Nope. Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool etc all have enough money to refuse an offer for a player. If the player wants to leave then that's different, but as far as money is concerned, there are many clubs ahead of Newcastle United.
Hmmm... I disagree. Otherwise Man Utd would still have Ronaldo. Liverpool said no to Barcelona but eventually they sold, why because every player has a price. Just because our values are lower is down to our players being ****ter. Only difference is between our club and others is that our owner will not allow us to go into a debt to fund new players unlike other clubs. Yes we miss out on targets but that is the structure and we have known about this for many a year now.
Yes, the big clubs as noted above, do have the resources to refuse any offer for a player - however football is a big business and as such commercial decisions have to be made. Gareth Bale was sold for 80 mil. For this kind of cash Spurs could have bought several players without dipping into any cash reserve. Newcastle's position is however different. Lee Charnley is your CEO.He is currently negotiating with our CEO over the Mitrovic transfer. At the same time Charnley is allegedly looking at signing Alassane Plea from Nice,now the feeling is that the Mitrovic deal will be concluded at - give or take- 20 mil, this would mean that to secure Plea Newcastle would have to find 5mil to have a chance of concluding the deal. Two things here - is Charnley strong enough to stand up to Ashley?,and is there any flexibility in your sell to buy policy? If the answers are no,and no, then god help you all
As I said, it's a different scenario if the player wants to leave. Ronaldo and Bale were never going to say "No thanks" to a move to Real Madrid. Brazilian Phil was hardly likely to turn down Barcelona (he put in a transfer request after the first bid was turned down) and now it seems Cristiano is keen on a move to Juventus (for £88m it will be hard to turn down). What I'm saying is that Newcastle United are not in a position to turn down an offer (as long as Mike likes it) because we simply cannot compete, financially, with the aforementioned clubs. I'm not convinced Andy Carroll was that keen on his Liverpool move, but wave enough money under the noses of footballers and they soon 'see sense'.
It's disappointing we weren't in for Ronaldo if he's for sale! £88m is a snip for a striker of his quality and we are desperate for a CF. Also Don't know why we bothered with Dubruvka when Buffon has all but been snapped up by PSG. Next we'll hear Neymar is off to Madrid and we weren't even in the running!
I can tell you that Andy Carroll was keen on the move to Liverpool. He wouldn't have agitated for a move but he told someone I know who is close to him, that once the opportunity arose he had no problem with it and welcomed it. It was tinged with sadness leaving his hometown club but he saw it very much as a step up the ladder. Added to that he laughs every time he is linked with a move back home. He wouldn't be against the idea if the money was right, but he is very very happy in London with a nice plush apartment on Canary Wharf (at least last time I spoke with the lad who knows him) and he is getting paid serious money. Reality is Newcastle are no different to any other club. We trade. It is simply about levels. We are in the third bracket of PL clubs in terms of stature and finance. You have Man C and Man U at the top now. They are spending way beyond the others year on year. They also have the stature. They still can't resist players getting calls from Barcelona or Real Madrid but they can delay the deals until they are in a position to replace the players as they did with Beckham and Ronaldo. To be honest you could put Man C in a different bracket now altogether as players may turn down Real or Barca due to the ridiculous sums Man C can offer to keep them. Then you have your Liverpools, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea. Then you have Everton trying to bridge the gap. Then you have ourselves and a number of others. Then you have the promoted clubs. Every single one of those clubs in our bracket have no choice to sell when the upper brackets come calling. At times under Ashley we have traded poorly, at times we have traded well. A sold player will always be forgotten if the right replacement is brought in. There is an art to it though, one which Levy appears to have off to a tee. However Southampton show the other side of it, as do we previously. We are actually very good in terms of the fees we receive and contrary to popular belief amongst the NUFC conspiracy theorists, we are actually tough sellers. Our problem is not the players we sell. Its the players we replace them with. We've got slightly better in recent times and Rafa has done ok in this regard. However its becoming more and more competitive and volatile. Hence we see big swings in performance in clubs outside the top 6-7 each season. To bridge the gap we'd need someone or some people to be willing and able to throw money at it. Money they would not get back. These people are in short supply.
[QUOTE="Free-Dor, post: 11905296, member: 1009558" To bridge the gap we'd need someone or some people to be willing and able to throw money at it. Money they would not get back. These people are in short supply.[/QUOTE] Why would they not get it back? Man City seem to be doing ok - record revenues and 3 year continuous profits. Think we just need an owner with the foresight to realise that if he puts some money in now it can pay significant dividends in the future.
Are you serious? Man City pay themselves!! They're now starting to make some commercial inroads from all the success they bought, but for the most part it's utterly farcical. Etihad is owned by the same people, yet they're somehow able to pay tens of millions a year for the right to sponsor the training pitches? Nonsense. It's just creative accounting, with a limitless pot of money at the other end. Mike's absolutely right, it's the wealth of a nation. Technically Man City should be kicked out of the EPL because it's a Middle Eastern football club.
I thought you would have cottoned on by now to the rules of discussions with FreeDor. 1. Cherry pick only those facts that suit your argument. 2. Don’t bother checking them before you post. 3. Make said facts up particularly if you know the poster you are in discussion with is too lazy to check them 4. Throw in the phrases ‘happy clappers’, ‘so-called fans’ and ‘humble pie’ as many times as you can fit them in.
Ashley is playing Russian Roulette. He has done for the past 11 years. He hasn't suddenly woken up and had a eureka moment. His PR team are doing their usual jobs and doing them well. We will end up with a couple of loan signings.
Good post. Charnley is definitely not strong enough to stand up to Ashley, that bit isn't up for debate. As for sell to buy, the truth is somewhere in the middle. We will have a relatively small amount of money made available (£20m+ but small compared to almost every club we'll end up competing with) and beyond that it will be an inflexible sell to buy. If the perfect players becomes available for £5m more than we have to spend then we will not buy them, we will not extend beyond our means. Fans don't like it and no set of fans would really but there is good logic in it and the system would work better if no clubs spent beyond their means. It is less fun though!
Loving the deflection tactics after being made to look silly by Lord Jonjo. "**** I look like a fool now, er, erm, eh......FreeDor. Yeah that's right FreeDor. That'll bail me out" Sorry mate the last 3 years have proved one thing. All you naysayers look really silly as the magnificent threesome of Rafa, Lee and Mike take us on a steady path of development. Sure there is some creative friction along the way, but that is the nature of successful business.
The rest of the world got together and took a vote regarding your opinion. Summary: Go debate it by yourself.
I will debate it with you .................. as long as you DO NOT refer to them two twonks as Mike and Lee!! Fat Man and Penfold will suffice.
