OTF

Some people don't seem to realise that when it comes down to it, modern football is just a money game for the big players. It doesn't matter what crest is stitched onto the shirt just who has the most money to throw at bringing players in. Look at Chelsea, look at Man City, look at Barcelona (look at Real Madrid for how to throw money innefectively) it's all about money. If you spend it in large enough volumes you'll win titles, or at the very least move your team to the upper echelons of the table. It's nice to romanticize it, but like it or not in the end money is all it largely comes down to. Ambition doesn't bring you money, money allows you to realise ambition. Ambition on it's own is nothing. Money is the key. If you can afford to throw away a couple of hundred million to raise the immediate profile of the club then in a few years you MAY be turning some minor form of profit as a result of additional money coming in from the likes of Champions League etc. If you're not effective in the spending of the money, there's no getting it back. With the number of financial juggernauts in the English game it's impossible in the short term to compete without being completely financially irresponsible. Without having squillions of your own money even if you wanted to do it as a rich but not mega-rich owner you probably couldn't as a result of the GFC.

I'd agree with that. So far the ambition has not been shown. Certainly not prior to the relegation. Whether any is shown in this off-season remains to be seen. I think we'll see a moderate amount in the interest of Ashley protecting his financial interests in the club. Further than that is impossible to predict but based on what we've seen it's unlikely that we'll ever see true ambition from Ashley.

FC Twente who are top have exactly the same record, 15 wins, 1 draw, 0 defeats, not as many scored mind you. What Twente have that Ajax don't is clearly an English manager who speaks English with a fantastically caricatured Dutch accent.

As I have said already in this thread. Hughton is saying the right thing and standing by his signing. But he knows deep down that he is being forced to sign players and run the club in a sub standard fashion because his boss has zero ambition and therefore he is having to adopt lower standards that he ought to be doing I have no doubt that to some extent that is correct. in fact it is completely and totally correct, and I'm sorry to piss on your chips at the moment, but I'm afraid that as in other occasions in the past when we have been promoted, I fear that all the optimism will be short lived and it will all become fairly obvious that the limit of ambition for one of the biggest clubs in the country is to compete at the levels of clubs such as Bolton and Wigan. Which is of course what a lot of people wanted when we were throwing away money and qualifying for the Champions League and had the 14th biggest turnover in world football. It's not pissing on my chips, I get where you're coming from but unlike you I'm trying to be as realistic as possible about potential outcomes for the next couple of seasons. I think you will admit that if we want to immediately challenge for Europe it would need a massive investment of funds into the club. We're talking easily in excess of 100 million pounds. The whole squad would need to be gutted, and the majority of our current first team players would be required as backups to cover for injuries and suspensions. It would be a equally large gamble to go and do something like that, because even if we bought in players that were capable of doing it, there's absolutely no guarantee that they would complement each other and immediately gel on the field. That sort of buy-in would only have us competing with the likes of Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham. To take it to the next level we'd need to double our spend and on top of that we would honestly have to pay gargantuan wages as it would require a snow-ball effect of players signing for the really decent players to stand up and take notice and even consider signing for us. I want what you want, but turnover is one thing, having to build a European quality team more or less from scratch is another altogether. It absolutely has to be done over a period of years unless you have owners who don't care about writing off a couple of hundred million pounds.

As I have said already in this thread. Hughton is saying the right thing and standing by his signing. But he knows deep down that he is being forced to sign players and run the club in a sub standard fashion because his boss has zero ambition and therefore he is having to adopt lower standards that he ought to be doing I have no doubt that to some extent that is correct. On the whole though you'd be hard pressed to find many managers who don't have constraints on them that they would love to break. The thing with Hughton though, is that he may be at his best when under tight constraints. Some managers don't have the ability to spend large amounts of money wisely. At this stage of his managerial career I have little doubt that Hughton would not be the right man to make the most of a large transfer budget. The more I think about it, the more I believe that the right thing to do this season is spend a relatively modest amount of money (say 25 million in the off-season) to complement and strengthen the existing squad. In January look to strengthen in the areas where we are looking most weak. The real movement should come in the following window, where we'll better be able to gauge the standard of players required to push up the table. What we need now is a balance of stability and evolution so that we can take the small amount of momentum gathered from winning the Championship and use it to our advantage next season.

To do anything other than give him praise would be stupid on every level. I don't think it was necessarily a panic buy, more-so it was a bit of an insurance policy in case we suffered a string of injuries to players up front.

Probably shouldn't say this, but I thought it. Compare the wage bill and there's like;y to be an ever bigger gap

I was going to say the same thing, except I would have spelt it correctly uneducated pommie twat

So are you a foreigner OzToonFan? I say that with tongue in cheek as I think I can safely say that people who are born, or from, an English speaking country and have British ancestry, are not usually labelled 'foreigners' the way foreign speaking people from a foreign land are. Bred and Born in Australia. Depends whether you consider that foreign. In terms of ancestry I'm 50% Hungarian (Hungarian born mother). My father was born in Australia but has ancestory on his fathers side that goes back to England and on his mothers side there's an interesting mix of Spanish and Scottish ancestory AFAIK. Foreigner might not have been the correct term to use. Maybe out-of-towner.

