peasepud

Which is why I put the (what appears to be) in there, we know hes been offered a new contract but who knows whats in that contract? For all we know they could be offering him some derogatory amount (Im not saying that is whats happened btw), he cant really come out and shout about it because then he'll just look like a mercenary. At the same time the club could be falling over themselves to get him to sign, increased cash, some bird sucking him off after training every day etc etc and maybe hes telling them to shove it. Thats the wonder of these things, you can never be sure of what really goes on.

So Inter fans can get worked up over the prospect of Owen yet we seem to be happy to let him go. Its a sad state of affairs that the best player this club has will be allowed to leave without (what appears to be) much of a fight either from the club itself or us fans.

To be honest I'd rather we just forfeitted Saturdays game, declare anyone of any ability to be injured and put out a team of youngsters. Lets see what they can do and keep the first team safe.

Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho wants Newcastle striker Michael Owen and will offer the Magpies a straight swap for £12m-rated Brazil star Adriano or Honduras striker David Suazo plus £4.5m cash. (The Sun). Owen will reject the chance to join Inter because he is not keen on another move abroad following his stint with Real Madrid. (Daily Mail). Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa are all monitoring Owen's situation, despite his recent pledge to see out the final six months of his contract at St James' Park. (Daily Mail) Manchester City manager Mark Hughes will kick off the newly opened January transfer window by paying £15m each for Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz and Inter Milan frontman Adriano. (The Sun) City are set to sign Arsenal defender Kolo Toure and Santa Cruz by the end of the week. (Daily Mirror) Or, City's first bit of transfer business will be Chelsea left-back Wayne Bridge arriving for £12m - and they are also keen on fellow Blues defender Alex. (Daily Mail) Hughes hopes a bid of £10m will be enough to persuade West Ham to sell Wales striker Craig Bellamy and is set to slap in a £10m offer for Newcastle's Shay Given to test the Magpies' resolve not to sell the Republic of Ireland goalkeeper. (The Sun) West Ham centre-back Matthew Upson and Everton defender Joleon Lescott have also emerged as targets for Hughes. (The Times) Manchester City want to sell at least six players, with defender Tal Ben-Haim poised to return to his former club Bolton. (The Times) Tottenham and Aston Villa are also interested in Craig Bellamy, who is valued at £20m by the Hammers, and he will hand in a transfer request if he is denied a move away from Upton Park. (Daily Mirror) West Ham will also listen to offers for defender Lucas Neill, who is out of contract in the summer, and are willing to subsidise his wages at a new club. (Daily Mirror) The Hammers have admitted that approaches for all their players during the January transfer window will be considered. (Daily Mail) Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is desperate to offload Mexican forward Giovani Dos Santos and says the club's transfer policy was a shambles before he arrived. (Daily Mirror) Mexican side Chivas could come in for Dos Santos, a £5m summer signing from Barcelona, while Redknapp also hopes to sell striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, defenders Ricardo Rocha and Gilberto, and midfielders Kevin Prince Boateng, Hossam Ghaly and Adel Taarabt in January. (Daily Mirror) Tottenham remain hopeful of signing Portsmouth striker Jermain Defoe, despite having an initial bid rejected. (Various) Spurs have turned down the chance to buy Adriano from Inter Milan and will go back to Pompey on Thursday with an improved £15m bid for Defoe. (The Independent) With Manchester United yet to turn their loan deal for Carlos Tevez into a permanent switch, Real Madrid and Inter Milan could move for the Argentine striker in January. (The Sun) Chelsea striker Didier Drogba could decide to leave Stamford Bridge after being fined a week's wages - £100,000 - for publicly criticising the club over the way they treated him in 2008. (The Sun) Everton and Aston Villa want to sign Inter Milan's Honduras striker David Suazo, who is out of favour at the San Siro and has been on loan at Benfica this season. (Daily Mirror) Real Madrid want to sign Wigan midfielder Luis Antonio Valencia on loan in January, with an option to buy him in the summer. The Latics, however, want £18m for the Ecuador star. (The Sun) Wigan do not want to sell Valencia but will sell