Scottish Mag

As far as i`m aware this was never the case and just wishful thinking by many on the board who believe stories such as the Rooney one. Our resident jorman, Isegrim, even told us at the time of the appointment that Hitzfield had been in the German media expressing how he had no interest to return to any jobs within football at that time.

My thoughts exactly. My theory is FS has given up on Souness and is therefore not giving him anymore money to spend. The Owen and to a lesser extent, Boa Morte deals are convenient smoke screens. Rightly or wrongly Souness is being hung out to dry. 11726[/snapback] I can believe that alright. I guess we can prepare for another knee-jerk appointment as manager sooner or later 11740[/snapback] Ironic if the next manager was Coleman. Looking likely to face the axe a short time after Souey so in that sense would be a reasonable appointment. Is Hitzfeld still out of work or is it way too late to hire him now? 11868[/snapback] hitzfeld for fucks sake,people slag off the idea of us getting owen but hitzfeld is still a possibility.....but we arent the only team looking to buy after the seasons started,liverpool after centre half,man u after centre half and midfield cover,arsenal after centre midfield,some big deals will still be done before aug 31st...will we do any..i dont know! 11873[/snapback] Ah but he expressed interest in the job originally I believe 11882[/snapback] When was this?

A combi boiler, though i`m not sure how much one would cost?

