LoveItIfWeBeatU

I love the caption under the photo of Mike Ashley (who is wearing a Newcastle shirt and standing amongst the Newcastle fans) on the BBC website story: - "Mike Ashley has kept a low profile as Newcastle chairman". The BBC used to be a well thought of, serious news organisation.

The way British law seems to work Distin will probably get a prison sentence (a longer one than Barton).

I agree I'm not happy about losing the money we spent buying him but you could argue that we bought him knowing he had a court case hanging over him for assault. As the idiot Shepherd once said "buyer beware".

I see Barton is the lead story on ITV News at 10pm tonight. It has CCTV footage of his Liverpool assault. They lead with "Joey Barton, should he be sacked?" Just the sort of headlines we like to see Newcastle associated with. This should be Man City's mess not ours. Thanks Allardyce.

All the previous times he's been in trouble haven't stopped him getting in worse and worse trouble. He'll be killing someone next based on the escalation process he's been going through with his 'incidents'. Read this: - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7481822.stm Selected highlights: -

Arsenal "We want Martins but we will pay no more than £11m for him." NUFC "Well, he's not for sale but if he was we would want more than £11m for him." Arsenal "We will pay no more than £11m for him." NUFC "You're not hearing me are you?" Arsenal "We will pay no more than £11m for him." NUFC "Fuck off!"

The guys a psycho. Why the hell did we sign him again? I can't believe the transfer ever got sanctioned being that the court case was hanging over him. I really can't believe the club didn't put a clause in his contract regarding the very real possibility that he would go to prison for what he had done. Surely he could be sacked for the assaults he committed in Liverpool if not the training ground fight. If getting arrested and sent to prison for assault isn't classed as gross misconduct I don't know what is. So glad we paid him his Man City £300K 'loyalty bonus'.

A bit like Real Madrid announcing they would like Ronaldo?

More blatant tapping up of players through the media by Harry Redknapp: - http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_3753523,00.html How does he get away with it?

If this story was true (and I don't think it is) Keegan would probably walk as the job certainly isn't as advertised. Using this 'journalists' logic, when we tried to buy Modric for £16m we were going to spend 80% of our transfer budget on one player.

Agreed (apart from the bit about being better than a signing). I got excited when I read about this in a paper a month or two ago. I then read on and realised he wasn't retiring, it's just there are no more major competitions before he does. I don't like any of the commentators and I wish you could have the option to watch a match with them turned off. What do they do? Say each players name as they receive the ball, fair enough. Waffle on with boring stories and kiss the arse of whichever team/player they love, not good. If someone sat next to you at the match and waffled on like commentators do you'd want to kill them.

Getting rid of Duff and Smith would be considered squad improvement. What do they do? They don't have a positive impact on the team. I'd rather rely on Kazenga LuaLua and Andrew Carroll.

I don't mind hearing nothing until they are signed. The Enrique signing came out of nowhere. The Emre signing dragged on all summer in the media before it was eventually confirmed. I know which I prefer. If we'd got Modric that would have been pretty much out of the blue.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/gossip_and_transfers/7467751.stm Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan is preparing a £6m swoop for Tottenham's out-of-favour winger Aaron Lennon. (News of the World) The Magpies boss will also fight it out with rivals Sunderland for the £10m transfer of Celtic's Aiden McGeady. (News of the World) Everton and Newcastle are still in the hunt for Orlando Engelaar, the Dutch international midfielder. (Sunday Times)

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/sunderland-afc/safc-news/2008/06/15/sunderland-star-kenwyne-faces-op-79310-21076865/ Quick! Try and sell Alan Smith to Sunderland.

It really boils my piss when the media try to suggest transfers for the big four teams. The media would be gutted if we got Arshavin when he 'should' go to one of 'their' teams. Reminds me of that "Arsenal won't pay £15M for Martins" story. Is that right? Well they can fuck off then because he isn't for sale anyway.

How can Allardyce praise Russia's attacking play? It is totally alien to how he likes his teams to play!

Shame is one of the 'super' clubs will probably buy him now where he will be rotated as part of their squad. He would be one of the first names on our team sheet playing every game he is fit.

Exactly. I think most of the players we have been linked with are in their early 20s. Arshavin is the oldest at 27.

I have no problem with buying potential. So we spend around £250K on each young player who has already shown some quality (it's not like we are buying young players with no experience. A few of them are under 21 players for their country). One or two of them may one day turn out to be a star. A few will possibly be sold for a profit if they don't make it as Premier League quality. All in the spending is probably less than we have pissed away on one established 'star' player like Smith or Duff. Given the choice what would you rather have, one average player or 10 young players with potential? These young players costs will be covered by the money saved from the shite NUFC have already shipped out this summer. Obviously we also need to spend a decent amount to buy already established quality as well. The fact that we tried to buy Modric and have been linked to quite a few quality players suggests we are going for youth and experience. Not a bad policy in my eyes.

I haven't listened to the 3 Legends for at least 3 years but even I know that Eric Gates hasn't been doing the show for a couple of years.

Delete your cookies then try.

Ameobi is not listed either. I think they aren't listing people who they don't want to keep. Unfortunately Alan Smith is listed in the squad. They should have a 'Make us an offer' squad profile section listing Smith, Duff, Ameobi, etc.

Emre injured again: - http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=53206.525

I hope the deal is signed, sealed and delivered: - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/euro_2008/7363001.stm