him for £15m. (Daily Mirror) Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has drawn up a list of potential striker signings, with Wigan's Emile Heskey and Portsmouth's Peter Crouch among his targets. (The Guardian) Heskey, however, is likely to rejoin his former club Liverpool for £4m. (The Independent) Everton are also chasing a striker, with Zenit St Petersburg forward Pavel Pogrebnyak the latest frontman to be linked with a move to Goodison Park. (The Independent) Portsmouth defender Lauren has been told he can leave Fratton Park and is set to join Greek side AEK Athens. (Daily Mirror) Pompey's Welsh full-back Richard Duffy is also set for a move away from the south-coast club. (Daily Mirror) Newcastle are set to bid £5m for Portsmouth midfielder Papa Bouba Diop and are also interested in Blackburn defender Christopher Samba. (Daily Mail) Partizan Belgrade winger Zoran Tosic has pulled the plug on his move to Manchester United after failing to agree terms and Manchester City and Arsenal are poised to swoop for the 21-year-old instead. (Daily Express) The breakdown in talks with Tosic could affect United's hopes of signing his Partizan team-mate, midfielder Adem Ljajic. (Daily Express) Hull City boss Phil Brown is lining up a £2m raid for Wigan midfielder Michael Brown, and will also pay the Latics £3m to make Marlon King's loan into a permanent deal. (The Sun) Turkish side Besiktas hope to capture Newcastle utility man Geremi in a cut-price £2m deal. (Daily Mirror) Wolves boss Mick McCarthy says striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, who is wanted by Everton, and winger Michael Kightly, a target of Newcastle, are not for sale. (The Sun) West Brom have rejected a £3m offer from Bolton for Scotland midfielder James Morrison. (Daily Mirror) Baggies boss Tony Mowbray has had a £2m bid for Paris St Germain forward Peguy Luyindula turned down. (Daily Mirror) AC Milan are keen on Arsenal's want-away defender William Gallas and will let Philippe Senderos, who is on loan at the San Siro from the Gunners, return to the Emirates Stadium to speed up the deal. (The Sun) AC Milan are willing to pay £6m for Gallas, who is also a target for Marseille. (Daily Express) Wenger wants to buy a new centre-back before he allows Gallas to leave. The Arsenal boss is considering making bids for Fulham's Brede Hangeland and West Ham's Matthew Upson but is not interested in bringing Senderos back into the fold. (Daily Mirror) Arsenal have turned down a transfer request from defender Kolo Toure. (Daily Star) Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is set to cut his losses on £7m full-back Andrea Dossena and AC Milan hope to take him back to his native Italy. (Daily Mirror) Arsenal will face competition from Italian giants Juventus for Zenit St Petersburg playmaker Andrei Arshavin. (Daily Mirror) Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari will give Roma Florent Malouda plus £5m in a swap deal for their Brazilian winger Cicinho. (Daily Mirror) Crystal Palace midfielder Ben Watson is set to join Middlesbrough for £1m if Boro midfielder Gary O'Neil joins his old club Portsmouth. (The Independent) Middlesbrough are preparing a £2.5m bid for Hibernian striker Steven Fletcher. (Daily Record) Former Dundee United goalkeeper Grzegorz Szamotulski claims he has agreed to join Hibernian until the end of the season. (Daily Record) Aberdeen boss Jimmy Calderwood says he will do everything he can to stop striker Lee Miller from leaving Pittodrie during the January transfer window. (Daily Record) Wolves are set to beat Portsmouth to the £2m signing of Bristol City midfielder Marvin Elliott. (Daily Mirror) Coventry City's Scottish striker Kevin Kyle, currently on loan with Hartlepool, is considering a move to join Major League Soccer side San Jose Earthquakes in the United States. (Daily Star) Hamilton boss Billy Reid hopes to seal a loan deal for Rangers defender Jordan McMillan in time for him to face Aberdeen on Saturday. (Daily Record) Falkirk are keen to sign an experienced goalkeeper as back-up for Robert Olejnik. (Daily Record)

I disagree totally, if it was me and I was first choice keeper for my country Id be wanting to at least win something to show for my career.

Based on Sundays gutless performance they should be doing 3 hours extra per day not missing one.

Word from inside Darsley Park is that Viduka regularly breaks down in training due to his back problem. Unlikely to manage more than 2 games in a row.

and so it begins.

I think loyalty to a club is one thing however being one of the countries best players in your position with absolutely no foreseeable chance of winning any honours must be a huge factor.

