OTF

If Butt is offered any kind of playing contract extension or otherwise for next season I honestly think I will throw up, or have a heart attack. The rage is building just thinking about it - I can almost see the .co.uk article already with Hughton talking about how his experience will be vital etc etc.

Guthrie as fourth choice ..bit ambitious there? Realistically I'd be happy for Guthrie to start alongside a new central midfield partner. Not exactly sure who that should be, but someone in the 8M+ price range (Like a Fellaini - not tha player himself but someone like that should be a realistic target) and not someone who is available at a cut price because they're coming off contract (ie. are shit or are arseholes) their club wants to sell them (ie. are shit) is a free-agent (ie. are shit and probably old). 30 million is a reasonable figure and I think would go a long way towards giving us a good chance of survival. I'd prefer to see that amount spent on three or four very good players than on half a dozen good players. In terms of expenditure I'd like to see the most spent on a central midfielder (a player similar to Carrick would be good, especially if like Carrick he was a local ). The next largest amount of money should be spent on a forward - for all the great many that we have none really stand out as first choice week in week out Premier League players. Then I'd like money spent on a versatile defensive player, who can play in midfield or defense. After that I'm splitting hairs as to where money should be spent. Certainly on bringing in players better than what we have. Realistically we have a number of players already that could perform a job at Premier League level - Enrique, S. Taylor, Coloccini*, Harper, Gutierrez should all be sufficient for a club in the mid to lower part of the Premier League. Simpson, Williamson, Routledge, Lovenkrands, Smith, Carroll, Ranger, Shola, Ryan Taylor, Kadar could all be handy players that will do a job, and in some cases may develop (or return) into something better. Not sure about Best. In terms of players to 'sell' I don't think we really have anyone that we can afford to sell in that we won't be able to replace them for less than what we get for them. Butt being off the books will help. Smith and Barton I suppose are two whom we could do without. Smith had a good start to the season for us, but has seemingly gone off the boil now. I'm not discounting his ability to be a valuable team member for next season. Certainly away from home a player of his tenacity could be very useful. * - I'm going to make a big assumption here that he was badly out of form and not in a good place mentally for the entire second half of last season.

Not going to happen. Ireland is a funny type of player though. I don't think he'd have much appeal at all outside of England. He's been a round for a while and has always been a decent player, has either come into his own over the last couple of seasons or is in a patch of good form. Though in this time as well I've seen him try to play too pretty (back heels etc etc). Would be overvalued in the English market IMO, undervalued outside it. Even if we were interested we'd have to pay over the top to get him here and it quite frankly would not be worth it.

Lovenkrands again! 5 zip.

Loven it!

Pipe down son. I said apparently, can't read? Not my fault. You're a cunt, apparently. Can confirm.

Inman is apparently quite good as well. Name pops up on the score sheets quite frequently (Like Vukic when he was fit). A couple of goal scoring midfielders coming through the ranks would be nice.

I hope for the lady's sake that she was paid handsomely.

I wouldn't go along with that. I think Ashley genuinely wanted to make a go of it until he fucked up big style with Keegan and (rightly or wrongly) the fans reacted as we did. He spent over £5m on six players, and every one of them was before THAT window... £6mBarton £5.8m Smith £6.3mEnrique £0m ended up being £5.2m Gutierrez (not his choice to spend that much like) Up to £10.3mColoccini £5.7mXisco Only 2 of the 7 players sold for over £5m came prior to THAT window... Parker Dyer Milner N'zogbia Given Martins Bassong A clear switch in approach imo. That is true, thought it seems like so long ago. Back in those days the moves had some semblance of ambition (though Xisco really was a completely daft signing). With the exception of Enrique and Gutierrez (though many would argue on that point) we unfortunately got slammed on all of those deals - though hindsight really is a wonderful thing. Shay Given is missing from your list of players over £5m (£5.9m rising). The £5m is also just an arbitrary figure. It doesn't take into account that in that time two of our highest paid players (in Owen and Viduka) have left without being replaced. N'Zogbia (£6m + R.Taylor), Milner (£12m), Duff (£4m), Martins (£9m) Bassong (£8m) and Given (£5.9m) weren't replaced (though a replacement for Given wasn't really needed). Emre (£3m), Rozehnal (£2.9m), Faye (£2.25) were all also sold more or less without replacements.

Opportune striker who can poke or prod the ball home. Similar to Chopra but with a more hefty arse. I don't think he will do that well at Middlesbrough, particularly with the loss of Johnson. I'd like to be proved wrong though because ultimately Australia is very weak up front at the moment and we need as many forwards in form as possible (mind you when he has played for Australia he's been pretty poor, partly due to being misused by our manager).

Agree that it would be good to see Guthrie played in his preferred position for a while. We'd finally be able to sort out whether or not he's any good. Smith was poor in the last match, but I think he may have been smarting after the horrible challenge from Wellens early on. Didn't have the same fire that we've seen from him most times out, hopefully he'll bring that back this week. It could have been the fact that him and Butt were trying to play the same role out there (neither doing it well). I like the look of cock's formation, though I'm non-plussed on the striking options. Part of me says I'd like to see Lovenkrands out there, as out of all the strikers he seems to make the most intelligent runs off the ball where-as Shola and Carroll both seem to want the ball to come to them. Not too sure about Ranger just yet. Nolan is definitely due to be dropped, though I think Hughton will be thinking he's due to score and so won't want to drop him. Playing him will be a mistake, playing him anywhere except up front will be a painfully dull, boring, and slow mistake. I think Hughton will keep him there in lieu of a second striker and as a result I can see him forming a triangle out of Smith, Butt and Nolan (Collectively they have the pace of a lame guinnea pig, the talent of Peter Ramage and the attackmindedness of the Italian Director of Defense).