Newcastle United enjoy fervent support on Tyneside - even after 50 years without a domestic trophy. At the start of a new season, expectations remain high, but doubts persist that a club who seem to specialise in bringing misfortune on themselves can at last deliver Jamie Jackson Sunday August 14, 2005 The Observer The soap opera known as Newcastle United rolls into London today when Graeme Souness's team open their season with a visit to Highbury. It kicks off year 50 of the quest to bring glory and silverware back to the North-East. Eternally optimistic Geordie fans will hope that skipper and talisman Alan Shearer's valedictory campaign will end in a first domestic trophy since the 1955 FA Cup. But a disappointing fourteenth position last term and the now inevitable summer rumblings of discontent that have caused Lauren Robert and Craig Bellamy to leave suggest another year of frustration. 'When you look up at the crowd at St James' Park it's like looking at 30,000 baying zebras,' says United supporter and BBC darts commentator, Sid Waddell. 'The fans are fanatical. It should be regarded as like going to the ballet. It's working-class theatre. It gets in the blood. It's part of the cultural tapestry of the North-East.' Newcastle have won four league titles, six FA Cups and the Fairs Cup. But the championships were between the two World Wars and the defunct Fairs competition (now Uefa Cup) was won 36 years ago. The club of Jackie Milburn, Huey Gallagher and Malcolm Macdonald may teem with tradition and passion, but it just cannot take that final step. 'You don't realise how difficult it is to win the Premiership. For us to have won it would have been massive for that club. It is a massive, massive regret of mine, ' says Robert Lee, a member of the Kevin Keegan side that in 1996 famously capitulated when leading the Premiership by 12 points. Lee, at least, starred in the scintillating attacking football of King Kev's reign that was a result, says Waddell, of Keegan leaving defending off the training schedule. Since 1996, United have managed one more second place and lost two FA Cup finals, in 1998 and 1999. Ultimately, Keegan and successors Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit and Sir Bobby Robson have found dealing with the massive expectation and internal politics impossible. It is a role Souness, the current incumbent, likened to 'working in a Latin country' when last December a run of one league victory in eight games left him under pressure just three months into the job. 'It was the crest of a wave for five years,' says Lee, who joined at the beginning of the Keegan years in 1992, left a decade later and is now at Wycombe. 'They were in the Championship [old Second Division]. When I joined, the club grew and grew. But when it should've really pushed on I don't believe the club did. They've certainly backed their managers. They've spent a lot of money. Sometimes the managers just haven't bought wisely.' There have been some questionable buys - Marcelino, anyone? - but every club has those. It would seem relations throughout the club and, on occasion, with their undying support, is a bigger problem. There have been too many episodes to document exhaustively here, but in the past two seasons alone notable debacles include accusations of roasting, a stand-up fight between Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer in front of 53,000 fans at St James' Park and Craig Bellamy calling Souness a 'liar' on Sky TV. And there was also, agonisingly for anyone who cares about the club, the infamous tabloid sting of seven years ago. Freddy Shepherd, the club chairman, and director Douglas Hall memorably aired their views while knee-deep in a Spanish brothel. They were selling, they boasted, thousands of replica shirts that cost a fiver to make in China for £50 each. Tyneside legend Shearer was like 'Mary Poppins'. And Newcastle's women were all 'dogs'. Both resigned, then gradually eased their way back in. Souness may just have underestimated his challenge. 'It's terrible what's happened there over the last couple of years. The manager falling out with players, players falling out with the directors,' says Waddell. 'It's like being the President of America having to take into account the border of Mexico, the question of free trade with Canada. You've got to have a diplomat but [a manager who is] also as impassioned as Keegan and Bobby Robson. The problems of the last few years have not been at director level but finding a replacement for Keegan. He did it all - was the player who scored goals and then returned as the manager.' Keegan is, indeed, a god on Tyneside, but he is the immortal who won nothing even while being bankrolled by Sir John Hall, the now retired local businessman who took control of the club in 1991 and whose millions were enough to make Newcastle a true factor in the transfer market. Times have changed. 'As an outside person I don't see Newcastle as a joke. I see them as a club that will never achieve what their fans want them to. That's down to the advent of [billionaire Chelsea owner] Roman Abramovich, not the running of the club,' says the Crystal Palace chairman, Simon Jordan. 'I don't think some of the headlines help the outside perception, and they've had a succession of managers in the past who haven't quite done it. But they're a huge club - close to being the best supported in the country by a community that eats and sleeps football.' It is understandable why the club believe they should attract big-name players. But is it realistic? In his autobiography, Robson talks of Shepherd's belief that Newcastle were genuine contenders to sign Wayne Rooney. He chose Manchester United. 'It's to do with the money. Rooney has the prestige and obviously Man U is more popular than Newcastle. I didn't think we stood a chance,' says 16-year-old Toon Army member Paul King, outside the club shop in the city centre. 'The Manchester Uniteds and Arsenals are in a slightly different league, money-wise.' So when Shepherd talks of a 'Geordie Abramovich' is that the real solution? 'Unfortunately, yeah. I wouldn't like it to be that way, but I think that's the way we've probably got to go.' Police officer Gary Wilson is a season-ticket holder. 'Rooney wouldn't come here at the minute. We need more success,' he says. For Rooney, read England strike partner Michael Owen - this summer's stellar name who is surely destined not to choose the North-East over Champions League football and Real Madrid. Will Newcastle, then, ever win the title? 'In time, we will. In the next two or three seasons. I firmly believe that. We are a massive club. Everyone in the town thinks of Newcastle like that,' says Wilson. As Lee says, some signings have not always seemed prudent. Last season, Patrick Kluivert's unconvincing stay - on £60,000 a week - ended with his moving to Valencia, and it would be interesting to see how prospective buy, and rather wayward striker, Nicolas Anelka found strict disciplinarian Souness. Scoring has been Shearer's job since he joined nine years ago. Then, Newcastle may have been big enough to attract England's star striker, but Shearer is a Geordie and that was surely a deciding factor in his turning down Sir Alex Ferguson and the great team of Scholes, Giggs and Beckham who won the Treble in 1999. Shearer can safely be called a god on Tyneside. It is his managers who have been mortal. Following the rain-soaked defeat to local rivals Sunderland in August 1999, out went Gullit for dropping Shearer to the bench. The Dutchman just did not understand how much it mattered to the Toon Army that one of their own was the club's leader. Robson, whose father took him to watch United, must have believed that as a fellow son of the region, the fans would understand why he had dropped Shearer for a the game against Aston Villa last August. But no. Robson walked just five games into the season, having provided a legitimate reason for Shepherd to sack the 72-year-old in what was to be his last campaign anyway. Does Shearer, then, have too much influence? 