Bremen are a cut above Hoffenheim, though. I reckon he'll head for the bright lights of Milan.

Cannot for the life of me fathom the logic behind "he's a great player, but his attitude stinks" because believe me the likes of Alan Smith (i.e. crap player, but his attitude's great) will take us down faster than a moody French International footballer would.

It's looking a little shaky. Doesn't seem to be any substance to any of the better rumours we see, and I can't imagine that Campbell and Gosling are the difference between life & death in this league. We'll need to get some points before their Xmas return - so we need more players, desperately. Robbie Savage, in his infinite wisdom, reckons we're 5 players short of surviving.

I'd go with that, we need a striker, a winger, a full back, a centre back and a midfielder.

Even Danny Simpson when he returns isn't up to it, i'd say he is on par with Perch, we also have no cover for Jose, who was horrific on Monday.

Smith, Guthrie and Nolan aren't top flight centre midfielders, of that there can be no arguement, i'm not even convinced Barton is anymore.

Routledge has already proven to be a class below Premier League with other clubs and Jonas doesn't create anywhere near enough.

Collocini was horrific in his first Premier League season, i can't see that being any different this season, Campbell is like 55 or something and i'm concerned that playing in a team that will be spending the majority of games under serious pressure he will be exposed. Williamson i'm happy to give a chance to but he couldn't get in the Pompey side so i'm not confident that he is up to it either, i never thought i'd say it but we are desperate for Taylor back.

Up front we have nothing Carroll is ok but thats it, he is the slowest striker i've seen, with the lack of creativity we have in the middle, he is going to do nothing, we need a quick player up with him, or playing where Nolan played on Monday, this is a major concern.

Birmingham are looking to give Matt Derbyshire a route back into English football by offering him a loan move from Olympiakos. (Mirror)

So Toon missed their chance.
It would be just typical if he played on Sat and scored the winner against Rovers.

The Mirror were a bit late with that one, he completed the move yesterday

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11694_6316364,00.html

A little over-negative. We can't equate Premier League calibre with Manchester United calibre - remember the likes of Blackburn, Birmingham and Fulham will probably easily survive.

I think some of those players aren't that bad. At our level, I'm happy enough with Danny Simpson, Wayne Routledge, Barton, Colo, Jonas, Guthrie and Jose Enrique - and I'm not judging anyone on the Man U game. Carroll's also good enough, as is S. Taylor, Harper, Williamson & Lovenkrands right now and I'm still hopeful for Ranger, Vuckic and Kadar. All in all, we've got 13 players who could, with a following wind and no injuries, keep us up. Of course it's nowhere near enough, but can Blackpool, West Brom, West Ham, Wigan boast any different? I don't think they can, so a lot falls onto the manager.

If we play 4-5-1, however, I think we're in a for a world of hurt with the current personnel, because Smith stays as DM, Nolan as AM, Guthrie as backup for Barton. The first two aren't Prem players, too much emphasis on Barton. Be nice to see a better tactic than that, but not sure Chris has it in him.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-u...72703-27085905/?

Got to love the positivity in this. Ben Arfa looks unlikely, so does Weiss, some lad called Keita isn't coming for trial, and interest in Far has cooled considerably. And all with 13 days left.

Can see another Rossi/Gonzalez style fuck-up.

The Rossi one would be good if it meant getting in a player like Sibierski aswell

Pretty funny as well.

Agreed. Fecking starting to think we're getting no-one tbh. I understand the need to be frugal but surely with BA we could have put up the c£6m that OM were after as our net spend has basically been nothing this entire summer. I buy into the pay off your debts/run sustainably model but as I think someone said on here surely the guy would be worth 6 points over the season at worst which could be the difference between us staying up?

Every day the same shite. Why am I not more suprised?

If that article is right when they say Ben Arfa wants more than his present £52k per week salary at Marseille, then we shouldn't even touch him.

Transfer window time always brings you out in your moaniest colours.

Every time, guaranteed. No matter what I do, once mid-August hits, I'm top-to-toe in blue...

What's your take? Feelings for the season?

Milner completes move to Man City for around £26m with Stephen Ireland going in the other way.

Ludicrous deal.

