PaddockLad

Question for Brock and Baggio (or anyone else) how many players do you think we'll lose this summer?....you can give a champions league answer and a Europa league answer.... Ill go 3 if its europa league, Tiote, Demba and Krul, and 1 if its champs league i.e. Tiote. That's the ones theyre willing to sell, am not ruling out offers being accepted for Cabaye, Ben Arfa and Cisse etc...

Don't agree with the last bit, and as I said there are examples of where incentives for foreign investment have worked very well in this country. There just isn't the will to do it because governments now leave things completely to the market. China hadn't opened its doors in 81 or 91 when Nissan opened and now its the most efficient car plant un Europe. China has had an huge effect for a decade no doubt, but the 25 years before that were a massive missed oppurtunity in this country.

Am in the Lower Bullens tomorrow...think its got to be the oldest stand in the league which I quite like. It was designed by the celebrated Archibald Leitch who left his distinctive stamp (latticework barriers along the front of each tier, think the old stand at Villa Park) on dozens of stands, of which sadly only parts of 3 survive, the main stand at Ibrox, part of Fratton Park and this 1927 bulit stand at Goodison. The view admittedly is shite, but you will be standing in a rare piece of football history. Can't think of many occasions when any team with nowt to play for has just laid down on the final day regardless of what was at stake for the opposistion. But if we start well and get an early goal I think we'll win this by a couple of goals.

Thats the point though....do you think if Cabaye and Tiote both leave we'll do it next season?...am sure you hope so (and so do I) but as luckyluke says its easier said then done.

Yeah its very sad Ajax who've won the European Cup 4 times now very rarely feature in even the group stages. The other side of that though is Lyon in France who for me are what we are trying to replecate here at NUFC...and how they acheived a decade of great runs in the champions league using very similar policies to what we've had in the last 18 months are all detailed in the book Leazes was on about the other day. When they sold Essien to Chelsea they had Thiago to replace him at the club already. We're not at that stage yet but as long as we dont throw the baby out with the bathwater this summer and do it organically as Spurs have also done then I think we'll be going places. Good point about getting the income for chamions league runs in player sales instead but theres no real glory in every season being "transistional" for me.

Spot on there like, but as Dekka has said "we now wipe our own mouth" financially. That means all costs on the playing side have to be generated by the club and that comes cheifly from players sales. We dont borrow any money nowadays, but fees paid for incoming players and wages paid to them are almost entirely down to getting huge fees for the current sqaud. Thats where we are and we've had a fantastic season, but as you say long term it will be interesting to see where it gets us.

It is cheaper you're right. But what is the value to the British economy (and indeed to British people) of keeping a large manufacturing base in this country? When the last yards on the Wear closed in the early 90s to be fair to the Tories the disaster was softened by the deal to bring Nissan to Washington. There were one or two other things like this, like Toyota in Derby, which is the only major city in the UK where the local authority isn't the biggest local employer and thats because of Rolls Royce, Bombadier (although thats a different story now because of the sheer short sightedness of the present government, the minister who gave the contract for the Crossrail trains to Siemens admitted he hadnt taken into considration the cost of job losses to feeder companies and the subsequent huge benefit payments required to be paid to those laid off instead of tax incomes paid in to the exchequer by the same people) and Toyota themselves. All good businesses,and all with labour intensive manufacturing plants at their core. This is what can be acheived if you make even a small effort to create jobs and keep the exisiting businesses vialble. But in general the jobs created to replace those lost in our industrial heartlands in the last 30 years have been on a tiny scale to what was required to maintain those communities as decent places to live and bring families up. No government of any hue in that time has given even the tiniest shit while giving bullshitting lip service to "expanding the industrial base, exports etc",and then continuing to complain about mounting welfare costs. A fuckin ludicrous situation. The horse has bolted long ago on that one though, there are estates now where hardly anyone has worked in around 3 decades and they are hideous places to live. Tragic. You appear to support this "common sense" approach to business i.e. cheapest is best, but what is the long term cost to society in general? If the Tories had gone for broke and given even more support to foreign companies in the early 80s instead of leaving everything to the market it may have cost the country a bit of money and be against their core values, but we may all live in a better place today.

