James

He has refused Hamburg's orders to return from the Olympics.

KaKa, what makes you so sure it is this Boavista left back, and not another?

Looks like Vincent Kompany is looking for a new club. Any takers?

Not so, Mallorca owned 50% of the financial rights to the player.

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but have good managers like Keegan and Robson bought players with long hair, whereas Dalglish, Gullit, Souness and Roeder have not?

He's injured. Calf iirc.

Well in my eyes we won because we come before them in the alphabet. I never thought of it that way, wow, well done Newcastle! Just a shame we didn't think about this before though, if we were 111Newcastle imagine the possibilities! In my eyes, 110Newcastle would be even better.

Admit it guys, if we had been in Valencia's shoes, we'd all be saying exactly that.

Although I'm pleased with the performances, the scoreline remains 1-0 Valencia in my mind, as Valencia lost their rhythm with the substitutions.

Didn't he say he'd leave the forum if we signed collocini? True to his word, we'll give him that. Maybe his DVD wasn't a porky?

One of the interviews I've seen with Keegan implied that he needed other clubs to get deals done before we could move. Any thoughts?

That's worse though

Thanks.

I'm trying to not be freaked out by your precognitive abilities.

So who actually won then, and what was the score?

So, looking at all the comments: He's two footed Hits a perfect cross every time Good at beating his man Can cut inside or stick outside Hard working Tracks back Passes the ball around well Very fast Intelligent mover off the ball. Anything he can't do?

His dribbling technique isn't textbook, but what does it matter if he continues to beat his man like he has been doing. The fact that he can run either side of a defender at pace scares them, and gives openings to others. Owen should be afforded more space in a 442 as a consequence.

Harper is injured.

Also, the club was touted by Sir John Hall, and a time limit was placed on the deal. Alarm bells surely that a key shareholder wanted out quick.

He'll play that behind closed doors game we've got lined up for Owen. Taiwo too.

Staggered payments for players is often how clubs sign people. What's the problem with having money outstanding on players we bought? It's a question of how much money, though. The larger the sum, the less to spend on players in the present and future. This is quite a considerable amount -- twice Roeder's net spend. I guess SJH could see that Shepherd was running out of financial breathing space. well when we made a 20 million loss after signing luque and owen, you would of thought it was because of the transfer fees, clearly not though we would of went bankrupt without ashley no question in my mind now How do you work that out? A lot of must pay now money was linked to Ashley giving Shep the heave ho. The full interview says that there wasn't much incoming cash flow as all the sponsorship deals had been paid in full up front. So basically the club owed and still owe at least another £27m to other clubs on transfer fees, on top of all the debt that had been accumulated at the bank.

I disagree with the booing. Could have been interpreted as the fans being unhappy and wanting Smith to stay. In future: SELL!SELL!SELL!

Given 6 - Not much to do. Beye 7 - Solid, assisted wing play well Taylor 7 - Rarely threatened by Valencia but did what he needed to do. Cacapa 8 - Thwarted some of Valencia's best moves. N'Zogbia - Defensively 4, offensively 7. Would he be that good offensively though if he didn't get the space typically afforded to a left back? I doubt it. Milner 7 - seemed to enjoy the increased emphasis on flexibility in the side. Well taken goal. Butt 6 - Defensively good, but struggled to generate any tempo. Guthrie 7 - Really keeps the team ticking, and rarely wastes a pass. He slowed down for the first half hour of the second half, and this was reflected in the teams lack of tempo in that period. Needs to keep the pace up. Gutierrez 8 - Combine the best bits of Dyer, Milner and Gillespie, and you get Jonas. Martins 6 - Good to have him back, some good touches and runs at time. However, being the main striker today, his positional discipline wasn't quite there, reducing our threat in the final third. Duff 9 - Like Milner, enjoying the formational flexibility, and really benefitting from it too.

Manuel Fernandes?

442 Duff up front, Gutierrez left.