Michael

If Newcastle do somehow manage to get past Stoke in the replay they face Arsenal in the fourth round so Crouch being cup-tied will not be an issue for them as their new manger goes on his panic buying shopping spree.

Surely if DIC did buy us now they would get rid of Moores and Parry as they are the two who messed DIC around the first time. Honorary life president means nothing to a new owner. It's only a private agreement between Moores and G + H and I can't see the present owners insisting that it be honoured by any potential new owners. Anyway, if G+ H cannot restructure the loan they will be in no position to broker any sort of deal with any potential buyer. DIC are not stupid. If they know that G + H can't restructure surely they will deal directly with RBS and buy the club from them.

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The £6.5m they are giving him for a defender will be covered if we knock Inter out. They are only making a small investment now in the expectation that Rafa will earn far more for them with a good run in the CL. They may well want him out, but they are giving him the basic tools to do the job in Europe and nothing more.

If Mourinho is appointed the club has taken a walk from us.

On the same day that Ronaldo is linked with a move to Real Madrid

I can't see Rafa being sacked midseason. We only have one real trophy to go for now and Rafa is the best around for that one. For all our despondency we may have to accept that Rafa, like Ancelotti, and the boards of both Liverpool and Milan place more emphasis on the CL title with the money and prestige that it brings than they do on their domestic titles. You could argue that Abramovich sacking Mourinho suggests he too wants the CL above all else. Maybe we as fans are the dinosaurs and the Americans and Russians are the future? I am not saying I agree with this (before I get attacked). It's just a possibility.

Riise and 49p change according to most posters here.

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Gillet and Hicks' negotiations with RBS have not been helped after Hicks told the bank's representatives to focus on inflating and playing the bagpipes.

On the run through earlier today we got Milan and Arsenal got Barcelona in a repeat of the last two finals.

We simply do not have the money to compete with Man Utd and Chelsea (and Arsenal despite how the press try to make out that they never spend more than a bag of sweets to entice the best young talent from around europe when the truth is that they spend massive amounts for the likes of Reyes and Walcott). We are not going to get a war chest from the present owners. If anything they will rein in spending. The real problem imo is that one owner who did not have the finances to compete at the top level sold the club to two owners who do not have the finances to compete at the top level. Torres may well be our record signing, but our record signing prior to him was hardly expensive in today's terms. We also haggled long and hard to get him which suggests that we probably paid the lower of the estimates. Despite all that we have won the CL and reached another final, and won the F.A. cup. Rafa cuts his cloth accordingly. He has damn near worked miracles with the restraints under which he has operated. He conceded the CC tonight and may well concede the FA cup as soon as we meet a decent team, but come May next year we are likely to be contesting the CL final. We won't get the Premiership because you can't win that anymore, you can only buy it.

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I can. I reckon G+H see it as the big money spinner, and Rafa likes it best of all. It's probably the one competition where everyone in the club is pulling together.

Three match ban as well so that will mess up Rafa's selection plans over Christmas. Makes it hard to rest any other striker.

I base it on interviews I have read with top English horseracing trainers who worked for Sheikh Mohammed in Dubai before the setting up of his Godolhin stable. They made it clear that they were treated as employees and no more, and they were left in no doubt as to their place. The people behind DIC make a very sharp distinction between those who work for them and those whom they consider social equals. Rafa's questioning of the motives of the owners would not have been tolerated.

If Rafa had even hinted at any form of dissent with DIC as the owners, he would have been fired immediately. They are used to servants not employees with opinions. Much as I have reservations about the present owners, I am still glad that DIC did not buy us.

http://www.uberreview.com/2006/06/inflatab...tball-pitch.htm

Our next league game is at home to the team with the best away record in the Premiership (won 6 of 9), and our third next game is away to the team with the best home record in the Premiership (won 9 of 9). Winning the fixtures upto and over Christmas could be tough.

We need to buy more players whose names begin or end in A

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Beating Marseille could be as important for our Premiership hopes as beating United. I think Rafa needs to beat Marseille for additional funds for January which could then impact our title challenge.