Juggy

"Undoubtedly YES!!!! The Snake Pit would be better named the Ultimate Plastic Pit. Why? Take any cup game against lower league opposition. It''s always empty because its diehards denizens are only interested in seeing Manyoo and Liverpool. Bring on the wrecking ball"Anybody who ever says this is retarded. Maybe after spending x number of seasons sitting in the exact same seat they fancy a change and will buy a cup ticket in the Barclay? Why if you sit in the same seat in the same part of the ground for every game for years and years would you not think "I know I''ll go and sit in the Jarrold for a game". If you go and sit in the Barclay Lower for a cup game it is usually full of kids. Just because there are people occupying the seats in the Barclay Lower doesn''t mean that they are the same people who occupy the seats for league games.

Manchester United Plc are a public limited company owned by shareholders. Unless you are a shareholder in the business the amount that they choose to pay Rooney is none of your business.I actually think it is quite funny that they are gambling so much money on a 5 and a half year deal for a 28 year old who is prone to tantrums when they need to invest heavily in their squad and after they made a quarterly loss. Their decline is amusing. What the general public do have a right to be concerned about though is the controversial tax avoidance techniques that Rooney has been involved in (such as the Cobalt Data Centre) which see him and other big stars pay as little as 22% income tax - a lower rate than many normal folk, especially when considering national insurance. Add to that the 2% that he will pay on his image rights agreement after funelling the revenue through his limited companies. He will end up paying less than most people on this forum as a proportion of income.Every tax payer on this forum has the right to be outraged about that. We allow players like Rooney to avoid paying tax while we hammer the poor, and the sick, and the old, and make hundreds of thousands of public servants redundant.As for the military personnel signing up to go and risk their lives and commit murder to protect the interests of big oil companies... they are stupid for signing up and we don''t do conscription in the UK anymore, they aren''t forced. They go into combat willing to put a bullet through another mans head so shouldn''t complain in one goes through their leg, especially if they are invading somebody elses country in an illegal war.

Sorry but the idea of a statue of Justin Fashanu is ridiculous, he was a terrible role model and a habitual liar. Let us not forget that he didn''t commit suicide because of alleged bullying from his brother or abuse from terraces but because he was afraid of facing trial for an alleged crime in the United States. He sold his story to a tabloid newspaper which he ''beefed'' up with an allegation about an affair with a married Tory MP, he did that for cash to maintain his party lifestyle. People claim that coming out destroyed his career (it didn''t, injury did), but he was tarnish that persons legacy (they had recently died). A few years later he tried to sell a story claiming to have had gay affairs with two other married Tory cabinet ministers for £300k to two tabloid newspapers, both of who quickly realised that he was making them up for money, willing to wreck the life of two strangers for cash. Then he admitted to a journalist that he had made up the first story (which was printed), about the deceased MP who couldn''t defend himself (nice for that mans wife and kids!). Julie Goodyear his former friend and not one to shy away from publicity or being forward with her sexual exploits simply stated after his suicide that Fashanu had made up the affair and that they had fallen out about it, Fashanu had made up the story for cash. Wrecking a friendship in the process. Quote: "He ran out of lies". And let us not forget that whether he carried out a sexual assault or not (he absconded remember), he did admit to plying a group of 16 and 17 year old boys with alcohol and marijuana in his home, that he initially lied about his sexuality to the American police, lied about not having intercourse, and later admitted having intercourse. Illegal intercourse (would have been illegal here and illegal there). That was a man employed as a boys football coach. His brother may not be the most pleasant of individuals but it was on record that before Justin came out he would aggressively defend him against abuse and allegations, and that he offered him money not to sell his story because he feared that he was only doing it for the money (and he was only doing it for the money). I couldn''t give a monkeys what sexuality somebody is, but we should all possess a modicum of morality. He was sacked by two teams I think after coming out, not because he was gay (they would have known that before his signing) but because of his unprofessionalism and lifestyle. Justin Fashanu went on to play football for some time after coming out, really didn''t get much stick from fans, got on well with teammates at his various clubs, and it was on record that he got far more hate mail when quoted in The Guardian as telling people to vote Conservative. He was quoted several times in his career after coming out that he was very happy. He was clearly a troubled man, but that had far more to do with his upbringing and the conflicts that existed between his sexuality and his religious beliefs and his troubled childhood than it did to do with John Fashanu, Brian Clough or football fans. Read this: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/profile-the-striker-who-didnt-score-justin-fashanu-dribbling-round-westminster-1393543.html Read this (all 4 pages including the comments): http://briandeer.com/justin-fashanu-1.htm Buy this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Justin-Fashanu-Biography-Jim-Read/dp/1780910142 He probably deserves a lot of sympathy for his difficult upbringing and his complexities, and some admiration for his obvious early talent, but talk of a statue for this man is way out there. But to dismiss John Fashanu''s flaws as that of a corrupt evil bigot and Justin Fashanu''s flaws as that of a deeply troubled and complex mind is deeply unfair, both of them had a very difficult upbringing. The adulation that Justin gets and the disdain that John Fashanu is held in are both far too extreme in equal measure.

