"We've momentum and we can't afford to lose it tbh"- The '13-'14 summer transfer window thread for PL and beyond

it does illustrate the idea that plenty of millionaire businessmen aren't savvy technicians who understand finance better than other people but just wankers who dropped lucky tho

Truth bomb. No other way to explain how e.g. Tony Fernandes gets played for a naive clown.

noodle vague otm x2

I think they probably understand their own markets very well but know fuck all about football. I don't think Fernandes is an idiot by any means.

Ashley just got lucky though, I mean "sell loads of cheap sportsware and sell out while they going's good" isn't exactly rocket science.

Find that Douglas story almost impossible to believe, but I dunno if that's just illustrating my own naivety about the way these things are done. Surely there are enough football people around the higher end of the club who know that signing a highly-thought of centre-back from FC Twente, mentioned as a potential Dutch international etc. hardly represents an Ali Dia move?

Kinda loving this story for its car crash potential, but I do feel sorry for the Newcastle fans. Who the fuck is this goon actually going to want to sign if all this is true?

Intrigued by the idea that Ashley has decided that he wants rid of Pards but doesn't want the hit to his wallet involved in actually sacking the guy. If so, I for one hope that AP hangs on in there for grim death, any problems Newcastle encounter this season are going to be blamed firmly on Kinnear and Ashley anyway.

Matt DC otm re: Pardew's martyrdom, this will be a hell of a boost to his standing with the fans following last season's performance. Ashley may want him out, but he's actually engineered a situation where Pards somehow looks like an unfairly marginalised figure mistreated by the owners. If Carr goes too then AP will be the only member of senior management left representing common sense and professionalism and sanity.

pards left west ham under a simlarily convenient cloud, iirc?

again, i don't buy that wrecking the club to the extent imaginable under kinnear's toddleresque pawing is in any way a preferable option to paying off the incumbent staff (all of whom seem to be performing as well as newcastle have any right to expect, with the exception of pardew, and even then hardly to a level worthy of apocalypse)

it's simply wtf, it's not even coherent enough for conspiracy.

and, again, reports frequently state that pards & co are on defined payoff in the event of sacking, not the 8 year terms under which they are contracted.

Might be as simple as Ashley being the sort of boss who rules by reshuffle and keeping underlings cut down to size, and puts faith in creative chaos to see everything right? Idk though, you'd think he'd remember that that failed epically just four years ago.

Maybe he enjoyed the Championship year and fancies pocketing the parachute payment and having another go?

creative chaos was mentioned v briefly in a ?guardian? piece on this the other day, like again fine if you have to shuffle out 300 words on a topic that you're not interested in, but look you can't buy it as applies to irl multimillion pound high-profile decisions, short of accepting that ashley is sectionable and/or an incredible cokehead

It's just a hobby for him though

i've been assuming Kinnear is either his bezzie mate or has serious blackmail material tbh

pards left west ham under a simlarily convenient cloud, iirc?

I thought he was genuinely hard done by at West Ham, tbf

Early ILX references to Pardew were all pretty positive iirc, and he periodically achieves very good things. Plus he was a handsome devil.

never forgive

http://i.imgur.com/M5vMS2Z.jpg

check out the handsome chap to the left of Ray Allen. Also, Young Jeezy

i give up. nuno gomes?

lawl

Juan Pablo Angel?

I can't actually remember what Juan Pablo Angel looks like tbh.

he cut his hair short when he went to the mls and was scarcely reognizeable

alright i've googled it now. he looks way lumpier than that usually!

just going back to newcastle for a sec

1/ i know kinnear is an anachronistic figure of lol but vetoing a transfer cos he'd never heard of the player seems far-fetched even for him. (especially since he'd already been on radio bigging up all the foreign newcastle players he'd presumably never heard of before carr found them). more likely he asked to hold the deal while he reviewed the tapes or whatever and llambias spat his dummy?

2/ no doubt tony fernandes is a footballing lamb to the slaughter but his mistakes have essentially come from business practice - entrusting the wrong people to delegate and being blinded by hughes & co's big talk big club cv's etc. ashley already has a proven working unit that makes money for the club so it's not even football naivety just pure terrible businessmanship to let some random bloke he likes out of childish sentiment in to mess it up. it's a lack of nous in any context

also (if i may clutch one single sad straw) presumably oyvind leonhardsen wasnt a household name playing for rosenborg in 1994 either

RIP Nouscastle

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/9067/shvk.jpg

This gets better and better

Higuain in, this is mo' like it

Terms agreed at least, not sure what can go wrong now

Holy shit, that's a legitimately exciting transfer. Looking forward to seeing what the guy can do as a focal point / unquestioned first choice

Higuain, Arsenal, this summer ≡ Windsor Davies, ILF, last summer

fears of an ali dia situation sweep villa park as lambert hands luna a contract

Jesus, Lamborghini going in even harder than last year on the "youth gamble" market this year. Still, let the record show that I'd bet the farm on this guy being better than Joe Bennett, and I've never even seen the lad play. Feel free to drag this back up in 9 months time to prove me wrong, if it happens I'll srsly consider just getting out for good

Graham Hunter ‏@BumperGraham 46m

#Thiago and #United close enough for wages to be agreed

You love this guy

he's telling me what i want to hear

Virgil van Dijk to Celtic is a done deal. Surprising move as most in Holland expected him to sign for Ajax/PSV/Twente. Good deal for Celtic though, I think. One of the more promising backs of the country. Had a good year in a poor Groningen season.

And in other huge exciting news of little relevancy to youse: PSV are close to signing Adam Maher! Maher insists on staying in Holland for 2 or 3 years before going abroad. Ajax was in the running but called it off because they still have Eriksen on board (of whom they expect will be leaving too, but they can't act on Maher if they haven't sold Eriksen yet).

Thiago and Higuain are really exciting transfers. Next season is going be the best.

I can't wait for FM2014 with this new expensive Arsenal line-up (I presume more signings will happen...)

Confirmed?

Excited abt both of them.

Despite Sanogo and Wenger talking about his transfer being confirmed for the past like 6 weeks, arsenal.com still hasn't said anything. So I presume Higuain will have played like 6 games for us before they say anything. But p much wherever you look people are saying its a done deal.

Real won't sell anyone until they have appointed a new manager, supposedly.

When confirmed i'll acknowledge

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/4739/95m7.jpg

Feeling kind of patronised by this tbh. Also Mignolet fee agreed at £11m, gulp.

yeah what dullard told him to say that? also not sure how 11m counts as a compromise figure between 8m and 10m but that's football i suppose. must mean pepe's on his way as i imagine migs has been told he'll be first choice with the world cup coming up.

Look, I would make the tea for Arsenal Football Club, but I thought I ticked all the right boxes for the board. I don’t need the money, I would put the good of the club first in every case and I could mediate well within the club.

I read an interview with Peter saying they wanted younger blood on the board but it was not easy finding people willing to take on second jobs who were not money-orientated. I thought I ticked boxes, so I wrote to Peter and said ‘I’ve got a statue outside and I know a bit about the club’s principles and values’.

I didn’t hear anything back, which was unusual for Peter, but I know he has been ill. But if they just wanted a figurehead, they should have gone for me.

lol

"What Shearer says is diabolical," said Kinnear. "This is a guy who hasn't got a clue about coaching."

kiu lads

first coherent thing Kinnear's said this year

Newcastle are 10/1 to be relegated. Quite tempting.

Do you do much season-long betting? It would seem to lack instant gratification.