KaKa

Alan Oliver is nuts!!! I think it has to be Motta or this doesn't make any kind of sense. Motta was told yesterday he should look for another club as they have just signed Yaya toure and this news breaks out of nowhere so it must be Motta we are after if anyone at all! Motta won't be on a free and therefore Luque going the other way might indeed be a possibility which is something Oliver adheres to despite saying Edmilson would be on a free!(He is so befuddled he must be going senile). Edmilson is injured for six months and will be back at around the same time as Duff! So it makes absolutely no sense! He also has a history of really bad knee problems and at 31 you would think it would be very difficult for him to overcome this so this cannot be correct. Here's hoping it's Motta if anyone!

Are you sure this isn't a mixup and we are actually talking to Thiago Motta? Who is also a Brazilian DM that Barca have just agrred to let leave?

I think Sam wants to keep him which is why they are trying to give him a new deal. Owen on the other hand I think Sam wouldn't mind flogging asap.

Martins is going to make some feckers eat some freakin' sour humble pie I'll tell you that much. Some of you lot disgust me. Do you know the calibre of player we have on our hands here. Just because he isn't the most cultured footballer, that doesn't mean he isn't a good one. It's so easy to put all the blame on Oba. How many times did our pathetic team fail to get him the ball in decent positions? Do you have any idea how frustrating that is? Of course everytime he then got the ball he was so over eager and desperate to do something with it that he ultimately pressed too hard and messed up. Did you see his frustration at all? At least it meant something to him. He was desperate to do well for Newcastle. Wow ... a part of me hopes he leaves just to see what the response will be when he inevitably lights us up in every game he faces us. The better the whole team is as an attacking unit the better Martins will be. It cannot all be left to him. Yes, he will do some things that leave you scratching your head but the more opportunities you create for him the better he becomes and the more confident he is in his play. Martins is one of the most devastating and unpredictable players in the league.

Watch Bent end up at Arsenal.

We will play a 3-5-2 just like Allardyce did at Bolton before switching to a 4-4-2. Rozehnal, (Taylor/Hyypia) & Beye will be the three centre backs. The only way we might veer from this formation is if both Owens and Martins leave. In which case Sam might just get in personnel for a 4-3-3. 3-5-2 it is you heard it here first. Remember KaKa told you so when it goes down.

Nobby a better right-back??? You keep telling yourself that. Nobby was only applauded so much last year due to carr's wothlessness. Let's not fool ourselves Nobby was very average and didn't instill much confidence at all.

Minus Parker who we sold for £7 million. So would actually be £1.8 million. Outrageously good business.

Geremi as right-wing back in the 3-5-2 ... I like it.

What a totally patronizing post tbh. No offence Big Bird ... it's just that I don't think it makes sense to say that we have all this money therefore we should make a trophy signing. If the manager identifies a player that he feels he absolutely must have and this player costs £15 million then fine let's go for it, but if this player costs £2 million then that's fine too. It doesn't make sense to me for the manager to go out of his way to sign a big player just to make a statement. Every transfer is a gamble, even the supposed sure things (i.e. Duff) so a manager, in my opinion, should only ever go for a player who they know very well and who they know will contribute to their plan for the team. Irregardless of if this player costs £500,000 or £50 million. I think it is unfair to critisize Allardyce for buying 'Bolton players' whatever that means. These so called 'Bolton players' have been whipping our behinds for years now! If bolton had enough money to build a full squad of these type of players rather than just a first team, they would have been in the champions league by now. I will be more than happy if Sam could build a full squad of players of the quality he has pursued so far.

What a depressing thread ... news that we've got a bit of money and people want us to go splashing out on name players, many of whom we are not certain will even perform in the premiership and who will all be coming because they heard our owner is a billionaire and has money to throw around. It's no wonder Freddy always went for the trophy signing. Looks like he knows us better than we know ourselves. Why don't we let Allardyce bring in players who he knows are good and will get us to where we want to go. he has his techniques for scouting players and it isn't based on how high their transfer price is, so let him do his thing. What's to say Rozehnal won't be the next Vidic, or Beye the next Gallas??? Wenger has won the Premiership by buying players who were considered nobodies or cheapies but he knew their abilities and he went for them for that reason. Why not let Allardyce do the same thing. He is obviously going for players he knows and players he is confident will get the job done for us. This is not a video game people. I for one am very happy to have a manger who is smart enough to know that a good player isn't necessarily one with a big name and a big price tag. I will continue looking forward to Sam bringing in players who he is confident in regardless of their name or price tag.

