Happy Face

It's all well and good saying woop de do about the £7m spent on Cisse (potentially rising to £9m). But Leazes is bang on to wonder about the rest. As far as my memory serves (I may be wrong, so please correct me if so), for the year up to yesterday we had more cash flow in to the club from transfers than than EVERY other club apart from Liverpool. We might be above them in the league after tonight and we have stadium to hold 10,000 more than them. Their owner isn't 8 times wealthier than ours, like Chelsea, or 22 times wealthier, like Man City. their owner doesn't even have twice the money ours does, so pretty comparable. There's nothing to say that they have significantly more financial clout than us. They took their £50m from Torres, £12m from Meireles, £4m from Ngog etc and gave it back to the manager to invest with plenty of extra money on top. However wisely that money was spent, their manager can have no complaints if their squad comes up short this season. Of the £43m from Carroll, Enrique & Nolan we've spent about half of it and have a manager desperately low on quality particularly at the back. This was an understandable precaution at the start of the season, but here we are in February well safe, still in 7th, With every chance of being 5th tonight, within 1 win of 4th. The window we've just had isn't one that fills me with confidence of capitilising on that. And this window of opportunity doesn't come often. If the lack of investment sees our poor run of form continue, and we end up mid-table, it makes us a much less attractive prospect than we could have been in the summer. Players like Coloccini would be much more inclined to put pen to paper with a club that finished 5th and have European football coming, than one that finishes 9th and looks like it has no desire to improve on that.

Brilliant. Cheers lads.

Cheers DG, sounds like the informed contribution I need. I wasn't fussed on San Francisco itself (why do I want to see a Bridge and a Jail?), but I think the trip will be the best part rather than the destination.

The flow chart gets it right again.

Why did it not happen in January? No idea. Next financial year/fair play?

Was reading that Abramovich has now spent a billion at Chelsea. For 3 league titles and 3 FA cups. And none of it sustainable long term. Lucky to get a point at Swansea, and touch and go whether they'll get into the champions league this year. Wonder what he'd get from any investor looking to buy a club. Half that?

Aren't we picking up most of his wages? Yeah. They're paying £2500 a week for 26 weeks = £65k Effectively saving us 1 weeks wages on the bloke

LM's contribution to this board is more than arguing about the board of directors and people lose sight of that. Respect your elders. As much as I don't respect anyone just for having been alive longer than me, I do like Leazes, whatever his views are or how frequently he repeats them. He's a character and the board is better for having him, whatever the ignorers and frustrated arguers say. Hope he takes the OP in the good humour it was intended. He tends to agree with me more than he does most others so I assume he knows it's just gentle coat tugging. Can't believe you're the one suggesting it's beyond the pale though, the stick you give some people.

Yours wouldn't be as big tbh. Stevie disagrees with a post? | | v "Mug!" hahaha what about if I agree No-one is repetitive as Leazes, so it's difficult. If it was me you agreed with though, the stock response would be "For a ginger mackem that's not a bad point".

We effectively sold Alan Smith...and saved £65k on his wages. Selling club

Yours wouldn't be as big tbh. Stevie disagrees with a post? | | v "Mug!"

Thanks Both. Added them to the itinerary. Hoping to have some time in Vegas and Monument Valley, so Bryce Canyon would only be a small detour. Think I've probably got rose tinted specs about what we can fit into 21 days like. I'm looking at every place of interest between Seattle and Roswell so as we get closer I'll probably have to drop some of the more ambitious destinations.

We go into this with awful away form. The second worst overall (lost 4 out of 6), the worst defence (16 in 6), The worst GD (-7). And that doesn't include the Brighton loss. Against a resurgent Blackburn with just one defeat in 5. At least Yakubu's still out. I'll be happy with a draw.

people would be complaining if we'd paid over the odds for Mariappa though which we wisely refused to do. Colocinni getting a new contract now is a must in the next month or so, Ba and Cisse back in the side will be a big boost, can see the system of late staying the same with them replacing Best and Shola respectively but the increase in quality of those two positions will be immense and will have an effect on the rest of the team Colo isnt signing a new deal, if he wanted to stay he'd have signed by now. He's aiming for the same as Enrique, but may be sold before his contract is allowed to run down completely. Ba scored 2 belters v Norwich and it still wasnt enough because we were shite at the back. Simpson was beaten all ends up by a divi 2 journeyman on Saturday which led to their winner. Santon looked awful v both Fulham and Brighton. I realise it's not as bad as I've painted it, but it's yet another roll of the dice by Ashley when we should be in a posistion of strength and be seen as a good option for any half decent young player as I'm sure Mariappa is thinking as we speak. Don't know if he'd have been any good or not but we've been left short in a vital posistion and there is really no need for it. With our position and points it's not a gamble at all to leave the defence alone. There's no difference between 7th and 17th in the big picture. Though I do agree with your disappointment. Thankfully we didn't cash in on anyone, whether this is by choice or not is open to further question. The money changing hands in the Premier League this window was 70% down on last year, there was nothing happening. Had offers come in to tempt our owner for Coloccini, Tiote, Ba, Krul etc. then we still don't know what he would have done. I'm happy those offers never materialised and we kept our best players. Going on past experience I can't imagine we'd have put up much of a fight beyond haggling the price if offers did come in though. This window does nothing to calm my nerves on that score for the summer. Unforunately, since Taylor was injured only Wolves and Wigan have conceded more than us and we've had no help from the boardroom to stop that. We really needed to add some quality there if we're going to maintain our position and push Arsenal & Liverpool to the season end. Happy to have a new number 9, but scoring hasn't been a problem really, only Man U, Man City, Spurs & Blackburn scored more than us in the same period.

Including the champions league qualification? Awesome!

Could do with Everton getting pegged back here like, them and the Mackems making a push towards us.

93rd minute OG equaliser for Chelsea. Bastards

2 pens for Man U at Old Trafford and Scholes booked. Nothing strange there.

Spending the night in the car doesn't ring true to me. I have my front door key on my car keys, but even if she doesn't, the weather would put me off and I'd brick a window if I had to. It was a mild night as far as the end of November goes, but there were gale force 8 winds.

Difficult one, cos one of his favourites is "you'll never learn". He had more faith in you young padawan.

Lordy. Wouldn't be happy with that like.

Lazio paid 6m euros and he got them 1 goal in 17. Any reports on what QPR have paid?

Helicopter hovering over our office for ages. Couldn't see who was inside.

What's Sol Campbell up to?

Think there's been a blurring between the OP and the youth league as the thread's progressed. Like I said to CT, the OP means littkle to us for the future, because we could go and pull 40 kids off the street, name them in our squad and never give them a game. Nice as it is for FIFA to promote an investment in youth from top flight clubs, it says nowt about their quality. We're flying in our group of the youth league, which is great, but as I say, the opposition aren't exactly the creme of the creme in group D. Without seeing the games, I would expect our kids to be better than Barnsley. If we've been tearing them all apart and looking like Brazil, that's another matter.