As long as we had a sell on clause I'm happy with it

Would that mean we get x% of Stephen Ireland too?

very good deal for Villa I think. I like Ireland as a player, easily 5m+ for him alone. Villa have got 30m upwards for a player who proberly is only worth 15m, max.

Ireland's a very under-rated player in my opinion. I'd have him in the toon starting team anyday. Don't think Villa as loosing much player wise with that swap.

don't think we did have a sell on clause in that deal big un

Which we've discussed many times, and no, we don't.

And are you sir privy to the contents of the terms of sale to Aston Villa or is thios merely conjecture again

Agreed, I was saying a while back we should have gone for both ireland and the little waster

I think we'll scrape it.

Any 1 of 10 teams could easily go down this season, but I think we will stay up OK

I think the only reason Williamson never got a look in at Pompey was because of the financial shit they found themselves in, if they had played him then they had to pay more money to Watford based on appearances.

It's a shame that he isn't mentally stable.

Ireland + around £20million. I think Villa have done really well out of this, that £20million (if Lerner wants to reinvest it) could bring in at least 2 or 3 decent players.

I have a funny feeling though that City are not finished yet, if Given leaves, I expect them to go for a big name goalie, probably Buffon.

Very quiet for us today, looks like Weiss is going to Rangers on loan and nothing more on Ben Arfa, which i think is all but dead now.

Massive concern really, i fear that by the time people realise how deep the shit we are in is, the window will be shut and we all know the January window is rip off central, so this could effectively be the squad that takes us down

Oh shut up you minge!

Minge!!

However, sounds like Hughton's going to whimper his "frustrated" way to the end of the transfer window, then begin his rallying of the fans by insisting "we've got what we've got and I believe it's more than enough to survive this season".

Got to love/hate the fact that West Brom's alleged £3m - yup, that's three million pounds - bid for Cheick Tiote is enough to blow us out the water! It's all just rumour, but nowt this Summer has been terribly positive.

I've never heard of this guy. What makes you think we were even interested in him?

I think we have enough quality to stay up - just, but the lack of depth is certainly a cause for concern.

The lack of cover at left back was raised by Keegan and still has not been addressed. We are weak on the right and, unless Barton can re-discover some form, we are seriously lacking creativity in midfield.

We are also desperately lacking pace up front, unless Ranger or Vuckic get a run out. Hughton's faith in Nolan scares me

I do feel harsh with my criticsm of Nolan as he did have a massive hand in getting us promoted, i'd almost be tempted to play him as a holding midfielder with Barton, instead of Smith, Guthrie and whoever else Hughton decides to play.

I also want to see Vukic given a decent go, if he doesn't get a look in this season he will be another in a long line of good youngsters who never got a chance.

Minge, hahaha :)

Hughton's just not a risk taker. Suits Ashley in that regard. Can't see Vuckic getting a run out, because we'll either be against someone unsuitable - the top 6 - or in a "must win". The League Cup offers one chace, but even that's only 8 games max.

Cheap, DM, smaller club, scouts in Holland watching this team. Just guesswork, but we've got to be interested in somebody?

Amidst all this talk about a new striker, centre-mid etc, who is going to play on the wings if/when Gutierrez or Routledge get injured/knackered?

As for our defence, I think it's pretty good. That saud, I'm not fully convinced about Simpson and we don't have cover at left-back unless Kadar can play there? Our centre-backs are decent and won't be facing Rooney, Berbatov, Nani etc every week.

Also in central midfield, I'd expect Guthrie/Barton alongside Nolan, who unfortunately won't be dropped. I know Guthrie gets a lot of criticism, but I reckon he's a good player tbh when played in the correct position. I checked the statistics and he got the third most assists in the Championship last year (Routledge second, but Guthrie had Newcastle's most assists). I think his delivery has improved a lot and he would make goals for Carroll to head in.

R. Taylor and Danny Guthrie are cover, I guess. I think the defence is adequate, not necessarily good. Where a LB comes from, God only knows. Kadar can play there, but then Gutierrez "can" play at RB - doesn't mean he's any good at it.

Nolan just isn't a CM. I'm not entirely sure what he is - some kind of poacher, or something? I don't really know, but there's just not enough to his game at this level, I don't think. He's definitely 1st choice, though - alongside Barton and probably Smith. In a traditional 4-4-2, I reckon Barton and Guthrie are first choice with a more traditional Carroll/Lovenkrands combo up top.

