Gareth Barry was a precocious young 19 year-old with a great left foot, when he made his England debut as a substitute against the Ukraine in May, 2000. At that time it looked like Gareth was going to be an England regular for years to come.

But once Sven Eriksson took over the England manager job in 2001 that all came to an end.

For whatever reason, Sven didn’t rate young Barry and slowly but surely he was left out of the England squads completely. He continued to play well for his club Aston Villa, whom he joined from Brighton in 1997 when a 16 year-old. From 1998-2002 Gareth played 27 times for the England Under-21 side but it is only very recently that he has been recalled to the England squad.

Thanks really to new manager Martin O’Neil and the good sense of Steve McClaren that Barry has made a return to the England squad. In the last international break Barry at last got a chance to start in central midfield with Steven Gerrard in England’s vital games with Israel and Russia. England’s regular midfielder Lampard was out injured.

During the game with Israel Barry immediately built a rapport with Gerrard on the field and the players actually complemented each other’s play. What a concept! The continual pairing of Lampard and Gerrard had never really been a success for England but because they are undoubtedly the best two English midfielders they always seemed to get the nod. The problem — they are far too similar in style. Great club players no doubt but not good together for England.

After England’s two excellent victories against Israel and Russia at Wembley in which Barry was little short of a revelation, Steve McClaren, to his credit, kept faith in Barry when Lampard returned from injury for Saturday’s game with Estonia. It was an easy victory but remember that Estonia is ranked 127th in the world and anything other than a win for England would have been a massive upset.

But it will be a completely different game for England (ranked 9th) when they have to face Russia in Russia on Wednesday. This is the real test for England and we expect to see Barry and Gerrard again as the starters in central midfield. But we do expect another win, even though the match is being played on a plastic pitch, with all it’s uncertainties. A win will guarantee England qualification for next years’ finals.

We hope McClaren will keep faith in this midfield partnership, which really works. Maybe we can actually think about winning something next year if we select the best team for England rather than the best 11 players available. What a concept!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

If you has asked Newcastle fans after our first 4 games of the season how things were going you would have been told Newcastle would finish in the top 6 in the league — no problems.

In fact in a recent poll we conducted asking where we would finish – on our Newcastle United Blog – 60% of the readers that Newcastle United would be in 6th place (see the full breakdown here).

Newcastle fans of course have always been known for their undying optimism and that Newcastle will some day return to their great years of the past. Certainly, when growing up in Newcastle my father was a great supporter and in the mid-fifties we had just won 3 FA Cup finals in 5 years and we were on top of the world. We were one of the best teams in the world as far as we were concerned.

As everybody knows now unfortunately, Newcastle United are going through one of their worst spells in history in terms of not winning trophies. It was back in 1969 when Bobby Moncur led the team to their last victory in the Inter Cities Fair cup, when the great Joe Harvey was manager.

That was the last trophy Newcastle won — and the last home trophy was the FA Cup win over a Don Revie led Manchester City 3-1, when Jackie Milburn scored with a header (very strange for Wor Jackie to even head a ball) in the first minute. We watched that game on TV and both my parents were at Wembley.

This season started very well under Sam Allardyce, who maybe the perfect manager for Newcastle and until Monday night things were going really well and hopes were high that this could be the season to win something. But in truth, Newcastle were hopeless against Derby County, who to their credit fought tooth and nail every inch of the way, and won with a great goal from Kenny Miller on his debut.

While Newcastle never got going at all, it was a great win for Derby County and their manager Billy Davies, who seemed to do as much work on the sideline as his players were doing on the field . It showed just how strong the Premiership really is and no team can take any game for granted.

So now things at Newcastle are not looking quite as rosy as they once seemed for this season. However, we expect to beat West Ham United on Sunday although it should be a close game. Then Newcastle should be able to sneak a win against Arsenal on Tuesday night at the Emirates in the Carling Cup. But only if Arsene Wenger plays fair and fields his reserve team, or at least a weakened team, so we have some chance of winning

Yes, it’s was a blow on Monday night, but the hopes of our Newcastle United fans remain fairly undiminished — and we still think we can do very well this season. Top 6 definitely and maybe top 4? Well, maybe not top 4 – at least not yet – we don’t want to get too carried away do we?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Edward Harrison writes on the popular (and dare I say BBC-acclaimed) Newcastle United blog.

A couple of good interviews with Sam today.

First one has Sam talking for the first time on the contract dispute the club are in with Steven Taylor. Sam thinks it was a good offer but seems determined to get this sorted out as quickly as possible.

Big Sam also talks about Michael Owen and how good he has looked recently and is just so happy one of the big four clubs didn’t get him for only ₤9M in the summer.

• We had a late story on Emre getting injured in their 3-0 win over Hungary. Emre missed our last game against Wigan and probably shouldn’t have played. It must be very frustrating for Big Sam because he has hardly seen Emre in action and we’re sure we pay him a lot of money. The injury coupled with Emre’s statement that he wanted to leave Newcastle cannot have pleased his boss.

