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Where's that quote from? Odds have suddenly increased and heading towards 3-1 now, which is great news... Might hedge my bet!

I've just stuck 200 notes against Redknapp on Betfair, I get £320 back providing he ain't appointed. That's how fucking sure I am Ashley and Mort can't be that fucking dumb. I hope to hell i'm right.

That's that then, our 3 players in...

Comments above Sadly, aside from Toon matches, Spurs and Arsenal are probably the teams I watch the most, living in London and having lots of mates who support both. It’s one thing taking players from Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester reserves (and even that has very limited success – see Smith, Babayaro, Geremi and even to a lesser extent Duff and early days Butt), but taking players who are rejects from a team below us in the league is unfathomable. None of them would offer anything extra. I can see why people say Defoe but if we’re going to spend £7-10m on a striker there is so much better on offer – Fred & Ashton are both players I’d rather see us spend that sort of money on. Defoe is a one trick pony who is nowhere near as young as people think (will be 26 this year) and will only get worse as he loses his pace a la Owen. I really hope we are slightly more inventive with who we look to buy than just taking chuck outs like this. I know we can’t aim for the very top drawer players but the least I would expect is to go abroad / to the lower leagues and try and pick up a gem rather than punt on average players we know will never be the best.

They're the same - Sky own them, teamtalk and planetfootball (which is now just a link to skysports.com!)

Out of contract in Summer

I can't start a thread but another decent possible incoming: http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_3031346,00.html

This guy is absolutely class. I’ve seen him play for Arsenal in league and cup this season and totally disagree about inconsistencies. To all of those raving about the job Faye did in midfield – he does the same thing but even better, meaning Faye could drop back to CB where we need him. He doesn’t just tackle, he makes good runs and his distribution is decent too. Reason he wanted to leave Chelsea and now Arsenal is because he wants to play – at Chelsea there were about 10,000 CMs in front of him and now he has Flamini in front of him and he wants to stay in the French squad – which he can do by playing. Reckon we could get him for a few million, I really really hope this comes off. Could definitely still do with an ACM as well though.

My uncle (Swindon season ticket holder) actually went out of his way to phone me and berate me following the signing, which is a rarity considering we probably only ever talk on Christmas day for about 30 seconds. He said every time he has seen Tozer play he has stood out head and shoulders above everyone on the pitch, reckons he’s the best young player he’s ever seen at the club and we’ve got an absolute bargain. Potential new owners wouldn’t have sold him but as the deal was already done they couldn’t stop it. Something vaguely positive at least.

And the article is followed up on the following page with a full page opinion article from some prick called Andy Dunn having a massive dig at Ashley and Mort for not backing Allardyce in public, when the article a page earlier said they had stopped doing so because it adds fuel to the fire... It's one thing being fickle enough to contradict yourself week on week but to do it on adjacent pages is an absolute joke. Really have to stop buying it!

is there another thread saying if Lassana Diarra insists on leaving Arsenal and we can in anyway persuade him to join, that we HAVE to sign him?!

I think it’s quite amazing how many people are willing to write off a player in the form of Cacapa who everyone was spanking off over until he had a bad 17 MINUTES WHILST CARRYING AN INJURY! Jesus, don’t be so fickle, give the guy a chance. Once again with Roz, people were saying he was one of the steals of the season early on and since he’s come back from injury he’s had a bit of a struggle finding his feet but you can still see if he settles he will be quality. We’ve played any number of different back lines this season so no wonder at times simple punts downfield cause confusion. There should have been a shout / interception from Taylor against Brum before the ball even bounced over Rozenthal for the goal and yes, the positioning was bad, but he has come from a league where punts over the top isn’t the way teams attack and he was one of the best defenders in that league, much like Vidic when he joined the Mancs, he’s struggled to adapt immediately but needs time to work out how to play against this and I’m sure that will come as we head into the second part of the season. The guy hasn’t played much more than 10 games for us and a lot of those games have been with a variety of partners. As for Enrique, he’s a hell of a lot younger than Faye, Beye, Cacapa and Rozenthal with a load less experience. No wonder Sam isn’t keen to just drop him into the team – listen to some of you guys on here, if that translated to general fan reaction at a game and he made a bit of a howler it could destroy his toon career before it even begins. Yes, people should be able to deal with pressure, but he’s 21, living away from home for the first time and adapting to a completely different way of life as well as a completely different type of football. I wouldn’t be too concerned if Sam kept him out of the team for most of the season and only played him in the cup and in easier or even away games, where there is less chance the fans would give him any grief. There’s so much whinging about why are defence has been rubbish for so long and the answer is so obvious – no back 4 is given any time to settle and as soon as there is an error people are on their back and the press catch on and deride us. Not sure if it was last season or the one before in which Tottenham, having finished 5th, conceded more goals than us with King and Dawson as their centre backs and people were lauding the two of them. If we back our defence in the same way we’ve backed the team in the last few days they will get it right and we’ll all be happy. C’mon lads.

