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Exactly this

So, would you be saying you wouldn't welcome him as a signing then? For us, he'd be class and i'd welcome him as he's miles better than anything here, but for the likes of Barca where he'll be playing in the Champions League i think its too much. I'm not saying he's not a good player because he is, but he'll never be great like he's been hyped up to be. Ah, in which case, totally agree with you, more concerned people were implying they wouldn't have him here, which would be madness

So, would you be saying you wouldn't welcome him as a signing then?

People not think that maybe Barcelona made their approach in the run up to a Russia v Spain semi final of a major tournament in an attempt to get him to choke? Look at the quotes from him, he's always dreamed of playing for Barca, club he supported as a boy, never thought he'd ever realistically stand a chance of playing for them. Then just takes one phone call and a Zenit statement to make him think that the next game he's playing in is not only the biggest game of his international career as there is a euro championship final place at stake, but also his big chance to make his dream come true in a game the whole of Spain and, more importantly, Barcelona will be watching? That's a fuckload of pressure for someone who isn't used to being in the spotlight and could go a long way towards explaining last night. If someone has voiced this opinion earlier on, apologies, i didn't flick back through... For what it's worth i'd still take him in a heartbeat, class player. Amazing to see people slating him after one bad game, still can't work out if that's sarcasm or not? Anyone who has watched him play for Zenit in the UEFA cup this year (not going to claim to have seen any russian domestic games, but have seen a lot of the UEFA cup games) will know that he'd be an exciting signing. Yes, he may not work, but that's a gamble we're going to have to take whoever we sign. The post above about Duff sums some of the short-sightedness up well, to describe Arshavin as Duff mk II when you have said 'a 27-28 year old who needs to adapt to a new league' - pretty sure Duff was about as proven a premier league player as you can get. Pretty sure Carr, Babayaro, Butt, Parker and many more had proved themselves at other clubs prior to joining us, it didn't exactly guarantee they were resounding successes.

Evening Chronicle, Shields Gazette, Sunderland Echo. Yep yep, more a reference to their headline choice... It's like they've lifted it straight from here!

Looks like Football365 have even jumped on the bandwagon, if you take a look at the headline on the side of their page at the minute... (can't be doing with learning image linking!)

England regular. Don't English players cost a lot of money? We've no need to sell and Liverpool have behaved disgracefully throughout this sage, so I suspect MON is determined to make it as difficult and expensive as he possibly can. I don't blame MON at all but I cannot see Pool bettering that offer, then its back down and sell him or put up with an unhappy player. If Carrick and Hargreaves are worth £18m then Barry is worth at least £20m in my view.

Not sure if already mentioned but Ramsey has signed for Arsenal

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!!!!!!!!!