afar

Absolutely inexcusable to be honest, the last chance we have to put out the side that will start the first game of the season and one of our best players (if not the best) will not be able to play, because of a visa problem. Not buying any of this "this is normal process" crap, this could have been avoided with a half decent admin team. Perhaps this is a consequence of lay off all those people when we went down ??

You make it sound like Newcastle United has been a bastion of sanity this off season.

If we trade Forster for Green plus money we have to be off the reservation. Despite how dodgy Forster's looked in pre season I would much rather gamble on his future than a keeper of Green's quality. We should be going into this season with Krul, number 1 and Harps or Forster backing him up, depending on whether we can farm Forster out on Loan again, this time to a situation that actually provides something of a test for the lad.

Absolutely, actually this should have been the approach weeks ago. But you called it, it's a cert to happen he'll leave on the last day perhaps in the last hour of the window and we'll be fed the line that there was no time to find a replacement, we'll be trawling through the free transfer lists in september look for Olli Bernard again.

His shitness in the Premier League isn't down to the players around him, he's s*** in the Premiership no matter what team he's played for. As Jayson just aluded to though, is he really as shit in the Prem as some of the other players that players that still fester on our wage bill, I would rather have him in my squad than the likes of smith, loven and Rtaylor. Anyway good luck to him I say, without him we wouldn't have coasted to promotion like we did. For his own sake I hope the moves a success and he gets the "he can't play in the prem" monkey of his back but we'll look a bit silly if he does.

My main concern's not the performance or result but the line up and the bench. One game left in pre-season and we look nowhere near ready for a Premier League game in terms of personnel. Quoted for absolute truth. One game to somehow magically develop some kind of blend and understanding. We've got to play the 11 that will start the game against Arsenal in our last game.

LOL leeds commentator, "We saw Wolves here last year and we were far from impressed, been even less impressed with Newcastle. Newcastle fans shouldn't be thinking of europe or enything close to that for sure."

I think we may have our answer on Forster now, loan him out again I think

Sounds like Williamson and Forster fucked up there

The sayings are great they've lightened up a meaningless friendly, he's also managed to keep thenergy right in his commentary. I know a lot of the stuff is funny to those that don't live over this side of the pond, but at least you get a clue what's going on and it's added to what is a very good showing by the lads tonight.

This guy's great, I like him, he's actually done his homework on us.

You've never seen him play, but you dont think he'll be the signing people think he will be and he is no doubt an upgrade on what we have? I honestly have no idea how people can come to these conclusions when, like you say, you've never seen him play. Do you have some form of reading retardidness (if that's a word ) ? I clearly haven't come to any conclusion, and any views I've expressed I said are a "feeling" grounded in no foundation at all. I'm sorry but I'm not one to follow the default path taken by people on this board which is "This player's gonna be great" before and when he sign only for those same people to tear into the guy after he's played a few games for us. I don't know much about him so in my eyes he's unproven to me and I'm sceptical because we have on the whole had a bad record with other teams cast offs, which erdinc is no matter how much people want to dress it up otherwise.

I have never seen this guy play, but I just have the feeling that this might not be the great signing people on here think it is. Got to say it worries me that we a supposedily buying someone who is deemed surplus to requirements for a team in a league most would say is inferior to ours. An improvement on what we have currently, no doubt, but that wouldn't take too much. If he signs of course I'll give him a chance and as I've already said i've never seen the lad play so we may be getting a world beater on the cheap but I can't help feeling a litle sceptical here.

As much as I like the idea of the club being over here in North America, I do agree that this was a really bad idea, it's probably hindering us more than helping at the moment.

Erm, the Leyton Orient game that finished 6-1 to them a couple of years ago? Erm your point? That was the catalyst to a collective kick up the backsides, if this turns out to be the same then great, but with that group of lads out there now, just can't see it. We need to buy and we need those players out to get back, but bloody held with all due respect to Orlando City, our reserves should be able to beat them with ease. It was only a pre-season friendly like, so I'm not panicking yet. Neither am I, but these aren't good signs, the lack of creativity is shocking, yes we were without our most creative players but those out there should still be able to make the odd chance, when we got to the final third tonight we did nothing, absolutely nothing all game. You can't just turn on a switch and begin playing when the season starts, these games are first and foremost about fitness but you also want to see a patern of play and understanding develop amongst your players. I thought defensively it was fine, although the opposition was hardly frightening, but from a offensive point of view there was nothing there and that's been the case in all the preseason games so far which is beginning to worry me and should hopefully be worrying Pardew and Ashley.

