Park Life

Run properly the club is worth around the same as Liv. The identity and potential of the club is akin to that of Barcelona as it goes...Not joking.

Ashley was asking 350m in Dubai.

Sounds ace.

Every year the club stays in the PL it grows in value as the PL increases its global reach. I'd value the club at somewhere between 250-270 million as we stand.

To what level that affected transfer business is hard to define. There was a bid for Gomis, so it isn't as if we were working under a transfer embargo.

Osvaldo is meant to be some player....

Fulham, Everton and Villa are all better.

TBH out of the whole bag of strikers we've been linked with we've actually managed to end up with the best one (albeit for a year).

Bang on. That's where I am with him. Getting Cabs to listen to the call says it all.....

He blocked the Douglas transfer. Bent was told he'd have to wait till the last day of the window and obvioulsy that was ridiculous and disrespectful. Pardew wanted Bent from day one.

Bent wanted to come.

JK told Bent he'd have to wait till the last day of the window so we could get the best deal. That's MA talking. JK is just a front imo and someone who can put the frightners on Pardew. Of course it's mindnumbing that JK has any kind of role at a PL club...I honestly don't think MA really thinks that JK will make any difference at the club...It's a mate, it's his eyes and ears and primarily someone who has put a check on the Carr/Pardew axis.

Lot of smoke and mirrors obviously...But we did bid for Gomis that was confirmed by that mad bloke running their club.

So Kinnear takes the hit.

Think that was part of the plan. My feeling is that Pardew wanted first Carroll and then Bent and Carr had the Douglas deal ready to go...Kinnear was sent in to kick all that into touch.

All those things are plausible and there are many monkey millionaires out there that's for sure. Is Ashley not that clever? As a human being and a social entity it's pretty clear he isn't...As a businessman? I used to think he identifyied a niche and got lucky...But I now realise that isn't really true...He might not be an properly intelligent businessman with a super-overview but he certainly is ruthless and has that self-made penchant they all have: Gut feeling. He's instinctive and as you say his lack self-awareness regarding his idea generation means he's gonna get things wrong as much as he gets them right...Don't forget he's lost a lot of money as well as making a lot...

To destabalise Pardew and Graham Carr. They had got too cosy and had wishlists and this dynamic concerned Ashley...He doesn't really trust Pardew on players and he doesn't really want to spend money every window reagarless of first team needs. He sensed a kind of coalition developing against him...

The main misunderstanding here is that we didn't fully understand at first ( I do now) that his mentality is completely different to say the oligarchs or generational money of the yanks or the oil money of the arabs. Most of them got given theirs or they were part of some elite and grew up with money. Ashley made his from scratch....That is a completely different ball game. Oil and gas money isn't real and thus is spent in fantasy amounts with seemingly endless supplies of it to come...Ashley understands the value of money and he will never throw it around. That's where he is mentally imho. Franky there is nothing wrong with that. He might be crude and have little idea of the impact of his descision making on supporters and so on...He might have little insight into the traditions of a club like ours, but in all honesty he didn't make his money by being nice or particularly self-aware.

This I reckon would be his answers... 1. Only as a marketing vehicle. 2. Yes. 3. Curve ball. 4. He knows his role. Last season gave me pause for thought, he became a danger to the business. 5. The results are important only in so far as they impact the business. 6. I saved this club, that's all they need to know. 7. It's brand positioning. 8. Honestly...Dry yer eyes mate. 9. To make a profit every season and have a club that is self-sustaining. Lambiarse has said this over and over again...Open your ears. 10. I've made a billion from nothing, what people think of me is not something I give a seconds thought to.

Got to hand it to Ashley he's like a Colonel Kurtz at the end of a long dark river. His thinking is pure and crystalline. Summer spends? Nah.

Moyes is such a dope. Won't last the season imho.

Bid in the region of 20m???

It's cheaper to buy in Jan...As we can see by the numbers the market lacks value in the summer as it becomes a sellers market. In Jan with contracts running out for the players who haven't signed we pick up for a song... Sissoko, Haidara and Yanga are all good players. I personally wouldn't pay 15m for McCarthy or 15m for Gomis... Ashley is going against the market it's what he's done all his professional business life. It's not unexpected. Arsenal have a good player in Ozil...But 42m? Nah.

One coming in tonight. No idea who it is....Ideally an attacking mf or a striker. Toes crossed.

Thought it was quite delicate..Didn't look like he hit through it but more control and bend... He eats what he likes he scores when he wants..