KaKa

Owen (the injuries aren't quirky anymore) and Smith out. Saviola and Baptista in.

Maybe we need to just continue the Argentine theme and get Saviola in instead. He would be tasty just behind a front two of Martins and Viduka. We need Owen badly. If he is going to continue to miss so much of the season through injury, it is going to have a huge effect on our chances of success.

So ... Michael Owen is likely to miss the start of the new season it turns out, due to yet more injury problems. We know when he is available he can produce the goods, but are we doing the right thing in giving this guy a brand new hefty contract considering how fragile he is? Is this the sensible thing to do?

Why would they want to sell him? Just signed Ben Haim so Richards at right back? Richards in midfield probably. Ben Haim and Dunne at the back. New, proper right back instead of playing a rotating collection of centre backs there. That wouldn't make any sense, they've got money to burn out of their arse and they're selling one of their best players because they got Ben Haim? And they're going to push their best defender into midfield... They haven't got money to burn at all. Thaksin has hardly spent f*** all and Jo, his only big signing, is costing them buttons in the short term, paid on the drip over several years. Richards has played midfield before- they need a defensive midfielder and don't have the money to buy anyone good. Edit- and why would Ben Haim leave Chelsea's bench for City's? He'll be going there to play every week. Apparently Corluka all agreed at £6.8m subject to a medical. Irrespective of whether City have got money or not, I'm surprised they would be selling a good player they got last summer at a loss for no good reason. He has proved himself able in the Premier League after all. Kicking off in the City forums......................... Absolutely brilliant purchase for Tottenham. I love Corluka's game. An unbelievable sale by City in the first place, but it is further compounded by that ridiculous price! I wouldn't sell Corluka for less than £10 million. H ecame into the league and was quality from day one, he is a young first team player for his country, and he is unbeleivably versatile! He played at centre back, right back and entre midfield for City last year and never looked out of place in any of those positions. Complete madness. Could never quite say for sure if Hughes was a quality coach or another royal rumble football man (a la Allardyce) who happened upon a few quality players. Well he just sold Corluka and brought in Tal Ben Haim, so I know what I'm leaning more towards! Imagine if we had signed Corluka and Coloccini! Amazing signing for Spurs. He definitely has to be in the first team too, so maybe king will come off the bench or one of them might even play at DM. Wow ... absolutely stunned by this.

If we could get a young LB and RB in the Bassong mold that would be alright.

Interesting stuff from Keegan. Very telling that he thinks so highly of Guthrie, as he says players of the quality of Gutierrez and Guthrie, so Guthrie might be straight into the first team. I would really prefer him to Butt at the moment, so I'd be cool with that. I also hope that of the three top quality newcomers he hopes to have in, it will be Coloccini with a midfielder and striker, as Dave said. However, I'm a bit worried that a left back might be included in the three. At the moment, I would much rather just bring in a young backup left back and have a top midfielder and Striker come in along with Coloccini.

Very encouraged byt he fact that every new player that has been brought in so far, look s like they have something about them. Very discouraged by the lack of improvement or progress being made by other members of the team who seem to be stuck in the same place of delivering average to poor performances.

I'm worn out. Maybe I shouldn't have posted so soon after the game, but I am just tired off watching the two of them. They say Milner stays behind at practice everyday and his crossing is at the best exactly the same. In actuality it is worse. Taylor makes all the gestures, yells at people, acts like he cares, but he doesn't actually defend well at all, which is what he is expected to do. I just don't enjoy watching these guys play the game. Newcastle is too big for these guys. They shouldn't be anywhere near the first team of the club, and hopefully if recrutiment goes well this will be the case.

Careful, they've played two or three pre-season games. Let's not get carried away. It's just how lowly I rate Taylor and Milner. I don't see flashes of anything in them that makes me think hang on a minute there might be something there. I just don't. I understand where your coming from as far as not getting carried away, but I already see so much more promise in these two new signings. Guthrie clearly has so much composure and thought behind his play, somethng Milner it seems will just never get. Bassong at the very worst is at least a very good athlete who knows how to use his body to defend effectively, Taylor despit his physique still doesn't seem like he can even do that much. I'm just really frustrated with both Milner and Taylor at the minute, and perhaps I'm over reacting, but they really are dissapointing. I feel annoyed that we have given these guys brand new contracts because I'm not sure they deserve them, as they haven't really performed on the pitch for us yet.

Milner really seems to have gone backwards, maybe he has half an eye on leaving or summat. Hmmmm ... honestly I've never really seen what people see in the guy. I love his dedication and commitment, but he is very average. I really feel he is more of a championship standard player. Could never see him being a first team player in the premier league.

