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No idea how true any of this is, bit worrying if theres genuinely anything to it. No need to worry. I'd wager very little of it is true. At least, the two parts I've bolded blatantly aren't true. Owen is on right at 100k per week (according to the Times' list of top-paid Premiership players -- among other, far more reliable, sources) not 120k, a fact which anyone who really was an "insider" would surely know. And Owen has said, multiple times -- including at Shearer's bar not four days ago -- that his advisors have not yet even been contacted. So if "six weeks of talks" has occurred, then either Owen and Keegan are both outright lying (neither has a history of this) or the rag sheets have printed a story without worrying about any basis of truth (I do think there is a history of this). That such easy-to-check facts are wrong makes me suspicious of the veracity of the entire article. Then there is the fact that I can't imagine Ashley got to be a billionaire by not realising "bad business" when it appears before him -- and chasing off Owen (who could get 60-80k per week at more promising clubs, tbh) is bad business. There are two big names to use when trying to write sh*** about NUFC: Keegan and Owen. Who else at Newcastle will sell papers nationwide? Taylor's contract won't, Martins' won't, etc. Only Keegan and Owen have that sort of 'celebrity' for lack of a better word, and therefore, the big "crisis" has to involve both of them to sell more papers. Call me cynical, if you will. But this one even threw in Joey Barton, the 'celebrated' problem child at Newcastle for good measure. Just selling papers. Have to agree, i mean how the fuck do the mail know what went on?! Freshfields isn't exactly a bar where someone can listen in, it's a huge office that no press would get near. If we only had 20m to spend then why the fuck would we have bidded 16m for Modric? That would have left us with 4m + sales which there is no chance would have been the case. I fucking hate the mail, them and the guardian are always out to get at us

If the top earner at Ibrox is on £20k and we offer Cuellar the same as what Smith's on (£60k) I have a feeling he may change his mind. IIRC didn't Beye say he wasn't interested in a move until we offered him loads of cash? He's not done so bad, even if his reasoning for coming was debatable...

People were singing that with "That Boy James Milner, makes Sunderland look shite" tagged on the end on the tube on the way to the West Ham game just this weekend...

It certainly would look amazing but it will simply never happen. I know, sadly not...

Never seen that picture before; that would be amazing, best ground in the league by a mile...

He seems to have become Ameobi since the haircut, both looks and playing-wise. Maybe we should have just got Ameobi to braid his hair and he'd have started knocking them in...

gutted we didn't pick up the three points in the end, but as has been said many times, a draw down at Fratton Park is not a bad result. This will be another game of special interest for me next season though, after the 4-1 at SJP and all Redknapp's mouthing off, we really owe these guys a stuffing... here's hoping it comes next season. Particularly enjoyed the round of 'You only stayed for the Sandbanks', I even got the feeling Setanta had to keep changing their live mics as our fans were too loud, certainly near the beginning.

Think you will find most South American players are transferred in US$ as well... Obviously they're all shit too...

two drums and cymbal fell off a cliff....

To give a vaguely sensible response / viable alternative, i'd suggest we look at South American players, who will be traded in US$ values where our relative strength is greater than our relative weakness against the Euro. As for the reality of exchange rate fluctuations impacting the summer, i think it's highly dubious, the more concerning issue for all clubs will be how much their owner(s) have been hit by what has happened in the markets and how much that will impact their spending power. All the people in charge of big clubs these days seem to be at least financially sage and will have assets diversified and most risk hedged, meaning currency movements have very little impact on them. Rather than using GBP to pay for players they could utilise European assets and pay with that money, reinvesting the GBP equivalent into a UK or US recovery stock / alternative product / commodity.

Probably the best single moment I can think of supporting the Toon. Wembley went mental. Was my first game at Wembley for a competitive match, my uncle let me have his ticket, i remember jumping onto the guy in front of me having had my shins tore to pieces by the seat in front. I've never been in an atmosphere like that before or since that i can remember and i've been to some amazing games... those that compare would be when we beat Leeds 3-1 after going 1-0 down at SJP, 3-0 v Liverpool and 3-2 Spurs away (not quite like have tens of thousands of Geordies but felt like there was at least that many at the time) Robert scoring a 35 yarder against Southampton, i think, would be another one that took my breath away...

I have to say i disagree, Liverpool have had just as many pannings and back page spreads as we have this season, with DIC, Hicks & Gillette, Benitez, Parry and everything else going on. I mean this isn't even a Liverpool site and there is a massive ongoing thread about them!

Jaaskalinen is not the answer. He is no better than either of them. I think Harper should be in, this season and next, if it means Given strops off and we manage to get a decent fee for him so be it. I would then look to bring through Krul / Forster / Soderberg in the way that City have brought through Joe Hart - a keeper doesn't need to be in over 25 to be quality and it'd be such a shame if we ended up losing all / any of these keepers because we were signing keepers like Jaaskalinin or Niemi who are nearing the end of their career.

