And this week's prize for pedantry goes to .......

Nothing pedantic about it, your point is completely irrelevant to the stats Tris posted when you take the 5 goals thing into account.

Michael Owen might have the best statistics but if he only had 3 chances all season and scored once it doesn't mean that much compared to someone who scored 10 out of 30 chances

Which is why the list is for players who have more than 5 goals.

I'm sure LeChuck and Rev have turned down or never asked for a raise (and are still ignorant enough to forget the fact that it was Hughes' decision not to sell him when he was given 18 months notice that Lucas didn't want to re-sign).

People move employers all of the time. I've been at the same place for 9 years, but I'd be a liar if I said I've never looked at what else is out there in terms of money or opportunity.

Football isn't just any old job though, is it? I don't really know how you can watch football if you view it like that.

If 30,000 people were paying £30+ to watch you do your job every week and indirectly paying your wages, you'd feel the need to be more loyal than in a regular job, wouldn't you?

I can't be arsed discussing this any further, I have a feeling you're on the wind-up as seems to be norm with your posts nowadays.

Both Richards and Zabaleta are far better right backs, and Onuoha is probably about as good as him. At least one of those will have to leave surely, just seems like a bit of needless disruption to me...especially if it's one of the home-grown lads, they'll surely be more loyal to the cause than Lucash.

figures

That's probably the only question Lucash asked before signing on the dotted line.

Neil announced he was going to leave then worked his jacksy off til he did. Yes it was about cash but don't accuse him of not putting a shift in.

I didn't.

I can accuse him of being rash and error prone though.

Not really he just wants to stay at his current pay level.

Michael Owen to name another.........

Owen is going to drop down from £120,000 to £50,000 if reports are to be believed. That's between £15,000-£20,000 less than what Lucash is trying to get. He doesn't deserve to be at his current pay level, he should know that and appreciate that West Ham have been massively overpaying him for years. Instead he's trying to make sure they get £0 return on their investment in him. He's the most classless player in the league bar none, I can't stand him.

I actually think he'll end up signing a new contract there when he realises no-one else is stupid enough to pay him that money, unless City come in and match it, although personally I don't see why they need a right back with Richards and Zabaleta already there.

Thats unfair and incorrect, Neill has been chasing a new contract for 12 months, unfortunately West Ham's future isn't sorted so that has clouded the matter, not to mention he is currently £20K overpaid per month......

He's chasing another insanely high contract. Man City are the only club in the league who would pay the wages he's after.

Not anymore like in the days of MacManaman and Campbell...seems to be becoming pretty standard these days.

It's still rare in England for players not approaching the end of their careers to do it. Hasn't happened to us since, can't think of any other clubs it's happened to with players they wanted to hang to either.

Ah Lucash - refusing to sign a new contract so he can force one club or another to throw £££s at him. Some things never change.

Players deliberately running their contracts down is a pretty rare thing, but for him to pull the same stunt twice is quite something, especially as he was club captain in both scenarios. Can't think of anyone else that has done it.

I'm not naive enough to think money isn't a huge factor for every footballer, but Neill really is on another level.

Do you know if there's a menu online for El Rincon, Tris? Googled but can't find anything. I keep meaning to go to a good tapas bar and I still haven't got round to it - being a non-meat eater I must research places in advance though.

What? That changes it then...

How DARE he cash in on his own abilities? What a rotter!

You do not hear about people in other walks of life working for the company that pays them the most now do you?

The point is that Neill was quite happy to see us get nothing when he left so that he could line his own wallet. We were very fortunate that West Ham had that crazy January where they started paying obscene wages to average players.

Very similar to the way Neill left in fact. I wonder if it's revealed that he's going to double his salary that Ooijer will suddenly become a greedy grabbing barsteward not fit to wear the shirt etc etc.

At 34 Ooijer isn't worth anything in terms of transfer fees, that wasn't the case at all with Neill, who deliberately let his contract run down so he could cash in on the extra money bosman players usually get. Ooijer is hardly doing it for the money, is he?

I suspect you knew the difference all along though.