Newcastle fans were more upset that the club appointed Pardew than they were that they sacked Hughton. Then they changed their mind about Pardew when he led them to 5th in the league. Football fans are fickle. But more importantly, why the f*ck should we give a f*ck what other teams fans think about us, and why the f*ck should we give a f*ck about what LDC thinks.

Relegation this season means ripping our squad to shreds. I''d like to think that we could keep a few quality players, perhaps Redmond, Hooper, Turner. But we would be saying goodbye to Fer, Van Wolfswinkel, Ruddy, Pilkington (will have one year on his contract), probably Bassong, probably Howson, probably Snodgrass who I could see going to Celtic or Villa. The most depressing bit will be Lambert sniffing around Howson, Snodgrass and Wes and us not being in the position to play hardball with them.

You forgot the bit where Mike Ashley underpinned their massive wage bill by loaning the club £34m that season to cover the difference between their revenue and wage bill. You forgot the bit where Newcastle now owe Mike Ashley £267m. You forgot the bit where nobody wants to purchase Newcastle because if they did they would have to pay Mike Ashley his £267m back. Plus whatever he wants for his shares, which he claims is £0 but is probably not £0. The deal to purchase Liverpool was for a total of £300m. Now Newcastle aren''t a small club, in fact they are probably a very attractive proposition, but Liverpool are one of the most famous clubs in the world. So if your idea is for the club to borrow heavily to subsidise a Premier League wage bill with no guarantees of success (QPR aren''t top of the league with the likes of Barton and Wright-Phillips) then I''d say that it is a terrible idea. Especially as Mike Ashley''s £34m loan that season is interest free but any money that we will have to borrow will be subject to interest because we don''t have one of the countries most successful entrepreneurs as an owner.

How old are you LDC?

Cash at bank is meaningless. We don''t pay players wages up front, they get paid monthly. So you need cash in the bank to cover payroll, every month of the year. If we had a cash balance of £0 then that would be insolvency. Rangers are going to run out of cash this season. I''d rather we didn''t, I don''t think blankets being passed around would cover our wage bill somehow, we aren''t in the 70''s.

"Exactly, it wouldn''t plummet as some are suggesting" Well that certainly what I was saying. £100m to £40m is a bigger drop than £75m to £20m. "but let''s ensure we don''t get relegated by spending a few million on bolstering up the team" I presume you are being rhetorical and are fully aware that the transfer window has closed and we can''t actually sign anybody until the end of the season?

You don''t have to be a top player to be at a massive club. If Spurs are considered a ''massive club'', as suggested above, then we could have tried to sign Harry Kane for all we know. Maybe it was Quag from Juventus again, they are massive.

"The OP fails to recognise the fact that our 75 million quid business can become a 20 million quid business overnight due to relegation" Probably more like our £100m business can become a £40m business. New TV money, plus £16m in parachute payments. Although worth pointing out that our current wage bill is greater than our revenue would be in the champs. Some big changes would be made. I''d like to think we''d hang on to a few stars like Redmond and Hooper, but we''d be losing some too.

