorty should be a proper striker .

Journal saying we want de Jong in for Norwich game.

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Im pretty clear what Im saying :lol: I'll repeat it though.

 

"If Ben Arfa and Cisse were on top form this season and starting every game you would like to think that we may be doing even better than we are and therefore already in a CL spot.

 

Thing is, if we'd signed someone permanently we may well have turned away draws into away wins and home losses into draws or whatever.

 

It's fine to say that it's down to 2 players not finding the same form they've enjoyed previously, but when those two players were/are inconsistent at the best of times it's shortsighted to pin your hopes that their form will carry you forward beyond mid-table and into the European spots. Unless that isn't your ambition, and, in fact your ambition is to finish between 5th and 10th. It can be inferred that is the limit of Mike Ashley's ambition for this season by the lack of investment.

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Thing is, if we'd signed someone permanently we may well have turned away draws into away wins and home losses into draws or whatever.

 

It's fine to say that it's down to 2 players not finding the same form they've enjoyed previously, but when those two players were/are inconsistent at the best of times it's shortsighted to pin your hopes that their form will carry you forward beyond mid-table and into the European spots. Unless that isn't your ambition, and, in fact your ambition is to finish between 5th and 10th. It can be inferred that is the limit of Mike Ashley's ambition for this season by the lack of investment.

 

 

Of course theres lots of scenarios that may make things better. Im just pointing out one. Being a couple of wins away from a CL spot towards the end of January highlights we are doing quite well.

 

Im not sure what difference "permanently" makes however. Cant see what difference we'd be seeing in Remy whether he was permanent or on loan?

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Of course theres lots of scenarios that may make things better. Im just pointing out one. Being a couple of wins away from a CL spot towards the end of January highlights we are doing quite well.

 

Im not sure what difference "permanently" makes however. Cant see what difference we'd be seeing in Remy whether he was permanent or on loan?

 

It was included for clarity. If we're being ambitious, it behoves us to buy players for the future, rather than just short term loans.

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