signed four and five year contracts respectively

.cock

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Answers

So will Harper be off now?

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Tricky one for Harper. Will Given be as fortunate with injuries next season? The additional Euro games mean a strong squad is even more important. How many clubs could he go to who would offer the chance of European football? I would say none.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Good News!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Don't think European football is going to be an issue with Harps. He'll want to go somewhere hes going to be 1st choice, as lets face it he's good enough. Its just a shame for him that he picked up that injury in Feb 2000 as he'd won the jersey on merit then and way ahead of Shay at that time.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

This is great news.

Dyer's signature was pretty much in the bag anyway, but Given's situation was a worry. The ".co.uk" statement indicates that Given's agreement was thrashed out in negotiations over the last 24 hours, during which presumably both sides have made some concessions - otherwise I doubt Shay would have signed ahead of the WC.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Really great news! Woho! Now lets get Distin and Caldwell also

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Crikey Clarky. Almost complimentary . Soon you'll be giving management some credit for this, or are they still a bunch of incompetants? ;-))

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

No, they're all friggin geniuses - at least one of them is anyway, and I'd love to know what part he has played in breaking the log-jam. Perhaps they've realised that negotiating through The Chronicle with players who genuinely want to stay with us anyway doesn't work.

Now let's see some action on Gary Caldwell's situation.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Haven't you twigged yet Clarky ? It was my alzheimers fired tantrum forecasting doom and gloom from now on, that brought this about.

Now all that's left is winning the European Cup, the League, the world class players we're due to sign, and Bobby staying forever.

Credit where credit's due, please, if you don't mind. :-{E}

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

PB - how do you know you're not the "genius" I was referring to?

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Clarky, it would appear that in this instance negotiating in the papers DID work (or at least didn`t hurt)!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Seems strange that we are willing to give dyer 60K a week and not even give Distin an improved offer. Obviously dyer is more important that distin, however distin has never let us down.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

One reason is because we can`t afford to let Dyer get into a Sol Campbell situation and leave for nothing. With Distin we don`t lose anything financially as he wasn`t ours to begin with.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Really excellent news. I'm delighted.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Look, everyone's getting far too positive. ADK's hinted at what's behind al this. Now Given and Dyer are on new contracts, they can be sold at a premium, netting many millions which can then be immediately distributed to DH as share dividends. ;-)

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Just temporary insanity. I'm sure the fear and depression will be back in full force by July. Ya know...after the WC when Dyer and Given start getting those huge offers to move to Italy.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

The scale of these settlements is troubling for the long term future.

Giving in to these agent driven demands for players who do not appear to have real heartfelt committment to the club is a dangerous precedent.

60,000 quid a week for Dyer! On your F##king bike!!

Talk about the tail wagging the dog. Dont these guys realise that the money supply is drying up. GET REAL!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

We NEED Harper. Anyone see the Champions League Final? Anyone see the second-choice to Madrid but internationally rated Casillas come on for an injured Cesar and save the game? Anyone seeing the bloody obvious comparison here?

Bobby should PROMISE Harper some first team football. I'd suggest FA and Worthington's cup games. It would also keep him match sharp should he need to come on for US in next year's CL final :)

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Distin: "never let us down"?

gus or anyone, you got a video of the Southapmton fiasco you could lend out?

ta...

;-)

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

They realise all too well. That's why they're getting it while the going's good.

And can you blame them ? What's good enough for pigs at various other troughs should be good enough for the pigs at the footy trough.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

hey min, be fair if he had a mare on satda it was because of all this stuff doing his head in

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Good point about Harper, SteveT. I didn't realize Casillas was only second choice!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

The keeper in form gets the first-team spot at Madrid. For a while now it's been Cesar. They are both either well-paid enough or mature enough to accept this...

Casillas is going to the world cup but Cesar is not...

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

'scuse me if this has been said before (I'm just catching up after 3 days away). It would appear that Little Kevin is looking to prove his fitness to Sven at the end of the week. Looked OK "walking briskly" across the car park on Look North thi evening.

Anyway - back to the main point. Great news about LKD and Shaymus.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

This has brightened up my Friday morning no end - fantastic news on both their parts. I'm not too worried about the cost as at least it can be budgeted for in advance. What really gets me salivating is the thought of other players now agreeing to join us precisely BECAUSE YKD has put pen to paper and therefore given the club a massive vote of confidence. We really do seem to be going places now. Question is, how far ?

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

PL champs, obviously! :-)

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2002