maze

Dunno much about him. He's solid on FM though. In that game he can play all positions in the back-four. But, i'm not really sure about buying another "African Nations Player"... they are always gone in Jan/feb. But as a rotation player along with some other qual. signings, he might be a good addition to a very thin squad:)

old news..

Got to second this. In addition I think the all the media focus on Ronaldo and Fergie might hurt Man Utd performance to some extent! Also we have to remember that our squad is mostly likely to change before August, and we will be stronger than last season. We won't lose 5-0 or 6-0... we met them on a low.. so.. yeah! Howay the lads!

Hm, you can get ahold of an AK47?

There's no need to be depressed just yet. Jimenez, Vetere and Wise seem to be working in the background, while Keegan and many others are tanning their ass in some sunny place Thing that makes people a bit nervous atm is that we normally would have been in media's limelight - dealing high and low for new players. Instead it's pretty quite... I think the reason is simply that we have adopted a new way of working now which is very discreet and hard to handle from the outside. Besides, Keegan has always been a very honest and straight-forward guy, who likes to shop.. so I'm sure when he comes back Newcastle will buy some new faces. Another thing is that Newcastle probably just wait until after the Euro 2008 before we start buying players. No drama.... but a damn boring time to be a supporter!

f***ing hell Well, if he decides to come back, Blackburn will be my second fav. team And I would really look forward to the Newcastle vs. Blackburn matches, which would be the Keegan vs Shearer event

Basically says we have offered 50 million SEK, but Birmingham wants more. Larsson is flattered by the interest and see us as a big club. However, he's only concentrating on Euro 2008, and his agent's handling everything atm. Wigan and Man City are also interested - but we 'lead' the chase.

might also been this though... didn't pay much attention as I was talking to my friends... Surprised that they even mentioned it, atleast here in Norway they don't cover Newcastle well at all.

dunno if this has been said, but at TV4 (Swedish TV channel) just before the match between Germany and Poland, the Swedish commentators said Newcastle have lunched a 50 million SEK bid for Larsson. (about £4,25 million using this converter http://coinmill.com/GBP_SEK.html#SEK=50000000).

this. But just head back a season, Thaksin brought in SGE to manage City, although their form was worse after x-mas than before last season, SGE managed to finish at the best position in the club's history. Still he was sacked. Imho they should have kept SGE, and just built on that. If Man City's form (and squad) had been ours, I'd be a very happy man. To me Thaksin just seems to be the man who's gonna drive City straight to hell in the long-term.

So... bla bla bla.. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article1233673.ece and... then.. boring boring... boring... and hmm.. look at the last line there... Allardyce... to Blackburn?

Why dont we do as Real Madrid? Source: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=53206.475 and then simpl buy him and offer him to city in return for 1) more cash or 2) part exchange ... get micah

Don't know how good he's irl... but I agree that he's solid on FM... isn't this the guy playing at Inter some years ago? My question is, taken he's good irl... how well can he adapt to premiership football? i.e. can he become or be the player that woody was for us under Robson?

I'd have to say all of Shearer's goals

Class hair wonder if his hair style fits into the new boards criteria

Guess you can add Duff, Smith and a couple of other guys on that list

urk... Viduka... he's even slow in FIFA08

Try this mate: http://shop.nufc.co.uk/sites/newcastle/pages/sizeguide.htm Tusen takk (thank you very much)

Can someone help me out here.. went to sportsdirect.com, but couldn't find the euro/continental size (measure we use in Norway). Wanna buy a shirt to my nephew who's 10 yrs old..

bugger. well, either nufc.com are all on vacation, or they are just sloooooow... or this is just ITK s***..... * ooooops! that should be nufc.co.uk:P

Link anyone?