Taylor and Milner are just unbelievably poor. I'm glad more people are beginning to see this. These guys cost us games at both ends of the pitch. They are consistently poor and at their very best are very average. It's ridiculous. I couldn't be happier about Bassong and Guthrie. Two players who have barely cost a couple of million and they are already standing out in our team and are showing that they will definitely be an improvement on a lot of the layers we already have. Huge credit to the recruitment team for Bassong and Guthrie who a lot were so worried about. Looking very promising for those two young guys. Honestly, the performances of Bassong and Guthrie have pretty much shown that with a couple of million we could easily replace Taylor and Milner with better quality and it's embarrassing. Especially as those two with all their unjustified hype could probably net us at least £10 million. It's a joke.

Does seem like a lot more people are willing to feel like "there might be something in this" just because he is described as being a billionaire richer than Abramovich. Seems like people are just gagging for someone to come in and buy 20 players in a week all of whom cost nothing less than £20 million. Ashley has come out and said he is not interested in selling but would like partners to join him. I see no reason not to believe this. Another Sunday, another takeover rumour as far as I am concerned.

NE5 no doubt.

Algerian and Lens Left Back Well Lens got relegated so he will be cheap.

Timothée Atouba has looked good for Hamburg at left back. Still only 26. In the last year of his contract too. What exactly happened with him at Tottenham again?

I'm really proud of it. Thanks for the encouragement.

4-4-1-1 this season. After Owen's progress playing in the hole last season he is going to develop this further and Martins will master making the right runs in order to stretch that last line of defence. Butt and Barton in midfield. Jonas and another top wide player on the right side (Larsson of Brum is likely) and it's all systems go. Guthrie will backup Butt. Milner will backup Barton. Geremi will backup Larsson. Zoggy will backup spidey. Watch this space ...

Derdiyok would be another in the Guthrie and Bassong mould. Guthrie looking to push Nicky Butt and eventually displace him. Bassong looking to push Faye and eventually displace him. Derdiyok looking to push Viduka and nudge him out also.

You must be shitting me. Everytime I had a go at him last season, most people didn't seem to agree with me. Quite a few can't look past his work rate and attitude, which are great tbf, but he just isn't good enough. He is a huge liability, costs us so many great opportunities in a game, by not delivering a decent ball. He was even moved into the middle at one point of the game today and he actually looked worse. He didn't quite know where to be and subsequently faded from the game as he hardly was able to get on the ball.

I think it is a blessing in disguise the more inept we look upfront with each pre-season game. Just incase anybody at Newcastle, Keegan in particular, was even beginning to think for a second that we were okay upfront. Other points ... Guthrie looks a classy, tidier version of Butt and should take over from him very soon, I hope. He would definitely do a better job of distributing the ball. I'm very impressed with Guthrie he was clearly a very good value for money purchase and will only get better. Milner is popular on here, but he really isn't anywhere good enough for the first team right now. He has a top work rate and a top attitude but he just isn't producing the goods on the field consistently enough. His crossing hasn't improved one bit. Jonas is a star. His game, his look ... cult status guaranteed. On the whole I thought everyone looked very fit and much quicker than I remember too, which is a great sign.

I definitely agree with the first team which leaves Jenas out, and I honestly thought this was what was going to happen before he was given a brand new deal! I doubt he would have been happy to sign it if he knew he wouldn't be playing as big a role anymore. Shall certainly be interesting. Ideally Jenas should be the one to be left out if you do sign Arshavin and a DM. Not sure Gio woul be too thrilled to move to Spurs' bench from Barca's.

Looks like his agent is just pimping him all over the place. I think perhaps Spurs considered him instead of Bentley at some point, but their interest is over now. Modric, Jenas, Bentley, Dos Santos and Arshavin would have been too feeble. If they now land a good strong midfielder to go along with the first four i mentioned (i.e. no Arshavin) then they will be looking very interesting indeed. Bent and Pvluychenko to battle it out for the lone striker also. That would be much better for them I think. Dont agree with you on that. Arshavin would have been an excellent signing and he would have been easy to accomodate. Still dont think we've ended our interest. I'm also not that sure about signing Pavluychenko. Sure he had a good euros, but i'd be far more comfortable with a player like Pandev or Milito than i would Pav. You have so much creativity from Bentley, Modric, and Dos Santos, with Jenas occassionally, no very occassionally , doing something half decent also. Will Arshavin really add more to the team then than what an Albelda or your boy Palombo would? How would you line up Bentley, Modric, Dos Santos, Jenas and Arshavin beaing in mind none of them can play as a lone striker? They would all take up a midfield position, whcih I don't think would be great defensively.

Looks like his agent is just pimping him all over the place. I think perhaps Spurs considered him instead of Bentley at some point, but their interest is over now. Modric, Jenas, Bentley, Dos Santos and Arshavin would have been too feeble. If they now land a good strong midfielder to go along with the first four i mentioned (i.e. no Arshavin) then they will be looking very interesting indeed. Bent and Pvluychenko to battle it out for the lone striker also. That would be much better for them I think.

Is their policy for signing strikers 6 ft 4 or more only? Weird.

Baptista would be great and his versatility would be very handy indeed. I would love to have him here.