'He should be manager,' says Debbie Shepherd, who is having a drink on the strip of bars in the town centre known as Bigg Market. 'Souness is no good for the team's morale. People outside Newcastle just don't understand how important the club is to the town. We love the club. Why are the colours black and white? Because of the pit. They went in white and come out black.' And what of Shepherd's comments about the town's womenfolk? 'It's terrible and disgusting. I'm not a slag. He's from Newcastle himself and his daughters are. So if we're slags, his daughters are slags.' Is he popular in the town? 'Yes.' Even following his comments? 'Because he owns Newcastle United.' Some, though, judge success differently. Alan Oliver has covered the club since 1980 for the Newcastle Evening Chronicle . 'I've seen defeats at Cambridge, Southend and Shrewsbury. Look at where they are now. They have a fantastic stadium and training facilities. I'm distraught for the town, the club and the newspaper that they are out of Europe this season. But I've been to 30 different countries with them.' Is there a problem, though, with Shepherd's stewardship of the club? 'I don't know what more he could do,' says Oliver. 'Fans think if he was to go, trophies would fall out of the sky. Once they cross that white line, it's up to the players. The problem has been that managers can't take that last step. Bobby [Robson] was so close.' Is geography an issue in attracting top players? 'It shouldn't matter. Gullit could be in Amsterdam in an hour by plane. Before we knew it Patrick Kluivert was in the newspapers clubbing in London.' Oliver also believes that question marks over Souness, who took the club to the semi-finals of the FA and Uefa Cups last season, are unfair. 'They played 19 games in cup competitions alone last year. That's half a [Premiership] season! Too many fans are against him. I don't know why. Being the manager here is the hardest job in football.' Whatever the reasons for the current situation, change would seem to be inevitable with Shearer retiring and talk of a takeover, although who is interested now that local racehorse owner Graham Wylie has ruled himself out is unclear. 'They're in a transitional period at the moment,' says Lee, who does not believe his former club are even in the band of clubs behind Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal chasing the final Champions League place. 'They should've chucked out Shearer a year ago,' reckons Waddell. 'Bless their hearts, they've relied on him too long. The focus of our attack should've been Bellamy. He was the only guy who could get you 20 goals a season. Play him with a Lauren Robert and a Lee Clark. The player they should've got was Lampard. But Is he going to come Newcastle? Is he hell.' While Bellamy and Robert went, local lad and lifelong supporter Clark is back on Tyneside at the age of 33. He is registered as a player and helping with training. 'Even players who come here for a while don't realise the impact the club has on the fans' lives. It's the be-all and end-all for them,' says the midfielder who began eight years at the club as a 17-year-old. What, then, would success mean? 'Whichever team and manager finally wins a domestic trophy will get the freedom of the city. It's been too long.' It does seem an age for a club Newcastle's size. Yet again, the cup competitions would seem to provide their best chance of honours in the near future. 'People wonder why we've done nowt,' says Waddell. 'When we beat Barcelona [3-2 in 1997 Champions League], the fans were singing: "Are you watching Sunderland?" It is tribal and local. They could sell out the season tickets to the year 2050 because they do not need success. Newcastle United are a crusade not a football club.' The black and white movement continues today. Comedy Club? Newcastle's headlines since Keegan resigned in '97 March 1998 'I like blondes, big bust, good legs. I want a lesbian show with handcuffs,' Chairman Freddy Shepherd tells an undercover reporter. 'Newcastle girls are all dogs.' Shepherd and vice chairman Doug Hall are also recorded bragging about selling replica kits for £50 when they cost £5 to make. 'These comments,' said a statement from their representative, 'do not represent their true views.' April 1998 Alan Shearer - dubbed 'Mary Poppins' by Hall and Shepherd in the same sting - kicks Leicester's Neil Lennon in the face. 'I don't care whether you're Alan Shearer or the Pope,' says Martin O'Neill, 'you don't do that.' August 1999 Having taken over from Kenny Dalgish a year earlier, Ruud Gullit has to be dragged away from confronting referee Uriah Rennie. 'You can fine me whatever you want,' said Gullit. 'I'm right and I know I'm right.' Later launches tirade against his own players, and is sacked after dropping Shearer. Bobby Robson appointed. December 1999 Robson's new signing Kieron Dyer has 'furious bust-up' at the club Christmas party - the latest in a series of incidents. Robson gives Dyer a final warning to stay off the front pages. Two weeks later, Dyer's caught in a porn scandal with Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard. Robson offers Dyer last chance and bans him from alcohol. June 2001 Dyer smashes Mercedes while travelling to the club's training ground. The following month he's banned from driving for two months for speeding. November 2001 Dyer is one of four players sent home from a club trip to Spain for refusing to attend a dinner for Sir John Hall. Fined two weeks' wages. February 2002 Craig Bellamy cautioned for assaulting a female student outside a Newcastle nightclub after she jokingly pretended to hitch a lift in Dyer's £50,000 Mercedes. November 2002 Bellamy sent off as Inter beat Newcastle 4-1 in the Champions League. Shearer also banned after video evidence proved he'd elbowed Paulo Cannavaro in the head. July 2003 Bellamy charged with racially aggravated harassment outside a nightclub. Denies calling an Asian man a 'f*****g Paki' and a doorman a 'gypo'. Newcastle, meanwhile, sign Lee Bowyer, who issues statement to angry fans assuring them he is 'no racist'. March 2004 Bellamy involved in punch-up with coach John Carver at Newcastle airport. August 2004 Like Gullit, Robson sacked after dropping Shearer. Bellamy abuses new boss Graeme Souness after being substituted at The Valley. Later four Newcastle players are involved in 'an incident' at the Ritz in London. December 2004 Souness cancels Christmas party to avoid possible trouble. January 2005 Bellamy refuses to play in a wide position, just as Dyer had early in the season. 'I won't apologise - I've done nothing wrong. There's no doubt about it: I'm out of here.' Quits for Celtic on loan. April 2005 Bowyer and Dyer indulge in on-pitch punch-up after Bowyer calls Dyer a 'f*****g c**t'. Bowyer fined a record six weeks wages - £210,000 - but Newcastle can't sell him, and Bowyer pledges to stay. May 2005 Freddy Shepherd reveals he's producing a rule book for his players. 'If they don't live up to the standards we expect,' says Shepherd, 'they'll be punished by the club.'