"Always was a good club manager" He was also an excellent international manager, his 60% win rate with England is the third best in history.

"Is Hughton Jewish? I''m not sure, would it matter? He is however a Trotskyist. Leon Trotsky was Jewish. Is that a close enough link or are you going to continue to be a pr*ck?

What other options do we have at the minute? Whether you have lost respect for the man or not (I haven''t), Hughton has surely ran out of ideas now and needs to start picking him? Proven record of setting up goals for Hooper (one from the left, two in pre-season), played superbly against Man Utd before being outcast again. Somebody said way back in October that they expected Hoolahan to come back in and save our season. Nobody has any better ideas do they?

Dave Whelan gets more right then he gets wrong.

"If he''s so great a manager, why hasn''t any other club been snapping ay his heals. The answer is he isn''t so great!" His exile has been self-imposed and his recent decision to return to management will be on his own terms. If he can turn his nose up at the Swansea job then he obviously as bigger plans.

Hoddle said that he wasn''t interested in the Swansea job. If he wasn''t interested in Swansea then he won''t be interested in us. He is holding out for the Spurs job in the summer.

"No doubt this is someone who will continue to deny CH has outperformed his budget" I thought they had budgeted for 16th, so how is he outperforming his budget? We are 16th.

I am familiar with Jimmy Jones. I wasn''t aware that the pleasure beach was his family firm.

That makes a lot of sense as almost every director of that company (and there are many) have the surname ''Jones''. It would be historic then. Just wondered whether there was recent investment on the quiet or somebody planning to make some moves.

Owners of Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. How long have they owned 4.7% of the club, is this a recent development or a historic stake, and if recent how come this stake has been built without anybody noticing - unless I was the one not to notice?

"I would be surprised if it went down any time soon" Lost me at this bit. We have a debt free club which will turn over in excess of £100m this season, which in the event of relegation could see revenue of a third of that next season. If you are trying to say that the club would be worth as much on 1st July 2014 post-relegation as it was on 1st July 2013 then I''d need you to offer some sort of explanation there. We would be going down with some huge liabilities (player contracts). If Marks & Spencers revenue dropped by two thirds overnight and it had the same liabilities (e.g. store leases) I''d expect the share price to slump wouldn''t you? Can you give me one example in the history of English football where a Championship side has been sold for the equivalent of £60m (or pro-rata for majority stake)?

"although they were right to sack him, why get Macgarth? is that the best they can do for a premier league team. However, i guess it may work for them this season, if you look at Di canio when he arrived at sunderland, he kept them up. But Macgarth.....wtf??!???" Sounds like you know more about him than I do, probably because I''ve never heard of him, but looks to have a good CV to me. Won two doubles at Bayern in consecutive years, and has won the Bundesliga three times.. Read this on wiki: "As a manager, Magath quickly gained respect and became notorious for his hard, grinding training methods, laying heavy emphasis on discipline, fitness and conditioning. Players gave him nicknames like "Saddam" (Saddam Hussein) or “Quälix”, a rhyming mash of his first name Felix and the German verb “quälen” (to torture).[6] He was once described by former Eintracht Frankfurt player Bachirou Salou as the "last dictator in Europe".[7]" Maybe that is what the Fulham owners feel they need, the Berbatov attitude may have rubbed off on their players. He can get away with it because he is top class, the rest of them can''t because they are a mediocre bunch.

That''s not what I am saying lappinitup. My point is that the price for Delia''s shares at £100 per share would now be £33m instead of the £10m being stated when he wanted control of the club. So if he were to make the offer to invest £20m in players now then the price would be £33m + £20m, at the clubs current share price/valuation. That is a total of £53m. There is now no debt (or pretty much none). To take control in 2009 or whenever his interest came to light the stated cost was £56m. So I''m saying that the club was probably way overvalued back then considering our financial health and status in football, or is undervalued now at £100 per share. That''s where the £33m comes in, as that would be the value of a £10m stake at £30 share if that price rises to £100. If Delia''s shares cost £30 each back then, and £100 now, and she holds the same number of shares, then that gives a value of around £33m.

Although that £33m now buys less of the club.