Ah...but a guy who produced some of the Portishead albums produced the new one, so maybe he should be taking the credit.

They're in Manchester 1st June by the way, so chances are I might get there first.

About £7 I think, but there are quite a few bands I wouldn't mind going to watch and I don't have money/time to do them all. I think it's the fact that they went from that pretty awful first album to this that makes me feel uncomfortable, if this was their debut I'd have less problem liking it. I must admit I really like Sea Within a Sea, played it a lot a couple of months back.

I thought we definitely had our money's worth out of him.

If we signed him back in the days when we were pretty well financed I'd totally agree. But because we operate on a shoestring we can't afford to buy a player for millions knowing they're going to walk away for nothing in a few years. It's impossible to sustain being a Premier League club like that unless we get continue to get a Duff/Bentley fee every few years to compensate. Very dangerous game to assume that will happen though.

A solid player for us over the years, settled in well after initially looking shaky. He played with an excellent attitude, perhaps the biggest shame is that he never got an injury free run in his favoured position.

The only downside is his transfer fee - £2 million too much. Barring a 'rabbit out of the hat' signing, we're a bit screwed in terms of replacing him. Still that Hughes' fault and not Ooijer's. Cheers André, I hope you get a decent send off in the midst of Tugay-fever - you deserve it.

Considering going to see them in Manchester's Ruby Lounge next month too. I just don't know if I can take it seriously or not yet, it's too similar to things like Joy Division for me to feel comfortable about liking it.

Some rules have to be clear. Personally I have nothing wrong with this one.

Red for deliberate, yellow for everything else?

I find it difficult to understand why the law says someone should be sent from the field and face a ban for something they might not have done on purpose.

I'm still puzzled as to why he has to be sent off. Makes a genuine attempt to win the ball. Whether he wins it or not it was nothing mallicious, nor was he deliberately attempting to win the ball by foul means.

"Denies a clear goal scoring opportunity"........ tell me, what's a penalty if not a clear goal scoring opportunity?

There's nothing about intent or malice in the rules though, it's just whether it was a clear goal-scoring opportunity or not.

I totally agree with your last point by the way, I don't think players should be sent off when a penalty is also awarded...it's almost like being punished twice. I know a lot of referees don't agree with it either, but unfortunately they have to follow the rules as they are written.

I'm not really sure what they could sack him for. They probably could have sacked him when he went to prison, but I'm 99% sure they couldn't use that as an excuse 12 months later on. Being sent off against Liverpool certainly isn't enough to sack him for...and he hasn't really done much else.

The only way I can see him leaving is if it's a 'mutual' agreement...by which I mean Newcastle will have to pay him something to leave.

If we had something in the contract to protect ourselves from such an event, and even less severe cases like FA bans, how would you feel about his signing then Rev?

Genuine question there...I think I've been being sarcastic for so long I've forgotten how to word genuine things properly.

I was playing Devil's advocate Fife (not that this thread really needed it to spark debate!).

Here's an article from back in October. He does sound genuinely sorry there, although we all know how cheap words are. All he's really done wrong since then is to get sent off and have a shout about Shearer being a bad manager. I guess you could argue that shows his 'role model' bit was a lie though.

Well...if we're talking morals, you could argue it's a bad reflection on us that the vast majority are against employing an ex-convict who should be considered to have already been punished for their mistakes...

For example, Fletcher's tackle last night. The ref should have given a penalty (as he saw it) but NO card.

Yellow cards should be for persistent fouling or a one-off bad challenge (in old fashioned terms "a caution") and a red card for violent conduct or a really cynical foul.

That's just not true though, the referees have to go by the letter of the law, and this is what it says:

"Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick"

The wrong decision was giving a penalty because it was a very good tackle, but if the referee deems it a foul then he has to send the player off. A penalty but no red wasn't an option in that situation.

If we sign Barton I will not put a penny in to the rover`s coffers until he is gone. I will not fund paying that yob to play football anywhere never mind at Ewood.

Do you subscribe to Sky or Setanta by any chance?