Parker signs for Toon

Re: Re: Re: Re: Parker signs for Toon

I wonder if "Big Will Young" has been round for some bedroom olympics

well said mate

My high horse is locked away in the cuboard! I couldn't give a monkeys who you's sign, how much you pay for them and how much there wages are i just think its funny how some of the "geordies" think one big money signing is going to change your club (not aimed @ you Jon).

As far as sunderlands money situation goes, yes we will struggle to buy "quality" players but i think Mick Mcarthey will get it right Look at the unknown players he bought for pennies last season. I was the first to say "Who the fuck are these??", but look where we finished. At the start of last season s/land were about 5 or 6 best team on paper and we ended up pissing the league.

The main three Miller, Stead and Davis have all been targeted by other "well known" premiership clubs, is that not an achievement in itself!

Why would i be bitter that Newcastle are paying an average player over £14 million on wages alone in the next five years, i think its funny as fuck the cash you lot waste, long may it continue.

Long may SAFC be skint as fuck

And long may Newcastle United be the laughin stock of English football, how manytimes did the country laugh there backs off at you lot last year ??? i lost count after about 5 to be honest

Stead is complete TOSH he scored 2 goals last season, Even Rat boy is better than him

Last Wednesday the 2004 young footballer of the year changed hands between English clubs for £6.5million, bringing the total spent on one of the brightest prospects Charlton have ever produced to £16.5m in 17 months. In that time Scott Parker has played in two England friendlies, one Champions League semi-final, and made eight Premiership starts.
As much as Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry or Steven Gerrard might represent the dash and verve of Premiership football, Parker's story highlights the darker side of a cash-driven game. Through no fault of his own, it should be said, though one does wonder about the wisdom of trying to resurrect a promising career with a move to Newcastle.


'This is a massive, massive club,' Parker said when signing in at St James' Park. After his wasted year at Chelsea, no one would wish Parker anything other than a successful career in the North-East, though all the goodwill in the world cannot disguise a gaping hole in the logic.
'I had a driving ambition to win trophies at Chelsea,' Parker said. 'I've still got that, and that's why Newcastle is the only club for me.' Trophies? Newcastle?

Parker seems not to realise that he is the trophy. Newcastle have not won any significant silverware for half a century, and though they reached FA Cup finals and finished Premiership runners-up within more recent memory, they never packed a champions' punch and have spent the past couple of seasons fighting themselves. What they do is win smaller battles for prestige, using the income from their mighty fanbase to beat mid-ranking clubs to midmarket players.

That was how Patrick Kluivert ended up on Tyneside on £60,000 a week. The fans were supposed to be impressed with such a marquee name, and they were until they saw him play. Celestine Babayaro and Nicky Butt are two other players tempted to the North East by the money on offer who have been slow to convince supporters. Parker is not in that category - at 24 he is bursting to prove his undoubted worth - but as his massive new club buckle down to the InterToto Cup it is tempting to speculate what might have been the crucial factor in his decision to choose Newcastle.

Parker could have joined Everton, who are in the Champions League and have the manager of the year in David Moyes. Or he could have gone to Spurs, the club he supported as a boy, who seem to be making progress under Martin Jol and who desperately wanted him. Instead he chose to revive his career at a club that spent last season in the news for all the wrong reasons. A club with more problems than most, and certainly more problem players. A club who have developed a habit of sacking their managers within weeks of the start of a new season and where Graeme Souness has yet to win over sections of support. It doesn't seem to make sense, unless Souness has hitherto unsuspected powers of salesmanship or Parker simply wants to get as far away from London as possible.

Of course, though, it makes financial sense. Newcastle outbid everyone else, to the extent that the £55,000 a week, five-year deal that Parker has just signed is marginally more generous than the one he was on at Chelsea. Spurs and Everton could not match that, while Birmingham and Wigan were dismissed out of hand.

'We are not in the Champions League, but we have proved a point,' Souness crowed.