The lack of cover is astonishing, though. Quite how RB, CB and CM were priorities (Perch, Campbell, Gosling) is absolutely beyond me, particularly when all 3 aren't exactly proven Premiership quality. We have to assume it's tough out there and clubs just aren't in a selling place. On top of that, we're chasing average loanees and as a result can't guarantee a starting berth, so players like Cleverley and Welbeck just aren't interested. Hughton's body language when talking about it seems to me like he's conceded defeat already and I'd personally be surprised if one player got signed, never mind the much-touted 3. I think Newcastle in particular have generally been poor in transfer windows, with very little forethough ever seeming to have gone into player scouting. Hughton himself saying before the WC that the tournament might throw up one or two gems struck me as odd, as a team in our position can't enter into negotiations for World Cup stars and should surely instead be trying to secure deals for the likes of Joe Ledley, Ashley Williams, K-P Boateng, et al.

I hear what they're saying, but how hard can it actually be?

They may have decided he wasn't good enough.

Yep. They may also have decided £3m is too much. They may have been after a loan, which is of little value to a club with severe financial difficulty. Who knows? All I can do is assume the worst.

Question now is - was it all truth from the start? Was all that "we've got fuck all to spend" actually the truth? I fear it was. The only moves we've definitely been involved in have been free's and loan's.

Aw, shit. We are fucked, aren't we?

No.

Didn't a lot of people think we'd struggle last year? I think we did alright in the end!

I don't think we are as fucked as Roland is thinking, but we definatley not buying players with money - only loans left now me thinks. I think that our saving grace this year will be that there are 3 teams shitter, a bit like how Hull survived when we were relegated.

When we went up, I genuinely thought we'd be ok. But I assumed we'd pick up the left back we needed and bring in at least two players who were capable of playing in the Premiership. We've got at best half a season out of both Campbell and Gosling, with the only other addition being a backup RB to arguably our worst player in Danny Simpson. Thing is, with R. Taylor we already HAD a backup RB, so the only outlay has been, in my mind, a waste of money.

So many of these players looked ok or better in the Championship, but only a handful really stood out - Carroll, Jonas, Taylor, Colo, Enrique. Only one of these has really done anything at the top level, the other four have struggled. There's a huge onus on Barton to perform, and Guthrie/Routledge to somehow fulfil promise. There's just not been that 2 or 3 signings to really boost the dressing room, take the pressure off, add that spark of creativity that might be the difference at 0-0 against a plucky Blackpool.

If you or I look at Campbell, Gosling, Perch and are left pretty nonplussed, then I can't see how it's got the pulses flowing in the dressing room - they're all human, they all know Perch is average, Gosling's knackered and Campbell is slow.

Realistically we're hoping that we scrape a few points and avoid demoralisation while we wait for Sol, Taylor and Gosling to regain fitness

Not forgetting Best!

William Gallas to have medical at Spurs tomorrow...

Campbell all over again...?

We are top of the league
http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_pre...njury_table.php

Latest instalment of bollocks:

Nicky Maynard - the striker from Bristol City who did us damage last year

Christian Rebeiro - a 20-year-old Welsh left-back also from Bristol City

Maarten Martens - Dutch attacking midfielder from AZ Alkmaar

L'OM have signed Remy, which would make Ben Arfa more available.

L'OM are now saying they don't mind loaning him out to us, but they want a buy out clause if we stay up...

L'OM president doing his best to act as French as possible. It's all YOUR fault, NUFC.

Not sure what to make of that - I think it's feasible to put in a clause that says if he plays in x amount of games and we stay up, then we buy him. But not just we'll buy him if we stay up. Similarly, I don't think we should be absolutely refusing the clause.

Should be a clause that he plays a certain amount of games and we stay up as a compromise - say 15 games and staying up?!

30 including sub appearances, injury not withstanding, and first option to buy either way.

Seems fucking obvious to me, got to question NUFC, surely?

Think the issue is is that MA doesnt want to spend any money (unless its on a player of the same quality we already have and in a position we have options in, hello Mr Perch) so he won't want such clauses. Its the usual tactic of "look, we are trying to BUY a player in order to appease our fans, but we dont intend on actually buying anyone"