For a man already under pressure, the Newcastle manager is remarkably cool. Nick Townsend reports on a fighter playing down his problems Published: 14 August 2005 If a manager is judged by the company he seeks to attract, Graeme Souness would be among the most envied in the Premiership. Consider names such as Nicolas Anelka, Luis Boa Morte, Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Francesco Coco, Scott Parker and Belozoglu Emre. All have come under the scrutiny of the Scot this summer; all with the approval of the club's followers. The problem comes when, despite chairman Freddy Shepherd being prepared to flash his chequebook at football's summer boot sale, such a wish-list fails to become reality. For a club who, ever since its Kevin Keegan-inspired renaissance, have been hyperventilating on expectation, Newcastle begin their campaign today at Highbury, with only two who have incurred fees, Parker, at £6.5m from Chelsea, and Emre, £3.8m from Internazionale, having deposited their signature on a contract. Indeed, on the debit side, the loss of the enfant terrible Laurent Robert and that Welsh irritant, Craig Bellamy, together with Patrick Kluivert and several squad players have suggested to many eyes that Newcastle could well be renamed Toon-lite. And this the team who last season, apparently possessing more quality, finished in the bottom half, having won 10 of 44 Premiership games, including just three away. They are 125-1 for the title, but perhaps more pertinently, 25-1 to be relegated. Their fans are concerned about those players Newcastle have failed to snare. Outsiders regard those that remain as a rather dysfunctional family. No wonder, they contend, that Jermaine Jenas wants to leave. Yet, if you expect to discover a manager in defensive, maybe antagonistic, mood, which epitomised that glint-eyed, sometimes brutal character of his playing days, you would be mistaken. "There's far more togetherness here this summer," Souness insists. "The players are all thinking the same and all running in the same direction. I think I'll be saying exactly the same thing at Christmas." If he makes it until then, of course, rather than becoming that tabloid headline writer's delight: Chop Souey. This club are not exactly renowned for regarding patience as a virtue. One spread betting company have estimated in its "Premiership Sack Predictor" that Souness will be first out, on 17 December. In what other occupation would the bookmakers, and let's face it, the footballing public in general, be debating a man's length of tenure in his job? Here, it's a perennial hazard, as Sir Bobby Robson will testify. He will long remember the start of the season a year ago. And, how, on the 15th day, there was darkness... It was no more than four games into the Premiership season when Shepherd and deputy chairman Douglas Hall, son of Sir John, brought an ignominious conclusion to Robson's stewardship, and possibly his career. It is a fate which the septuagenarian still refers to as a "bereavement". In bounded Souness, older, wiser, and, dare one say it, mellower. Like his predecessor, the son of Edinburgh had survived a life-threatening condition which had no doubt persuaded him to take a more rounded view of his life and career. Robson had beaten cancer. Souness had a triple heart bypass at the age of 38. Yet, here was a character who insisted that his experiences in the football furnaces of Liverpool, Glasgow and Istanbul had provided him with a mental heat-resistant suit, able to withstand the temperatures as you are liable to discover at any club with Kieron Dyer, Lee Bowyer, Bellamy and Robert on the payroll. On his arrival, Souness had insisted: "Part of my job is educating these players and I'm better suited to doing that at 51 than I was at 33 when I was manager of Rangers." Which should not imply that he has developed into the character portrayed in his cameo role on TV back in the Eighties when he was confronted by the hard-staring Yosser Hughes, he of "giv'us a job" notoriety in the classic gritty drama, Boys From The Blackstuff. Approached in a nightclub by Yosser, who claims that the moustachioed trio of himself, Souness and the TV detective Magnum all looked the same, the then Anfield midfielder sent him a bottle of champagne, and his autograph, together with a message, "To Yosser Hughes, better looking by far. Best wishes, Graeme Souness". As for these Boys in the Black and White Stuff, Souness has not flinched from acting decisively when required, notably when handling his problem quartet. On his first day, he had spoken of only tinkering with Robson's team. Circumstances, both on and off the field, all heavily chronicled, forced him to review that intention. Bellamy and Robert have departed; Dyer has just signed a new four-year contract and Bowyer is out, effectively "on licence", following his on-field spat with his team-mate. No wonder Souness