KaKa

I think Quedrue is a solid left-back with premiership experience. More of a full back who is strong defensively with good height and aggression. Very solid move. We would probably then get another left-back from abroad who would have a bit of time to adjust to the premiership with Quedrue offering insurance.

SAY WHAT?!!!

:lol: :lol: That's hilarious.

Yep. When we signed Carr everyone pointed to his Spurs form, where he was once considered one of the best right backs in the league. Now everyone is pointing to Queudreu's Boro form. Young, well he was never that good, so I'd compare him with Babayaro. The only difference is that these two don't get injured so often. They're lower mid-table players at the moment just like Baba and Carr. Neither particularly stood out in two terrible defences in the league last season, defences which each conceded 60 (!!) league goals, more than anyone else in the league including Watford. Right now, at this moment in time. Quedrue and Young are miles better than Babayaro and Carr. Period.

Why do people say things like this? Why stop at defenders why not steer clear of all French players too! Bloody ridiculous.

Haven't been so happy to be a Newcastle fan in ages. I absolutely love what we are doing right now. For once we are flying under the radar and arguably have been the most sensible spenders in the transfer market so far. I would be ecstatic if we continued in the same vein as we have been for the rest of the summer. We will shock a lot of teams next season.

Why? Some of the best left backs this league has seen, I hadn't heard of or knew little about before they came. Is it too much to ask that our club find one of these? We'll never unearth a top player with this kind of attitudes, that a 28 year old cheap left back becomes available from a club much smaller than ourselves, so we buy him to fill a slot because he's a proven average Premiership player who will 'do a job'. This is how we ended up with Steven Carr. Since the Premierships inception, we've never found a good full back who grew with the club. The closest we came was Bernard but he didn't make it, and that was under a manager who, for all his flaws, saw the potential value in taking chances on certain players and letting them grow with the team. I'm not even convinced Queudreu and Young are better than Babayaro and Carr, just a lot less injury prone. I won't suggest a realistic alternative, I expect my club with its massive resources to find one, or try at the very least. Other clubs manage it. I think there's far too much blind faith in Big Sam at the moment, and I can see the bubble bursting after the transfer window slams shut. I hope I'm wrong but I just don't share all the excitement in the moves we're making. I think calling these moves "sensible" depends on who we are and where we're going - if the objective is club profits then they are very sensible indeed. SAY WHAT?!!!

There is certainly some truth in this and I think it will work in our favour. I think he's angry and very motivated right now. Manu are prepared to pay upwards of £20 million (eventually) for Tevez and pay him a reported £100,000 a week rather than pay £9 million for him. Arsenal payed £9 million on a player from Croatia rather than him. Let me just say I think Da Silva will be awesome by the way so no lslight against him, but still! Liverpool have also payed £27 million for Torres who will also get close to £100,000 a wekk rather than spend £9 million on him. I think he now understands that the footballing world moves along vwey quickly and people forget about you when you've been out of sight. All the top clubs have passed him over and paid thrice as much on other players and I'm hoping that make shim hungrier and more committed to our cause.

Especially when you consider the fact that he has played under some pretty decent managers and at a club like Real madrid. Now if we could just get some decent defenders in ... things would be so totally excellent.

On another note ... I think it will do him a lot of good having come out and said this and made a committment. Now all the speculation is gone for the meantime and he can just focus 100% on playing football and scoring goals. I bet it's a huge relief for him. It too a while but I think it's genuine which is what matters tbh.

I tend to read the mornings papers before going to bed. Sounds like good stuff from Owen. What is really good to hear is that he seems to have really got on well with Allardyce which is very important. This is good enough fo rme for now and lets just hope we can get a good start to the season and if we do I wouldn't be surprised to see him re-sign for us with no clauses. Here's hoping ...

