ohmelads

He is lightyears ahead of Martins technically, that's true. Much better creatively with more vision as well. But Martins is way ahead of him in goalscoring, pace, strength, shooting, dribbling, and last but not least he's much younger. Bottom line is, Martins will get you far more goals and force defenders to sit back due to his pace, but he'll lose the ball and frustrate you as well. Gudjohnsen will sit deep and ensure more possession and will create more goals, but won't score as much. All depends what we need more. I'm a big Gudjohnsen fan, but he doesn't score nearly enough goals and I think Mourinho had the right idea when he played him in attacking midfield where he can use his touch, vision and creativity to set up others. I'd be happy enough playing him there ourselves, but I wouldn't want to lose Martins to get him. I think in a 4-3-3 both could play in the same team.

Heinze is much better defensively, but Riise is better going forward. Overall I think Heinze is the more talented player, but Riise was better and played more last season, and Riise is two years younger. Frankly I wouldn't care, both would be brilliant for us. I have no reason to believe Liverpool will sell Riise though. It'd be easier to agree a fee for Heinze, but the major job would be convincing him to take a big step down to us.

Seems we've been chasing this guy forever. It's taken a lot longer than any of the other deals to reach any sort of conclusion. O-Nut is right though, I don't know Marseille's financial position, but they'll lose Beye for nothing in a year so £3M for a player about to turn 30 maybe doesn't look too bad in their eyes. And if you read the quotes he is basically saying it's up to the club, I'm here to stay if you want me. If he really wanted to stay with Marseille he would sign an extended deal, he's their captain after all.

Gudjohnsen is more creative, Martins will get you more goals. Depends what we need at the moment. Martins spent much of last season having to do the work of two strikers, or playing alongside the ineffective Sibierski. We saw the best and the worst of him, but after a year in England and playing in a better team with a couple of actual strikers alongside him (rather than Sibierski, Dyer etc) I think we'll see more from him. As much as I'm a fan of Gudjohnsen, I'm dying to see what Martins can do in a proper football team. At times he was devastating for Inter Milan.

I think Chopra might bang in a few goals for a promoted side, but £5M is ridiculous and sums up the kind of summer this is.

Says on an old BBC article that as a young player Beye had a trial with Boro and was offered a contract, but turned it down. Good to see the lad already knows the score

I'd be a bit worried about our workrate up front with Anelka and Viduka, espescially when Viduka, Owen and Ameobi are all troubled with injuries. I'd rather have Gudjohnsen despite the lack of pace. If we're playing 4-5-1 and need pace we can always bring in Zoggy, Duff, Dyer, and Owen's still quick enough. As for Martins not suiting Arsenal, I disagree. Their players all have a fantastic first touch which is probably Oba's biggest weakness, but they're also a side built on movement and the kind of space and through balls Martins would find, he could be a real problem for defences. Bear in mind their side is miles more creative than the one we had last season and their coaches would drill him well in their counter-attacking game. If there's one club where I'm pretty sure Martins would be a hit, it's Arsenal. What he lacks in delicate touch he makes up for in pace, dribbling, power and shooting. With the way Arsenal counter-attack like bullets he'd be in his element.

Strange one that, been an open secret for a while though. I actually have the feeling he'll do really well there, pissing off the catalans in the process.

Probably a fair reflection given the injury problems Woodgate has had mind. Even when we bought him he was injured wasn't he? If Woody could play as many games as Rio and Leeds had got shot of him at the same time (ie not when they were deeper in crisis and desperate for the cash) he would have cost much, much more.

It's one of those summers. It reminds me of 2001 and 2002 when Rio Ferdinand was bought for £30M and we paid £8.5M for Viana. You also had teams like Villa paying £9.5M for Juan Pablo Angel while Real splashed £47M on Zidane, still the record. Things cooled down for a couple of years but now a few clubs are flashing the cash and everyone is raising their asking price. As a few years ago, some clubs will get what they paid for, others will get their fingers badly burnt. We did well to get in early and get a few cheap and proven signings like Viduka, Barton and Geremi, I think the Roeder approach would have left us buggered this summer. For the moment I'm glad we're not the ones taking a gamble on Bent at £16.5M or Torres at £25M.

Looking ominous like. As Gejon mentioned, £13M isn't all that much in the current transfer market. Crazy prices flying about at the moment. I don't see a long list of potential replacements either. Gudjohnsen - could we get him? Anelka - decent shout but how much would he cost? Babel - unproven. I wouldn't want us to lose Martins and then try and save face by getting a trophy signing like Raul for a big fee and massive wages. I could take it if we brought in Gudjohnsen or Anelka, but I'd rather just keep him.

They're only saying that news is expected on three signings this week. Sounds like we're basically negotiating over 3 players and it could go either way at this point. Beye sounds like a done deal. I'd like to think Heinze and Deco are the other two, though we'll probably find out it's Queudreu and some random guy from FC Copenhagen!

I think he's average, but for his age he's pretty good. In a better defence I think we'll see a much better Steven Taylor this season, he might make the step up. I do think he has potential to go all the way and become a top centre back, he just needs guidance. Some players have it all upstairs like Woodgate, others are a bit rough around the edges like Taylor and can take a bit longer. It makes a world of difference playing in a steady back four, something he's never had. I remember this site pointed out we had 33 different back four combinations last season, surely more than anyone in the league. It'll also help having a couple of decent full backs and hopefully a decent partner for him. Playing for a shaky back four manned by different people every week is no recipe for success. His development will come on this season I reckon.