says, presumably in hope rather than anticipation: "I'd like to think we could stay off the front pages of some newspapers." He says so in the knowledge that, even if his wish comes true, the back pages will embroider every nuance of dissatisfaction from within the club, like Jenas's claim that he cannot live within the "goldfish bowl" existence of life in the city. "There have been some big players here who've not had that problem," retorts Souness, in admonishment. "Arguably the biggest name in football, the biggest name in the Premiership in the last 10 years has lived here very happily." True. Alan Shearer has relished every minute of it; so much so that Souness persuaded him to postpone his retirement by a year. Souness is aware, though, that his gifted young England midfielder is a decidedly different character. "At the end of last season, he was rested because of the amount of games he'd played and because of muscle injuries. JJ, of all people, could make the jump from being a professional footballer to a professional athlete. When he starts to get muscle injuries you know you're pushing him too hard. He wasn't dropped." The manager adds: "We don't want to sell Jenas. We've not had an offer that comes anywhere near our valuation. He's on the fringes of the England team and we're not in the business of selling our best players." Newcastle are already four games into their season. Souness has emphasised that they didn't need the distraction of a competition that gets under way in July, the Intertoto Cup, aka the Desperation Trophy. His chairman had opined that "this club belongs in Europe and because of that we are pursuing the Intertoto Cup route to the Uefa Cup, Europe's second-biggest club tournament". In the event, the plan not only proved futile, Souness's side eliminated by Deportivo La Coruña, but it laid the basis for the more mischievous among us to observe that manager and chairman were not entirely in accord. Souness scoffs, and sounds convincing when he declares: "You do not get a job at a club like this if everything is rosy. But I'm happy here and there is no problem between the chairman and me whatsoever. I have a working relationship with him which has worked fantastically well if you go back through the Bellamy situation, the Robert situation. Getting in Boumsong, Scott Parker, Emre, Craig Moore, he's supported me in everything I've wanted to do." The manager adds: "I know that between now and the end of the transfer window, he'll be on the phone constantly every day, trying to make things happen for this club. I frustrate him because I'm always asking. I never leave him alone. I see that as part of my job but I'm sure at times he wants to put the phone down and tell me to bugger off." The problem, Souness claims is, "the players we are targeting are top players at top clubs who don't want to sell. No one has said they're not interested. They'd all love to come and play for this club. This is a club people want to play for, and we've targeted some big players." He pauses, before adding as if to underline the point: "As I understand it, Michael Owen is still a realistic possibility." Shearer and Owen in tandem again? Such an acquisition could truly convince the sceptics among the club's followers. Because, ultimately, a manager's reign here is only so long as it is endorsed by the Toon Army and, as history has demonstrated, by Shearer too. The fact that Shearer is Newcastle's only recognised striker in the squad to play Arsenal today confirms that goals could be a scarcity. Souness can only glance avariciously at Arsène Wenger's charges and lament: "Going to Highbury is never easy. [Thierry] Henry on his day is unplayable, [Dennis] Bergkamp is an artist who pulls the strings. They've got quality throughout which is why they're a top team. They don't have three good players; they have seven, eight, nine.If we're strong in one area I think it's our midfield; but we'll see if we're right or wrong over the next nine months." An appropriate gestation period, by which time the Toon faithful could witness the rebirth of their team in their manager's image: attacking, resourceful, visionary and with more than a dash of venom - providing it does not all end in the cruel miscarriage that the bookmakers predict. Biography Graeme Souness Born: 6 May in 1953 in Edinburgh As a player: 1968-72 Tottenham. 1972-78 Middlesbrough. 1978-84 Liverpool. 1984-86 Sampdoria. 1986-87 Rangers. Honours: three European Cups and five League titles with Liverpool. As a manager: 1986-91: Rangers. 1991-94: Liverpool. 1995-96: Galatasaray. 1996-97: Southampton. 1997-99: Benfica. 2000-04: Blackburn. 2004-present Newcastle. Managerial honours: Scottish League 1987, 1989, 1990 (Rangers); Scottish League Cup 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991 (Rangers); FA Cup 1992 (Liverpool); Turkish Cup 1996 (Galatasaray); Worthington Cup 2002 (Blackburn).