A similar line of questioning could be asked every year of recent though, with Roeder / Souness, yet we've still managed to keep the attendances where they are. Admittedly, a lot of this has come through renewed optimism through changes being made at 'strategic' times, but it irritates me that every season people come up with the same negative comment - we've had fuck all to cheer since Bobby (with the exception of a few QF / SF appearances) and yet we can count the home league games we've dropped below the 50,000 mark on one hand. I think that's pretty amazing.

teasy...how can i put this ? are you a simple minded mong ?.....no that would be wrong. i'm sorry! ,i'll put it this way. ashley wont get his £129mill back unless he has backed the shares some more cos he bcaked them at a bookies...he didn't buy the shares as such. Do you understand spread betting?! There is very little chance he would have closed down his position in the wake of those losses. The problem with associating the word 'bet' with this is that people think it's a bet with a fixed date that ends when a certain event occurs. The type of bet Ashley had on meant that every time the HBOS price moved one way or the other he won / lost an agreed amount. He has had this open since last year (who is to know how long before that as well) and these losses are an accumulation of the losses throughout that period. As stated, these will have narrowed somewhat, in fact at least 20% following on from last week's HBOS recovery. He would not have needed to place another bet, just keep the same one open as he has for a good few months. Balances will probably be paid on a daily, weekly or monthly basis so he will have lost the amount stated / gained but it will still only appear like a paper loss until the bet is closed and the final figure is realised. I think you should have maybe done a little research before the simple minded mong comment, rather backfired.

fucking YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!

YESSSSS!!!!!!

If i was a betting man(!) I'd say Ashley will have kept the spread open and by the summer one would hope HBOS will be back up around 800 - 900p per share, which would cancel any losses. According to NOTW (if we're to believe anything they say) he's had this open since since last year so i certainly wouldn't expect him to close it down, especially after all the positive noises coming out about HBOS since they were stitched up last week. Target prices range from 800 - 1100p and, considering current market positions, that's pretty decent. Obviously we won't get an 'Ashley's paper losses cancelled out and never actually existed in the real world' story on the back pages of NOTW, but fingers crossed it'll happen. It's always the same... The markets can do well for a year and no one mentions them, yet if they have a few bad days it's front page news everywhere. Bad news sells because it gives people something to panic / moan about, which is what they love doing. The mood in and around the industry is one of caution rather than doom and gloom, although there's still a strong feeling that there's a fair bit of shit to hit the fan yet - which will effect all businessmen (not least Liverpool's owners as a load of their junk debt is directly effected) and not just Ashley. The fact that Ashley owns a range of different companies (albeit in the same industry) and that this industry is not directly related to finance, where the real struggle is, means that he shouldn't get too badly hammered (even if he likes his spread bets).

What are you talking about? Ashley sold half of Sports Direct when it floated, made approx. 1bn, kept the other half (hence why he was valued in excess of 2bn through this alone). The shares are now trading at just over a 1/3 of what they floated at (108p having floated at 300p) although they did go down as low as 70-80p iirc. There have been whispers of him taking the company back private and if he were to do so he would have banked around 600 - 700m for a couple of years work. All the sniping from the city boys wouldn't mean a jot as he'd have back full control of the same company making similar profit with almost an extra billion pounds in his pocket, which i'm sure he'd be pretty chuffed with. The reason the city hate him is because of things like the Reebok deal, where he bought a 3% (i think) holding, all the analysts came out and talked about him reviving a sleeping giant, how reebok had been undervalued and how this would be the beginning of their recovery, this caused the shares to spike and then 6 weeks down the line he flogged them and made a killing, making the analysts look like idiots in the process. It's stories like this that sports journalists read and misinterpret / manipulate into stories about him being a fly by night businessman who just wants to make a quick buck out of Newcastle. It's people like you, who perpetuate the rumour without actually clarifying any facts, who assist them. If you work in the city then you should be aware that you cannot float a company without making 25% (minimum) public domain, so how you suggest that he floated it and still owns all the stock is beyond me....

For what it's worth, an extract from one broker predicting loads more horrible stuff still to come yet singling out HBOS for a positive note: "Strategically we like HBOS (Target price 1007p) which has a 44% average LTV on its predominantly prime mortgage book, the strongest liabilities franchise of any UK Bank and is being valued at just 1.1x book."

Isn't that two words?

I think we could do with Faye either in midfield or defence, we are letting the ball bounce from long punts forward too much, Cacapa has had to make too many last gasp clearances that could have been dealt with earlier. Would also like to see Butt and Barton swap. Appears Butt is getting forward more but should be the other way round, Barton made some fantastic runs last week when given a bit more of a chance in attack. Smith is doing well but needs to get his head up earlier when he has the ball at feet, a couple of times he could have released players but took the ball backwards. Lots of moaning there but overall i'm delighted, the game is there for the taking if they have a bit of faith in themselves.

I like that you assume part of any criminal mindset is a lack of concentration, must make computer fraud and the likes a real bitch for those ADHD-laden delinquents... Sorry if that was unclear, I meant he must have a lot on his mind and thus might not have a clear head to concentrate fully on playing. I know when I've got something weighing me down I find it hard to concentrate on a task in hand. Didn't really need such a personal insight...

I like that you assume part of any criminal mindset is a lack of concentration, must make computer fraud and the likes a real bitch for those ADHD-laden delinquents...