.com now saying: "And we understand that interest in 29 year-old Brazilian-born Portuguese international Deco persists, despite an absence of published updates so far this week."

I'd take Boulahrouz is he's going on the cheap. He didn't have the best of first seasons and made one or two high profile blunders playing out of position which ruined his reputation. But he also put in some excellent performances, like the one against Barcelona. You can see he's a good defender. He never got a run of games in central defence at Chelsea, but whoever does could be onto a bargain.

I don't think it's any coincidence that both Duff and Luque and to a lesser extent N'Zogbia have all shown they can do it at the top level in football but have all lost their way here. Anyone who plays football knows how hard and how frustrating it can be when you're playing for a poor side. As a winger you don't get the ball when you want it, you spend far more time in your own half where you're less effective, and when you do get the ball at your feet you feel the need to try and make things happen on your own and can end up losing it repeatedly. These sound like poor excuses, but we should really ask ourselves why so many players who have come in and out of the team have struggled to find any form and yet the only players to come out of last season with any credibility were those who got extended runs in the side, namely Taylor, Solano, Butt, Milner and Martins. When N'Zogbia was a fixture in the side he was flying. Duff and Luque have never been a permanent fixture. When Luque came and totally underperformed, everyone put it down to him coming from Spain and not adapting. Then Duff came and he too totally underperformed, and everyone said he's finished. The guy was 27 when people labelled him 'finished'! I think too many people are looking for an instant solution, we've got some talented players here in the likes of Zoggy, Duff, Dyer and yes even Luque, and finally a manager who prides himself on getting the best out of these types of players rather than throwing money at the problem. Now I'm not one to hail Allardyce as the new saviour, but I do think he's a decent manager with his head screwed on. The way Luque wasn't even given reserve games would never have happened under Sam, nor would the treatment of N'Zogbia as a squad player after he was one of our players of the season. It'll be interesting to see how he handles our trio of underperforming but undoubtedly talented left wingers.

He might be a bit of a d*ck when he's dropped, but so are a lot players in the Premiership when they're benched week-in, week-out. He's still very young, he may mature, he may not. But to suggest we give up on him after one good season and one bad season disrupted by injury and after the loss of his father at a young age, would really sum up Newcastle's youth development. N'Zogbia has a touch of class about him and represents one of the few examples of proper foreign Wenger-style scouting this club has conducted. To let him go and develop into a decent or even very good winger somewhere else,just because we dropped him and he whinged, would reinforce our reputation as a poor destination for any aspiring young player.

I'd be absolutely gutted if we lost him.

"Top stopper" does not imply a defender about to hit 30 who has spent his entire career in the French league. Then again, this is the same chronicle who write stuff like "... and Newcastle defensive ace Peter Ramage insists that ..."

I'm worried if we lose Oba we won't be able to get Gudjohnsen or whoever else to replace him. I don't see a great deal of realistic options out there to replace Martins.

Don't think it helped that English clubs were banned from playing in Europe in exactly the years you're talking about. Though I agree with your general point. What has happened to football is just pure capitalism. If you have something which is in high demand you're going to get rich, and Premier League football is in higher demand than it was 10 years ago, there are now people watching and buying shirts from every corner of the planet, the marketting potential of players has soared. They know what they're worth, and if you don't pay them their cut they'll find someone else who will.

Barcelona will want a replacement before selling Deco, so striking a deal with the club will probably hinge on whether they can get Lampard, which I don't think they will. And even if they do get Lampard, Deco would probably travel in the other direction and join up with his old boss Mourinho. Barca clearly aren't too confident they'll get Lampard now, and I doubt Deco is too happy that they've been looking to replace him, hence stories about Barca now offering Deco the vice captaincy to keep him sweet. Must admit this one is looking dead in the water unless Barca can sign Lampard, Fabregas or someone like that.

Tuesday's Daily Telegraph mention this in their Heinze article: "Newcastle have privately played down speculation linking them with Barcelona midfielder Deco and Real Madrid striker Raul, but their interest in Heinze is more concrete."

Wouldn't worry yet, it only broke this morning as a bit of an ITK story from nufc.com and the Journal after NOTW suggested it last night. Just as importantly we haven't had anyone putting the story down either. I expect we'll hear something either way tomorrow, a 'wide of the mark' or something to get excited about.

Let's face it, why would Shepherd and Allardyce fly over to Barcelona if we were just trying to sign Edmilson or Gudjohnsen? Neither are big enough for that IMO. There was talk of Giuly coming from his agent, but I'm not quite sure I believe that, seeing as we haven't targetted any other wingers and have loads already. I believe we probably are in for Deco, whether we'll get him or not is another matter. Also, just because nufc.com weren't perfectly right about Figo, they never said he would sign, just that the story had substance. Truth is we probably were in for Figo, but once Inter declared their interest we had no chance. It doesn't mean .com haven't got it right loads of other times, like when the Emre deal looked in doubt and they reassured everyone it'd definitely go through, which it did. They're more cautious nowadays, as they know their power to start false rumours and know they could end up with egg on their faces. They've already laughed at Oliver over Edmilson and had to back-track, I don't think they want to discredit themselves again. They've obviously heard something. Common sense tells me Deco is staying put, but I believe that the club are trying and with the money at their disposal, we might pull something off.