The key to it all of course is the investment into the squad. Thus far with Ashley, excluding the initial purchase of Coloccini and Jonas we've seen nothing in the way of ambition with purchases. They've all (including the aforementioned two with the benefit of hindsight) come across as amateur or opportunistic deals struck by pretend businessmen. Someone else mentioned it - all of the players who the manager and chairman would proclaim as our first and primary targets who are just what we need are players who are available (or not available if you don't pay enough) on the cheap. They've got lucky with Williamson in that Portsmouth are in a diabolical situation, could have also got lucky with Moses from Palace (though they're both far from proven). If two thirds of the money from recent outgoing sales were spent (and in theory there's no reason that they shouldn't be) I firmly believe we could have a squad that (withstanding horrendous injury troubles) could safely restabalise in the Premierleague, forming a foundation for gradual improvement over the next several seasons, culminating in Newcastle being back in the Top Half of the Premier League (by then who knows what financial malarky will have taken place at Liverpool and Manchester United!). Sadly though I think the cretins in charge will greatly misunderestimate the investment required and as a result we'll spend another dreadfully depressing season trying to escape the clutches of relegation, desperately hoping that there's at least three teams that are worse than us.

Better than I was expecting, that's for sure, but still nothing to get too excited about. The real transfer window will come at the end of the season. If we gain promotion I think we'll be completely underwhelmed with what happens. If we don't we'll be disgusted.

Our wide variety of average strikers/forwards would be passable if we actually had a decent midfield. As it is they're nigh on useless.

I was just thinking of all the players who we have sold or let go of in the past 18 months. It's quite a large list featuring predominantly high earning underachievers. Certainly we've lost some players of talent, there's no denying that, but overall the wage bill has been vastly reduced and a significant amount of capital has been generated from numerous players sales. The likes of Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Damien Duff, Obafemi Martins, Geremi, Nicky Butt, Shay Given, James Milner, Charles N'Zogbia will all have departed (or will before we kick a ball next season). In their place we have added Danny Simpson, Ryan Taylor, Kevin Nolan, Wayne Routledge and Mike Williamson. With the possible exception of Kevin Nolan they'd all be on wages much much less than those departing. The amount of money generated from the sale of the above players (with the addition of the money from Bassong) is a significant amount. So much so that we'd all be ecstatic if 2/3 of it was reinvested into the quad in the off-season (IF we earn promotion). If that amount of money was invested in bringing in new players in my opinion we'd be in a better position than we were when we kicked off season 2008/09. We'd have a lower wage bill, with a squad potentially of similar ability. Financially it has benn a cleanout that had been a long time coming (not entirely finished of course with the likes of Barton hanging about).

No more 'signings' in the window and then an emergency loan signing there after (assuming this is still possible).

Yep, West Brom have been the better side in 3 out of 3 matches against us this season.

Xisco!

If Moses saw any of our game today he'd be thanking his lucky stars he wasn't headed here.

<puts hand up>

19 year old one month loanee was clearly our best player. Worrying indeed. Came closest to scoring, put in the best cross of the game and saved what would otherwise have been a goal for Leicester. Other than that Hughton has had a shocker. I can only assume that Jonas was there for no reason other than to fill a bench seat. He would have been the perfect player for this match and no doubt would have linked up nicely with van Aanholt down the left hand channel. As it was Guthrie was yet again forced to play out of position but this time on his much less favoured left hand side WTF Chris? Nicky Butt and Alan Smith in central midfield - what a creative duo that was WTF Chris? Together they couldn;t seem to muster the average contribution you'd expect from a central midfielder. Hughton should have removed one or both of them MUCH MUCH earlier in the match - ie. as soon as they were down to 10 men. Another depressing watch. Put some players into the team who can fucking pass a ball Chris, and then some players who like to run into space. We've now got the players in our side, so use them properly. Lumping the ball forward to Carroll does very little except turn over possession and frustrate the supporters. Stop our players from doing it all the time. Having some players with a little urgency on the ball may go a way towards doing that. Onto the good things - Williamson was solid, the previously mentioned van Aanholt was good, and Routledge looks like he's added some pace and ability on the ball (as well as some good off the ball runs). So our three new players were the best of a very poor bunch.

Needs a rest to rivitalise.

Don't know about quality, but better than expected. It's not good in the championship having a myriad of mediocre striking options. It'd be horrible having it in the Premier League.

The biggest concern I have is that he picks players based on their status/stature within the side, and not on their merits as players and what additional dimensions they would bring to the side. His substitutions sometimes seem to target certain players as though he doesn't want to upset more senior players. It would be harsh to get rid of him that's for sure, but if the right manager was available it may be a consideration. Conversely you might say that he's improving as a manager all along and now that he has done well in the Championship he should be better equipped to face the Premier League. For me though, the key influencing factor is that he previously proclaimed that he did not want to be a manager. If he didn't have that ambition in the first place he's likely to not be a great fit in that position. I'd like a manager who commands the changing room (but maybe not one who throws shoes at our best players) and whose blood boils when players give away the ball unneccesarily.

Unrelated, but Obafemi wasted Nigeria's best chance again Ghana today. Same frustrating player (mind you Nigeria's play was pretty awful - even still they created lots of half chances). It was a very ugly, boring game.