OTF

Dekka says our wages will be up by 7% on last season. That's with: Carroll out, Nolan out, Enrique out, Barton out, Routledge out. Ba in, Cabaye in, Santon in, Marveaux in, Obertan in. I've only read the first answer and already I'm wading through the brown stuff.

Pardew 'earmarking' the Not Forest game on Sept 20 for his return probably means we won't see him on the pitch until October.

It's not a bad set of questions. Of course the answers are going to be extremely carefully crafted to be ambiguous, non-committal and ultimately useless.

Arsenal 1 Swansea 0 Everton 1 Aston Villa 1 Man City 3 Wigan 0 Stoke 0 Liverpool 2 Sunderland 0 Chelsea 3 Wolverhampton 0 Tottenham 1 Bolton 0 Man United 1 Norwich 0 West Brom 0 Fulham 1 Blackburn 0 QPR 1 Newcastle 2

BTW that goal against Nigeria showcased absolute pants defending. Woeful stuff. Not that Messi did anything wrong, but he didn't have to do anything particularly good to breeze by them. It's interesting to consider the differences in football in Spain and England. To say that Barcelona and real Madrid would sweep the floor with the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City is overstating it a lot. Surely they are a much better technical team, who play much more attractive football. Over a period of time there's little doubt that they would have a better record when playing those sides, but I don't think it would be that clear-cut. On top opf that I honestly believe that an upper mid-table English side would be on par or ahead of a similarly placed Spanish side, and then a lower-mid table English side would be ahead of the same in Spain. If that's not the case then English football has a lot to answer for as I'm sure the wages would be significantly higher in the English sides. I guess the only semi-answers we will get will come from champions league meetings. Spurs got spanked away and were a little unlucky to lose at home to real Madrid last year (Gomez.Howler). Messi took a crap Arsenal to school at home, but they only managed a draw at Arsenal.

Would be interesting to see him in the Premier League. I'd say for sure he'd spend more time out injured than he does now. There's plenty of cack defenders in England but I'd say there's definitely a more gradual decline in the quality of teams unlike Spain where there is a huge gulf.

With the two-speed economy of football currently where certain teams can 'afford' to spend vastly in excess of others either because of their massive international profile or their mega-rich ownership we should at worst be able to operate at the lowest risk end of the second tier teams. Lowest risk because our turnover affords us the ability to effectively minimise the risk of relegation by having a higher budget assigned to the actual team than many of the other teams in the division. Even when running this low risk model it would take a minor catastrophe - like the Keegan affair - to see Newcastle relegated. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the turnover and facilities should enable the club to achieve more than all but the 5 or 6 teams who have higher turnovers themselves (Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham). That should be possible with minimal risk, with some of the rewards being higher finish on the table (more prize money), greater attendances at home matches (more matchday revenue) and increased sale of merchandise. All of the former should result in increased corporate revenue and will aid in the maintenance and advancement of the Newcastle United profile on a wider scale.

You don't fill those long pockets by having enough reach to give

BTW it's over 200 quid now from Toontastic.

On the money quite literally here. A great cause is benefiting from what has been an interesting, at times funny, at times over the top incident.

I always thought. It was end of. As in end of story?

Are they guaranteeing now that we won't win anything for the next ten years (promotion from a lower league obviously exempted).

We've gone from being Barnum and Bailey to some cheap and nasty low-rent circus that hauls its way into small towns on the back of a couple of old trucks and struggles to attract any attention. It hasn't really improved since our promotion, the damage was done and precious little has been done to even mildly reduce it. In the Championship at least we were the big fish in a small pond. Now we're just another bottom feeder in the ocean. The media scarcely care about Newcastle any more and that's testament to the decline in the profile on the national and international scale, where at the same time it's the increase in this profile for other clubs that have helped them to push on.

Up to £160 from Toontastic. For quick reference:

This should be an interesting match and frankly it can't come soon enough. Waiting until Monday is a little annoying. Hopefully we see an improvement from Tiote and a solid debut for Santon.

Would you say that the profile of the club has improved or declined since Ashley took control?

Pardew will not leave while he is still getting results on the pitch. If the results don't come then the pressure will mount, but of anyone it's likely to be Ashley that pulls the pin on it. Despite the 5 year contract I would imagine that there would only be a nominal payout figure in the case of a sacking as Pardew was not negotiating from a position of power. In terms of his work as a manager, he's been neither spectacular nor miserable. The experienced players in the side saw things through last season, and this season despite poor performances the results have been coming. Across a full season it will be telling. I'm sure he had hoped that additional players were signed, and was probably told that they would be, but at the end of the day he knows he's manager in name only so will continue to do the best he can under the circumstances. I'm yet to be convinced that his best will be good enough.

You're a very excitable chap. He looks quick and skillful, could be a handy RM Not so handy if it means Raylor plays at left back, though if we get a few free-kicks close from direct angles then it could become handy again.

For the record I think any thought of relegation are a knee jerk reaction. Of course anything is possible, but it would take exceptional circumstances - like in 08-09 for us to be relegated. In some ways it's lucky that we've managed to keep some quality in the squad, or else at the level we're operating in the market of late relegation could have been a very real consideration.

That's an important distinction to make. We've picked up 7 points, but have been far from convincing in doing so. Largely benefiting from poor opposition who have been unable to take advantage of their large periods of dominance over us. It's a minor miracle that noone has scored from exploiting Ryan Taylor's lack of defensive pedigree for one, but also that we've managed to score 3 goal ourselves. Our forward play has been woeful, and should have highlighted the urgency in bringing in quality up front. But we're not a club who purchase based off our own on-field requirements, instead we're one who purchases based on the likelihood of a profit being made balanced against the smallest transfer fee possible and the lowest wages required. As much as we joke about it Carlton Cole was never in danger of being signed by Newcastle because under this model we couldn't afford his wages, wouldn't pay West Ham what they want and couldn't expect any sort of resale value. I've only been in one of Ashley's shops once - Lillywhites at Piccadilly Circus in London in 2005, but from my experience there it seems apparent that he's applying the same model of operation to Newcastle United. Whatever he could buy for cheap was for sale there (and 'on sale' too), but if you went in there looking for a specific item you'd not be able to get it because he buys only what he can get for cheap and turnover for a profit. Likewise because they weren't able to find any fitting candidates for this criteria to play upfront they didn't break with their model to buy one.

I'm just clutching at straws as it were. Perhaps, perhaps not. I wouldn’t put the past the club to decide to repaint the lettering but not tell anyone so they can sit back and laugh at us getting wound up when the name of the club starts dissapearing. The letters won't paint themselves. With the rising costs of paint and labour to apply said paint, it's plain to see that the 35M is going to improving the club.

Im not sure what your actual point is tbh. The post you highlighted was me replying to Alex saying I wasnt going to get into a flap over what might or might not happen in the transfer window, back in may. I am pleased with most of the signings we have made, disappointed we havent got a striker and would be as happy as anyone else if Ashley had spent the whole 35 million and a little bit more. You expected an improved squad.

The 300K is easily offset by the reduction in wages, so in terms of outgoings, with the 35M from the Carroll sale not being touched we've significantly reduced our expenditures. Sports Direct model in full effect.

Time for you to Dzeko up the £50 to charity.