ohhh_yeah

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle5622791.ece

Besiktas stopper offered to Magpies Jan 24 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal NEWCASTLE United have been offered the chance to sign Turkish international defender Gökhan Zan on loan until the end of the season, but manager Joe Kinnear is still confident he can land other targets. The Besiktas centre-back has been touted around a number of Premier League clubs after his Turkish employers indicated they were willing to allow the 27-year-old to leave this month. Having initially looked to sell a player who has been capped 27 times by his country, Besiktas have since let it be known they could be willing to allow the 6ft 4in stopper to move to England on loan with the possibility of a permanent deal at the end of the season. That has attracted a cash-strapped Newcastle’s interest, but Kinnear is also looking at other targets who he feels may be more suitable to the rigours of the Premier League. With reports in Scotland also claiming Celtic are keen to try and offload their experienced centre-half Bobo Baldé to United, the Magpies have not been short on options when it comes to potential defensive targets. The Guinea international is out of contract with Celtic at the end of the season and will not sign an extension. As a result, the Scottish club have also suggested they may be willing to let him leave on a free transfer now in order to get him off the wage bill at Parkhead. However, although the Magpies are desperate for reinforcements before the close of the transfer window at the end of the month, there is still a reluctance to take any unnecessary risks and neither Gökhan or Balde will be signing in the next 48 hours. At 33, there is a fear Balde’s best years are behind him, while the interest in Gökhan has been put on hold while negotiations continue with the club’s of other targets. Despite making several bids for defenders since the start of the year, all have been rejected. The release of the club’s accounts for 2008 painted a grim financial picture and illustrated just how restrictive the transfer budget is for Kinnear as he tries to find the players needed to strengthen a squad which has been badly stretched by injuries and suspensions all season. Indeed, although Kinnear was interested in central midfielder Jimmy Bullard, the Magpies could only stand by and watch as the 30-year-old completed a surprise £5m move from Fulham to Hull City yesterday. Bullard has been one of the most consistent midfielders in the Premier League over the last two seasons, a fact recognised by England manager Fabio Capello who gave the former Wigan player his first international call-up last year, and would have been an excellent signing. However, the player was looking for a four-year contract on wages of more than £50,000 a week, a figure Newcastle can not hope to match in the present financial climate. Although owner Mike Ashley has made some money available to sign players this month – thought to be somewhere in the region of £10m – he is still keen to slash a wage bill which is eating up 70% of the club’s income and will no longer pay enormous salaries. The Newcastle hierarchy, though, also know that with nine days left until transfer deadline day, they are under enormous pressure to add to the squad and improve the options available to Kinnear. With Ashley struggling to win over sceptical supporters regarding his decision to take the club off the market last month, a failure to land any new players other than the out-of-contract Danish international Peter Løvenkrands will do little to relieve the ill feeling which continues to sour the air around St James’s Park. Meanwhile, Kinnear has held clear-the-air talks with midfielder Charles N’Zogbia and striker Andy Carroll after the two traded punches on the training ground this week. Although Kinnear played down the incident, which followed a late challenge by Carroll on a confrontational N’Zogbia, he has still moved to calm simmering tension between the two, and has instructed them that they will always play on the same side in training for the foreseeable future.

will i get to see a trophy raised over a toon player's head before i die?

how many teams in the prem have not even made one signing yet???

http://sport.scotsman.com/sport/Smith-crit...stle.4842236.jp

"I have not got an unhappy player on my hands." [/kinnear]

'This is my last chance' says troubled footballer Gascoigne LONDON (AFP) — England football legend Paul Gascoigne said drink and drug addictions nearly killed him in 2008 and knows he is now on his last chance to save himself, in an interview published Friday. Gascoigne, 41, who is in a rehabilitation clinic on the southern English coast trying to get his life back in order, said going back on the booze would be the death of him. "This is my last chance," the fallen idol told The Sun newspaper. "My mate Jimmy 'Five Bellies' says I've got more lives than a cat and he's right. But this is my last one." Gascoigne has battled alcoholism and depression since his playing days. Last year he was sectioned under British mental health laws. "2008 was a terrible time for me, my worst year ever," the former Newcastle, Tottenham, Lazio and Rangers star said. "The drink and drugs nearly killed me, not once but a few times. "And getting sectioned was the worst thing ever. A little bit of me died when I went in there and I am never going back. "The difference this time is I know what I have got to do. I know I can never drink again otherwise it will kill me." His 12-year-old son Regan, in a documentary called "Saving Gazza" to be aired Monday on Channel Four television, said he thought his father would "die soon" and wished he would "go away" from the family. "I don't think there's any point in helping him... I feel bad and sorry for him because he's in this kind of state but it's not our fault," the youngster said. In the television programme, Gascoigne admits: "I've got food disorder, bipolar, mood swings, anxiety. I drank when I was happy, I drank when I was sad. And yes, I must admit I thought of dying." Gascoigne has been sober for a month and undergoes a punishing fitness regime at the rehabilitation clinic, The Sun said. Gascoigne, who spent time in rehab in Portugal last year, accused his ex-wife Sheryl of having turned their son against him and laid the blame for his comments on her. "If she hates me that much, why is she still called Gascoigne? Because the name Gascoigne is a bonus for her, that's why. "I'm not going to watch the programme. It's a disgrace to use a child like that. "If Sheryl was so interested in saving me then why did she come all the way out to Portugal as part of making a TV show? "Would it not have been better to have 'saved Gazza' without a camera crew in tow? "Walking into that wine bar and meeting her all those years ago was the most expensive drink I've ever had. "It has cost me about 17 million pounds (25 million dollars, 18 million euros) over the years. "I paid maintenance for two kids who weren't mine and the family lives in a 1.6-million-pound house. Yet they throw all this at me." Considered one of the most talented players English football has ever produced, the former midfielder is best known for his exploits in the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy where he helped his country to reach the semi-finals.

110 words in one sentence...

Done. Done.

wtf???