dubai_phil

Last I heard is that he lives in Teneriffe. And we can't afford him Allegedly IMHO from the car washing bloke,

Don't worry. if the Brit fans cannot be bothered to turn up for a game, they'll find plenty in Asia, US etc. The TV companies are more worried at how their product looks on the screens around the world than anyhing else these days. They provide the money, they want entertainment If it keeps going you can see the Sky Producer demanding the manager subs his keeper for another attacker if a game becomes too boring....

It's a bit like New Orleans, you know it's gonna flood so do you just sit back every year and say bring it on or do you work to maybe move to slightly higher ground if you live there or try and build the barriers a little higher? The point being is that the players will ALWAYS get poached, so either you plan for that and create the machine to keep bringing them in OR you buy mediocrity that nobody wants to buy (Thomas, Euell to name a couple of examples). Also, I agree that producing the kids from scratch is a hard ask, but producing them from 18 or 19 is not so tough. Look at our squad now, Spiderman, Holmes and (we hope) Rasmi were 20 something and being overlooked. How many PL & CCC clubs have talented kids being overlooked (how about us last year as an example). 250k for Gillett last year and we'd have bitten the hand off (as an example). We didn't rate an 18 year old - Nile Ranger - but Newcastle did. Plenty of those kids around rather than the 15 year olds - that WILL take time and I agree is a tough ask.

Shame Alisdair Darling can't work out that bit of logic though:-)

OK so we are getting to grips with the wrongs of the world. So we are in this mess of no money but suddenly may have found "a new direction" that inadvertently gives the club back to us. So what should our PLAN be? It is obvious that we need to stabilise the team and our league status. HOPEFULLY that will happen this year (I still won't make any judgement until the end of September BTW) So we know that the BIG POISONOUS NASTY money in soccer is not going to run out this year (except maybe for us) and it is obvious that our better youngsters WILL be picked off, either in January or in the summer. Hopefully for Walcottesque sums but... So what I would like to se happening NOW and in January (IF we are stable) is that we start recruiting the NEXT level of youngsters, the 18-19 year olds who with a season in the reserves would strengthen the NEXT generation of replacements. IF we understand that we need to produce a conveyor belt of talent, then the loss of our "new local stars" will be tempered by the INVESTMENT back into the machine to produce more and better ones READY to come into the first team. Each year with more experience we could sign better kids, more mature Spidermen, faster Lallana's. THEN we really start to build something. (oh and maybe even full backs) This year's kids MAY keep us in the CCC, but they WILL get poached, but the next ones who can be blooded this season and the replacements COULD take us closer to that top table. IF we ever get back up there, then keeping the kids conveyor running MAY with the right investment in experience keep us up there. Bunch of has beens or cheap imports we never heard of won't. (sh*t kids conveyor sounds like something GG put his Duty Free bag onto in that web photo doing the rounds) But this "attitude change" needs to go really deep and not just be a one off short term solution to grease the wallets of the shareholders. It is a long term investment by all of us. Gonna be interesting if Platini gets his way with the number of players in a squad that have been through the academy. Hurry up and pass that rule QUICK that'll screw Man C & Chelski

Yep, but if only it was paying for what is really needed to keep the world revolving rather than keeping the civil services running..... What is the current percentage of the population creating the wealth that pays the first lot of taxes that then pay the salaries of the public sector workers who then pay the taxes...??? People in employment generating money People in public service spending money People in retirement not generating but spending Just think how good the world would be if the gov only spent on what you needed... Dozen beers a week, almost free public transport, rather than (for example helping keep 200,000 civil servants in say Brussels who's job it is to pass silly rules that the French ignore and the Brits employ 20,000 inspectors to enforce which are only there to p*ss you off :-)

Isn't it somewhat scary, that suddenly we're sort of looking at Rupert as the messiah, the stalking horse who with his revolutionary concept returns our club to it's true roots and starts a snowball that will roll throughout world football, backed by his sidekick Michel Platini. sh*t how did Scooby hijack my account:-) But actually you have a point I made some time ago and which the media is slowly starting to pick up on. Money is the band wagon, when you have it you don't want change, when you don't have it you want it OR you want change. If you don't have the DREAM of improving yourself then the whole concept of football and the pyramid structure just crashes and burns. Capitalism is the problem and Communism isn't the answer. Maybe we will learn to be a happy club with pride in our own players. Unfortunately while we have the burden of the mortgage on SMS, we can't afford to dream of a "new way", we can only afford to be capitalists

I thought the don't mention the war bit after he mentioned a German player and the "does a sub get dressed to come on the pitch" lines were utter quality.

And so do all those critical NGO's, interest groups and not to mention those critical green advisors everywhere..... Ah the joys of democracy vs the nasty dictator we have down here..... Gordon Brown vs Sheikh Mo... No contest really.

The boys in Dubai ain't gonna like it that them lot down the road got into the PL first. Retaliation will be interesting

Ah, so obviously you didn't watch the Blackpool game on Saturday then :-):-) Thomas will go on loan one way or the other, Cork soounds better suited to full back or DM roles, doesn't leave us a lot of cover as Lancashire hasn't played a full first team game yet and not sure we'd want Wotton, Perry or Cork as our only choice of CB's against a big hoofball team with a lump up front

Well done to the Crown Prosecution Service then for bringing a charge without enough evidence. Mind you, don't think there is a law in Blighty these days for being drunk and incredibly stupid. Let's hope he can now put this behind him and move on. Preferably to Plymouth and give us a loan fee as well

My Jock mate just sent me this QUALITY commentary. Don't worry about the pictures but stick with it, especially the belches and don't mention the wars..... http://www.justin.tv/tictalk/216881

It's probably been the worst kept secret in football that Ashley wants out at Newcastle and despite his promises doesn't actually have enough money to take them forward to the land he promised. Hmm where we heard that before? Hopefully KK will get a nice big pay-off but will NOT be offered a big lump of equity in SLH to become our DoF But 12 mil for Milner - lol - keep the faith with the kids Rupe's we're gonna be rich!

