Nicky

Some very positive quotes by Owen in todays NOTW. Not sure if its up online yet.

Alright, Michael Chopra for £5m. I'm just saying, the fee for an English striker is just ridiculous. The thought of selling Owen for £6m makes me cry a little bit.

I would be delighted if he signed a new contract. People saying sell him for £6m is laughable. We signed Alan Smith for £6m There is just no comparison between them at all.

aye, smashing. Never mind that the team is in the shite though, Never mind that the transfer window is now closed so no money can be spent on the team and he did make money available in January but it was not spent. how much ? Why wasn't it spent ? Keep deluding yourself. If you think that it is OK that we can't force the hand of small clubs like Blackburn to sell us their best players, welcome to true mediocrity the likes of which you clearly don't understand. But soon will if this is the path they are choosing to follow. At the end of the day, I don't really give a toss how good a bloke runs the football club if we are struggling and they don't capitalise on the fanbase. Get a grip. How the fuck has the state of our club on and/or off the pitch got anything to do with Mike Ashley giving some money to charity, which is what this thread is supposed to be about? Can't you keep your ramblings in one of those threads so that people who don't want to read the same old rubbish every single day can avoid it? It's not too much to ask is it that you do that is it or is it an ego thing that you have to be noticed and go off topic in as many threads as you can? Good thinking, perhaps we could have one thread as a sticky and he can waffle on about Shepherd in that. Make it happen.

hahahahahha. You cant make this shit up.

Yeah, I've got a feeling he'll drop Milner as he'll be the easiest. Sad, but probably true.

Sheilds Gazette reckon he's gonna start tommorow

Yes, under 18's, thats a genius idea there.

Forster has been immense.

Did they not say it was originally an e-mail they recieved? Fucking hell, it could be anyone. Might try emailing Spurs in June, posing as Arsene Wenger and offering £15m for Jenas. How fucking stupid do you have to be to believe a random email? No wonder they said we forgot about him and the deal went dead

From Reuters, Saturday: Levante have said that the Primera Liga club and their Brazilian centre-back Alvaro were the victims of a fraudulent offer by an intermediary who falsely claimed that Birmingham City and Newcastle United had bid 3 million euros ($4.46 million) for the player. "Both clubs have confirmed to us that they made no such offers," Levante president Julio Romero told the club's Web site. Levante said that Newcastle told them that would report the incident to FIFA. Hahahahahha

Fucking Garth Crooks, what an absolutely annoying bastard. Why on gods name does he have such a high profile job on the BBC?

http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~1230023,00.html Who's that? *edit* Steve Hammel of Southend. Hows that for random.

No Alan Smith.

From Skunkers.

"Imagine its N'Zogbia at LB and Rozenhal in midfield - might be wrong though." Knew it. Not a very good start!

Imagine its N'Zogbia at LB and Rozenhal in midfield - might be wrong though. Pretty worried about tonight. Hope we give it a good go though.

David Dispel you mean

Must admit, i'm rather excited by it all. Should see a lot more promising youth players joining the club.

I'm actually really gutted by this. Was seemingly nailed on to happen this morning

Mail reckons we've had a bid accepted too.

PASCAL CHIMBONDA has stunned Tottenham by declaring: I’m off to join Kevin Keegan. The French full-back claims he is ready to accept a lucrative offer to be part of the Keegan revolution at Newcastle. He will shun a Carling Cup final place to move on. There was also another shock for Spurs fans last night, as boss Juande Ramos admitted Dimitar Berbatov could still be on his way out. Ramos said: “There is always a risk he could go while the transfer market stays open.” Chimbonda, though, is adamant his deal has been struck. Out celebrating Tottenham’s 5-1 demolition of Arsenal on Tuesday night, the 28-year-old bragged to pals: “Kevin Keegan has approached me and they’ve offered me more money. Offer “I am definitely leaving Spurs. It’s all about the money. I don’t care about the final, I don’t care about the cup.” SunSport revealed earlier this month how Chimbonda was one of eight stars that Ramos wanted to axe. Ramos could be ready to let Bulgarian hitman Berbatov go if he gets a £30million offer. He added: “Berbatov is a great player, so it is normal there is some interest from other clubs. “But he is happy and enjoying playing for Tottenham and we rely on him a great deal. “So it would have to be an offer from a very big club with a very big contract to make him leave us.” Ramos is still trying to tie up his own deals for midfielder Tiago, full-back Gilberto and Valencia’s Spain midfielder David Albelda. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article724711.ece I swear to god, this better be fucking bullshit. I hate the fucker more then any other player in the league, I think.

