The trouble is keeping the players. They all came to Newcastle for two things:

1. Gateway to the EPL
2. Guaranteed playtime

We're gonna have to win something to keep them interested, coz we sure as hell don't have the cash.

When?

I think the contenders are in Manchester.

Unfortunately that's the sad reality.

I genuinly think Villa could be where Spurs are now if this didn't happen so often.

A front 6 of..

-------- Petrov - Barry ------------

Milner ------ Young -------- Downing

--------------- Bent ----------------

Instead we had to cash in on Barry, Milner, Young and Downing. £80m for the 4, but still, I'd rather have kept them.

They were really good deals considering everything.And,a "small" club like villa(not historically) has to cash in on players because it doesn't have the same revenues as bigger clubs.Ofcourse,that's just an assumption I guess,fee free to correct me.Going in Newcaslte's direction would be a very good plan imo,they're scouting good players,and buying them for cheap.

Well, we have a higher average attendance most years than Tottenham would if they sold out every week, so it's certainly not a 'having to sell' situation. It's just that the players want to try and win the league and you can't really blame then. You just have to be fortunate that when you sign player, they start playing at a high level right away so that you have a group of very good players on long term contracts. That's how Spurs are benfitting, the likes of Modric, Bale, Walker are on longish deals.

I think, if anything, it's Newcastle that're going in Villa's direction. We made £80m on those players we mentioned, about £45m profit. Villa have always done it though. We did it with our EC winning team, then David Platt we sold for big, Dwight Yorke in the 90s and then the ones I mentioned. Unfortunately profit means nothing in football. I'd rather win thatn make money.

Hehe,true I guess.But,I guess you have some overaged players that needs replacing currently.Villa always stood up to me as a club that plays nice football,specially like 2 years ago,still I'm bit outdated with the premier league these days...I guess you know as a club that this is your limitiations,and as long as there is no big investor,or a shitload of quality loyal players(they're not many),you'll always be stuck in this cycle.Spurs entry at the Champions leauge helped it's image a lot,nevermind knocking out the Ac milan as well.

We played great football under Houllier, problem was we were so poor at the back. Under MON it wasnt that great to watch, it was a lot of long ball, but it was very direct and attacking, plus it worked. Unfortunately his wreckless spending left us in a mess we've spent 2 years recovering from. Hopefully things have balanced put a little and things change this summer.

Going back to Newcastle. To think they got Santon, Cabaye, Tiote, Ba and Cisse for less than they sold Carroll for. Mike Ashley out eh?

Well..the difference is now..Mike Ashley shuts up..and is no longer trying to point himself out as the Geordie Messiah. He shouldn't have pretended to be one of the fans when his mentality is completely different.

Secondly, his management initially brought things to such a low that expectations were virtually nil. After relegation..we just wanted to stay up consistently.

Finally, we're still pissed off at the St. James being called Sports Direct Arena but whatever...

I completely agree, though probably for a different reason. He spent far too long doing what the fans wanted. The fans essentially ran the club and it got them relegated. He stop listening to them, bring in a manager the fans didnt want (Pardew) and took all kinds of stick regarding Carroll (Newcastle fans wanted the 'new Shearer' to stay as he was worth more! ).

It's another good example of fans not knowing what's best for them.

Oh, my parents went to the game Sunday as I don't like travelling that far on the road so my mum had my ticket. My dad - despite being a Newcastle sympathizser - said they've had the worst home support this season. That amused me.

Should have got a flight.

Champions vs Racists about to kick off.

SUAREZ refused to shake hands with EVRA. What the hell? Somebody please cripple this abortion.

You won't get any backing here, Liverpool FC is a disgrace but people would love it on here if they won as oppose to United.

Love how Rio refuses to shake hands with Suarez after. Massive thumbs up to Eva though for putting his hand out after being racially abused by this coward.

Ha, I'd love a United win, against the dirty ones. For all eternity. I'm not United fan, but when it comes to Liverpool, most anyone has my vote. Forget Istanbul 2005, Liverpool has a history of everything bad.

It's not just Suarez either, a fan racially abused Evra a few weeks back and was arrested for it.

Plus when they played Wycombe in the Cup a few months back (I think it was Wycombe) one of their players got racially abused by another Liverpool fan.

Disgusting club.

Superb tackle from Rio!

#HavingAPartyWhenSuarezDies

Loved how Suarez was asking for a yellow even before going down. 0-0 HT, yet intense stuff.

If the United - Chelsea game was an advert for the league. This is the complete opposite, skinny, overpaid guys thinking they are really tough, diving all over the place, doing stupid stuff left, right and centre. Sky bigging up and loving the drama surrounding racism.

Absolute farce.

Suarez is quite pathetic.

Of all I have said about Tevez, Suarez is far, far worse. And in fairness to Tevez, at least he's actually a good Premier League player. Suarez is just a huge flop as things stand.

I love how Sky handle racism as 'passion' 'fiery' 'drama'.

The same people who fired a guy for making a passing comment at a woman who appeared in men's mags in her underwear.

Good job Sky, good job.