If a point has been proved, it is a moot one. Yes, Newcastle have demonstrated ambition and determination. On the other hand, if they value Parker so highly why were they not offering these terms 18 months ago when he was still at Charlton? Parker could have had his big-money move and played in all the games, and Newcastle would have had one of the best young players in the Premiership. One fears the only point that has just been proved is that Newcastle have more money to splash around than most mid-table clubs. As Middlesbrough proved a few years ago, you can attract just about any player if you throw enough money at him, but you tend to end up with a gang of mercenaries rather than a football team. If Newcastle end up with Luis Figo as has been touted, it will be like winding back the clock 10 years to when Boro signed Fabrizio Ravanelli for the then unheard of wages of £40,000 a week.

Wanting to maximise his earning potential does not make Parker a mercenary - how many of us would turn down a pay rise of £10,000 or £15,000 a week? - though it is possible he has just made the same mistake twice. No one blamed him for going to Chelsea, even though Alan Curbishley and many others accurately predicted the pitfalls. You have to have belief in yourself, and if young players always took the cautious line and backed away from challenges football would be much the poorer.

Parker has made sure he will not be any poorer over the next five years, and after his chastening experience at Chelsea, where he was sidelined by injury as well as a surfeit of midfielders, who can say he is wrong? Perhaps, giving him the full benefit of the doubt, he is a tenacious midfielder like Souness who particularly enjoys a challenge. If so, he has gone to the right place.

:yawn:

Let me guess Sunderlands website or some kind of Sunderland website. Yes Parker going to Newcastle is a bit of a gamble for Newcastle because of the wages but its a good move for him carrear wise. Everton may have Champions leauge football but its from one good season, look what happened 2 years ago when they had a good season and narrowly avoided the drop last year.

What you just posted is shite its great how they quoted bits about Middlesbrough's gamble aswell with Ravanelli, they took a chance and although they got relegated got to 2 cup finals and in the end it raised the clubs profile and without this they wouldnt be in the position they are now. Everyone thinks short term these days when in truth footballs all about long term. Both clubs are willing to take gambles that may or may pay off and if they go wrong they go wrong they did for Middlesbrough and theyve done a hell of a lot better than Sunderland in recent years and now are looking forward to European football for the second sucessive year.

You just sound really really bitter that these clubs can afford to and do take gambles. Maybe if Sunderland took a few they might be able to stay up this year and then plough a bit more cash into the club and push for mid table or europe, Football is all about money these days wether you get into press for the bad reasons it doesnt matter, who's the team whos played in Europe in recent years?

Nope taking from the Guardian and a spot on piece of journalism, somes the whole affair up perfectly

I think It shows we are willing to pay money to move forward, I think it shows Freddy getting his wallet out and giving us fans what we want, I dont care if Sunderland fans take the piss, its only cos they can only afford £10/week and a packet of crisps for there relegation outfit

How long can Newcastle keep on spending all of this money though ??? if you dont start getting success soon and start to get big money back into the club through winning things and qualifying for the Champions league the coffers are going to become very dry. Its not an endless pot of cash Shephard has, you cannot keep on spending all these millions and continue to keep on failing, look at what happened with Leeds.

We spend a lot of money, but people don't give shepard credit for what he does do well - MAKE money. we don't spend money 'recklessly' - like leeds - so that we are in a situation where success is mandatory, so our spending isnt really a great issue. im confident that if needs be we could continue our spending plans for the forseeable future.

And if we do enjoy any periods of success, im sure the club knows how to use the extra revenue generated without going 'over the top'.

You dont spend recklessly ????? there is no other club in English football that has wasted as much money as Newcastle United. So many players have failed to make the grade and been shipped out for alot less that what they were bought for, Just a few names off the top of my head:

Marcelino
Robert
Vianna
Tommasson
Anderson
Guivarch
Maric
Cort
Kluivert
Butt (when he eventually goes)

you mis read the word 'recklessly'.

im not saying we always spend well.

im saying we dont spend more then we know we CAN spend.

as in, speaking from financial background - leeds made a bloody good squad with the money they invested - they didnt have backup, if fucked up, they went down in a ball of flames.

Financially - shepard knows what he is doing, he wont let souness spend more than he knows the club can manage, and i am confident that (worst case scenario) are we to fuck up, we will have the finances setup to cover that.

We make more more money than all but 3 prem sides we are a very well run buisness and would not spend money we did not have it helps selling 42,000 season tickets every year and the shops and bars make a lot of money. One thing shepard knows well its how to run a sucessful buisness