Rich

Hardly one to set the pulse racing, but I recall being impressed by him on more than one occasion while watching various Bolton matches on the TV.

Beat me to it. Be interesting to see where he ends up. You'd have to hope we at least have a crack at signing him, though I'd be amazed to see him come here.

Good hair.

I would think most people in this country now have good eastern European connections. Living in Hull, I must be right up there on that list. I'll have mastered Polish and Russian by the time I'm done with uni.

Did the twinge go after reading the post from Action Verb? No. I still believe the Russian friend of London Mag. Most reliable source I've seen cited on here all summer!

Same here. He's the smallest central midfielder I can ever recall seeing.

He looks very good to me, like, considering this is his first major championship. Took a lot of bottle to stick that penalty home in the first game, too. Just looks a very solid, technical player, who isn't scared to put his foot in despite his size and who has a bit of zip about him. Could have seen him at Arsenal, easily, and that's high praise indeed.

Oh dear, I have a twinge! Let's ruin it: replacement for Owen?

Scottish though. *Just hoping Richie's radar goes off for that one.* The Scotmobile is being primed in the Scotcave as we speak, McAlfred is getting his tartan suit ready.

Mathie was a right handsome bastard as well, tbh.

I was wondering whether it'd be him or Liam O'Brien you'd be in here creaming your knickers about! Nearly put it in white in my post just to show my amazing foresight on all Tooj related football matters.

No it isn't ancient, I'm not talking about the player being too old to play. I just mean that it seems Newcastle don't want to spend big on players over a certain age. It might not be true but it seems likely that they want to buy players who can do well for the club but also keep there value over the term of there contract incase the club decide to sell. Buy a 24 year old for £11 million and if he does reasonably well at the club you can sell for significantly more if you decide to sell in a few years. With a 27 year old a few years takes hm into his 30's and that usually means a big drop in value. I understand exactly what you're saying. I would think though if KK really wanted him, he'd push to make it happen. Thing is, if Arshavin could propel us say 3 places up the league for the next two seasons there's £3m in finishing money straight away before we consider the financial incentives of europe etc. He's the kind of player that I think would always have some residual value in his home country purely because he's been that good and played there for a while, similar to Emre in that respect. Aye, a very good point that a lot of people are overlooking (including perhaps the board, but hopefully not.) While Teasy's initial suggestion could be bang-on, we need to take into account success and stuff as well when it comes to deciding on players. You have to hope that if top class players become available and if there's a chance to sign them, within reason on the age stuff, then we have to be in for them. I'm sure Ashley realises this, like, as even if he is basing us on Spurs they don't just sign young players who will increase in value.

That squad has gone right down the shitter. No Clark, Fox, Elliott, Howey, Albert, Pav/Wrighty, Bez or Dabizas!

Maybe it's about not wasting that money, rather than what he can do with it. Just prudency. A prudent billionaire. My mam has always told me that the richer you are the tigher you are like, maybe she was right. If the money is put towards a worthy cause then I'm all for it.

I hope some of them take the piss and get really extravagant suits. I could see Martins going for a bling-tastic one, tbh, with "MARTINS 9" on the back in diamonds.

If it is true, then colour me puzzled. Gonna save a whopping £20-50k there, surely no more than that?

1 second later, cos I was fannying on with the formatting... you've skimped on the formatting and won the day. Disgraceful. Dunno what the craic is with that to be honest. He's either THAT desperate for a story or it is actually true, just because of the random nature of it.

Oliver says it's fallen through: Shola move falls through Jun 13 2008 by Alan Oliver, Evening Chronicle

A clean two footed tackle? Didn't look two-footed to me. Won* the ball with his right leg, left leg was trailing behind. Some very dodgy decisions by the referee at the end all in all.

Doesn't look fit to lace Bellamy's boots to me. Hard worker, aye, but there's not much else there at all.

Phil: Won't disagree with much there as far as it pertains to people 18+, but I maintain the stance that for 16-18 year olds it's a big ask for them all to do what you did while that age, which was very admirable really. In an ideal world they would all do that and work while at college, but I doubt there are the jobs/the motivation to do so, for whatever reason.

Think the bigger question is why do students get discount ?!?! I'll still end up paying far more than the price of a ticket with my trips back from Hull every other weekend to watch them. They want a younger average crowd in, it's not just the 18+ students this is offered to, it goes for the 16+ college sorts as well, which is fair enough if you ask me. It'd probably be better if they did just offer it to 16-18 year olds, actually. Why though, if you've left school get a job it's simple really. Still a big ask for 17 year olds like my brother to pay £543 for a ticket, he's in full-time education at Newcastle College, even if he did have a part-time job. Not many kids of that age are going to be sensible enough to save money specifically for season tickets every summer, unfortunately. It looks as though he won't be able to renew, which is a real pity seeing how he's been a season ticket holder since he was about 13. When I was at college I did a Saturday (or Sunday) job that earnt me £25 a week, which was very good money at the time for somebody my age. Even at that rate it would have been 22 weeks (almost half a fucking year) of saving it to pay for a season ticket in the Gallowgate End for next year. Are you arguing that people shouldn't go to college/university here? Or that if they do, they should work as well? I think the student discount is fair craic, personally, especially for the likes of my brother to whom £543 is a huge chunk of cash - I'm not one of these who'll use student discount whenever the opportunity arises (i.e. don't ask for it in shops, etc. unless it's offered) but I am quite pleasantly surprised that NUFC are now offering it - loads of other clubs already do as far as I'm aware. As it stands, I can't get it anyway with sitting where I do, but I don't begrudge others who can get it simply for that reason.

Nah, just the rubbish ones. We'll have nobody left man! Except Wor Habib, maybe.

Seems a ready-made replacement, aye.

If the Pennant stuff is true, and the Larsson stuff is true, then maybe we'll have two. Fallen at the first hurdle? From the Liverpool Echo today, via NUFC.com: "There was no denial however of stories in the national press that Liverpool were interested in signing Milner..." "Couple of the Reds' fringe players" = Crouch and Riise?