OTF

Pointless thread until the transfer window is over. We've already got more than enough with transfer speculation within...

Saying what he feels and he's got a right to do so. Just as Ashley and co. have a right to sell who they please as they have done here. The Nolan sale came out of the blue, he is a friend and was an integral part of the team.

If we only offered 5M then we surely will be offering less now after he had a less impressive season and has already in effect been replaced. Spending under 5 should in theory leave plenty for a higher calibre striker partner.

Depends on the price as to whether we should be interested. With his replacement already there the scent of a bargain is no doubt in the nostrils of Ashley.

Not in any way getting my hopes up, but it would be fan-fucking-toontastic news if he stayed. That to me would signal true intent.

Only picking up on one of the obvious and monumental errors in this 'article', but there's no basis for the argument that being relegated was good for the club financially or otherwise. At best you can suggest that the relegation was a catalyst for some financial decisions with long term benefits, though the fact is that just as many players (if not more) could have been sold if we weren't relegated. In addition it's likely that they could have been sold for higher fees for the following reasons: (1) We would have been in a much stronger position to negotiate if we weren't relegated. (2) They won't have been buying players who weren't good enough to keep the team up. So we could have sold exactly the same players without doing damage to the reputation of the club through being relegated. Plus of course the small matter of the £40 odd million of television money that was forfeited and the dramatic decline in corporate revenue that would have occurred. If the 'finances at Newcastle are immeasurably better than they were then' despite the relegation then just think how fucking fantastic they could have been had the owner not completely fucked everything up and contributed heavily to a relegation that likely had a cost approaching £50M. How exactly is that a good thing?

A spend of +£43Mill is hardly frugal, they support it by buying low and selling high and by making profits. That's the point though isn't it. If they've apparently spent less than us over the period in which you would normally assemble a side then why is the value of their side so vastly in excess of ours?

Some would say the last two were exceptionally good. Last summer brought us Tiote and Ben Arfa while most agreed the January business was very shrewd leaving us in this strong position to rebuild that we are now in.

Here's an interesting comparison looking at how much was paid for existing members of the team. GK Newcastle Steve Harper - Free Tim Krul - 200K Fraser Forster - Academy Total: £0.2M Arsenal Manuel Almunia - £1.5M (transfermarket.co.uk reckon 4M + ) Lukasz Fabianski - £3.8M Szczesny - Free (as good as) Total: £5.3M Defense Newcastle Fabricio Coloccini - £10.3 Jose Enrique - £6.3 Mike Williamson - 960K Danny Simpson - 750K James Perch - £1M Ryan Taylor - Free Steven Taylor - Free Total - £19.31M Arsenal Bacary Sagna - £7.9M Thomas Vermaelen - £8.8M Laurent Koscielny - £11M Sebastian Squillaci - £5.7M Johan Djourou - Free Gael Clichy - 330K Kieran Gibbs - Free Total - £33.73M Midfield Newcastle Kevin Nolan - £4M Joey Barton - £5.8M Danny Guthrie - £2.5M Dan Gosling - Free Alan Smith - £6M Jonas Gutierrez - £5M (compensation) Cheik Tiote - £3.5M Kazenga Lualua - Free Haris Vuckic - 100K Hatem Ben Arfa - £7M (£2M loan + £5M signing) Yohan Cabaye - £4.3 Total: £38.2M Arsenal Abou Diaby - £2M Cesc Fabregas - £2.5M Tomas Rosicky - £8M Samir Nasri - £14M Denilson - £4M Aaron Ramsey - £5M Alex Song - £3M Jack Wilshere - Free Andrei Arshavin - £14.5M Emmanuel Eboue - £1.9M Total: £54.9M Forwards Newcastle Peter Lovenkrands - Free Xisco - £5.7M Leon Best - £1M Shola Ameobi - Free Nile Ranger - Free Phil Airey - Free Total: £6.7M Arsenal Robin van Persie - £3M Carlos Vela - 550K (some dispute) Theo Walcott - £10M + Marouane Chamakh - Free Nicklas Bendtnar - 200K Total: £13.75 Newcastle Total Squad Purchase Price: £64,410,000 Arsenal Total Squad Purchase Price: £107,680,000 So, despite Arsenal's squad being very frugally assembled they still spent in excess of £43M more than Newcastle did. I'm not even saying that there should be a comparison between the two, but the author of the original article drew the comparison so it's free to be commented on.