He's certainly got a point to prove at that age with so many clubs behind him. He'll do his all to impress but won't be afforded the same amount of time on the ball/space that he gets at the minute. He'll have an impact but I think we should be looking to bring in at least one additional wide player (preferably someone who can play down either flank) to provide some competition and a different option to Jonas and Routledge.

From what Maradonna has said in the past I think there's both every and no chance that they'll be part of the first 11. Every chance for Jonas and no chance for Coloccini. Jonas may not be one of the 11 best Argentinian players but he's a grafter who gets up and down the pitch for them, and actually links up quite well with his team mates. A good team requires that sort of balance.

rubbish. Nowt wrong with the question. Apart from the fact that Gillespie has more or less just about played out his competitive career and Wayne Routledge is more than 10 years his junior, you're right. aye, so Routledge is also better than Bobby Mitchell Daft shite. LeazesMag Play Book #1 If you're not winning an argument quickly make up something that the person you're arguing with has never, and will never say to make it look like they're wrong. #2 If #1 fails, play the race/foreigner card. #3 If #2 fails or the person is not foreign, insinuate that they're more interested in balancing the books than seeing the team do well on the pitch. Contrary to what you might think I don't have a problem with you, but when I see a silly comparison being made I'm going to call it out. At any length I have to marvel at how and why you bothered to post to post something insinuating that my point was something that it so obviously wasn't. In case you seriously didn't understand (and I'm starting to have my doubts) I was pointing out that this thread is ridiculous and offers no value, apart from my current entertainment at you creating an argument for what can be nothing more than the mere sake of it (or perhaps because I'm a foreigner?).

I'd be happy with two quality players and 3 or so decent players as cover/competition.

rubbish. Nowt wrong with the question. Apart from the fact that Gillespie has more or less just about played out his competitive career and Wayne Routledge is more than 10 years his junior, you're right.

Doesn't matter in the slightest. Otherwise you could setup a target in front of Llambias then claim innocence when the bullets you fired go straight through the target and into Derek. /ridiculous parallel drawn between football and murder

Blue would be better than gold. On the design fron thtough I think the more simple it is, the better it is. As soon as you start introducing different coloured sleeves, wavy lines and the like it dates very quickly. Simple is stylish and timeless.

Quite amazing that Milner wasn't badly injured by that. Clearly a straight red and 3-match ban. Fucking Terry is a cheating arsehole who amazingly STILL cops an easy ride from referees.

...as if we needed any more proof that you're living in the past.

As a winger he's not that quick, but down the middle he tends to be one of the quicker players. He of course is full of running so is always getting up and down the pitch helping out in attack as well as shielding the defense.

Despite having already won promotion, that wasn't enough to dent the driving force of the Newcastle team. Carroll sealled the win in the 36 minute. But while the crowd were cheering, it was a hollow victory—for somewhere, Steven Taylor had his jaw wired and was having to drink his bovril through a straw ... ...the hollow nature of the victory further enforced by a growing tide of disapproving glances afforded Chris Hughton, who critically lost the respect of journalists when he failed to inflame a situation which would have sold papers country wide...

Disappointing that Kadar is injured.

Jonas was dribbling, and the ball took a deflection off his boot taking it past the keeper?

.co.uk says Enrique is out with a bug, Kadar starting at left fullback.

I expect him to spend at most 10 million net in the summer. That is a marginbal improvement on his efforts in the past. Even though he's made similar mistakes before I think he'll try to survive on the cheap and will use Derek as a mouthpiece to blame the shifting economy of football as to why they couldn't 'responsibly' spend any more money. Will probably bring up Portsmouth as well. If it's not going well I fancy he'll pony up a minor amount of cash to spend in the January window, and may consider sacking Hughton.

Largely agree with this. It is very reactive, so you can't predict what will happen in 2 years let alone 5. A whole lot of changes can happen outside out influence (eg. Man City being bought) that may have a direct impact upon our team. One of the keys to ongoing performance is stability at the club. Hopefully we can continue to establish that across this season whilst bringing in a number of new players who will supplement the existing team in some areas, and replace the existing side in others. Over a number years this could see the overall side change dramatically without having instability. This is what's required. Ultimately we should be a higher performing version of Everton. Their recruitment has been excellent, and in a few years time we should be in a position where we can comfortably outspend them. If we have some direction and the money is spent properly in a few years time we should be capable of challenging for Europe. First steps first, lets strengthen in the area where we are most weak, then reassess in January.