  Emre – injured again playing for Turkey

• We have the goals video from the England Russia game on Wednesday for those who didn’t see the game on Wednesday. The game was not shown over here in the USA although Scotland’s win 1-0 over France was. It was an unbelievable game and performance from the Scotland defense.

  Michael Owen – his goals plus the assist for Ferdinand’s goal are on the video

• We have an excellent interview with Sam Allardyce talking about Michael Owen and what a great striker he still is. In fact with better training techniques and strengthening some of Michael’s injury weaknesses sees Sam think Michael can get even better. Certainly we would all hope Michael can stay fit this season – that’s the main focus. If we can keep him fit then it’s obvious he’s going to bang in the goals. Sam talk about the ₤9M release clause and how some of the big clubs seem to have missed an opportunity to get Owen on the cheap – not anymore.

  Sam Allardyce- thinks Michael can get fitter and better

• Sam talks today for the first time on Steven Taylor’s contract which he calls a very good offer for one so young. Like most Newcastle officials Sam was not happy the contract disagreements were leaked to the press by Steven’s father Alf. Looks like both Sam and Chris Mort will get involved to hammer out a deal with Alf Taylor, who is acting as Steven’s agent in the talks. We hope it gets sorted out quickly.

  Steven Taylor – Sam thinks contract offer to the youngster is a very good one

• Joey Barton is now back in light training and is scheduled to begin full training with the squad in about a week. This should put him ready to play in the Manchester City game at Eastlands at the end of September. We have missed Joey’s creativity in midfield and we think he’ll give us another dimension when he returns to the side. It definitely looks like competition for places is heating up.

  Joey Barton – back in full training in about a week

• What’s being discussed on our Newcastle United Blog?
  Here’s some of the recent and popular discussions going on:
  • What Difference Will Joey Barton Make in Midfield
  • Discussion of the next league game with Derby County at Pride Park
  • Will Michael Owen be as good as before he was injured?

  

• As you know our site has been nominated for ‘Best Sports Blog’ as part of the Bloggers Choice Awards. If you would like to vote for us you can do so here. You can also browse through other nominations you can vote for. SoccerLens was also nominated and you can vote for Ahmed’s Bilal’s site here.
• Here’s some choice football quotes. These are to lighten up the day
  

  “My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about seven.” – David Beckham

  “It’s going to be difficult for me – I’ve never had to learn a language and now I do.” – David Beckham

  “It is a title decider. But it’s not going to decide any titles just yet.” – Michael Owen

• Finally this is another heads-up that we’ve added some new statistics to try to compare how we are doing this year to previous seasons. We thank one of readers, Simon, for suggesting this via the contacts form. The league table doesn’t tell the whole story since it depends on which teams we have played to date. We have added a page that compares our results this season with the last two seasons. As an example for the Bolton game away we’ll look at how we did in the previous two seasons and put the points we got. Once we meet a promoted team (like Derby on Monday) we’ll compare them with a specific relegated team from last season. It seems to give a quick snapshot as to how we are doing relative to the last two seasons. Here’s the table as it stands now after our first 4 games – we’re not too much better as it turns out.

  
  Fixture  	   05-06   06-07  07-08
  
  Bolton - A 	     0 	     0      3
  Aston Villa - H      1 	     3 	    1
  Middlesbrough - A    3 	     0 	    1
  Wigan - H 	     3       3 	    3
  
  TOTAL Points 	     7       6 	    8

Comments Welcome.

Edward Harrison writes on the popular (and dare I say BBC-acclaimed) Newcastle United blog.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Newcastle have had a decent start to the season. Not a great start with 8 points from 4 games but a steady start which new manager Sam Allardyce had asked for.

Sam has torn the structure of the club apart since he took over as manager of Newcastle United in mid-May and the results of his endeavors are already starting to show through.

Gone are players like Titus Bramble and Kieron Dyer, and while Sam wanted to keep Kieron, Newcastle fans have never been totally convinced of Dyer’s commitment to Newcastle, and most weren’t disappointed to see him 8 years at the club.

With the experienced players Sam has brought into the club, and the final acquisition just before the midnight transfer deadline on Friday of additional defenders Abdoulaye Faye (Bolton) and Habib Beye (Marseilles), Sam has brought in a total 9 players for a total outlay of only ₤25M. The net outlay is around ₤10M when you consider fees received for outgoing players Scott Parker (West Ham – ₤7M), Kieron Dyer (West Ham – ₤6M), Nobby Solano (West Ham) and Albert Luque (Ajax)

PLAYERS OUT

Bramble — Wigan – free
Srnicek – free
Moore – free
Bernard – free
Onweyu — Standard Leige (after loan)
Parker — West Ham – ₤7M
Dyer — West Ham – ₤7M
Huntington – Leeds — undisclosed
Solano – West Ham — undisclosed
Luque — Ajax – undisclosed

