Happy Face

Hope Pardew isn't thinking of tinkering.

AGAIN!!!

Fucking Cardiff. Useless. Who doesn't take 3 points at Olde Trafford?

No. And don't call the ref Shirley.

Source? http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=49949

Not sure if it includes Cabaye

christ man

looking like one of them bastard nights this.

To be fair I think pulling in 5 times what we paid for the bloke when he was pure class from day 1 is pretty good going. Arsenal's refusal to go that high tells you we got the French premium from PSG wanting a homegrown player. Probably the one club in the world who would have been willing to pay what they have for him.

According to the recent Delloitte figures turnover in 12/13 was £91.8m. That's down on the year before (£93.3m) despite a europa campaign because of our lower finish in the league. In the 11/12 accounts Ashley could afford to pull £11m out AND spend £11m (net) on transfers suggesting that under the previous TV deal we had about £20m a year to play with given our turnover/outgoings. That ties in with an £11m spend last year as well. Given the new TV deal in place this year we should have at least double that to play with in 13/14... ..and now with £20m from Cabaye our war chest should be sitting at £60m.

Only had half a season left on his contract and waived his signing on fee to force the move so they say.

Will we really spend the money on a top midfielder? The way I see it we still have Sissoko, Anita, Tiote, Gouffran and Ben Arfa who I don't mind starting, but we still have Mike Wiliamson and Shola starting a daft number of games for such limited ability. Won't (shouldn't?) the money be spent up top and at the back?

The point is we'll still be looking for players better than Danny Guthrie, not for anyone better than Cabaye. We've gone from a club that was using sales to improve the team to a club that gets dwindling returns from selling to fund our bargain hunting.

We've been successful at reinvesting over the last couple of years because you can unearth hidden gems for under £10m that are better than Danny Simpson, Danny Guthrie or James Perch. Trying to replace Yohan Cabaye or Demba Ba at that budget is much more difficult.

We did have less possession (40%)...but that's because we missed Cabaye. In the same period we played Man U, Man City, Arsenal and Swansea who are no slouches at keeping the ball and when we had it we passed it more.

Aye, best ignore the 7 goals.

So we should sit in silent contemplation of what's been lost, rather than post about it?

In the last 10 games our short passes per game have dropped below 300 in one game, the average being 398. Southampton (285), which Cabaye sat out. We average almost 50 less short passes per game in the 3 games he's missed than in the 19 games he's played. HOOF!!!

Cabaye was already at a Champions league club. He'd just won the league/cup double when we bought him.

My first post on my "Mike Ashley Lies" blog in a few years. http://nufc-ashlies.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/i-will-not-let-any-player-leave.html It started off as an explanation of why anger might have dissipated over a couple of years but disillusionment has returned after 2 windows without a buy...then we sold Cabaye while it was unfinished and it lost any direction and turned into an emo moan.

Aye. Ashley has reduced our turnover so we're unable to compete and wipe our own nose. He has to invest in a squad that will compete to lift turnover to a level that matches other clubs of our size...to a level it was at before he arrived.

5 year contract would have cost £20m in total. Is that insane? Southampton almost spent that on Osvaldo before wages. It's obscene, but it's the norm, even for smaller clubs than Newcastle.