Wallsendmag

Front 4 will, the rest won't. Lascelles and Gouffran will both play more than 10 games for us next season. McClaren clearly loves Gouffran and Taylor will be injured most of the season so Lascelles will be vying with Williamson to play alongside Coloccini.

Never read too much into friendlies but by my reckoning 6 of those players will get into double figures in PL appearances for us next season (plus Abeid who I didn't include). Still desperately need 3 more in who can walk straight into the starting XI but I think Ashley will be thinking this group are good enough for 14-17th place.

Tbf he struggled in the Championship last season.

They do it to pander to the knuckledraggers on wearside. After all they need them to buy their paper/listen to their radio programme but we're a bit more sophisticated up here and our local papers/radio don't need to stoop to those levels. Walk around Newcastle and then jump on a metro to Sunderland for any further proof of what I'm saying. They're about half an hour away but it's like going back 30 years. A bizarre, non entity of a place and that's what fuels their bitterness and bile.

This new keeper must be shite.

I use readytogo every day to keep up to date with all the latest NUFC news. Seriously.

They should have anticipated the demand and made more than 10 of them mind.

Don't think that's the case at all. Remember an interview with him a few years ago and he actually said he couldn't believe a player like him was at a club the size of Newcastle. He'll know he's not good enough, and he isn't, but as long as they keep putting his name down on the teamsheet he's hardly going to refuse to play (like others have in the past). It's entirely the fault of the club that he's still here, not his and anyone booing him needs to give their head a shake. Hopefully he's moved on to a Championship club for a nominal fee but I've got a feeling he'll still be here this time next year.

Our crowds are on the decline. Presently we have 52,000 seats to fill and approximately 25,000 season ticket holders. I'd be amazed if we get more than 2 or 3 50k crowds next season. Couldn't even get 50,000 in against Man Utd last season due to their ridiculous ticketing policy. Probably only the mackems and Villa will have a lower occupancy % than us in 15/16.

James McClean has his Maserati vandalised. To be fair it's from January but it's just gone to court now and he's been in the news a bit recently. Culprit has to pay him back at a fiver a week; http://www.u.tv/News/2015/07/24/Derry-man-fined-over-McClean-car-attack-41718

Still can't get his performance down at Everton 3 years ago out of my head. A more gutless and cowardly performance you could not find. I wrote him off after that because although he has some talent (not enough to be playing at a top half PL club) he has a heart the size of a pea.

Only 5ft 11". Not very big for a centre half mind.

After 8 years of gross mismanagement under that fat tit it'll take a lot more than a handful of signings (assuming we get a few more in) to get me to take the plunge and get another season ticket and considering I can't go to away games any more because of their ridiculous no general sale policy I won't be turning up for any home games either so it's the pub for me.

Tbf for the combined fees we paid for Ba, Cabaye and Santon we could have bought them and kept Carroll. Bringing in them needn't have been a result of selling him. I hate Ashley but can understand why he was happy to take £35m for Carroll. Just a shame he trousered the lot instead of reinvesting it back in the team.

So after waiting around no decent teams wanted him and he's decided to sign for us after all.

I remember when the summers used to drag and I couldn't wait for it all to start again. Seems like no time at all since the West Ham game and it's back again in 3 weeks.

Just been watching this. Great memories and my first season as a season ticket holder. The most I've ever celebrated a goal and possibly the best atmosphere I've experienced.

Cracking result for Aberdeen.

Would rather have a striker who we know can score goals on a poor team in the PL as opposed to an Eastern European with a decent goal scoring record for a top team in the Belgian League. For that reason I hope we get him.

Decent replacement for Johnson.

They sell them to DFDS Seaways because there's loads of Dutch come over for our home games and they're sold as a ticket/ferry/hotel package. A load of Platinum Club tickets are sold to them. With 5 Dutch players and a half Dutch manager now I'd expect these packages to be more popular than ever for the coming season.

Thing is, unless you're Barca or Real Madrid then you're always liable to having your best players taken from you. I have no real issue with that. It's the fact that we've never re-invested the funds received that has always been the issue. To an extent. However we actively encourage bids for our best players, especially in the build up to the January transfer window when it's a sellers market and Ashley knows he'll get way over market value. It's not that long ago we had the 8th highest revenue in Europe. We're a big club, one of the biggest in the country, that's been downsized to a Southampton sized club and the sad thing is that a lot of fans have just accepted that.

Hate being all negative but nowadays signing a player like this means 1 of 2 things. He'll either be a flop and not adapt to English football or he'll be a hit and Ashley will have cashed in on him within 2 years. Bids will come in as other clubs know we are eager sellers. Gone are the days where we'd find ourselves a top player and build a team around them which a club the size of NUFC should be able to do. Just can't get myself excited about any signings anymore which is pretty sad really. Suppose if he's good just enjoy him whilst we can.

Of the present squad the only stand out I see as captaincy material is Janmaat. Can't really see how you could justify giving the captaincy to anyone else. Coloccini has been on a pretty sharp decline over the past couple of seasons and clearly isn't capable of lifting his team mates on the pitch which is part of the reason we've gone on these ridiculous losing streaks over the past couple of years and automatically lose any game we go 1-0 down in.

Rivière should be thrown out of the door once we've got a couple of new strikers in. Just not good enough. Some of those misses last season you'd expect a 10 year old to finish.