Once more JJ is selected.. England squad: Goalkeepers: Robinson (Tottenham), James (Man City), Green (Norwich) Defenders: G Neville (Man Utd), G Johnson (Chelsea), A Cole (Arsenal), Ferdinand (Man Utd), Terry (Chelsea), Carragher (Liverpool), Upson (Birmingham) Midfielders: P Neville (Everton), Beckham (Real Madrid), Gerrard (Liverpool), Lampard (Chelsea), J Cole (Chelsea), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), Jenas (Newcastle), Carrick (Tottenham) Strikers: Owen (Real Madrid), Rooney (Man Utd), Defoe (Tottenham), A Johnson (Crystal Palace)

I see Sky gave both Bellamy and Robert a 6 in their ratings..

Name one thing you believe every home should have..

...and why?

Newcastle United have a great chance of signing Michael Owen - in the eyes of the bookies. For 24 hours after Graeme Souness said he thought United had a "good chance" of persuading the England striker to come to St James' Park, the Chronicle can reveal that the bookies have slashed the odds of Owen wearing a black and white shirt. When their book opened yesterday morning, Internet odds-layers Blue Square were quoting the chances of Owen becoming a United player at 14/1. After Souness's press conference a few hours later, those odds had come down to 8/1. And by last night they were standing at 5/1. Certainly, after visiting St James' Park yesterday I sensed an air of confidence that United could pull off the deal, although they accept that they are behind both Manchester United and Liverpool in the pecking order. Clearly, United do not want to say too much about the Owen situation for a variety of reasons, one of them being that they do not want to build up their fans' hopes after the Wayne Rooney affair. But the club did reveal that they are trying to get Owen on a permanent transfer from Real Madrid and not just on loan. Owen will be receiving so much advice from family, friends and former colleagues that he has every right to be a trifle confused. Like some United fans, I have always had my doubts whether United could make what would surely rank behind only Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan among the club's greatest signings. But now I genuinely feel that United are in with a shout of a signing which would sweep away the despondency on Tyneside due to a lack of strikers at the club. United were in an upbeat mood today after Kieron Dyer finally signed a three-year extension to his contract, tying the England midfielder to St James' Park until 2009 and actually put him in line for a testimonial - something the Chronicle reported in our later editions yesterday. And after a close season of haggling, I believe United will finally tie up the £5m transfer of Fulham's Luis Boa Morte in time for the visit of West Ham to St James' Park next Saturday. But United have finally given up on Inter Milan left-back Francesco Coco, who has now returned home to Italy. A 12-month loan deal for the 28-year-old, 17-times capped defender has been on and off all week but in the end United decided not to go ahead with it. What could be pushed through in the next couple of days is Hugo Viana's return to Sporting Lisbon, with the United midfielder back at his former club for talks. Elsewhere, Blackburn Rovers contacted United this week to ask them for former striker Craig Bellamy's full medical history.

With the figure of only about 1 million, does anyone else think he would be good cover for the right attacker spot, especially as Dyer is struggling once again...

From .com

Everton 0 Manchester United 2 Wayne Rooney

First goal of the new premiership season goes to Manyoo Everton 0 Man United 1 Ruud van Nisterooy

Counting Crows - Rain King

With both our chairman and manager are we not fucked regardless?

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has admitted he would like to bring Michael Owen back to Anfield, but claims it will be tough to push through a deal for the Real Madrid man. Owen's future at Real looks bleak, as the signings of Brazilian duo Robinho and Julio Baptista are likely to force the England marksman further down the pecking order. A return to The Premiership would certainly appeal to Owen in what is a World Cup year and he has attracted strong interest from Newcastle. Owen is not keen on heading to Tyneside due to their failure to secure a place in Europe, but a return to his previous club would be an entirely different matter. Benitez has remained coy on the prospect of bringing Owen back to Anfield for much of the summer, but he has now admitted that he would be keen on landing the 25-year-old if he can engineer a deal. The Spanish tactician feels any move for Owen hinges on whether he can secure a sizeable fee for Milan Baros. Czech striker Baros is a target for Lyon and Aston Villa, but no deal has been thrashed out and the transfer window is due to shut in just over a fortnight. "I am aware that Michael would like to come back," said Benitez. "I don't know if we can do something because we are waiting for a good offer for Milan Baros. "But he is a good player and I like him. I never had any problems with him. He is a nice boy, a good professional and a very good player." Benitez says his priorities are to land a centre half and right winger, but refused to rule out snaring Owen. "We have 20 more days and we expect to get them in by then," he said. "I could say yes or no about Owen, but we must receive a good offer for Baros before we can proceed."

Went out for dinner, then went to the cinema and seen War of the Worlds..

Why did i wait until today to try and order it, bastard thing keeps on saying its to busy to process my order...

