KaKa

Still being linked with us and Liverpool, but he is meant to be a life long Liverpool fan so I doubt we will get him if they are interested.. He wants to get into contention for England apparently, and so it would make more sense to come to Newcastle and play every week. He's got Riise and Aurelio to compete with at Liverpool.

Barton scored 7 goals in each of his last two seasons with Manchester City, who to be fair haven't been very good at all. Considering the team Allardyce is putting together, I would fully expect Barton to be able to grab at least three more goals next season. So I would expect Barton to get us the 10-12 goals from midfield. Especailly, as Allardyce has already come out and stated that he wants Joey to get him goals from midfield, so this is clearly going to be Bartons focus.

Sam: "I'll have Drogba, Essien, Terry and Lampard thanks ... oh yeah, and that suit your wearing you flash portuguesie?" Mourinho: "So much monies ... Zis Geordie Abramovich ... he is incredible!"

I have a feeling Brown will only be considered if PSG push the price too far up for Rozenhal. Sam would probably only want to get Rozenhal if he is cheaper than Brown, but if PSG are insisting on a similar amount to what we could get Brown for, then Sam would probably rather get the premiership experienced player in Brown. That's what I think anyway.

It really is quite unbelievable ... We've essentially signed three very good premiership players (fingers crossed on Ben Haim!) and made a £1.5 million profit in the process. Despite the fact that we have a new owner who appears to have a lot of money. I'm loving it. This way when we really need to push the boat out on someone who is worth it there will be no hesitation from the owner. Love the fact that Sam isn't going crazy just because the money is there, should make M. Ashley very happy indeed. Great stuff.

Apparently Benayoun hasn't signed the new contract at West Ham ... bet he'd love to join up with his buudy. Let's make those hammers weally weally mad.

According to the independent! Keeps getting better folks! http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/premiership/article2631118.ece

Sam might get the best out of him but he really was awful last year. I know a lot of Arsenal fans and they weren't too pleased with him at all last season. Nevertheless the more we can pad our squad with free signings the better, at leat we know he has quality when he is fit and firing.

Wow!!! So we will indeed be keeping all of our strikers!!! That is phenomenal. What a strike force!

Allardyce has been talkign up Owen today and saying that he hopes he stays. In my opinion I think Martins is already gone to be honest, because if Owen is being persuaded to stay and anelka is on the backburner then Martins must be out. I feel this is the case because I am pretty confident Sam will want to pair Owen with a target man in Viduka, and if Owen leaves he will most likely want to pair Anelka with Viduka. Therefore I cannot see a £10 million Martins being kept on the bench, which will only decrease his value, when we can potentially sell him this summer for a small profit due to his success last season. We will most likely then bring in a cheaper up and coming striker who can offer pace when Owen is out (or when Anelka is out should Owen leave).

I need a new source of info ... Any news from grandma Wullie?

So much for that then.

But Arsenal can only offer him a one year contract which he'd throw in their faces. (i guess your talking about Giuly not Parker) Not sure about Giuly, was mint 1st season at Barca, done next to nowt since. Had no chance once Messi emerged. Messi is brilliant and is a cult hero to boot. No way Giuly gets in the team with Messi and Ronaldinho in his position. Before messi came to the fore I thought he was brilliant for Barcelona. Might be small but has a low centre of gravity and a strong base. Not easy to push of the ball and he is very direct and aggressive in the way he runs at players.

On this premise you would turn away Messi & Tevez. Please don't ever apply for the managers job. Cheers.

More important I think is worrying about the players desire to play for us rather than their costv (which should still be kept within reason obviously). For example If Berbatov says he is desperate to join us this summer and he insists he must be allowed to do so and Tottenham are forced to put a fair valuation on him, let's say £18 million, then yeah we ought to consider it. However, if Berbatov is happy to stay at Tottenham and we feel we must get him at all costs; and so we offer Tottenham £40 million and then give Berbatov £150,000 a week just to make it happen, then that would be awful!

It would be very dissapointing if we started carrying on the way West Ham have been this summer but fortunately for us our history of doing this should work in our favour, as we've been there done that to some extent. I was ecstatic to hear Sam talk about bringing in players who really had a desire to play for Newcastle and to play for him. I am confident he will stick to this. It is the only way to do things. We can still get very good players who are on the rise without having to go for the likes of Nani and Anderson, whose values are stupidly high. Sam targets so far have been spot on and I do not believe he will be changin them at this point.

Wow ... it looks like we are going to have a legitimate squad of players for once! So here is the inevitable question, does this mean that we will have the likes of Charlie, Milner and maybe Taylor on the bench and bring them along slower? I have always thought that these three were being thrown into things too quickly as they are only 20 years old. I think they are our future and not our present. They should play a good amount if games, but should not be guaranteed first teamers. I don't think they are quite ready and therefore they will always lack consistency. It will be better if we brought in some more experienced players of the age of 27/28 who the likes of Milner. N'zogbia and Taylor could learn from and eventually take over from. This would be a lot healthier and would really allow us to challenge the big boys. Thoughts?

Your grandma is ITK?

runs out today for Hearts! Parky, pray tell ... what is the latest on the situation? I imagine he will end up with someone in the premiership. Is it still likely to be us though? Bearing in mind we have just signed Barton?

mackems.gif Come on children ... let's not get too excited by that. There were no appendages involved, I repeat none whatsoever!

I heard from someone with French connections a while ago that Sam was in fact looking at their left back Jeremy Mathieu who apparently is highly rated in France. However I blew the guy off! I think it is more likely that Jeremy Mathieu is indeed the player Sam is considering.

Calm down people ... the £70,000 a week offer was West Ham's desperate last ditch effort to sign Barton, who turned them down and took what appears to be £50,000 a week from us. Great start by Barton, he did talk about the importance of being in a winning situation, rather than having more money and a flash car and house, in his interview on Sky Sports. Apparently West Ham weren't listening. Anyone else think Big Sam is up to something here and never in fact intended to let Parker leave? Or do you think Parker just doesn't want to go to West Ham and is instead looking at Tottenham or something? West Hams desperation to land Barton might indicate that the parker move has fallen through.

Hmmm ... no news of Parker signing at West Ham though. Do you thinking they were stalling and trying to sign Barton first before us because they wanted both and thought we needed the Parker money first? Would be hilarious if we got Barton and then sold Parker to Tottenham instead and West Ham were left with nought but a bitter Reo-Coker. Eggy is so shady.

I disagree too. In order to be great he has to step up and lead England to greatness by getting them to a world cup final and even better winning it. He has to be the instrumental player in the national team if and when this success is achieved. So far he has been pretty average internationally. The same could be said for Henry. Although they reached the world cup finals, it was Zidane who carried them, whcih is why he is considered a great. Gerrard has to do it on that stage in my opinion.