Colos Short and Curlies

Not bad for once.... F365 Odds on championship: 300-1. Odds on relegation: 16-1 Manager: Kevin Keegan (since January). Odds on first out the job: 4-1 Last season: 12th, 43 points; FA Cup fourth round; Carling Cup third round Ins: Danny Guthrie (Liverpool, undisclosed), Jonas Gutierrez (Real Mallorca, undisclosed). Outs: David Rozehnal (Lazio, £2.9m), Emre (Fenerbahce, undisclosed), Peter Ramage (QPR, free). The biggest mistake with Newcastle fans is to assume that the handful who gurn for the cameras on the sports news - who seem to spend their lives outside St Jamies' Park, to judge by the pictures - are the only kind of supporters the club have. Newcastle may be mad, but not all their fans are, by a long chalk. The image of Newcastle as a club was transformed in the first Keegan era. KK took the club from the brink of Division Three to the brink of the title in four years. No one can seriously deny that this was an achievement worth getting excited about. The biggest Newcastle cheerleaders are not those in the stands, but those in the media who were along for the ride. Keegan is an amazingly charismatic figure in person, by all accounts, too; their fervour may be irritating to outsiders, but we have not been subject to that spell. The euphoria that greeted Keegan's return was made the greater by the God-awful experiment with Sam Allardyce that preceded it. Yet despite Keegan's second coming, despite the joy that greeted Mike Ashley's earlier arrival after the Fletcher-Shepherd years, there is a lot to be downbeat about at St James'. Keegan's words about the impossibility of breaking into the top four sounded odd coming from such an optimist, but were as effective a douser of hype as the earlier struggles to secure his first win. Joey Barton's stupidity continues to leave the club in a dilemma and a source of unwanted headlines. The weird structure and geography, with Dennis Wise based in London, is a source of disquiet. Ashley's brand of populism is wearing thin and Last season's chairman, Chris Mort, is gone. The personnel are little changed and there are not enough of them. They kick off away to opponents that the old Newcastle famously hit five against in Keegan's first spell, but Manchester United humiliated his second side last season. So, too, did Arsenal, who are the hosts for Newcastle's last game of August. In between is an eminently winnable match at home to Bolton, though. Hull and Blackburn are visitors in September, games separated by a trip to West Ham. Newcastle have goals in them, as you would expect from a Keegan side - it was once he had the courage of his attacking convictions that the climb to safety began. KK has a reputation as psychologically weak after his serial resignations and outbursts, but handled the potentially awkward relationship with Michael Owen well, bringing out goals and leadership. His problem has always been with dealing with a downturn. The fixtures have been unkind, with those two heavyweights to face in what is an unusually brief opening before the international break. But if he can avoid or dismiss any sense of early-season crisis - say by beating Bolton and avoiding humiliation at Old Trafford and the Emirates - then there is enough quality to challenge all but the best of the mid-table sides. The glory days on a nationwide scale will be as elusive as ever - but at the very least Newcastle should be north-east champions again and by a much bigger margin. Fifty points achieved in as attractive a manner as possible won't be riches but would be a step in the right direction.

See Barca have won the case re Messi and the Olympics

From F365... Julio Baptista's switch to Roma could fall through due to the price tag Real Madrid have put on his head, according to the player's agent. Baptista has been linked with a move to the Eternal City since June, despite making over 30 appearances for the Spanish champions last season since his return from Arsenal. In July, Madrid sporting director Predrag Mijatovic declared he would listen to offers from Roma for the player. But Baptista's agent, Herminio Menendez, revealed a deal may be stalling as Madrid are asking for too much money. "Julio is not happy with the situation at Real Madrid," he told Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport. "He's a Brazil international and he's looking for a team which will play him every game. "Roma are a prestigious club who play in the Champions League. Everyone aspires to be in that position. "But it's not just down to the player, it depends on the club. I don't know if Roma can pay what Real are asking for the player." Reports in the Italian press last month suggested Roma were keen on a loan deal similar to that which took Baptista to Arsenal in 2006, whereby the Giallorossi would pay three million euros now with the option to shell out another 10million to secure his services permanently next year. However, Roma's interest in the player may have subsided, after coach Luciano Spalletti spoke on Tuesday about possible targets his club were chasing but failed to mention the 26-year-old Brazilian.

Could Dr Speccy actually be Thaskin? Would explain his absence.......

so we dont need to replace him for that reason? Dave we need someone in that midfield with something about them. Someone you could describe with words other than tenacious and determined. We've got precisely nobody that teams dont want to play against If I was a centre back I would hate to be up against Smith, just incase he scored - imagine the shame!