SCOTT PARKER is ready to make the Premiership pay for his eight-month nightmare - and spend next summer reaping the rewards in Germany. Parker admits he became a "lost" player during his year in the wilderness at Chelsea when everything went against him under Jose Mourinho. But the midfielder is convinced his move to Newcastle represents the opportunity he has craved to force his way into in Sven Goran Eriksson's World Cup squad. Parker, who has signed with PUMA, has not played a minute of league action since breaking his foot in a freak manner against Norwich last December. His £6.5million move to the north-east represents a fresh start - and the midfielder admitted he is desperate to make up for lost time. Parker said: "I need to do well for Newcastle but I think there's a space there in the England midfield. "We've got some world-class players but I feel there is an opportunity in the holding role. "I need to reproduce the form I showed at Charlton and I'm sure I'll have that chance. I had a driving ambition to win things when I went to Chelsea. "I wouldn't have gone to any other club which didn't share that ambition. "The key is for me to show what I can do. I want to do what I'm good at - and that's playing football. I just want to play and do well. "I'm never happier than when I'm playing and I want to help take Newcastle on to better things. "By January, I'd like us to be in the top six with England being back on for me again. That would be brilliant for me and it's in the back of my mind." The key for Parker is putting himself back into Eriksson's mind. The Swede handed Parker his debut against Denmark in November 2003 but a 12-minute cameo in Sweden four months later was his only other taste on the England stage. Most of Parker's great games, as he confesses, were in Charlton red rather than Chelsea blue. As the 24-year-old admitted: "I think I became something of a forgotten man. It was a non-event of a season for me. "But I left Chelsea feeling I hadn't failed. It was just a lack of opportunities. "I broke my foot against Norwich just when I felt I'd turned the corner and started to see daylight - and that just summed it up. "When it happened I told myself I could get back and give it a push. "But I tried to push it too hard, re-injured myself in February, and from that point I knew in my head that my Chelsea career was coming to an end." The few conversations Parker had with Jose Mourinho emphasised that feeling but, for the midfielder, there is no point in looking back. He added: "Spurs were keen on me but as soon as Newcastle showed their interest I wanted to come here. "This club speaks for itself - it does when you get up here and see it for yourself. "The fans and the place are crying out for trophies. I saw the hunger and desire for winning things that the Chelsea fans had but it really is a different league here in terms of that. "That's no disrespect to the fans in London. But here it's football, football, football. Nothing else matters. "All they need is a team that can win something, just one trophy. And if that happens, you'll see Newcastle United explode as a club." Parker has joined a team which finished 14th last season and is aware that Souness is many pundits' choice as the first manager for the chop. "We realise that we need to get off to a good start," he said. "There is a lot of pressure on the team and us as players need to do well." Arsenal at Highbury tomorrow represents a tough test for Souness and his team, although Parker can tell his team-mates what it takes to overcome the Gunners on their own patch having won there with both his previous clubs. "I played in the Champions League quarter-final with Chelsea, and that was a great win, but the 4-2 one with Charlton in 2001 was unbelievable," he recalled. "We were 1-0 down and, to be fair, it could've been eight but before we knew it we were 2-1 up and they kept on going in after that. It was one of those games, a great one. "They are beatable. We know that and we're going there as a squad knowing that. If we play to our capabilities we know we can get a result. "Of course you have to be cautious against them. They're so quick in attack and can make that switch from defence so quickly. "But if you can play a solid game and defend well, you've got a chance of hitting them on the break. "We looked at them against Chelsea last week. Sol Campbell isn't there and they miss the strength he gives them. "Alan Shearer will be up there for us and we're going into it thinking we can get something out of them at the back." For Parker, as much as Newcastle, that would be lift-off. But after last season, the clouds have lifted. He can see the stars and is reaching for them.

By Simon Rushworth, The Journal Pre-season or pantomime season? Those Newcastle fans forced to endure this summer's farce have every right to wonder as the club prepares for tomorrow's Premiership opener at Arsenal. There is never a good time to face the Gunners, but tackling Arsene Wenger's men after three months of upheaval, false dawns and broken promises could see United's campaign implode barely before it has even started. Expecting anything more than a battling draw from a team lacking defensive experience, midfield cohesion and a proven foil for Alan Shearer is optimism bordering on the foolhardiness. In the wake of last season's slide, the hordes of discontented Magpies supporters who did renew their season tickets are demanding much, much more than battling draws. If the good times don't roll, then heads surely must. Twelve months ago the ignominy of a fifth-placed finish still hurt those beginning to question Sir Bobby Robson's management of his home-town club. The former England coach's detractors feared United were on the cusp of a crisis induced by indiscipline and a lack of direction. A year on and their worst fears have been realised - only this time the crisis is real. No European football, no significant strengthening of those positions most weakened and no hint that the likes of Everton, Bolton and Middlesbrough can be overhauled in the near future. No wonder Graeme Souness is clinging to the hope midfield reinforcements Emre and Scott Parker can paper over the cracks of a panic-inducing pre-season. "Like any manager I would have liked to have brought in more players at this stage," he said. "But I have eight or nine players who every Premiership manager would want in their squad." Worryingly, the majority of those players populate United's top-heavy midfield. If Parker, Emre, Jermaine Jenas and Kieron Dyer catch the eye then none of Souness' counterparts would want to travel to Highbury with one fit striker, an emergency left-back and a centre-half lacking match practice. "We're short of firepower," said Newcastle's manager when presented with the argument that his stellar midfield means little if there is nobody to benefit from this season's collective creativity. "You can have a team which is not playing well and which still nicks games if you have a proven goal-getter in your side." Shearer stands alone in that role just 24 hours before this season's Premiership opener and it is nothing short of disgraceful that a club of United's stature, tradition and reputation has manoeuvred itself into such a parlous position. Newcastle's powers that be have known since January that Craig Bellamy and Patrick Kluivert would be gone come June and yet Michael Chopra is the only striker Souness has signed, or rather re-signed. United's boss said: "We are targeting top players at top clubs. That is the problem." Souness' ambition is admirable and Michael Owen's capture would fully vindicate an aspirational, if risky, transfer strategy. Failing to land Owen, Nicolas Anelka or any of the lesser lights linked with Newcastle this summer will reinforce the view United's pre-season plan was always flawed. Freddie Shepherd could be forgiven for treading carefully in an inflated market after the Marcelino-esque mistakes of the past, but this is no time for too much caution. If the Magpies' chairman must pay over the odds for his manager's chosen targets then he only has himself to blame - it is an open secret Newcastle need reinforcements fast and it is a problem of United's own making. Off the field, the club's failure to sell its full complement of Premiership season tickets for the first time has created the headlines traditionally reserved for star strikers, classy centre-halves and pacy left wingers. Whether watching primetime television advertisements flashing across their screens or listening to national radio shows basing "demise of the modern game" talk-ins on previously unthinkable Geordie apathy, it has been impossible to avoid the uncomfortable fact that true faith on Tyneside is waning. Devotion to the St James's Park cause has always been the cornerstone upon which Shepherd and his board have built their grand plans for the future. But even the most loyal fans in England cannot be taken for granted. Failure to qualify for Europe and a lack of progress in the transfer market are certainly causes for concern. But losing the trust of supporters - however few - is the single biggest indictment of a sorry close season. Bringing Owen back to England is proving difficult enough. Bringing disaffected fans back could prove even harder.