Cause this is newcastle united we EXPECT something to go wrong Dave come on now. f****** hell not at this stage. Bloody hell people on here need to calm down seriously. The guy has been signed.

In my opinion Beye will play centre back for us. He will be the third of a back three with Rozenhal and Taylor. Hyypia will serve as backup and if the Gods are particularly unfavourable to us Ramage will play a backup role too.

Why of course, he had me design the cover http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/9996/samandmikesalbumgm3.png Quality.

Rozehnal will be playing in a 3-5-2 alongside two other centre backs so he will be fine. His mobility will be key as he will be one of the two centre backs playing on the outside and so his mobility will be vital as on counter attacks he might sometimes have to pick up the left-back/right-back. We will have a beast to play in the middle of the back three who will be more physical.

Well I certainly wasn't stating it as fact, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss the possibility of the scenario I mentioned. That scenario was the first thing that came to mind when I read the article. You might indeed be right though and it will be very interesting to see what happens in the next week, prior to his return to training.

Good point about the compo deal. Definitely would make it easier for him to leave, as you say it would remove some of the guilt he would no doubt be feeling. Could you imagine his press conference if he did join another club though? Reporter: "So Michael ... a message for the Newcastle fans?" Could get pretty ugly.

That deal would equate to something less than Owen's release clause tbh. If we're going to sell him, just sell him. Hmmm ... well I guess I was thinking along the lines of Borough's supposed £6million bid for him. That added to the £3.5million would be £9.5million. However you might be right. We don't know if that £6 million Borough bid was even legit.

Some very interesting info in the chronicle today ... Owen pretty much appears to have a week to manufacture a move away, as Oliver says that if he returns to training next Friday then he will pretty much be certain to stay next season. He has been given a special pardon apparently so he doesn't have to come back to training with everyone else at the start of the week. Something fishy going on here. I think he might be close to a move which is why he has delayed his return to training. I think by next Friday he might very well be gone. According to Mr. Oliver we are indeed interested in Alan Smith if Owen or Martins leaves! He also says that Alan Smith has already turned down Borough. Something might very well be in the works as it appears the Alan Smith story was indeed true. I think Owen might be going the other way, and if anything we will probably be receivng the £3.5 million along with Smith for little Micky. *A lot of this is speculation I know, but just my feelings on the situation which I think might be worth discussing. So take a deep breath before responding. Thanks.

He really needs to sort out his fitness though. The guy does get injured a lot. He also always looks like he has been seriously injured even when he hasn't, whcih is very annoying as it leaves you on tenterhooks. We will definitely need a promising midfielder on our bench who could step in everytime Emre is hurt. Boateng for the supposed £1 million would be good.

If this is indeed true it might mean that Owen is going the other way. I personally thought Alan Smith was a possibility as Mr. Oliver didn't exactly deny it last week. Instead he said something very vague ... along the lines of Newcastle being surprised by the article.

Exactly!

Heres a good little article which talks about Diarra's history. Was written while he was still at Lens. A Liverpool fans take on his performance while on loan at Lens ... Sounds like a beast to me!

So he's been s*** in the past when he's played in the Premiership then, yes? Bit unfair to judge how well a player does in the premiership by looking at their time at one club... Especially as the said club put him out on the wing all the time. His goal scoring record whenever he has been played up top has been very good. I hope he ends up somewhere in the premiership and he is played as a striker. It would be interesting to see how it works out.

And he would still score more goals than Bellamy could ever dream of scoring. If Owen leaves we need a goal scorer not someone who runs around and looks pretty doing so. Cisse will score more goals if he is played upfront alongside someone with the technique and stature of Viduka. First Koumas, now Cisse. You really do rate some very shoddy players highly tbh. I'd rather have him over Bellamy if we are playing 2 upfront, especially as he would be playing with Viduka upfront. Think Cisse alongside Viduka would score more than Bellamy alongside Viduka. That's all I'm saying really. Baggio does have a point though, if Sam intends to switch to a 4-3-3 then Bellamy would make more sense as I have always thought his ideal position is as a wide forward in a 4-3-3 if he can be convinced to play in this position he would be dynamite. Only way we'll be playing 4-4-2 next season is if Owen is still here. And Bellamy won't need convincing to play on the right, especially in a 4-3-3. Only reason he spat his dummy out last time was that it was plain as day that Kluivert and Shearer were absolutely abysmal up front together and everybody could see how much better we were when Bellamy was up there, including Bellers himself. Under Allardyce he wouldn't have to deal with the s*** Souness put him through. I was thinking 3-5-2 when I spoke about two upfront by the way. I'm not sure we were ever going to play a 4-4-2 under Allardyce.