OTF

No sense in paying more for a player than they're worth or than they're worth to us.

I've not seen a great deal of him, but he didn't seem to be express pace (perhaps similarly paced to Milner). Seemed best suited to a central role - one area where he might find it hard to crack a spot with the popularity of Smith and Nolan.

That's the challenge in it, nobody knows.

Should have retired a few season ago IMO, or at least been used in emergencies only. He was an everpresent in the side that was relegated last season, IMO badly to the detriment of our ability to create goals. He may prove to be valuable for the remainder of the season but we must at all costs ensure this is the last ever season that he laces up his boots for Newcastle United (unless it's just to sit in the dugout as a cheaply paid trainer).

Nolan was once a pretty decent PL player. O'Hara is a better shout than Beckford except that we'd be signing Beckford permanently and O'Hara would only be on loan. I wonder what sort of money it would take to get him on a permanent basis. Probably way too much.

From what I've heard Beckford is a player that needs chances to score goals. Chances do not come easily at Newcastle, even in the Championship. Once we're in the Premier League they'll be at a premium. What we need as you say is some midfielders who can create chances. Particularly we're lacking this down the right. If you look at the Newcastle teams on the 90s and early 2000s we had players in our midfield with pace who could create or score themselves. Strikers might score goals but there's few out there who create them. Beckford isn't a creator. We can fill our side with as many goal scoring forwards as we like, but if there's noone to create goals then they're not going to score. Ranger and Lovenkrands are both reasonably pacy, should force Beckford to have a showdown with them before we even consider buying him. From standstill running 20 yards, timing your run to meet a Jonas Gutierrez cross, and running with the ball for 30-40 yards. If he doesn't come out considerably ahead of Lovenkrands and Ranger then there's no point. The 1.5 million would be better spent on some pace and creativity in midfield so that I don't have to see Danny Guthrie miss-employed on the right side of midfield ever again.

I'd have to disagree with you there The Fish. I think he's a solid option for us, one that should be looked into. The one thing against us moving for him is that he just signed a new 4 year contract for Tottenham, so if we wanted to subsequently buy him it wouldn't be cheap. I'm not convinced that we'd be able to give him a lot of football here, or that we should give him a lot of football here given that he's likely to only be a short term loanee. Lets not forget that he's with Portsmouth at the minute and they're sitting dead last. They do have an option on him for the remainder of the season, however with their money problems they may not wish to pursue it (at this moment it seems it will be a miracle if they don't get relegated).

We just have to stick to our guns with Beckford, which I think is what Hughton intends to do. Not be swayed by recent media, or Leeds talk of him not being able to go on the cheap. We're in the position of power. Set a limit on what we're willing to offer and a limit on the wages he would earn. If Leeds keep him then good luck to them. If he doesn't sign a new contract with them, they've potentially missed out on a hefty sum of money for not having a players services for less than 6 months (and who knows he could get an injury and be missing for a large chunk of that).

A likely scenario Insider. Effin' annoying though. Means we're going to be burdened with his wages for the remainder of the season.

Luque and Owen I think were the only big money transfers where we didn't get our money back (or thereabouts) when they left. Owen was obviously the worst because the ingrateful smarmy prick left for nothing. Luque at least had the decency to afford some kind of mediocre transfer fee. At any length the money still coming in for players we sold should far outweigh the money going out to pay for players we've bought in the past. There's Milner (£4 in (long time ago) £12 out), Martins (£10 in £9 out), Duff (£5 in £3 out), N'Zogbia (£0.25 in £6 out), Emre (£3.8 in £2 out), Beye (£2 in £2.6 out (undisclosed)), Faye (£2 in £2.25 out) Rozehnal (£2.9 in £2.9 out) Given (£1.5 (long time ago) in £5.9+ out).

Geremi's almost pulling a Blue Steel in that picture. Are we sure that they didn't lure him to Turkey to shoot a fashion set for that swanky collars up leather jacket? If so I wish him all the best in his future endeavours as a model and thank him for his time at the club (well maybe not that last bit).

Wow that's great news!!!! He's an amazing player and I'd be absolutely gutted if he was to leave. He'd absolutely carve it up in the Turkish Super League. There is no doubt about that!

Would have thought this was obvious. Same reason a defender will occassionally hoof a ball out rather than trying to thread a pass to a team mate. Risk vs Reward.

In that case lets offer Blackburn less. If they want rid now before he goes for nothing they'll take less for him. I can't see him staying given the current direction of the club. I'm only going off what I've seen from him (including some standout performances against us unfortunately). I'd hate to be a footballer in the Blackburn side at the moment, you'd probably look like crap just because of the way they play. Not saying he's a superstar or anything, but I think he would add a different dimension to our play. Has plenty of Premier League experience and should be a realistic target if a little bit of money was made available.

Though anyone here would have gladly accepted the sale of Geremi.

Still paying for Owen? What about Luque, that's a name they like to drag up. We're paying 50p monthly installments for him for the rest of his natural life. At any length we should still have money coming in for the next while for all the players that we've recently sold. Milner, Martins, Duff and N'Zogbia.

I think anyone would take an exchange of Geremi for Beckford (though they're completely different positions of course). If Hughton wants him and Ashley's prepared to greenlight the move I think we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and should move for him. If it doesn't work out we're in a better position than we were with Geremi (lower wages, younger player) and I'm sure there would be plenty of interest from other Championship (or League one) clubs who want a proven scorer at that level that we could sell him on to without losing any/much money if things don't work out.

Pointless dreaming, but wouldn't mind if we went for Morten Gamst Pedersen. Sam Allardyce clearly not playing him because he's a footballer and doesn't fit into his long ball bollocks. If he's free at the end of the season it wouldn't take that much to get him off Blackburns books assuming they think that he won't resign for them. The trouble would be convincing him to come to a Championship club. Creative player who can play down the left or in the middle.

No chance of that happening unfortunately. I'd welcome his exit as well. I'd prefer to see Guthrie alongside Nolan than Butt. Even though he seems like a logical replacement for Smith when he's not available he annoys me with his lack of running and in general his complete lack of use in attack (and the way he always seems to go into slow motion when he first gets a ball). Not having to see his flighted chips into the box/across the field ever again would make me very happy.

Was probably the player in our side who could best cross a ball, however you're never going to score off a cross that doesn't happen because the player wasn't able to get to the ball before a defender. Poor bastards who have signed him - though I bet he'll have a good African Cup of Nations. That's a huge chunk off the wages, and it appears that they're actually giving us some money as well? Astounding. The power of him having played for Real Madrid and Chelsea I guess!

Can someone please delete this thread. If there's going to be ridiculous speculation over players who are out of our price tag can we at least make then half decent.

Sad but true. I'm sure we'll hear that in not too long. Getting Joey Barton the decent footballer from 3+ years ago would be like signing a new player. Getting Joey Barton the player we've seen in spits and spats since he signed for us more than 2 and a half years ago is not like signing a new player.

I don't think anyone will be that interested in buying any of our players and for that reason I think we'll hang onto them all. At the same time we may try to bring in cheap players or players on loan. Other clubs will be surprised at how little Ashley is willing to pay. Gone are the Shepherd days of big transfers. Ashley and Llambias have successfully beat us down so much that a 1.5 mill signing will feel like Christmas has come again.

I've worn a few of my NUFC shirts in a couple of matches, nothing too serious.

Don't forget, we've technically still got Xisco.