TicTacWoe

Probably not, hard to know as I'll never be in such a situation. However, I guess if I knew (and didn't despise) even one of those people I would definitely do it.

Isn't the issue that if he plays 10 games we have to cough up most of the transfer fee that in reality hasn't been fully paid? He's been a victim of circumstance and I wish him well wherever he ends up but I can't see him being here next season. I reckon he'll go back to Deportivo on loan

It is excessive but I still think there'd be no such astonishment if he was a midfielder or striker of similar ability.

He is one of the best full backs in the league, he isn't the finished article yet but he is still very young and already has plenty of experience. If one of the big 4, Man City or Spurs paid that sort of money for one of the best young midfielders or strikers in the league no one would bat an eyelid but people see 17 million as being crazy money for a defender for some reason.

I watch a fair bit of nordic footy as I spend a lot of time in Finland and although he did seem a great prospect a couple of years back he's had some bad injuries and the interest he once had from big clubs had faded so I could see him coming here.

his real name is Llewellyn Curbishley, don't trust him.

I think the point Beresford was making is that its going to take something more than managerial experience or even genius to sort us out. The logic behind Shearer is we can be pretty confident hes not going to fuck us off (us being the fans), hes not going to lie to us and hes not just in it for the money. Im unsure about Shearer as a manager, hes got no real experience and the 8 games Ive seen him take charge of havent exactly set me alight with enthusiasm but at the same time I think any other established manager under Ashley will be played for a fool and realise it quickly thereby leaving us in the same predicament we had last September. Exactly, no one, including Beresford is thinking that Shearer is somehow better than Jose, but I personally don't think that Ferguson, Wenger, Mourlinho etc would be able to wave a magic wand and sort out this mess of a club.

He didn't say that at all. He's just saying that given the dire situation the club is in, that someone who loves the club and is a determined character like Shearer would be most benefitial. Mourinho is building a career in management that could make him one of the all time greats, he's already one of the best, but I don't think he'd have a much better chance of getting us out of this current situation than Shearer tbh. If we had a bit of money or even a half decent team to begin with then yes obviously, Jose would be a better choice. Beresford was a good player and also talks sense most of the time I've heard him speak since retiring.

I think he's on 50k since they removed the release clause.

It's the transfer of one player, I think you're exaggerating things a bit. Who was injured half the season Man U still won at a canter. He was injured for a month or two at the beginning of the season, when Man U wern't doing as well due to his absence. He has scored more goals and had more assists than any Man U player, I honestly can't see how they'll replace that. If you removed Ronaldo from their team over the last two years they would not have won them regardless of replacements.

Not happy to see Enrique or Martins on the list but they probably want out (despite what may have been said about Martins recently wanting to stay), but it does boil my blood to see no Smith on the list. Has done precisely fuck all since joining and is on 40k plus, what reason could we possibly have for keeping him?

Yeah at least Duff won the league and whatnot, picking up an absolute fortune along the way, Jansen was never the same after the accident was he.

Yeah he did for Blackburn the year they went down. Don't get me wrong, he was brilliant back then and at Chelsea the first couple of years, but wingers are usually not much use after 30 as Duff is proving.

What makes you think that?He still has no pace, he still can't cross, take corners or prretty much anything required of a player in his position. It's not as if his crosses which almost always go to the opposition or out of play will be magnetically pulled towards Andy Carrolls head now that we're in the championship.

Neither of the Hunt's are good enough in my opinion. Beggars can't be choosers, especially whilst where in this situation. Stephen Hunt will be a decent signing, his brother isn't worth a mention. If we can get Hunt on a reasonable fee and a 20k contract, I reckon he'd be worth a punt. Noel Hunt is a better player than Stephen...although that's not actually saying very much. Out of interest, how come you let Murty, Hahnemann and Lita go on free transfers (sodje too but he was total crap right?). If we're actually going to be run a a shoestring budget this summer we really should snap up Lita and maybe Murty as well, regardless of the fact we have no manager.

5Live says one of them, possibly the owner has been a fan for forty years btw wasn't fully listening mind you

While that is true, as far as I know his last contract had him on somewhere between 40 and 50k per week, which is less than Duff, Smith, Geremi, Barton, Viduka and Owen take in each week, so it's not as if he's one of the biggest drains and considering most of the top earners will leave it might be ok to have one or two high earners in the squad. As for those saying they're happy he is going, Martins has scored a decent amount of goals considering the dreadful midfield, lack of service etc. He'd run rings around a lot of championship defenders and his loyalty should be applauded if this is true as there would certainly be buyers who would match his wages.

Aye but the club won't see any of the money we get from the sales, it will go straight in Ashley's back pocket. I want to get rid of all the dross too but we need funds to bring replacements in or we're going straight down to League 1. I suppose so, I just think I've reached the end of my teather with all of this already and nothing more seems to phase me regarding the toon. I'd already lost hope of keeping good players or adquatly replacing them.

If it is true, it's not really all that different from what we all figured anyway. The good players would almost ertainly leave one way or another and everyone wants the bad players to leave anyway so in a sense I think this 'whole squad up for sale' stuff sounds worse than it is. I think it's more the general lack of direction, lack of buyers, lack of manager etc that's the real worry.

so simple and so straightforward and correct. Really makes me wonder why so many people have bickered with me here [and on the other site] when I said it. simply being "not as bad as other people" is not any kind of indication that you're any good. Shpeherd was awful for this football club towards the end and we would have gone down with him at the helm, regardless of what you say now. Ashley was a catastrophe that was as much a victim of bad luck as a victim of his idiocy. What was Ashleys bad luck? A huge amount of what has happened is down to his appointments. Wise, a man with no director/scouting history is given the job of buying players ahead of an established manager like Keegan, who is then undermined and quits. Then we get Kinnear, completely out of his depth who does nothing more than humiliate the club further. Appointing such an incredibly two faced and dislikeable chairman in LLambias didn't help either. These decisions were made by Ashley and led to our relegation, where is the bad luck there?

Good shout that who would your choice of speedy striker be? (if you have one) i like Nathan Tyson from forest think he could step up Leroy Lita Not what he once was but he's on a free unless someone has already snapped him up so we should really go for him imo

I thought when you could see what was going on, it was great, but in an effort to get you amongst the action, you lost sense of which bit of whirring machinery belonged to which giant robot. I guess the most impressive CGI I saw was Jurassic Park, simply because I'd never seen anything like it before. The dinosaurs looked alive. It looks a bit obvious now, but the nostalgia soaked memory screams "fucking hell, that raptor's real!" I agree about Jurassic Park. Even now, 15 years later, the dinosaurs look damned good. It definately isn't like the old Sinbad films. As for Transformers, I wonder what they'd look like if the guys who do those Citroen adverts were given the gig? They'd probably look a lot more like the transformers I grew up with. This is because it used robots as well as CGI, having something that is physically there makes a big difference. That's why even crazy old stop motion can be kind of disturbing.

Good to see Beresford has turned into an eccentric college professor

From the Star so complete bollocks no doubt This has been mentioned a few times already. Gunter looks decent but shouldn't left back be a priority? Or is Beye leaving now as well...

Jewell is a total fool, I'm not saying Shearer is the best man for the job but Paul Jewell is horrid