Dreadful.

Erm, the Leyton Orient game that finished 6-1 to them a couple of years ago? Erm your point? That was the catalyst to a collective kick up the backsides, if this turns out to be the same then great, but with that group of lads out there now, just can't see it. We need to buy and we need those players out to get back, but bloody held with all due respect to Orlando City, our reserves should be able to beat them with ease.

Friendly or not, this is not the sort of result that breeds confidence ahead of what looks like being a long hard season for us.

The price is fine, but the sticking point is whether he's worth £60k a week. I doubt we'll stump up the cash. I don't think that's what's being reported at all. All the quotes i've seen suggest his contract demand are 'reasonable'.

I don't disagree, this madness of a thought process that goes along the lines of he's in the last year of his contract and we can get him for free next summer, ignores the simple fact that he'll have way better options than us next year. It's either pay 9 mill and get him now or not get him at all.

Erdinc and some other guy http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Transfer-news-Newcastle-tracking-Mevlut-Erdinc-and-Teteh-Bangura-as-Charles-N-Zogbia-hopes-fade-article752131.html#ixzz1QEAcF2FF

I think that one horrendous error might be clouding your judgment a little on how Guthrie played that day and how rubbish we are as a whole during the match. No that was just the icing on the top of a very bad cake, his all round performance not just that incident you refer to was atrocious. Yes the whole team had an off day, but he stood out like a sore thumb. If you get a chance to watch that whole game over again you'll see where I'm coming from. I'll admit that that was not his norm for us, but it was the extreme of what is I would liken to a cross between Hugo Viana and Jermaine Jenas, someone who has some talent, but no fight and you are not exactly sure if he's an attacking midfielder or a defensive one. I just think we can find someone with a little more to offer to back up the midfield. Don't forget Guthrie will be on a decent wedge too, not huge but more than his worth right now as his stock was higher when we bought him and those were in pre-tighten your wallets days.

That's fair enough, some reasonable points. Personally I wouldn't mind if we spent up to £10m to get him and his wages were up to £60k a week. I think he could do a job here for at least 3 years, and it's not just his goals he has fantastic vision and passing as well. He would setup a load as well. But past that fee and wages I'd start to think the deal was too expensive. And that might be where we get to. At what point does he represent value ? Knowing this board, who remember are still burnt from h likes of Owen, Duff, Smith and Sol, investing in older players who have a pedegree is not something they are too willing to embrace. So I'm willing to bet that it's at a very low level. I think though if the asking price was around the 5million mark and the wages were at the 60k level you talk about then there's some serious decisions to be made, and I would hope to god that we are willing to at the very least consider a move.

I kind of agree with Thomas on this one, not sure I think we want him at the club. There must be serious question marks about the guys character if Michael Owen is picked ahead of him for the biggest game in club football. He certainly did do very well in front of goal last season, but again I tend to agree that that had a lot to do with being a product of a system at Manure although there were genuine moments of individual class and skill not denying that. Yes he is better than what we've got, and in the short term he would get us goals, but I think we have to learn from past mistakes and start looking long term and that's where it falls down for me. It'll take a siginificant wedge to buy him, how much did they buy him for again 20 or 30 mil wasn't it ? That wasn't that long ago and they'll expect a sizable chunk of that back. He'll also demand an Owen like salary for a number of years, that'll probably take him past the age Nolan would have been at the end of the contract term we baulked at. If he was going for a couple of million and was likely to expect around 40-50k a week, I think it would be a no brainer but that's clearly not the case here, so despite how good he is or was I would be looking elsewhere for now at least.

After the West Brom away game, I wanted never to see this guy don our colours ever again, that was perhaps the worst single midfield performance I have ever seen. He has since redeemed himself a little but if we get a 1-2 million offer for him we should snatch someone's hands off, he's Championship/low PL standard at best and hopefully we are aiming higher than that, we have enough cover in the middle already and are still apparently looking at players who can play there.