Breaking headlines....... A million pound bid by Crystal Palace has been accepted by Newcastle United for Wor Bartinho. It is believed that the Ex England defender has been offered a player / Coaching role at the London club. Barton has been omitted from the squad to face Bolton tommorow. .....

More on this story when we have it .....This is Rik for bbs news, back to the studio.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Answers

A bsolute P ants !

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

For an MBE no doubt

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

I'd be amazed if Palace could afford a million pence...

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

This and Lee's transfer request, have I died and gone to heaven?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

We've plenty of right backs to take Bartons place, but not much quality in the centre of the pitch. It'll be interesting to see if any of the youngsters step up into the senior team if Lee goes.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Which right backs exactly, Rik? The only real rightback is Griffin who is injury-prone and not at his peak yet plus various stand-ins. If for injury reasons Hughes and O'Brien are the only fit CHs, who would you replace an injured Griffin with?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

.....while you're on Rik, just remind me who the young players are that are going to replace Rob Lee?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Griffin and Hughes can both play Barton's position...IF we had injuries to both of them or IF we had injuries in Central Defence that required Hughes to cover we'd just have to sort out someone else to play there....I know our injury record is appalling but we surely don't need 3 players for every position?

Clarky, we've plenty of players who can play central midfield instead of Rob Lee (Speed, Acuna and BadAss to name but 3)....Yes Lee is playing better than most of them at the moment but it CANNOT last, we either need to get rid of him or give him another lucrative contract and rely on him....wouldn't his salary be best spent on someone else now?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

I think you've answered the question yourself Dougal. Griffin is a tremendous tallent and should be given the chance to get an extended run in the team. As for the VARIOUS STAND IN's ., we have six that spring to mind ALL of who I wouuld play ahead of Barton. Hughes, O'Brien, Steve Caldwell, all of whom might get a game in a position that they could easily make thier own. There's also McGuffie, Gary Calwell and David Beharall in the reserves. I think right back is the easiest position for a defender (right footed) to play in and as long as Barton is at the club, the seven younsters mentioned wont get a look in.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

For once Gav seems to agree with me. As for the youngsters Clarky, you go to more reserve games than me, What about Stuart Green , Brian Kerr and Pedro Dimas, if none of these are any good, why do we bother with a reseve team?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Gav,

Don't get me wrong: i) if we can get £1mm for WB we should grab it - can't see it mind. ii) we MUST find a replacement for RL - something I've been saying for atleast two seasons now. However unpalatable, the current problem we have is that Rob is still by far our best central m/f player. Bassedas is not good enough by some distance, and if we come to rely on him it will end in tears. Acuna & Speed would also not be a good enough combination for the PL. Unfortunately, there are no younger players who could come into this equation. IMHO, the only answer is to buy an effective replacement - something that must be done before we release Rob Lee.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Rik, Steve Caldwell couldn't play rightback with a gun to his head and his brother shouldn't be experimented with. There will be times when Hughes and O'Brien have to play at CH, then we'll only have Griff who may be injured given his usual form. Furthermore, do you really think the likes of Hughes will be happy to be our supersub "I'll play anywhere, Guv" for that much longer? We need another rightback.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

With the biggest barrier to squad improvement being that wages and transfer funds have to be within a particular budget, Rob Lee has been a stubborn problem for 3 years now. He is apparently on 26k/week which must come to a good 1.5mil a year with bonuses. He signed his 4 year deal just before Dalglish left which has cost us 6mil in wages. Had we paid 4mil at the time for a decent youngster on 15k/week we would have spent 7mil over the same period....1mil down but with years in hand.

Overly-generous player contracts like this cause nothing but bother. We need to get ruthless. B*gger the loss of transfer-fee recuperation, no player should be given a contract which takes him the wrong side of 30.

Rob Lee may be our most useful midfielder at present, but that's a self-fulfilling prophecy so long as his wages prevent us from signing a replacement.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

....you make an excellent point Softie. However, the bottom line right now is that we desperately need to buy an effective replacement for RL - and also offload another significant wage burden in Christian Bassedas.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Part of the deal when we signed Bartinho was that we had to pay Wimbledon and extra lump sum if we actually won anything - I think this may have been as much as £500,000. Given that we're almost certain to pick up at least 2 trophies this year it is imperative that we get rid quickly. Anything over £75,000 should be accepted without hesitation.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Softie, if it's true that Lee's on 26k a week NO ONE WILL TOUCH HIM.

We might as well get used to the fact that he'll remain with us for the rest of the season.

So the panics over Clarky.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

He may take a pay cut for a longer contract and there are no doubt clubs that would pay him close to that, bearing in mind he'll be more or less free.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

I think we are over estimating Mr Lee just a tad.

Only the likes of West Ham, Charlton , Leicester and Derby will want a player like Lee, and I can't see any of them going over a million a year for a 36 year old average midfielder.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Lee is bound to go to Man City. I'm sure KK has had a word with him by now.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

That's illegaal though. KK would never tap up players from other clubs.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

If he gets a 2 year contract for 15k/week it beats our offer of 1 year even if we kept him at 26k/week (which is highly unlikely). His worry at this age is that he picks up knocks and doesn't get kept on .... a bit like is happening now and the same as happened with Gallacher. Once he is a genuinely free agent things actually get a bit tougher as he doesn't get the exposure and he'll end up happy to take 3k/week at Livingstone if they'll have him. This way he is getting maximum exposure of his desire to find employment which wouldn't be the case if he found himself like Glass and Gallacher trying to find anyone who would have them.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

£26k / week is bloody expensive, I would have thought he would be on half of that.

How do you find out players' wages? Surely it's not publicly available?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

It was the amount told me by someone in a position to know. Bearing in mind that that was his third contract with us, signed at the peak of wage inflation due to the Bosman ruling, at a time when he was captain and still at his best and under the guidance of a manager who was so generous that he signed Andersson, I'm sure it must be the correct figure. Don't forget that Shearer renegotiated his contract at the same time to the tune of 40k/week and he had only been with us 2 seasons and had spent most of one of them on the sick. It seemed prudent at the time to tie up your key personnel to long term, generous contracts to stop them walking on free transfers.

Having problems with vision at your football club? Try new Hindsight. 100% satisfaction or your money back. See in store for details.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

I wouldn't be surprised if wanting to keep playing football at a high level has a lot to do with it. He knows that next season out of contract as we've said he'll be out the news. I wouldn't say this is purely about money and not a little about pride.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Palace have denied any interest in Wogsie (according to The Geordie Beano). That's three managers now in just over a week who don't seem to want him - Glen Roeder, Steve Bruce and YBR ;-)

Roll up, roll up. Kick Wogsie while he's down. Take as many cheap shots as you like. :-(

-- Anonymous, October 14, 2001