Future looks bright thanks to Allardyce innovations Michael Owen Maybe you will not believe me if I say I’ve really been enjoying pre-season training, but I’ve got my reasons. For one thing, it is just great to feel like I am going into a campaign fit and well – touch wood – after the injury problems of the past couple of years. Secondly, it has been an eye-opener to see the innovations from Sam Allardyce. We’ve been on a training camp in Austria and from bike rides at 7.30am to Pilates in the afternoon, we’ve been shown a different approach to the traditional slog of preseason. That is just one small but significant part of the multitude of changes happening at Newcastle that give me even more hope that this season can be uplifting for me and the fans after frustrating times. We’ve got a new manager, new staff, new players and a takeover in the boardroom. Any one of those elements would cause excitement at a club and we’ve had a transformation from top to bottom. Crucially, everyone who has arrived appears to have big ambitions. I am sure the manager sees this job as a fantastic opportunity for him to be challenging for trophies. It is not so long ago that this club were up there in the top four and, while no one is making any predictions, at the very least we should be up there going for Europe. Everyone knows that the fans and the stadium give Newcastle the foundations to become one of the biggest clubs in the country. I believe that these can be good times to be at Newcastle, which is why I am more than happy to be here. There has been plenty of speculation about my future, but I can assure the Newcastle fans that I didn’t start any of it. There was a lot of talk from other quarters and my attitude to rumour has always been to ignore it. I don’t really feel that I should be responding all the time to stories in the newspapers and I certainly didn’t want to be forced into making comments. I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves and I just wish there had been more opportunities to show the Newcastle fans what I am capable of. I am sure that is to come this season. Mark Viduka has been away with the Australia squad, so I have not had a chance to see how we might link up, but as an opponent I have always regarded him as one of those players you want on your side. There are days when he looks unplayable, with that combination of physical presence and great skill. With Mark, Obafemi Martins and Shola Ameobi, I am sure that the manager is excited about his attacking options and he has been working hard to strengthen the rest of the team. I met the manager when I was with the England camp at the end of last season, so we’ve been in a good dialogue all summer. He has brought in his backroom staff from Bolton Wanderers and shown that he intends to do things thoroughly. We’ve not seen him at work on a match-day, but you can see how meticulous he is. Newcastle have not had a good time with injuries over the years and while some people have bemoaned bad luck or even a curse, the manager has set about rectifying it the right way – with hard work and medical science. If you need a chiropractor, he will make sure one is on hand. If a foot is giving you problems, he’ll make sure you are put on to a top-notch podiatrist. I do think that there are distinctions between how English managers – not all, but many – and their foreign counterparts approach the game. I saw that when Gérard Houllier came to Liverpool and transformed the way in which we went about our daily work off the field. From what I have seen, Sam Allardyce is a great combination of British and foreign strengths, a man rooted in the English game who understands its passions but is also open to new ideas. I can’t say that he has been participating in the early morning bike rides, the swimming or the Pilates too much, but then he would argue that delegation and knowing when to step back are important parts of management. Hopefully all that toil has put us in good shape when the season kicks off because there have been too many years of underachievement on Tyneside. This club have so much potential. I want to help to realise it. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premiership/newcastle/article2062173.ece

Out of interest ... how much did Earnsham cost? Wasn't it only £3.5 million? If so how the hell did Kamara, Nugent and Chopra cost more? Earnshaw has the best goalscoring record and is better then all three combined and has regular international experience albeit with a struggling team. Surprised Keane didn't go for Earnshaw instead.

I don't understand why peopel are surprised he's joined them. Newcastle clearly weren't interested in keeping him or developing him into a first team player and he goes to the championship and scores over 20 goals. Now a premiership team with new ownership and a manager who is well-respected and admired in football are willing to pay £5 million!!! for him and he's supposed to say "No, cuz I'm a Geordie" and risk never getting a chance in the premiership? Who else would pay such an amount for him? I can't imagine too many would. He has every right to grab the opportunity with both hands and it will be extremely embarrassing if he does well there. Oh well ...

Well unfortunately our most likely first team forward line is bound to be Michael Owen and Viduka as I'm not sure Owen and Martins is a real possibility as Sam loves to have one target man upfront. Therefore Martins might as well be allowed to move on. Eiidur would be an excellent fit, because he has the presence to play alongside Owen, but he also has enough movement and speed to lpay off of Viduka, therefore he would be comfortable alongside either should one of them be injured or off form. In addition to this Eidur could also play in the same team as both Owen and Viduka as he can operate as an attacking midfielder also. On the whole I would say the addition od Eidur would give us a lot more otions and would make our attack a lot more versatile. So the reality is that Gudjohnsen would be a more valuable piece for us than Martins in this current team. Ideally though I would love to have Martins stay because I think his potential is out of this world and I beleive he will fulfil it, but for me it has to be either Owen or Martins along with Viduka, Gudjohnsen and Shola. This combination of players would give us the best options. At this moment in time Owen is probably better for us as he is more experienced and has more clout. I'll tell you what though, Martins at Arsenal will cause years of heartache. Hopefully, we will put together a decent enough team with new exciting players of our own so it doesn't bother us too much.

