Gemmill

Aye, Huth has gone to Boro. Utter spastic. I love the way Huth has been our key transfer target since April, but the first Huth heard of it is when we tried to hijack his medical at Boro. His SECOND medical at Boro, after they already tried to sign him a month or two ago. Way to get your man, Glenn!

Roeder said: "Sibierski is a versatile player as he can play in several positions and his best asset is that he is good in the air."

Here we go! Newcastle United made a late beat-the-deadline bid to bring international defenders Lucas Neill and Zat Knight to St James' Park - but both failed. And United's £2m bid for Middlesbrough striker and Aussie colleague of Neill's, Mark Viduka, was also rejected, leaving United's only deadline acquisition as Manchester City's French midfielder Antoine Sibierski. And on a day when some of the happenings in football were nothing short of amazing, United stopped James Milner from signing for Aston Villa for £5m after their young striker had been given permission to travel to the Midlands yesterday morning. Glenn Roeder had to face Milner at the club's training ground this morning and I just do not know what the Newcastle United boss could say to his England Under-21 international, who must be feeling lower than the proverbial snake's belly. On Wednesday morning Roeder was confident that he would sign Robert Huth, Viduka and the versatile Blackburn Rovers defender Neill. But Huth, his No 1 defensive target from the moment he took over in May, was allowed to agree a £6m deal with Middlesbrough instead of coming to St James' Park. However, in the end Huth stayed at Chelsea because Jose Mourinho felt he was short of a central defender following a switch between William Gallas and Ashley Cole. The Cole-Gallas deal was only done with minutes to spare and far too late for United to get Wayne Bridge to St James' Park. This will probably happen in January but that is a million miles away as far as United supporters are concerned. And in Viduka, Milner, Huth and Bridge I would say there are four very unhappy footballers today. Roeder himself would have been a lot happier had he been able to pull off either the Neill or the Knight deals but time was always going to be against him. And after receiving a `no' from Mark Hughes in response to his £2.5m bid for Neill, Roeder was rejected again by Chris Coleman at Fulham when he asked about Knight. Knight, who actually has two England caps and played in New Jersey when Michael Owen grabbed his hat-trick, would have given United some much-needed height. Now they will have to look to the 32-year-old Sibierski to do that. Roeder said: "Sibierski is a versatile player as he can play in several positions and his best asset is that he is good in the air." Meanwhile, Espanyol came in with a late bid for Albert Luque but it was so low United could not take it seriously.

This is so obviously a hugely dodgy deal. The FA won't look into it though, you can guarantee that. IF it gets exposed it'll be because one of the newspapers does some digging. It's got Abramovitch and Chelsea written all over it - these are probably exactly the sort of dodgy business dealings he made his fortune from, and now he's introducing them into the Premiership. Great.

Sima, the difference between the reaction to Sibierski and the reaction to Bernard is because Bernard's a left back. As I've said elsewhere, if we signed players of Sibierski's quality that were defenders, I'd be able to accept it as they're warm bodies that you can put on the pitch. I'm far from ecstatic but I'm not incredulous like I was about the Sibierski thing.

I'm not having it that he's worse than Babayaro btw. He might not be as naturally talented as Babayaro, but he's a more effective player IMO.

I'm happy we've got some cover at left-back tbh. Haven't seen him play since he left, so will reserve judgement til I see how he plays for us. Looks like he's carrying a bit of weight though.

Somebody stick the clip of him getting knocked out up man. It ALWAYS makes me laugh no matter how many times I watch it.

Text off the club. It'll be up on the official site in a mo.

We've resigned him.

Unless they now deposit it in mine, I'm not sure how that's positive, Alistair.

IF we pick up no (literally, ZERO) injuries between now and next May, and someone forms a central defensive partnership, we can still have an ok season. That's as good as I can do.

I think we might be learning that Roeder, whilst not a malicious liar by any stretcy, will say what he feels is the right thing in the circumstances, rather than what might actually be the truth? Maybe? Not the first time he's talked a lot of shit so far this summer.

That's no excuse btw. We failed because we made the bids at the 11th hour. Maybe try not doing that eh? Pricks.

Zat Knight. Man alive.

Canny petty from Mourinho I reckon - he only wanted to keep Gallas to make him rot in the reserves. Kenyon did the right thing - nothing to be gained from Chelsea's POV by doing that to Gallas, so Kenyon acted in the best interests of the club and got the player off the payroll.

Not half as disappointed as Milner, I imagine. Probably thought he was finally free of the circus that is NUFC and could enjoy his football and have some semblance of a career. Setting aside the issue of money, we are a pretty unattractive prospect for any professional footballer. If Duff doesn't know this by now, he will soon. Given should have known better than to sign another contract as well. A few more seasons of this and who knows where we'll be.

Aye I forgot about that. They'll be wheeling out the local boys for a spot of spin. Let's have a no-holds-barred interview with Damien Duff about the promises he was made when he signed. I bet he's about as disappointed as the rest of us. Shay Given an'all.

Chelsea did us a favour on Duff Man United did us a favour on Rossi Martins demanded a transfer from Inter Sibierski is shit Makes you wonder how hard we actually had to work in this transfer window. 190056[/snapback] They'll be scanning Roeder's airmiles account and putting it up on .cock by the end of the day. Look! He got on planes and EVERYTHING! And clocked up a ton of airmiles. And then bought ONE player that would actually require a plane journey to see.

It's exactly the sort of thing I can imagine happening. Shepherd telling Roeder he'll do the talking and winking to Roeder before going "How about we take him on loan til January?", followed by Kenyon replying with "How about you fuck off, fat boy?", followed by the line going dead and Roeder staring blankly as the smug smile dissolves on Shepherd's face. The clock strikes midnight. Curtain falls.

Holding out all transfer window for Bridge. He finally becomes available at about quarter to midnight last night. "Yes! Freddy, Cole's signed for Chelsea. We can have Bridge. Get the money ready." "What money?" "Haha. Very funny. The money for Bridge." "The money for Bridge that we spent on Martins last week?" "Yeah that money. WHAT??? OH NO WHAT'VE I DONE????" Incompetent retards. I tell you what, the Laurel and Hardy description is not far off.

Setting aside the lack of defensive and attacking signings, I can see no reason at all for this Sibierski thing. We're probably wasting the best part of a million quid on the fee and wages just so that we'd signed somebody rather than nobody on the last day of the window. Everything that Roeder said about careful planning and making sure he only signed players he knew a lot about, and he ends up signing a lad he won't even have considered until McKay told him he was available. What a joke.

Apologies are a sign of weakness. I learnt that from John Wayne.

I don't know how he looks at himself in the mirror tbh. Both from a visual and professional/moral standpoint.

You ARE an accountant, aren't you Gemmill????? etc. etc.