Musings about the TOON on a sunny Tuesday morning...

Just sitting having some cornflakes and I started wondering "what if" we hadn't sold AC..........would we really be re-inventing the whole squad?.........Aside from Nolan...........we haven't really had any offers in for players , and we're still trying to get the expensive crocks out of the door to help with the wages. So to all those who regretted losing AC.........we lost out 9th place by a whisker without him and he may have just been the single factor to allow AP to transform the TOON.

And, looks like we might just get the better end of the Enrique/Barton saga.......they're good but not world class so why not wait 12 months to get them cheaply.........we're paying them under contract handsomely to ply their trade........

Lastly, why did'nt Enrique jump ship 2 years ago when we went down?

Food for thought...........

 

Enrique probably didn't jump ship when we were relegated because he felt as if he owed it to the club to get us back in the prem saying as he was part of the squad that went down. for that reason alone I won't hold it against him if he did leave now because in my eyes he has paid his dues

 

If as you say he's a man of principle.......then why leave a rising star .......he must surely see we're improving the squad...........there's more to this this contract "extension" talk than we're being told......

We might have to wait for another Derek Llambias outbust ( when he revealed Owen had been offered £135,000 a week!!!!!)

 

Enrique hadn't had a decent season at that point...If he'd have moved club it would've been a backwards move (or a sideways one at best) to somewhere paying him less.

He played well in the championship but most other fans put it down to the quality of that league, its only been this season that he's shown he can do it at the top level, and now his head's been turned by 'bigger' clubs

 

I think Enrique is a man of principles and that did come into play when we went down, but what also came into play was the fact he was only an average full back when we went down and was probably on a decent contract. Not the most appealing prospect for buying clubs.

Yes there are elements of the club which are up and coming and I’m excited by the new signings and the proposed signings but you can also look at it from the other point of view. The promotion was achieved through a strong dressing room bond and what seemed a genuine affection for Hughton. Since then we have seen Hughton go, followed by the Gipsy King and Barton stalling on signing a contract. Whilst we signed Kuqi! Not exactly rising star material.

Then in the last month we have sold our captain and had non-stop speculation linking, Barton, Jonas and Collocini with the exit door; therefore effectively disbanding any kind of player power in the club.

So does Jose stay in a club where there will always be a price on his and everyone else’s head with a possibly disrupted dressing room or does he leave now for a club playing in Europe and increase his chances of playing for Spain.

I still believe that two more top quality signings will see him stay till at least January when he can assess whether we are genuine European contenders or if we’re just a mid-table team. Then he can either leave or sign up to our glorious future of Champions in May, and Champions League winners in 2013