Would be happy with Beye, even though I know nowt about him. He'll be off for ACN though, won't he? Yup Beye plays for Senegal so he would be off. Probably why Sam wants Edmilson in January if reports are to be believed.

£3.1m, another bargain in my book. Hes a big, physical right back who has a bit of pace about him. Also him being captain of Marseille says big things about him, very happy with this signing (hopefully its nearly past the post!) If so, then 2 LBs, at least 1 CB and an attacking mF left on the shopping list Silvestre, Bridge, Hyypia and Deco please! Heinze would have been nice butmethinks he's got bigga fish to fry.

That's bollocks because clearly he left the camp to buy Deco. Clearly. Clearly. He didn't leave to speak to Deco cuz Deco is already in the bag innit.

Stop it. :lol: I'm just saying that if we did get him, it would match up with my 3-5-2 theory in the 3-5-2 thread. Rumour that we are signing Silvestre for around £3.5 million rather than Heinze. I can't remember where I read it. I think it was fansfc. I agree with James about the 3-5-2 too. I think we will be signing a more attack minded left-back, which would be Bridge hopefully. I'm also beginning to think that there might be a possibility that Rozehnal plays in defensive midfield for us as the Diarra rumours have really died down. Anyway if Sam plays a 3-5-2 with the players below it would be very easy to adjust defensively as we could easily fall into a 4-4-2 on defense. Attacking ... -----------------------------------Given-------------------------------------- ----------------Beye-------------Taylor--------------Silvestre-------------- ----------------------Barton-------------------Diarra------------------------ ------Geremi------------------------------------------------------Bridge----- ----------------------------------Raul/Deco------------------------------------ --------------------------Owen-------------Viduka---------------------------- Defending ... -------------------------------Given------------------------------------ -------Beye----------Taylor---------Diarra----------Silvestre------ ------Geremi--------Barton----------Deco------------Bridge------- ------------------------Owen---------Viduka------------------------- Diarra is a very tall and physical defensive midfielder who has had experience playing as a centre back early in his career so he would be comfortable dropping deeper when we defend. Rozehnal if played in defensive midfield rather than Diarra would be even more comfortable doing this job. Rozehnal also played defensive midfield at PSG by the way so it would make sense. With the right players a 3-5-2 wouldn't be as vulnerable defensively as some think.

he's done more tfor this club than little mickey FFS. more than entitled tbh That's the equivalent of saying John Barnes would have deserved the same pay as Shearer after the 1997/8 season. except it really isn't Neither of them deserve anything near £100,000 a week. Oba has had one decent season and Owen has been crocked the whole time he's been here. They both still have a lot to prove. Also, Oba is only asking for that because Arsenal is interested which isn't cool.

Oba wants wages close to Owens??? Get rid pronto. The cheeky git. I love you Oba but be on your way son!

Wow ... I don't think Babel will be too pleased to be playing on the wing! Doesn't he see himself as more of a striker? Or is Rafa thinking of binning Crouch?

If we go 3-5-2 (as has been rumoured) this would be sexy ... -----------------------------------Given-------------------------------------- ----------------Beye-------------Taylor--------------Heinze-------------- ----------------------Barton-------------------Diarra------------------------ ------Geremi------------------------------------------------------Bridge----- -------------------------------------Deco------------------------------------ --------------------------Owen-------------Viduka----------------------------

Dude that was a Wikipedia fabrication. Calm down!

The £23m comes from Wiki, which any old soul can edit. I'd read nowt into that. I think if there willing to sell him, they'll let him go for about £14m imo. Naaah! Way too steep for a 30 year old who is expendable. I would imagine around £8 million would do the trick. At the very very mostest £10 million. If the best striker in the world cost £16 million at 30 then Deco at 30 would not cost anywhere near the same as that.