Graeme Souness is relishing unleashing a new and improved Kieron Dyer this weekend after insisting a thorough new training regime will leave the midfielder equipped to terrorise top-flight defenders for the duration of the new campaign. Given the parlous condition of Newcastle's depleted strikeforce, a major responsibility rests with the 26-year-old but, having ended United's pre-season programme in sparkling form, Dyer looks determined to make an impact when the Magpies open their domestic challenge at Arsenal tomorrow. With next summer's World Cup finals on the horizon, a player who remains a peripheral part of the England squad should need no additional motivation as he attempts to vindicate the award of a lucrative new four-year deal, signed last night, at St James's Park. And having told Dyer that he needs to improve his goalscoring output, Souness is confident an individually-tailored exercise p rogramme will ensure that the midfielder's efforts are not hampered by the kind of injuries which have blighted his career. "I like to see him in the final third, turning and going at defenders, running with the ball," said a manager who will head to Highbury this weekend with Alan Shearer as his only specialist striker. "I think that he causes terror in opponents. Think back to the end of last season: if Kieron had stayed on the pitch at Sporting Lisbon we would have got to the Uefa Cup semi-final. "He needs a bit of luck (with his fitness) because he plays in bursts. He is a Michael Owen, a Ryan Giggs, and it (the threat of hamstring problems) is always a danger with those kind of players. "But I think we have got to the bottom of it." Dyer's career has been blighted by hamstring trouble but United's medical staff hope a new exercise regime will enable the midfielder to turn potential into performances for a full season this time around. "I'm told that his hamstrings are now up there with the strongest at the club," said Souness, for whom Dyer's displays could hold the key to his troubled attempts to engineer a successful campaign. "He will have to keep doing these exercises for the remainder of his career. "We have had a look at how Kieron trains and I think part of the problem is that he hasn't always trained as he would play a game. "When it comes to matchdays, he has been moving up an extra gear. But it wasn't always a gear he would find during training sessions. "He was not quite getting up into overdrive on the training ground but, in a match situation, he was asking his body to do it. "We have talked about that and suggested that he has got to really hammer it on the training ground for two or three days a week if he is to steer clear of further injuries." Dyer gave a demonstration of the electrifying pace which will concern Arsenal in Ireland on Tuesday night as United thrashed Bray Wanderers in their final pre-season outing. If he could become a regular goal-scorer, the former Ipswich favourite would give Souness' efforts a major boost. "Kieron is an attacking midfielder - cum second striker - and he has to score more goals," added the Magpies boss of a player yet to contribute 10 goals during a single season in a black-and-white shirt. "It is the obvious criticism of him that he hasn't scored enough goals and I want him to address that. "Any club that is successful must have midfield players who weigh in with goals and it's a challenge for all of them - not just Kieron."

CHAIRMAN Freddy Shepherd has offered the small band of fans who travelled to Deportivo La Coruna a chance to return to Spain for next month's friendly with Malaga - free of charge. The Newcastle United supremo was so impressed with the loyalty of the supporters who made it to the Estadio Riazor for the Intertoto Cup semi-final against Depor that he promised to pay for them to attend the away leg of the final against either Marseille or Lazio had the Magpies got through. Alas, Newcastle were eliminated by Depor, but Mr Shepherd is still determined to reward those fans pictured above with an overseas trip. He told nufc.co.uk: "Getting to Deportivo at such short notice and expense wasn't easy for the fans, but we were very impressed by those who made it out to Spain. "We would have loved to have taken them to Marseille or Rome in the final of the Intertoto Cup. It wasn't meant to be, but at least by playing Malaga, we can give them another foreign trip this season." United are playing Malaga on Friday, September 2, and manager Graeme Souness will select his side from those members of his squad not involved in international duty with their respective countries that weekend. The chairman's offer will include a return flight from Newcastle to Malaga, match ticket and one night's accomodation. If you are one of the pictured fans from Deportivo (above) and would like to attend the Malaga game then please contact the nufc.co.uk office on 0191 261 6120 on Monday morning.

Ahem http://www.toontastic.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=447&hl=

Is that another fact from the "Boa Morte has signed for 3.35 million camp"