First of all, I'll just add James' thread in here, because it's very good and relevant I'm not gonna write a fucking novel about this, as it has been discussed so many times in here, that we have now moved on to discuss the discussion. I guess a lot of people, including myself, expected a 'overhaul' last summer. We appointed Big Sam, we were taken over, and although BS wasn't the new board appointment - they did decide to keep him. For me that was a sign of trust, and not "we'll-keep-Sam-and-see-how-it-goes" kind of thing. Now somewhere along the road a certain Ashley decided that he didn't want to spend a lot of cash - which in turn disappointed me (and maybe a lot of you guys) = no 'shopping spree'/overhaul after all. Almost a year after the takeover, we should now have a clearer view of how everything's going to be. As most of you are aware of deep down we had a huge debt problem. Ashley cleared that - or atleast most of it. Which enable us to continue in a more healthy financial state. So the long-term foundation's actually undergoing (far from completed) a major overhaul, compared to how far down in the shit we were,and could have been. Also, our youth academy has a long way to go before we reach the level of i.e. West Ham - because thats were we want to be (only X times better). This process clearly takes some time - and the faster we start - the faster it'll yield results. This leads me over to our 'scouting network', which obviously has been missing in the past, more or less - now it finally looks like we are doing some very good progress here, and we have been linked with so many players lately that it is actually fun to (atleast think) we have an exciting time ahead of us. The things I've been writing this far mostly concern the infrastructure (in addition to financial stuff), and some might think: " What the hack has this shit to do with the topic". Well I'm getting there.... So, let me give you two situations: X: Club A has not paid much attention to infrastructure (here: backroom staff, youth and money) Y: Club B has consistently developed their infrastructure, (in other words improved backroom staff, more healthy financially speaking, and given youth academy its deserved attention ) Who's gonna succeed...?? X? Y? or both? Well, obviously both can succeed. To what degree is another 'golden question'. Now lets say Club A is Newcastle. We have spent big on many many players, we've got some success, and when we need to replace players we do, and then continue our success. We have to spent big, because we don't have the infrastructure that Club B has. (this example is wide, and one could build on this! I know.... ) alternatively we can say that club A is Chelsea. They have a super squad, and have success, but its been a long time since we have seen a Chelsea product capture a first team spot (or even had the chance and trust). So every time they need a new/better player - they buy him. Many people like that - it's the madman's world. Shop 'till you drop mentality. But you all know Roman have spent a lot of money on Chelsea, and they are yet to show some positives financially.... Alternatively Newcastle can become Club B (transform from A to B) - Clearing the debt, start making some money. Maybe Club B has a 'half-decent' squad (some fans think so) and/but they still manage to finish somewhere in the middle. So they spent some money and brings in a couple of good first team players to - the very least sustain their position in the league. At the same time they use a lot of money and energy on consistently developing their infrastructure. As time goes one should expect this commitment to yield some positive results. Maybe the results are of such character that they have the players Club A desperately want, so they can either: a) keep or.. b) sell Lets assume that Club B doesn't have to sell*, and therefore keep these 'super' talents. Now, one should really expect this club to grow, and climb the table. Maybe not that fast in the start, but that will come eventually. As time goes by, Club B continue their positive development, earning money and so on, and they start mixing their own super talents with talents from other clubs - and all of their hard work have made them among the top clubs. (alternatively club B can be at the very start of their development, and therefore need the money, haven't qualified for Euro. comp. etc, so they sell to Club A for big money and use the it to - further develop, pay debt, or buy some good first team players. As time goes by Club B steadily builds up, and at the end of the 'day', when Club A knocks on the door and says : "Hi there, I want your players", they can simply say: "No, we don't sell". What's Club A gonna do? It's infrastructure hasn't be a priority and the clubs in the B-category doesn't want to sell Well it's got to start doing the same as Club B started with - The only problem is that Club B is so far ahead and very good at this, that if Club A ever succeed doing the same it will take time) The down side is of course that as a supporter, one cannot expect (any) short-term success. On the other hand, the long-term sounds very promising - both financial/infrastructural and of course on the pitch. So, if you apply the above to this topic/thread it's pretty clear what's going on, aye? Ok, so this is simplified.... and my god.. this became a novel.. Bottom-line is though, a major 'overhaul' doesn't guarantee we won't disappoint as Tottenham did last season. Certainly decreases the value of our current players - cause we tell everybody that we wanna get rid of everything - and Keegan has indeed shown us that the players we have can play football. So by keeping the majority of the squad, and at this stage just add some more makes sense. Finally, say we do "the club B" scenario, and become like the top four, well you all know we do have the financial power to atleast meet the players demand when it come to wages - just the opposite of what Arsenal can/does today |maze|

After what he did at Barca, I think he might be able to do a good jobb for us. What do you guys think, should Newcastle appoint ten Cate as backroom staff? Forgot the link there, sorry: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article1223652.ece

The thing that worries me though, is that while some clubs are out there shopping player before Euro 2008, we seem to be waiting until the competition is over. If some of our targets are called-up and play well for their side, it is more likely their value will increase like nothing else.

voted worried about everything... Guess I'm just worried because we don't seem that aggressive in the transfer market anymore.... I'm so used to Newcastle being the center of attention in the media.... maybe I miss the Shepard-type of chairman who let the money talk....