OTF

He was able to hold us to ransom because he left Boro on a free. Almost 4 million pounds over a season is ridiculous, but if we had bought a 4 million pound striker (eg. Harewood) then his wages go on top of the 4 million, and Viduka is miles better than Harewood. Having said that, he's only better if he's playing. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. A pay when you play, with some healthy goal/assist bonuses would be handy. He is keen to go to South Africa, so he'll want to be playing as much football as possible. If we don't resign him on that basis hopefully we can get some value out of him before the season is out. Australia still has a number of qualifiers that he may be keen to participate in, so he'll be working hard to get on the pitch as much as possible for NUFC.

Also reserving judgement on Nolan. Butt is well and truly on the decline, but we could do worse than to have his experience around the club. In all reality I would have him behind Nolan, Barton and Guthrie in the stakes for a centre mid-position if all are fit. The problem with these three players is that they are in many ways quite similar. None of them are particularly good on the ball, and none are particularly impressive passers of the ball. These are two things we've been lacking in our midfield: (i) Ability to hold onto the ball (ii) Ability to create goals through quality passing Hopefully this will improve once we're able to play two players together for a decent length of time. As it is they have not really had the chance to form any sort of partnership.

Correct.

Seems to me they lowered the weekly wage, and stuck the 1 million bonus on there to make up for it. Of course Joe will have done his best to keep us up at whatever length, but this way he would have agreed to a lower weekly wage. Therefore if we do actually go down they will have saved themselves some money, and if we stay up they will have spent slightly more than they would have if they kept him on his original weekly wage. Seems like perfectly acceptable business to me. The fact that Kinnear is our manager in the first place is what we should really be worried about. At any length Kinnear has seemingly slotted perfectly into the NUFC way of life - getting paid immense amounts of cash while sitting out injured/sick.

Broken toe is not the worst news. Should still be able to maintain fitness over this period. I'm hopeful that he sees some first team action for us before the end of the season, so that he can settle in some more. Then a good off-season, and with the strikers departing there should be an important role for him to play next season. The worst thing we can do for his development, and for our investmest would be to continue to let him rot away the way that we have been thus far.

Ask Chuck N'Zogbia about that Not that we can really believe either of them to be honest. As others have said, they're basically putting Joe out there as the 'figurehead' while the important decisions are made behind the scenes.

The fastest way to get rid of Wise would be to give him the managers job.

Apparently some encouraging news out of the Netherlands, Glenn and the scouting team are interested in a curly-haired Dutch Forward/Winger. The only concern at this stage is that he may not be able to adjust to the pace of the premiership. Roeder added "We're just about ready to consider the option of suggesting to the board that they think about maybe tabling an offer for the lad".

Here's the full list: Rank. Club, Revenue (£ million), Country 1. Real Madrid, 289.6, Spain 2. Manchester Utd, 257.1, England 3. Barcelona, 244.4, Spain 4. Bayern Munich, 233.8, Germany 5. Chelsea, 212.9, England 6. Arsenal, 209.3, England 7. Liverpool, 167.0, England 8. AC Milan, 165.8, Italy 9. Roma, 138.9, Italy 10. Inter, 136.9, Italy 11. Juventus, 132.6, Italy 12. Lyon, 123.3, France 13. Schalke 04, 117.5, Germany 14. Tottenham, 114.8, England 15. Hamburg, 101.3, Germany 16. Marseille, 100.4, France 17. Newcastle, 99.4, England 18. Stuttgart, 88.3, Germany 19. Fenerbahçe, 88.1, Turkey 20. Manchester City, 82.3, England England 7 Germany 4 Italy 4 France 2 Spain 2 Turkey 1

http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/105/main...ub-in-the-world Yet more confirmation that we are horribly run. No Aston Villa on the list, yet we're the ones who are trying to be like them. No doubt our stadium and attendances stand us in very good stead. I wonder where we would rank in a list of best Football sides in the world. Scrape into the Top 50 MAYBE.

And he's been sat on the bench for us behind the likes of Duff. Is Colo completely out of the reckoning for Argentina's National Team now?

Was set to come in and say this.

I'm choosing to read the 8 million pounds part as they have 8 million pounds left from this window that they will be spending in the summer in addition to the money that they had already planned to spend then. Yes, I am delusional.

tbh I havent found anywhere yet, I dont want it to be some big charity that wont notice it, will chase it today and dins somewhere. Bushfire Victims in Melbourne, Australia TBH. http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_em...appeal-2009.htm All of the money given will be used, none will go to administrative costs etc. "Red Cross will not deduct any funds from this appeal for administration costs. All funds received will be kept in a Trust Fund set up by the Victorian Government." The death toll is expected to climb over 200 soon, some believe the final toll will be more than 300. Almost 1,000 houses lost.

Noones comparing Ameobi to LuaLua. If they were though, they would have noted that LuaLua is 18 years old, Shola Ameobi is 27. Kazenga LuaLua is a midfield player, Ameobi a striker. LuaLua is yet to get a proper chance in the first team, where-as Ameobi has had several. What I'm assuming most of us are upset about is when we see the likes of Cacapa or Coloccini (or even Butt) deployed in midfield, when the likes of LuaLua seem to be completely overlooked.

Good to hear that Xisco's play had some merit. Agree that I'd like to see LuaLua feature for the first team, he's been consistently performing for the reserves but has never had a real chance to shine in the first team.

...and good to see Xisco scoring as well. With the forwards that we'll have leaving at the end of the season (Owen and Viduka) he could be handy to have next season. Hopefully he can get some more first team experience before the end of the season. haven't written him off yet.

That'll do me, like. Sibierski with pace, relative youth and a full head of hair. If this weekend was anything to go off, we should offer him a 3 year contract. To keep him motivated make it two years with the option for a third. Getting ahead of myself here.

Yeah good game from him and seemed to be running right until he went off.

What do you mean back to?

It's lucky that Kinnear went to hospital, couldn't have done his health any good having to watch that match.

Hope we keep attacking the in second half. Our strength is their defense, so we need to take advantage of that as much as we can. Credit to Ryan Taylor, looks like we finally have someone taking our set pieces who doesn't hit the first man!

Radio isn't wrong, though Alves's finishing should have been better so helped him with the saves.

Damn. Where did you hear that? That's a massive blow.

Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and all that TBH.