Another point (possibly defending Ron and Jimmy a bit here) Who in the team would you fancy to get on the end of crosses? With Robert delivering there was Shearer, Dabizas, O'Brien, Speed. All decent and better in the air. Now we have Owen, Oba, Taylor a sour main threats - and 2 of those are midgits with good leaps. Therefore rather than being able to put a ball into the mixer we are looking to hit a man - a lot more difficult to get right. HOpefully Colo will be good in the air and we can develop Faye in an attacking sense

He got one against Sunderland last year if im correct. The one where the goalie didnt really dive for it? EDIT: Nah checked, it wasnt a free kick. Didn't he crack one off the bar vs Deportivo in the Intertoto? Not a goal, but as close as I can remember him getting

Its all well and good saying that. But I pretty much guarantee that if Smith and Shola are on the bench people will be complaining that they make nil impact and we should be having Lua Lua/Carroll there instead

What's so bad about nufcblog? If "professional" journalists get to make up their own rumours on the back pages of tabloids then why not some random blogger on the internet? If he has decided that a mystery midfielder is on the verge of signing, then fair enough. At least his imagination doesn't hide behind imaginary "unnamed sources" and ulterior motives. The truly woeful part is that his bullshit gets laughed at while the next SWARFEGA TO TOON??? headline in the Sunday Sun will somehow merit a 10 page thread, complete with optional 5 page meltdown about the inadequacy of the board and Dennis Wise if and when he signs a new contract (or for Spurs). ok... i've been lurking around these parts for a good year or so now, posting occasionally for the last 6 months, and i see constant references to this Swarfega character. It's obviously a long running gag but could anyone enlighten me as to how it came about?? Brazillain legend

thought he was off to the olympics Too old, and Manyoo won't let him be one of the three. Thought they had to? Or did Fifa change that little gem of a rule?

Wtf? First of all, it was well documented that several clubs have had offers for Shola accepted, but he simply won't budge - how's that our fault? As for Smith... erm, who the f*** has made an offer for him then? So it's the board's fault for: 1, not being able to change free will of a human being. and 2, not making other clubs bid for our players. being on first name terms with Shola for a while I know that if the guy knew he wasn't wanted he'd fuck off, no question. No way he'd drag his heels unless convinced he had a job to do here. As for Smith, he's ex Man U, played for England as recently as last season, you dont think if we made him available teams wouldn't bite? Player in last year of contract, no extension discussions. Bids accepted for said player. How black and white does he want it spelt out that he has no future here?

They're both still burning a huge hole in our resources. I know that, but all the same we've had 2 months to sort the problem and here we are still with it. And it's a bloody serious one What if the budget isn't there? Why isn't it there? We've got a small enough squad! Speculate to accumulate. We've got a small squad but up front we're well stocked, you can't go adding extra strikers to make up the numbers when you've already got 6 of them that featured last season still here. we're nowhere near well stocked. On the balance sheet yes, perhaps. On the pitch we have ONE, ONE ffs who we can rely on to be fit and perform We've got 6 strikers on our books, you can't just keep adding more without getting rid of the s*** and all the crying in the World won't change that. Right , so you need 4 players. You have 1 who is generally fit and performs well, 2 that peform well but cannot be relied on to be available, and 2 that cannot be considered adequate players for that role. You're still nowhere near having the 4 players you need. As Shearergol said, that's why you cant run a football club like a business and why you can view players like assets But if you are in a position where you are paying £10m in wages to one of the strikers common sense says you can not kleep adding to that cost. In that way you do have to run it like a business, decisions have to be made on how you fill your squad. We made the decision to sign Smith as a striker cum midfielder. We are not in a position to replicate the cost on a replacement until we get rid. And none of this 'We've got a billionaire owner' crap. There is a limit to how much a person is willing to put into anything.

They're both still burning a huge hole in our resources. I know that, but all the same we've had 2 months to sort the problem and here we are still with it. And it's a bloody serious one What if the budget isn't there? Why isn't it there? We've got a small enough squad! Speculate to accumulate. As entered in two different threads. If Alan Smith stays for the remaining 4 years of his contract we will pay hime £10.4 million Shola has shown how difficult it is to get highe earners to leave. £10m would give us a huge amount of leverage to work with

A quick trip to . . er . . . INDIA, perhaps?? I'm thinking a night in Magaluf personally

This may be nothing.... but..... Mike Ashley was due back in Sports Direct yesterday but was 'tied up on other business' (or so I've had let slip). He may have just faniced a night in Magaluf. he may have been on other business. Or he may be involved in something big to do with us. No details forthcoming unfortunately

Its not £1.5m. Its effectively £12 million to us as we would be saving £10.4m on wages. No brainer really

Would have to get Chris Kamara in there somewhere

Negotiations will start at £19.8m, but who knows what the final figure will be... Does that mean that the maximum ZSP want is £19.8 million or that they will only start negotiating at £19.8m and then barter upwards? Ashley - he you go mr Russian - £19.8 of the finest Sterling. Mr Russian - haha, give me £20million Ashley Ok, here you go Mr Russian - haha, give me £22million etc? Daft way of negotiating

West Ham have no money!

Without wanting to piss on anyone's chips, its only Front Page in the North East. We've got a front page dedicated to the couple murdered in Antigua here in Wales

See that, we're not just Newcastle, we're THE Newcastle

Just to put that into context, we still owe Alan Smth over £10million if he stays until the end of his contract

Its a big BIG if but..... If Smith could get one goal he might just start shooting occasionally

And move it to London..

Tbh not selling up shows a lack of ambition by the current board. You lot won't remember, but back in the Ice Age we had a similar board, wouldn't sell out to the Woolly Mammoth consortium. I was there, I was willing to put in my iron. Did you? At least Shepherd showed his ambition by holding out for a larger bid, even lying in hospital he was negotiating the top deal for himself.