Wonder if we'll match that now or not? If Ashley wants to give Keegan a blank cheque, it'd seem a bit silly not to use it to outbid/match another clubs offer for a supposed target. If given the choice, i'd like to think Woodgate would choose us.

Would like to think so mate, the transfer window closes next thursday.

Lovely reply to that from nufc.com; Hopefully you didn't have the misfortune to come across this rotten piece of journalism in the self-proclaimed "world's greatest newspaper" (that's the Daily Express if you hadn't guessed...!). Egotist and Sky favourite, Mick Dennis, did what any lazy journalist does and picked some attendance figures out of nowhere to try and justify his own small-minded agenda: Newcastle (population 280,000) had an average attendance of just 16,879 when they had a dodgy season in what is now the Championship in 1991. Norwich (population 126,000) had an average of 24,545 last season despite a dismal Championship campaign. Or what about Leeds? They know a bit more about disappointment than Newcastle, I’d suggest, yet in the third tier attendances have averaged more than 27,000. When Manchester City were playing at that level, they drew an average of 28,273. Nottingham Forest, another club who could tell Newcastle a tale or too about unfulfilled hopes, managed an average of 20,612 in League One last season. Of course, attendances are not the only measure of loyalty or passion. That’s why I’d nominate the supporters of Rochdale as being truly remarkable. There are fewer than 3,000 hardcore fans, but they punt up week after week to cheer, despite having precious little to cheer about. Dale are the least successful club in the history of the Football League. This was preceded by this patronising and ill-judged twaddle: For generations most of us have rather liked Geordies. On the whole they are sociable folk, and it is good they have a strong sense of identity and are proud of their area and its heritage. Most of us have quite liked their football club as well. And we have empathised with their lack of trophies, and cherish memories of the kamikaze style they developed the last time Keegan was in charge. But his third coming as a Messiah has helped sustain the Geordie delusion that Newcastle are a “special” club, whose success is pre-ordained – and that has infuriated the rest of the land beyond endurance. Where to begin.... We're not sure where Mick got his population stats from but 2001 census figures state: 443,247 Leeds (W.Yorkshire 1,499,465) 394,269 Manchester (Greater Manchester 2,240,430) 249,584 Nottingham (Nottingham Urban area 666,358) 189,863 Newcastle (Tyneside 879,996) 174,047 Norwich (Norfolk 816,500) Comparing Newcastle's attendances in 1990-91 with Nottingham Forest's or Norwich's in 2006-07 is absolutely ludicrous. How about comparing our 1990-91 average (16,879) languishing in Division 2 with Norwich's in 1990-91 (15,468) mid-table in Division 1? Or how about the season before - Newcastle (21,590) in Division 2 compared to Brian Clough's League Cup winners Forest (20,606) in Division 1. Oh, and Nottingham's population is larger. It may not be a one club city but County's average that season was only 6,151 while our near neighbours averaged 17,987. And what about Leeds?? That'll be another one club city, just like us, but with a population more than double. Leeds won the First Division Championship with an average crowd of 29,459 in 1991-92 - just 26,582 turned up for the penultimate home league game. A year later we won Division 2 with an average of 29,018. And what about the 80s Mick? Leeds' averages were 15,994 (1982-83), 15,493 (1983-84), 15,161 (1984-85), 13,259 (1985-86) which included three sub-10,000 home league crowds and an amazing 2,274 (not a typo) for a Full Members Cup game against Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United. And then there's Manchester City.... If Newcastle ever tumbled into the third tier and were immediately promoted we'd suggest attendances would be at least 28,000, if not more. But why pick out our 1990-91 season and compare it to their 1998-99 season? Let's look at their 1964-65 average crowd (14,753) in Division 2 and compare it with ours (35,659) also in Division 2. Or the season before when City finished above us in Division 2 (18,201) compared to our 29,426. Or we could get really silly and look at our 56,283 average in Division 2 and compare it with City's 42,725 in Division 1 in the 1947-48 season. Judging by Mick's craggy features, he can probably remember it. We also feel obliged to mention City's 3,007 for their game against Mansfield (658 were away fans) in their promotion winning season 1998-99. Auto Windscreen Trophy it may have been but where were they when they were sh*t? The Rochdale stuff is just plain barking. Every league team in the land has a hard core of 2,000 who will turn up to every game. So what? Rochdale deserve no more plaudits than anyone else. To quote Brian Tabner's Through the Turnstiles, "Rochdale have always struggled at the turnstiles. In only two seasons since 1921 have they finished with an above average attendance, the most recent being 1926-27. They have finished as the worst supported League club six times...." If Mick doesn't like us or Kevin Keegan any more, then fine, we don't really care but to try and justify it with meaningless attendance statistics just makes him look an even bigger twit than he does already. And that takes some doing....