James

preferes to hold a deep position....does that mean he works like a good midfielder should ? Well Argentina were assaulting the opposition penalty area and he was stood 35 yards out holding his hips.

Two footed, played a brilliant cross for Tevez with his left vs Australia. Can see why he can't get into Argentina team regularly though, what with him not being as good as Messi. However, casual jogging style reminds me of Luque, and when he isn't involved in wing play, it looks like he prefers to hold quite a deep position, which means he isn't much of a goal threat compared to other wingers.

Is there a possibility that we've pissed off Mallorca so badly that they'll cancel our pre-season trip?

There is of course the possibilty that we've pissed Mallorca off so badly that we'll get kicked out of their tournament

Was probably part of the deal; which suggests that it's been going on for a while. And neither us or the papers knew anything about it, for weeks. Fantastic. Nah, I think we've gone behind Mallorca's back on this one, he's gone to his old board and said: "Here's the money I need to buy out my contract, I'm off, goodbye"

Is that his year of birth or does he have Buffon-eque right wing(not the position) tendancies? He is 24 and have no idea on political views. Just have always liked the kits when the number has been a little different from the norm, such as Viana 45.

Hope he keeps his 88 squad number if he comes here.

£50,000 a week seems a bit steep for a player of his calibre if we want to snip the wage bill. Unless we don't want to snip the wage bill after all.

I wouldn't be too happy tbh, he is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy.

no he's not. he has the talent and has done it at man city but hasn't shown it up here yet (and probably wont get the chance hopefully) Barton did put in some very good performances under Keegan tbf, and that was off the back of a broken foot injury that takes months to regain full fitness from.

Barton is much better than Bullard.

http://www.newcastle-online.com/2008/07/01/should-he-stay-or-should-he-go-joey-barton/

Shearer wouldn't like others poking their noses in. Don't think he got on with Wise either. Irrelevant anyway, as clearly a Spurs fan has gotten pissed off by all of their strikers wanting to piss off, and he decided to sling mud at Newcastle to make him feel better.

No out on parole soon probably, but if he does anything slightly wrong over the next two years, he'll be jailed for 4-8 months.

Is this relevant in some way? Keegan is quiet because he is busy.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2008/06/28/kk-busy-on-the-phone-completely-madeup-article-72703-21166888/

Didn't we rule out Shearer in January due to lack of experience? Don't see what has changed.

An exclusive from Sir Harold of Norway? (@ matta)

Having seen the CCTV footage, I don't think I could support Joey Barton out of respect for the victim. Boos from me if he's on the pitch when I'm there next season which Itruly hope he isn't.

Like I said I doubt there's anything there to protect us against the Dabo trial, as that was already due to take place when we signed him, his lawyers surely wouldn't have been stupid enough to pop a condition in there to say that should he go down Newcastle can terminate the contract with no penanlty and he'll be liable. However I'm sure he would have signed on a good faith basis that his behaviour has improved, under the promise that he'll not drag the club's name through the dirt and any subsequent court appearance and jail terms will leave him in breach of contract and give us the option to terminate and recover costs. If we haven't got that in there, then Mort especially being a lawyer himself wants his head examined. Shepherd was the one signing players when Barton was signed iirc. OK I wasn't sure on dates and stuff so did a little research on the ever unreliable Wiki: Ashley bought SJH's shares on 23 May. Confirmation that he was to buy FS out on 7 June. Barton signed on 14 June. Shep may still have been the chairman but I find it hard to believe that anyone other than Ashley (with Mort advising) would not have had the final say on the deal going through (which obviously mean't looking at the contract), this was his first purchase and an extremely controversial one at that. Anyway it doesn't really matter as whomever was in charge, to not protect us would be completely mad, considering Barton's history. Barton signing was confirmed on the date you mentioned. However, all terms were agreed weeks before, but Barton was messing around over a £300,000 bonus he was owed by Manchester City.

Been researching Derdiyok, for an article. Looks like his low goalscoring statistics have in fact been diluted by numerous substitute appearances. For Basel, he is pretty much one goal in two games, one assist in three. For Switzerland he is one goal and three and assist every game, while he has more goals than games for the under 21s. Seems like a natural goalscorer.

Like I said I doubt there's anything there to protect us against the Dabo trial, as that was already due to take place when we signed him, his lawyers surely wouldn't have been stupid enough to pop a condition in there to say that should he go down Newcastle can terminate the contract with no penanlty and he'll be liable. However I'm sure he would have signed on a good faith basis that his behaviour has improved, under the promise that he'll not drag the club's name through the dirt and any subsequent court appearance and jail terms will leave him in breach of contract and give us the option to terminate and recover costs. If we haven't got that in there, then Mort especially being a lawyer himself wants his head examined. Shepherd was the one signing players when Barton was signed iirc.

mrmojorisin75, another classic exhibit of you moving the goalposts of your argument after you have been completely pwned by others. Your original post: implies that the Rooney bid was a complete fabrication in order to appease the fans. Other posts have quite rightly pointed out that there were genuine intentions behind our bid. To move the goalposts to hide behind a valid argument that he wasn't going to sign for Newcastle because he eventually signed for Manchester United makes you look foolish as it is completely irrelevant to your original point. Just admit that you were wrong for once.

I'd say it was the other way around. Good going forwards, but error-ridden defensively. Would be cut to pieces in the Premier League. Same for Bosingwa. how often do you watch him for Madrid? i'd say he's like Micah Richards in that his decision making can be off but he has immense recovery speed. Don't have regular access to La Liga coverage so can only go on what I have seen in the internationals.

Defensively I would compare him to Micah Richards in terms of excellent potential marred by making the bad decisions, but getting away with it thanks to his physical ability and by being in a good team. Going forwards he is second to none, but I like defenders you can bet your house on not letting you down, and Ramos is not one of those defenders.