DO NOT walk from Hammersmith – it’s miles! The tube is open to Putney Bridge which is all you need to get to the ground. Surprised to hear so many people talk so highly of the game to be honest, was my least favourite away game last year but that’s probably due to the awful football we played and the fact it was the only game I took the missus to; safe to say she did not enjoy being ‘out in the cold in the winter’. Still, I’m looking forward to the game nonetheless, being that I have recently moved to Fulham so it’s not exactly far to go! What pub do people normally opt for? I know there are loads around the area…

Totally agree with this. Had enough of taking Top 4 rejects and them not working out – too many English players at the top 4 clubs are made to look good by those around them (I think this even applies to some of the top 4’s supposed big English players with Gerrard flattered by the work of Alonso / Mascherano, Terry by Carvalho and Carragher by Agger – all have been exposed to a degree when these players are missing, not that I would say no to having any of them!). I think if you look at Brown and who he plays with – Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, he can get away with a lot as others will cover for him and as stated earlier the ball spends a lot less time in Man Utd’s half than it does in ours. I don’t think another defender is the answer in January, give our lot some time. Remember how long it took Vidic and Evra to adapt to the premiership and how much grief they got in their first (half) season’s? Hopefully (optimistic I know) the same will apply, to an extent, with Roz and Enrique. Both have had promising moments and some dodgy moments, but we need to give them time, they both clearly have the potential to be decent.

Metro and the likes down London have been pretty complimentary today. Most football press seems to be actually. Who cares though!? Will all change at the drop of a hat, hopefully they'll move back to Spurs if they have a shocker at the weekend.

heh, my comment at the beginning of 'good job you weren't playing warren, otherwise we'd have taken a hiding' was supposed to imply that ;-)

Just on 'You're on Sky Sports' proving i'm definitely not from Newcastle! Dad's a Geordie and been at st james / away games since i was 6 or 7 so reckon i can just about claim honourary status. Fuck me, those fan lines ain't fun, thought i could give a load of banter but panicked, just gave warren barton a bit of grief then talked shit for 3 minutes. Apologies

why can't andy gray ever admit when he's wrong. He called Martins offside, fucking obvious he was a mile on before the replay, but even then it's 'touch and go'. Is it bollocks. It's onside. Then when he sees the replay of Arsenal's goal and they put a fucking line across the pitch showing that Adebayor is offside he pipes up with 'he may have been offside'. Cockmuncher.

I'm not proclaiming him the second coming or trying to justify his behaviour but i think it's perfectly fair to maintain there were mitigating circumstances. None of us will ever know the ins and outs and maybe i'm wrong but i just think when you look at where he's come from (look at his brother for example!) he could have done a lot worse - it's just that he's a football player and everything he does is under the microscope. And on the playing front, I guess I'm mainly going off the recent times he's played against us for city where he has always ran the show and made our midfield look very ordinary (which in fairness it often was)

Please explain how our fans have made us unsuccessful. Give us a run through of the players we've hounded out who would have brought us trophies? Our lack of success has been down to an awful board (80s, majority of 00s), awful managerial appointments (everything post-Keegan bar Bobby) and the team / manager choking (Keegan era). The only thing that could be pinned on the fans there is putting pressure on the team under Keegan, but what fans wouldn't have expected the title from that situation? It's only now we seem to have the makings of a solid board / manager / team combo. The people you have listed as allowed to 'take the piss' weren't treated in any way as heroes - Shepherd and Douglas Hall are pretty much universally hated and although I personally still rate Bellamy as a player he was shipped out as was Dyer. As for the 'recent' cigar incident - it was 2004 when the guy was 22, it was stoopid but he was just a lad and made a mistake when he was drunk. He's got a temper, he acknowledges that but more often than not he uses it in a positive way (i include the Dabo incident in that as if I had to play with such a shower of s*** week in week out who didn't give two fucks about the club i'd want to give him a damn good hiding too). We like Barton as he seems pretty honest - whenever he's screwed up he's put his hands up and admitted it and he has been willing to do things such as go to counselling to try and sort himself out. He's come from a pretty tough childhood so hasn't had the best upbringing and so has a tendency to get in trouble but if he can cut that out there is no arguing he's a damn fine player - one i was very pleased to see us sign

Great quotes from Martins in the paper this morning, feels like everyone is positive at the minute, hope we carry it on against Reading: "I'm very happy and settled at Newcastle, I don't take any notice of the stories saying I'll leave," Martins said in the Daily Express. "And if Sam Allardyce is here for five years I will be here for five years as well. "That is how much I enjoy playing for him. I don't think I'll be going anywhere while Sam is here. "I'm scoring goals and I'm playing games, that's all you can ask for as a striker." "It wasn't that easy when I first came to Newcastle and it took me a few months to learn about the Premier League, about England and living in Newcastle. "I had to adapt to the style of football and it took me some time, but I'm very happy here."

(meant to post this in the preferred striking options yesterday but forgot, so thought I’d stick it in here) Gotta say Owen & Martins deserve a chance together. I disagree they are too similar, everyone says that based on size but they are totally different players. Martins is so strong and gets so high he can outjump someone far taller and is also just a big ball of muscle. I know he wasn’t so good at holding it up on his own last season but then he didn’t have Owen as an outlet. Also, he scored his fair share of headers and long range bullets last year, whilst Owen tends to get behind the defence and also be in the right place at the right time. Martins, despite his pace, rarely made similar runs to Owen and whilst it hindered him last season it could be beneficial this year. After all, what combination scored our winner against Wigan – Martins cross, Owen goal. They deserve a chance, especially in games such as tonight, where they have everything needed to tear Derby apart.