Was curious as it only takes into account players bought and not those sold. If you include players sold I suspect Arsenal would have a greater spend over the same period.

Happy Face what are the above figures from? - And what spendings do they take into account?

I'd have my doubts as to him being on 90k. I was more comparing an English player with a history at the club to a fully developed foreign player. It's hard to tell now though as most players are mercenaries who will go anywhere for the highest value - or if they actually want to stay will pull a Rooney to up their wages. The role of agents also can't be underplayed. If he's on that much then Liverpool are stupid. He won't have been on a huge wedge at Sunderland so once they agreed a fee there's no real reason they would have had to probably more than triple his wage to get him to agree personal terms.

Obviously the hope with signing young English players is that they get 8-10 years of solid service (or more). Their wages initially won't be excessive as they're still in their formative years. They'll find it easy to settle and are at the ages where they'll become more set in their ways and will start families etc. Foreign players will cost less but they're less likely to come at young ages and you generally won't get anywhere near as long out of them. You'll need to pay higher wages to bring them from their home countries and there's no guarantee that they'll adapt to English life let alone the Premier League. So if you pay for two foreign players plus the increased wages over the same period as a single young English player then there's an argument that it's a wise investment. The other side of this story is that they could burn out or fail to live up to their potential and then that's a lot of money thrown out the window. That's where you need to rely on a solid scouting network. I haven't seen much of this kid, but from what I have it seems an excessive fee even taking into account the above.

It's tough giving a single player an incentive bonus based on something that can only be achieved by an entire team with management included. For all it's worth Nolan could sign an incentive rich extension and then the club turn around and go on a selling spree. I'm completely of the opinion that nothing needs to be done with Nolan's contract at the minute. Wait until January next year to see how he's traveling with any new signings also given a chance to make their mark on the team. If Nolan still has the same impact and positive effect on the team next season then offer him a citing extension of max 2 years with potentially an option for a third pending appearances. Noone can talk to Nolan without the clubs consent until this time next year. It's common sense and there should be nothing to these stories at all - that is unless the club is angling to sell now. If that was the case it would make little sense.

Ba's signing will be prototypical of our recent transfer movements. Why pay 12M when you can hoy someone over for nothing? Always on the lookout for bargains is obviously a good thing, but it should be coupled with moving for players that we absolutely want.

BTW there's no chance he's on 65K.

Still got a ginormous forehead though I hear that's in fashion

For the price they apparently want for N'Zogbia to go to a Premier League side good luck to them!

Way too early to make the call on Kadar. Has looked quite decent when he has played, though the injuries are definitely cause for concern.

12m - they're trying it on. He's got a year to run on his contract and they've got absolutely no hope of keeping him thereafter. He's not the sort of player you'd like to be relying on to keep you from relegation.

...and besides princess tree loves the attention in any way shape or form.

Because we'll get another Barton/Enrique scenario, that's why we're offering him one now. Enrique's an entirely different proposition. Barton's 29 in 3 months and has been a continual problem for the club be it through injuries, suspensions or off-field dramas. Nolan's 29 later this month, and although he's been valuable for us since relegation his biggest weakness is his lack of movement which is not going to get better as he gets older. He's got 2 years left to run meaning that he'll be pushing 31 when his contract is up. Jose Enrique is 25 has had no off-field problems, has been great on field and has had relatively few injury problems. His value in the market will be going up and he'll be on the radar of numerous clubs.

I don't think Nolan would be on huge wages TBH. He came from Bolton who won't have been paying huge wages and he came after the reality of owning Newcastle had set in with Ashley. We were towards the bottom of the table and relegation was a likely possibility, so in addition there will have been relegation clauses in the contract that lowered his wage in the Championship. Was only really bought after Barton suffered an injury.

Norway this is happening.

Should have better vision and awareness at that age. Plus he's a clumsy bugger. Who knows how good he will potentially be when he properly grows into his body, though I can't see him ever having the vision and footballing intelligence to be a player of note.