Been saying that for weeks:-)

As posted before. There is a recession. There is a credit crunch. One of the FIRST things companies cut back on is advertising spend without a tangible ROI. One of the FIRST things people cut back on are non-essentials. The TV revenue went up because of competition between Sky & Setanta. Both companies are being impacted by reduced advertising revenues. Setanta's business model of borrow to get the premium tv services and then the money will come in is under strain and their subscription take up rate is not as fast as they planned as people don't spend that extra cash What happens with the next round of negotiations when the TV revenue drops? Sure the rich owners don't care but the rest are screwed

Amazing what analytical skills can interpret, I feel quite chirpy about having worked that out myself from so far away:-)

Fan first businessman second is the wrong mix. Maybe ONE day it will be possible, it used to be "once upon a time", as I think Ashley is finding up in Toon land and Leon did here. Tough lesson

Just something that was once said by someone in a response to something I posted on the old JF thread on TSF. No idea how, when or if it could work but I do wonder it it may have some mileage after the "option" expires. And no I ain't stupid enough to post my nutty theories on here:-) How was the tour of Asia?

Well I did:-) It's like the "revulsion" many feel at paying a dividend (when we could). At the end of the day the company SLH gives it's shares as security for "investment" that can be financial (at the time of listing) or for "services" as stock options or grants to employees they wish to reward. (We can all argue whether the employees were WORTH it!) But the same people who feel that way would not expect to get a bank loan without interest and would expect serious problems in their life when/if they don't/can't repay. The money for the shares was a LOAN which the investors hoped would make a return. UNTIL the UK Gov changes the way capitalism works, sentimental investors remain few and far between. Why should we expect people (like Leon) to give away their money, rather than TRY and get some or all of it back? I know you guys had New Labour for a long time but didn't think we'd gone totally commie share everything with everyone (after those in power get most of it!)

Yes and No. The story of the Rupert offer has been dissected on TSF before. I'm pretty sure that if any of us asked him he would say that he felt a loyalty to those who had "got him into power in the first place". I cannot criticise that belief, but I can, like you, argue that it wasn't the right decision. What we SHOULD ask, is that when that happened, WHY didn't the incoming crew themselves "bite the bullet" and extend the offer to the other shareholders? IMHO either they did not have enough money (which SHOULD have set off alarm bells) OR their ONLY motivation was to get rid of Rupert (which leaving his cronies around would NOT have really happened) I have heard that he would sell, but then we've all heard different rumours from different places, the problem is still the "value" placed on those shares or the "price" paid hasn't a cat in hell's chance of being realised in the CURRENT economic climate. IF we survive this season and we have a sensible cost base, IF the kids really mature, THEN the shares may be worth something again and they may have the chance to recoup some of their investment (or shares in lieu of payment) I said when Rupert returned that he was taking one hell of a gamble, not just on coming back but also on the management and the strategy. I felt then it may be one risk too many, but IF you stand to lose "everything" then most of us would TRY and put up one last fight, so I understand them doing that. Anyway, with the two main shareholders working together there ARE still ways of getting investment in stages that doesn't involve selling up yet. We'll see if it happens, but cannot see it myself until we (or the economy) are out of intensive care and into a stable but poorly condition. Unless there is another sovereign wealth fund out there that likes to build from the bottom up rather than from the top down.....

Think we're missing the bleedin obvious here in our rush to fit everything into the "politics model" Why we all of a sudden seem to be signing French kids? Is it only me that detects the waft of our French connection here? The man who "set up" the Academy was Rupe's (as he KEEPS letting us know) The man who made it WORK was... Georges Prost, recently "retired" to France, who would have understood very well what Rupert is trying to do, and will possibly get some personal satisfaction watching the youngsters now step up to the plate. Somehow I don't think that Mike Wilde has spent all summer scouting out obscure young players in the French Leagues, somehow think this may have been about experience with kids and contacts... GP may be gone, but somehow I don't think he's been forgotten, maybe he's trying to help???

The logic doesn't QUITE work. I am certain we would have preferred to sell them. I do however expect us to loan them out. IF nobody takes them in the early days of the loan window then I am sure that we will let them go and we will pay some percantage of their wages. After all IF they are on say 10k a week plus appearance and win/goal/assist bonuses, we would still save substantial amounts of money even IF we pay say 30% of their base salary . At the moment we HAVE to remember that this season is about financial AND football survival. Both are linked and it is a delicate balancing act. My guess is that the catch-22 of 15,000 fans will make the decision easy enough, not enough money to pay all the wages vs the HOPE that fans will return. You cannot, unfortunately, eat hope, you need money to eat. The longer you can eat the better the chance that "rescue" will come. But of course without hope do you NEED to eat? Tough call

Have only seen the one game and then read the reports. Killer wasn't up to the mark on Saturday, Holmes played well in patches, but DMG has scored goals so would probably vote for him but won't as I ain't qualified to do that:-)

Berbatov