So end of December and how am I doing? January Transfer window. Out Owen (Man City, Spurs, Everton all sniffing), N'Zogbia (Arsenal bidding allegedly) Martins or Viduka (but probably Martins as he'll raise more cash). Given (Arsenal bidding allegedly) Geremi Barton (to date none of these contracts plus Shola, Butt, Harper and others have been agreed) Taylor (Arsenal again, didnt see that one coming) In £2 - 3million keeper (Sheffield United's Paddy Kenny for 5m so I may end up being out here) £3million forward 2 other cheap foreign shite players. Kinnear will be given an extension to the end of the season. Neither of the £10million players that JFK spoke about last week will appear. Both have now been reported to have told us where to go. No sale will take place before the end of the season as any prospective buyers will not want the risk of relegation. (Confirmed as now taken off market) Communications Nothing will come out of the club officially. (Other than "club off market" statement this is spot on) JFK will however announce at least once a week for the next 4 weeks that he has his eye on this player, that player and a couple of others, that the chairman is backing him on the transfer front and that nobody is going nowhere. (I would say this has pretty much gone to form) Then from Christmas onwards he will go quiet and nothing other than "speculation that Owen/Martins/Given (*delete as applicable) is going nowhere." will be heard. (hmmm not sure here, he could be continuing the bullshit) Then on February 6th he will want to resign but won't because he has nowhere else to go, as a result those that slagged off Keegan for walking will slag off JFK for not going. Fans People will continue to slate the NUSC and half of A/N other board will blame all of the above on NUSC and the fact that a couple of fans made banners before the Hull game. One old bloke who should know better will re-state that the parading of a "cockney mafia out" banner at Hull was the lowpoint of his entire time supporting the Toon while Baggy will continue to state that MA is the best chairman this club has ever had because "hes invested quarter of a billion of his own money into the club".(Taken as read frankly) Current Laugh at Pud level: 30/12/08 - Absolute bastard silence.

What? he's crap but we shouldn't let him go unless he's replaced with better quality. we're too short of players as it is If he was our 3rd/4th choice striker fair enough, but he's 5th at best and probably 6th in reality! And worryingly we ended up playing an injured Shola ahead of him on Sunday.

Looking to head out New Years day for a nice spot of lunch and could quite fancy a quiet country place, log fires and all that malarky. Can anyone recommend somewhere ideally in Northumberland or North Durham (ie 20miles or so radius of toon). Normally we'd go to the Lion and Lamb in Horsely but I fancy trying somewhere different, one possible is the Rat Inn at Anick near Hexham (not a misspelling of Alnwick), anyone been there lately?

Matt Taylor, Gary Cahill, James McFadden, Franco Di Santo, Branislav Ivanovic, Martin Skrtel, Felipe Caicedo, Afonso Alves, Lassana Diarra, Jermain Defoe, Alan Hutton, Gilberto, Marlon King, Mohamed Sissoko.

That is my optimistic view, you dont want to hear my pessimistic/realistic one We're at our lowest ebb in almost 2 decades, and we're still better off than the Mackems who were supposed to push on to the next level this year. We'll always be able to laugh at Sunderland. Agree with that like. Appointing a caretaker as permanent manager after a handful of games when you've supposedly had 30+ applications is comedy gold, hats off to them Tell me that post was a piss take? Deadly serious I was just thinking with us appointing Roeder that was all. Although he was obviously in charge for a bit longer than that extra from The Godfather. A lot longer, with very good results and without many alleged other candidates Not according to the chairman at the time. Much like what Quinn said. He was right when he said "you wouldnt believe the people that have applied", yup we didnt believe him.

That is my optimistic view, you dont want to hear my pessimistic/realistic one

We will have to do the things you say GT, not because its the right thing to do but because as we stand currently this football club will not attract players of Owens calibre. We have to now admit we are a Fulham, a Hull, a Wigan, in other words one of the teams there to make up the numbers while the rest fight out for the Europe spots. By the end of next season we will no longer be the top dogs in the North East, on every front we will have been surpassed by the makems and Smogs

Cheers lads

You know something I dont think anyone is as big a tosser on the internet as you and that includes the WUMs we have and the fat kid that thinks hes in Star Wars.