United 1-0 Racist FC

I do agree about his behavior and egoism.Stuff like getting all fussy and pissed over getting subbed off or the racism thing or his dives etc...annoys me too much.At least tevez is a real fighter.Having said that,I don't think he's a total flop,he's produced some good performances,and some people just forget that it's a new league for him,and he's jumping from ajax to liverpool.imo,a very talented player with a fucked up personality.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!

YES!

Footballing Karma if it did exist.

I would expect he has produced some good performances for £23m, but tey are few and far between. Based on his price, he's a flop.

To be fair he has no support.

Carroll is useless, Gerrard has been a crock, Downing has been a complete useless flop, Villa must be laughing, Henderson isn't ready yet and Adam is about 18 stone overweight.

Great fun to see Liverpool like this though.

For now maybe,but buying such a talented young player will do well for the long term,he has at least 6 years of top flight football in him,and I'm willing to believe that he will gain consitency at some point,for now it's too early to judge.I will do a "han" for now,and wait till i'm proven wrong.

Nice!

Very top players don't really need it though. Look at Bent at Villa, he has absoloute dog **** around him. Yet despite moving to Villa the same time as Suarez moved to Liverpool, his record is far superior (on a far worse team). And I don't exactly think Bent is World class or anything, just shows how relatively poor Suarez is. Players on worse teams like Zamora or Saha have done as good as Suarez.

A massively overrated player who plays on a very good International team and played as a big fish in a small pond at Ajax.

Mr. Racism gets his 10th league goals in a year.

You don't sound too enthusiastic!I thought you'd be thrilled

He had 2 of the best wingers in the league for 6 months at the time, plus Suarez did have to move to a new country, bigger change than a 100 miles down the road.

On a footballing level I think he's decent and Liverpool's best player by a country mile. On a personal level I couldn't say without getting banned.

My point exactly.

Well, they both had Downing. Otherwise it was Albrighton/Kuyt, they're about the same on a footballing level. Don't create much but get the odd goal. Young wasn't spectacular last season, but still good behind Bent. Whereas Liverpool had Meireles who was arguably their player of the season, so it wasn't a huge difference.

Suarez doesnt compare to Bent, and Bent which cheaper, I'll take that any day.

That would be quite a sight, seeing a mod (and particularly a nice chap like you) getting the hammer. Hah!

To be honest this is the Downing I've doubted for years, as oppose to the Downing I was finally beginning to see what the fuss was all about in Villa. It's like comparing Sheva at Chelsea & Milan really.

United win anyway, Evra celebrates and the Liverpool players go mad! I'm pretty sure the Liverpool players celebrated just as much in the Cup victory. Poor excuse of a football club.

Amazing how perceptions can change when you have a top striker putting away all your crosses eh?

Did Kenny Dalglish really say he didn't know Suarez didn't shake his hand? And don't blame what happened today on Suarez?

Kenny made himself look pathetic the entire interview. Think deep down he's getting a bit sick of Suarez.

He's a liverpool legend,you'd think he can handle Suarez.

Arsenal with a normal half,imo they got nothing on us,when were in full force.

Suarez sees himself as the victim here. He's used a word his culture doesn't find offensive, and has been banned 8 matches for it.

Not shaking Evra's hand was really poor sportsmanship, as was Ferdinand's immature refusal to shake his. And then Evra acts like a complete idiot at the end.

Then both Kenny and Sir Alex making emotionally retarded interviews at the end and both managing to look equally as daft as each other.

What a complete mess modern football is at times.

I wanted to watch this game but not being used to watching EPL games I wasn't aware the kick off was so early. what a bummer.

Agree with all of your post but this bit. It was always going to be an emotional game for Evra coming up against Suarez. He conducted himself with class throughout the entire episode and even stuck up for Suarez during his interviews saying he doesn't believe Suarez is actually a racist. Despite being the victim of racist abuse, he decided to take the high road and try and shake hands with Suarez, who then showed him up again. It was a big game for Evra, it was a big rivalry and it was a big win in terms of the title, I can understand why the captain would act like that. think others would've tried to shove it in Suarez face a bit more.

I had to laugh when Neville took the mickey out of himself by criticising players who celebrate like that at the end of a match.

But he was hugely criticised for it all those years ago, and Evra has done no different by inflaming further something which is already at boiling point.

I know players are humans and emotional like the rest of us, but in the way Adebayor ran a thousand miles to the Arsenal fans to celebrate scoring against Arsenal, which he later apologised for, Evra's conduct was foolish also.

Yes, he's been dissed, but like you say, if he's shown dignity all the way up till the end, why not keep it up rather than lowering himself to incendiary behaviour?

I think Neville was just winding up the Liverpool fans, same goes for Adebayor. Neither of those players really had any reason to do such thing in front of opposition fans really. Evra celebrated in front of his own fans, I don't think he really did much wrong.

I've just been reading that United contacted Liverpool/Suarez and were told that Luis would hake the hand of Evra (and every other United player). Suarez really showing up his club there and making them look very silly. They'd be best off getting rid. His (lack of) performances certainly don't outweigh the baggage.

Back on Gary Neville a sec, I think he comes accross as a real top bloke since he's been doing stuff on Sky Sports.

5 mins in, Spurs 2-0 Newcastle. Assou-Ekotto and Saha on his debut.

Damn...just when we have Chelsea on the ropes! :/