kostas22 wrote:Indeed, I only became a Newcastle fan around the Hughton era. I saw the beginnings of a project I liked, and I thought, I like this team, I think they could go places. While they haven't had the best youth academy, their transfer market agenda under Mike Ashley has been superb. At first, everyone was aghast the team had an owner that wasn't happy spending like an idiot billionaire as NUFC had been used to, however as you can see, it has been a great strategy shift.
Ah my friend! I will give you credit by saying you have made some fantastic purchases in recent times, but you seem to be attributing your successes in this area to Mike Ashley. Im sorry, but I'm afraid this is wrong in many ways (you have Alan Pardew and Chris Hughton to thank, two good managers). I know its a cliche to divert to the whole 'Sports Direct Arena' scandal, but I'm doing it anyway. Your club is financially unstable, Mr. Ashley himself has admitted his £10 million for naming their stadium Sports Direct Arena was an act of desperation, everyone else couldn't care less. Ellis Short has given no indication of wanting to sell SAFC, unlike Mike Ashley, who has tried and failed to sell his club on numerous occasions. Mr. Short has already gotten to clearing Sunderland's debts in addition to securing a £20 million shirt sponsorship deal, and Martin O'Neill is a man who's known for his cheap but effective transfer policy. Mr. Pardew is already chasing Luuk de Jong, who will most certainly cost more than he's worth. Newcastle are still running at a loss, and that doesn't look like changing any time soon. Mr. Ashley may love your club, but he doesn't seem to be very good at running it.
Mr Krautmeir mentioned Andy Carroll. Admittedly, not a great player. However, he has contributed far more to Newcastle than any Sunderland youth team player ever will to their own club. Let me just put this plainly in numbers;
Excuse me? Im sorry but this is just a plain insult. Jack Colback in 2 appearances alone against Manchester City has done so much in helping get the club in a position where we can hope to be European contenders next season. Also, he is far more mobile than Carroll, playing LB brilliantly despite being a CM by trade. Jordan Henderson was a brilliant gem, winning Sunderland's Young Player of the Year and also making FIFA's list of young players to watch. Now has Mr. Carroll earned himself a spot on a FIFA list? Let me remind you lists like these consist of such players as David de Gea, Alan Dzagoev, Shinji Kagawa and Mats Hummels. In terms of contribution, his versatility allowed him to replace Lee Cattermole when injured in his first full season and he was arguably Sunderland's best player in 2010-11. Very soon, you'll be seeing more talents such as Louis Laing making the step up.
Andy Carroll demanded a transfer fee of 35M. That in itself is a great result for the club, regardless of his on-field performances. Now, let's see who Newcastle United brought in using that 35M from the sale of one player;
Papiss Cisse
Demba Ba (for nothing!)
Hatem Ben Arfa
Yohan Cabaye
Davide Santon
Cheick Tioté
You are slightly overstating this. You yourself have said Demba Ba came for free and Tiote and Ben Arfa came before Carroll's departure. Still, you are attributing an additional 3 players coming in thanks to the sale of Mr. Carroll, and thats... A bit excessive, no? Mr. Henderson was also able to attract 20M from Liverpool, that may be 15M less than Mr. Carroll, but it is still quite a large sum.
Well, that is quite interesting. Six first team players, all of which have been connected to move to bigger clubs this season, were purchased through the sale of one youth team product!
Three.
Speaking of youth team products Mr Krautmeir, you mentioned Tim Krul. The man who has matured into a great goalkeeper this season.
A good goalkeeper I will admit, but his Wigan performance looked like one where the man couldn't really bring himself to dive. Im still a bit confused as to how di Santo managed to score.
Now, you also have, what I must admit, a very solid goalkeeper. Probably your best player in fact, considering that when the 10 outfielders have been typically and predictably terrible, his saves have kept you in the game. But does he come from this fabled youth academy of yours? Noooo...he was signed from Sint-Truiden! And your oft-mentioned example of 'success' by the name of Jordan Henderson is in itself an oxymoron! He has been absolutely awful for Liverpool, at the same level as Stewart Downing, a player so bad that Andy Carroll has looked reasonably good in comparison. Therefore, I think your quaint little grade for your youth academy does not matter so much when the reality is, you are not producing any good players!
Thank you. But the bolded part, once again an insult. James McClean hasn't put a foot wrong since coming in, it is by no means his fault that defenders now double-mark him out of the game. Sebastian Larsson has been totally fantastic, with the exception of the last few games where he was struggling with his hernia, and Stephane Sessegnon... Please, give him the credit that he's due. I've said enough about Colback. The others are by no means terrible, maybe not fantastic, but not terrible. Fair enough, Mignolet hasn't come through our academy, but was I ever questioning that? And how on earth can you blame Henderson? He is young, he's been played out of position, and not only that, he has a huge price tag to live up to. Mr. Carroll did not have to worry about being played as a centre-forward or winger. Let's be fair here, both have had rather disastrous seasons.
And now that, as I expected, Asamoah Gyan has moved permanently to the middle east, now you only have three recognised CFs. Now, you say, Spain proves that recongised strikers are not necessary. This is fine when you have players of Iniesta, Xavi and Fabregas quality, but where is your Cesc Fabregas? Oh yes, this man by the name of Stéphane Sessègnon, who was derided by his former club PSG for his poor performances,
Really? Not only was he voted Player of the Year, but also into the Team of the Year. Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal all came inquiring about his services. Now if that is being 'derided' and is what you call 'poor performance', kindly explain just what exactly something good is? Hatem Ben Arfa running in a straight line and scoring? Alright then.
and decided to replace him with the far more talented Javier Pastore. A smart move by them to offload his excessive salary to bring in a superior young talent.
Haha my friend this is funny! Now then, tell me why PSG with their wealthy owners;
a) wouldn't replace Sessegnon with Pastore, who is 5 years younger than the Benin player
b) would keep Sessegnon in the same team as Pastore if he's just going to moan about the lack of chances
c) pick Sessegnon over Pastore. I'll be brutally honest here, Pastore is by far the bigger name
And now let me ask you something, would you rather have Fabricio Coloccini or Vincent Kompany? Both are excellent players, but the latter edges ahead of the other, and also happens to be younger. Oh, and by the way, I'm pretty sure Pastore's salary is the one you should be calling excessive.
And, might I clarify something, that of the seven major tropies Sunderland has won, only one of them have come in the last 75 years. You must wonder then, why are people still backing a lost cause?
So the FA Cup is not considered a major trophy? That's quite sad. And other than the Intertoto Cup, something which I doubt many people care about, when was the last time Newcastle United won something of importance? The 50s or 60s I would think. When was the last time Newcastle won the top division? The 20s? Hah! Why are people still backing a lost cause indeed!
Btw for some reason a picture of Bardo and O'Shea's been changed to one of Suarez. But don't bother!), so do take a read in case you are bored to such an extent it requires you to read a 13-year old's biased opinion!
We... we had a challenge? I've totally forgotten! What did we bet on?
I... I betted on di Resta? 
Truth be told, that's the only of their recent youth players that has proven to be good enough, others weren't even good enough for the Belgian league.
