Wallace

If they were offered £5m for Williamson, they would definitely take it. Profit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the local papers said recently, we are after 2 players to play up front - one of which would be Cabella - which means that we are only looking for one striker. I hope they are wrong.

Of course not. They have a wage structure as well and pay much lower wages than we do.

Cabaye and Debuchy were mid 20s and above when they left their first and only club so obviously other clubs had reservations about them otherwise they would already have moved on. Coming to Newcastle and showing they can perform in the Premier League has proved their ability and in doing so will make them more attractive to the bigger clubs. We have been a successful move for both of them and if that had not been the case then they at least had a much improved contract compared to what they were on previously at Lille to have made the move worthwhile.

I never get why players who want to leave rarely put in a transfer request these days. I know it is about the loyalty bonus but in most cases, they are going to get a much more lucrative contract that will more than compensate for losing the bonus.

Goodness knows who is on their target list (apart from the ones that have no interest in joining) as they seem to disassociate themselves from every linked player.

I think if Shearer was serious about management, he would have done his pro licence by now as he would need that to manage in the Premier League.

Cannot believe Swansea would pay those sort of wages.

By making it abundantly clear that we want to move certain players on, they are inviting low bids. They are such hypocrites where transfers are concerned as we look for out of favour players expecting to get them on the cheap. Anyway, virtually all of the players we want to sell will only go for small fees although I expect they probably want a decent amount for HBA and MYM. If HBA was at a different club, we would be in there offering a £1m take it or leave it offer. The way this club works is beyond comprehension at times. They create all their own problems so I have no sympathy for them

That's your c*** of a player there. Doesn't like the criticism he's brought on himself for being a racist cannibal. Hope he breaks his f***ing neck the prick. Certainly not true this season. He has received huge praise and respect from the media and most fans for his performances this season and there has been recognition of his improved behaviour. He won most if not all the Player of the Season awards.

Got to hope Shaw suddenly turns in to something he's not. Centre back and RB are going to be poor for at least a couple years, probably more. Hopefully Clyne keeps improving for Southampton Apparently there is a kid called Chambers at Southampton who they reckon will be England's right back for years to come. He's captain of England U19s so he is a couple of years away yet.

If the papers are to believed, there will be no fine turning by the club but more a case of a sledgehammer being taken to the current squad.

How many players are we after that are at the World Cup? Only Cabella that I am aware of. Maybe he is talking about our players and how much we will get for them on a back of a good World Cup!

We have a relatively easy start so if we don't pick up a significant number of points early on, Pardew will be under severe pressure with those sequences of difficult games later on in the season. If we are struggling by December, I cannot see how we would pick up enough momentum from that point onwards to avoid relegation.

I think North and South America should be counted as one area when rotating the bids. There is realistically only a couple of countries who could put a World Cup on and that is the USA and now Brazil. I recall reading that since the tournament was expanded to 32 countries, bidding countries have to have a certain number of cities to host games and that means virtually all countries in South America are unable to bid which is why Brazil had no rivals when it came to being South America's turn. Even Argentina would have a problem with the tournament in its current format. I am not sure if Mexico could cope now even though they have also hosted the World Cup previously. On that basis, it means that the US and Brazil will get to host the World Cup regularly compared to countries in Europe.

He is supposedly their number one target and his signing could send out a message to other potential signings that they mean business. You would think it would be the one target where they would be willing to be more flexible in order to get him "over the line" as his signing could potentially have the same significance as the Cabaye's did. I really don't know why they bother. If they have done their research as they like to claim they do, they would know what would be a realistic offer so why on earth would they think a club should accept a significantly lower offer especially when they know there will be other clubs willing to pay something closer to what they want. Why they feel the need to waste everyone's time - theirs included - goodness knows.

In terms of international competitions, it's still eclipsed by the Euros in that regard. IMO. But yeah, it doesn't get any better than this. I'm not sure the Euro eclipses it tbh. I think the World Cup has shown recently that teams all over the world are much closer to the UEFA now than they used too in terms of quality. I mean sure group stages the Euros is stronger but that's also because it's only 16 teams, but compare the quarter-finals in the WC to the quarter-finals in the Euros and I think the standard in the WC is much better. The Euros though only had 16 teams so there were few weak teams in the groups which is why it was always perceived to be a higher standard. That will probably not be the case so much in the future with the expansion to 24 teams.

Until we know whether Debuchy will be here next season, it would be daft to get rid of Santon at this stage. If Debuchy goes, it will be very late in the window and we need months to monitor a player before we submit a low bid and then refuse to be drawn into a bidding war. We could potentially be going into the new season with Ryan Taylor as our first choice right back unless of course they are thinking of promoting Tavernier.

Kind of amusing that there are clubs who seem to want to sign him (whether they'd paying our asking price is another matter) but the lad just doesn't want to leave. A pity Cabaye and Debuchy arrived already married - just needed them to find a local lass and put down some roots!!!!

Today's Journal says we have no interest in McCormack.

For some reason, they always talk about Ashley investing £250m+ in the club in a way that implies that is how much we owe him but as you say that includes the purchase price. I just don't get that as when you buy something you don't say that you are owed for that item.

Hasn't he played at left back a lot for Sunderland - or at least at full back which was an issue because he wanted to play in midfield. Pardew will have a fourth choice for LB now.

Didn't McCormack play for the Mackems a few years ago? Was that in the Premier League or the Championship?

If we have a difficult set of fixtures to begin the season with, I think last season's form will carry on and then it will be hard to break that downward spiral. I can't imagine there will be much enthusiasm going into the new season so it would not take too long for the negativity to reach new levels and the club will have to act at some point - unless of course Ashley is not worried if the club is relegated.

We seem to be happy to spend £1.5m on complete unknowns that we hope to get lucky with but so far none of those unknowns we have paid money for can be said to have been successful and we must have made a loss on most of them. Yet going £1-2m above what we deem to be the value of a player for whom you are almost certainly going to get your money back and more than likely make a profit, they refuse to budge.