Just to back up the 1st one: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-...72703-21827251/

cool, you're already making excuses for it when it happens. Its not going to be that hard for Man City and Arsenal however if the papers are to be believed. Funnily enough I'm going off what has happened here and at other clubs in previous January windows, perhaps I should scrap that thought and follow you in believing what is written in the Daily Mirror rumour page. Yet you're happy to believe what is said by Ashley and co even though every statement has been contradicted half a dozen times? You still havent answered my question earlier (strangely you often seem to be happy to duck such things). Are you willing to take a bet on related to the profit/loss of the club come Feb 5?

cool, you're already making excuses for it when it happens. Its not going to be that hard for Man City and Arsenal however if the papers are to be believed.

I read it differently, as someone else put it, taking it off the market means nothing. If I had a car for sale and couldnt seem to sell it no matter how many adverts I had in Autotrader then Id stop advertising it. If however someone came along and offered me the right money for it then Id sell. All I believe MA has done is stop throwing money Keith Harris's way. If he really was committed to the club in the way he says he is then I think he would have made a clear statement that money would be available in the transfer market, to me he did the opposite by stating it would continue to be ran as it had been. He said money was available a few weeks back. Did he? ahhh yes that was at the same time he said the club was up for sale. Now its not, is the money available? Im willing to bet a tenner donated to the SBR appeal for every million overspend we have at 5pm Feb 2nd, you confident enough?

I read it differently, as someone else put it, taking it off the market means nothing. If I had a car for sale and couldnt seem to sell it no matter how many adverts I had in Autotrader then Id stop advertising it. If however someone came along and offered me the right money for it then Id sell. All I believe MA has done is stop throwing money Keith Harris's way. If he really was committed to the club in the way he says he is then I think he would have made a clear statement that money would be available in the transfer market, to me he did the opposite by stating it would continue to be ran as it had been.

Yeah no bother, Im sure that in this business he will be different to how hes ran all of his other businesses, Im sure that his personal fortune dropping ridiculously and his heavy gambling losses will make him release funds. Im also sure that black is white and Baggio is not a wanker. Nice to see NUSC lose their last bit of credibility by claiming Ashley only decided to announce he's staying to spoil Sir Bobby day btw, Peasepud. If yesterday was the best NUSC could come up with then good luck with getting people to renew their membership. Do we have a case rested smilie? please feel free to show me anywhere that the NUSC have claimed that though. It was read out on Sky Sports, plenty of people on N-O who heard it and have been talking about it. I know you don't like going in that thread on there because you can't handle any sort of criticism direct NUSC's way but perhaps you should. It was read out? as an official statement of the NUSC? because the official statement to SSN was via our spokesman Michael Ord who was interviewed at 9am yesterday live. He clearly did not say that Ashley had only said it to scupper SBR day. And I know this for a fact. Anyone who would believe that a football club owner would decide not to sell a club he had for sale because he wanted to piss on someones chips would be a total fool. If you arsed yourself to read up on half the stuff that you claim to know about you'd find that you were talking shite as usual. And I can and have taken criticism of the NUSC, as has been proven by the numerous posts Ive made in that thread, the fact that I choose to spend my time somewhere else promoting the NUSC is a simple fact of life. Ive given up on N-O being somewhere thats worthwhile promoting it as a number of people there are determined to see it fail. No problem, theres a hundred other places it can be promoted and its better to spend my time on those. Plus they have a resident member on there so I'll let him talk to them. As much as you want this to fail, the proof is in the pudding, regardless of the fact its been going less than 4 months and that it charges a membership fee, this is the Newcastle supporters group with the highest number of members (a number that the FSF see as quite remarkable considering the short amount of time its been going), This is the group that the media (including SSN) are coming to first for comment and this is the ONLY group (that I know of) that actively canvasses the members views on subjects and that you can trust those results from. Yes that canvassing has only recently started but the fact that it has, and will be regularly is testament enough. So you've given up on one of the largest Newcastle forums because they don't all agree with your daft countdown clock. Priceless. EDIT - Tom is over on N-O at the moment talking about it. what a tosser you really are, you havent however answered my initial question. Like I said, Ive given up but Tom hasnt, N-O is the board hes happier on (and the one I and many others would prefer you to be on as well), here and other places is where I am happiest promoting stuff.