Just listened to a snippet on 5live to be honest, I'll see if I can listen to a podcast of it or something. But as I say he did the same with Tiote earlier in the season. Long term selling 3 or 4 of our better players will be good for the club, I do understand that. But if things don't go our way tomorrow it will be very difficult to maintain a top 5/6 posistion if players leave for champions league football and we have to rebuild with at least 8 extra games next before Christmas alone. Even if we try to hang on to most of those we receive offers for the unrest caused by holding on to unhappy players priced out of a move to a manu or Real Madrid can be damaging too. Basically a huge amount riding on tomorrows game/s.

Just heard Pardew on the radio making it pretty obvious he knows who will be making offers for his players this summer. Manu were linked with Cabaye in January and Chelsea with Tiote nearly all season it seems and Pardew "prepared" us for that possibility as well. We need champs league football to hang on to half the side next season in all probability. If Pardew can do as well next season as he's done this season he'll be manager of the fuckin decade.....well done on this season Alan, its been brilliant

They are if you're posting in this thread though...its what the thread is about

Completly agree, Alex Turner is the best songwriter this country has produced since the 80s. Better than Gallagher, Albarn/Coxon, Betty Boo etc etc....

The only facts in this thread are that out of everyone who has bought that computer game, the group who say they support Newcastle are the 7th largest out of those who claim to support one of the 92 English clubs. This obviously doesnt count purchasers in England who say they support a foreign team and you can't judge a fanbase on who buys a computer game and who they claim to support on there (see Ant's post for details)

The French and Germans continued to do it....but they may actually have given a fuck about folk who get their hands dirty for a living and not looked down their noses at them. Not to mention the social issues that that policy created in this country which now cost the country billions a year in benenfits and the culture it created.All this is widely derided by gobshites and loudmouths in the media and saloon bars who, like you, think she was mint when actually Thatcher laid the foundations for the fuckin mess we're in.

Good grief....this is a "play game" rather than a football manager type thing?...

It would be interesting to know how this is calculated.....cant see Arsenal having twice the fanbase of Liverpool tbh.

TV has made everyone an expert. Even Paul Merson.

If by some miracle England find themselves in the last 8 come the end of June, do I take it those not bothered or preferring France to do well will be consistant in their attitiude to how England fair overall?

Our house was a happy one till the poll tax was introduced into Scotland....as a household the rates were based on the value of the house we lived in and were easily affordable.....then we went from owing a relative pittance (I forget the exact amount but the old man was a joiner and mum was a part time home help and they could easily afford to pay the rates between them) to owing the best part of £2000 p.a. between 5 of us with me,my brother and sister all basically on YTS wages. And if you didnt pay it was the courts for you. To illustrate how fair this was, the local "laird" is the Duke of Roxburgh, richest man in Scotland and I was paying the same rate of poll tax per annum as him. The present lot are helping their mates out and expecting the rest of us to pay for it too (see the last budget for details) . Thatcher caused untold misery in millilons of homes and cleetoonfan is comparing her actions to Blair wanting all kids in this country to go to University?.......I bet he was despserate to be a bricky when he left school as well....

Well go on then, what else did he say.?...is he being sold/not offered a new deal or is he wanting to leave?

Had mines out a couple of years back.....not pleasant when it starts playing up I can assure you

Biffen's bridge

The what?

Are Simpson and his agent looking at what Colo was offered to stay and taking that as what his offer should be?...hed be a foolish boy if he was comparing himself wage wise with his captain. Cant see Colo going from 50+(?) to less than 40...if he was offered a redueced contract like Nolan and Barton that is....but Simpson isnt worth that sort of money for me. But when you work day to day doing the same job as someone on bigger money than you are then you're not happy weather you work in an office or play football. Fact of life I reckon.

Good game from the Perchmeister on Sunday against a top quality team....playing with so much more confidence. In a way things like that are Pardew's biggest acheivements....so far....

The Simpson thing can also be viewed as a sure sign that they have a replacement for him lined up, and I take it that is more than likely to be Pieters with Santon actually taking the right back spot?.... Also it would appear that someone has offered Simpson more than 25k a week. I wonder if we qualify for the champions league if he'll have a change of heart on signing his contract offer?.... think Dekka would laugh in his agent's face if they tried to pull that shit..