PLAYERS IN

Mark Viduka — 31 -Middlesbrough – free
Joey Barton — 24 – Manchester City – ₤5.8M
Geremi — 28 – Chelsea – free
David Rozehnal — 27 – PSG – ₤2.9M
Alan Smith — 26 – Manchester United – ₤6M
Jose Enrique — 21 – Villareal – ₤6.3M
Claudio Cacapa — 31 – Lyon – free
Abdoulaye Faye — 29 – Bolton – ₤2M
Habib Beye — 29 – Marseilles – ₤2M

Of the 9 players brought in six can play in defense. As everybody is well aware, Newcastle’s defense has been weak for at least the last 10 years (under previous managers Keegan, Gullit, Robson, Souness and Roeder) and the first thing Sam said he wanted to do was to strengthen the defense, and he’s done that. It’s so nice to have a down-to-earth manager who looks at the team, identifies the major weakness, and fixes that first — what a concept

In the first 5 games of the season (3 wins, 2 draws) Newcastle have 3 clean sheets and Sam has set a target of at least 10 clean sheets this season in the Premiership.

In a poll conducted earlier this week, on the Newcastle United Blog (these are admittedly Newcastle United Supporters), 61% now think Newcastle can finish in the top six. We believe if we had conducted that poll 3 weeks ago not nearly as many fans would have selected top 6 but rather top 8 or top 10.

Big Sam has been aggressive in the transfer market and has had a huge impact on the club. Newcastle have been relatively successful in the transfer market and Sam’s moves have been backed completely by new chairman Chris Mort and owner Mike Ashley. Newcastle fans are now hoping (and some of us are praying) that top six is not only possible but this is indeed a new era at Newcastle.

Newcastle Billionaire Owner Mike Ashley - attended 2 home games, 2 wins and no goals conceded

Yes, we know we’ve been here before, many times over the last few years, but signs are there that Sam is building the club from the bottom up. His no-nonsense attitude and down to earth style is going over like gang-busters with the Geordie faithful.

For the Premiership to remain strong, other clubs need to break into the top 4 and break up the consortium of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Over the last 4 seasons of the 16 top 4 positions in those seasons – these terms have occupied them 15 times with only Everton breaking the monopoly in season 2004-2005. Everton finished 4th and pushed rivals Liverpool down to 5th place.

The way Aston Villa defeated Chelsea 2-0 on Sunday was one of the few times Chelsea looked to be beaten by a better side and there’s no doubt Aston Villa under Martin O’Neil have looked good this season.

Other teams that can break the top 4 monopoly include West Ham, Everton and Tottenham in no particular order. But Tottenham have again got off to a shaky start despite having a very good team and some excellent players. Many more results like Saturday’s draw at Fulham, when they threw away a 3-1 lead with just 13 minutes to go — will see Martin Jol’s position as manager under very serious threat. If he can’t get the best out of the squad then Tottenham will find somebody else who can.

So we believe the top 4 will be broken up this year with Newcastle making the top six.
Aston Villa, West Ham, Everton, Tottenham and Newcastle also have the quality to break up the top 4 consortium of the last four years.
The sooner that happens the better it will be for the Premier League.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Sheffield United have started legal action to gain compensation from West Ham following their relegation from the Premier League.

The Blades went down after the League’s independent panel decided not to deduct West Ham points over the signing of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano last August. Sheffield have estimated the cost of their relegation at between £30M-£50M.

We cannot believe Sheffield United are still going on about this. Perhaps the real reason they were relegated was more to do with not gaining enough points to stay in the Premiership than anything West Ham did to them.

Have the Sheffield board considered this possibility? Or is it all West Ham’s fault that they didn’t garner enough points to stay up? — sounds like their Board thinks it’s the latter.

We think this is quite ridiculous on the part of Sheffield United — and they are certainly coming across as sore losers. Sheffield are after West Ham’s agreement to go to arbitration through the FA in order to settle their claim (We bet they are).

A Sheffield spokesman told the BBC yesterday:

“After consideration and discussion with our legal advisers Sheffield United are today initiating legal proceedings against West Ham United.”

“We are seeking substantial compensation for our relegation from the Premier League.”

“This action is distinct from the arbitration proceedings between the club and the Premier League during the close season.”

“We have always said that we will do everything in our power to secure justice for Sheffield United and restore the integrity of English football which has been tarnished by this affair.”

“Once proceedings have been issued we will await a response from West Ham before making any further statements.”

The Blades recently failed in their High Court bid to force the Premier League to take disciplinary action against West Ham.

We think it’s time for Sheffield to give up the ghost on this one – and concentrate on getting United promoted back to the Premier League. Their time would be better spent on this, rather than seizing on a dubious opportunist play that could enrich them with ₤30M — ₤50M but with about a 1% chance of success. They are acting like the complete victims — as in it’s all somebody else’s fault.

We wonder if the other relegated clubs think they deserve that amount for not getting enough points to stay up in the Premiership? We think they have too much class to join Sheffield on this one — and far too much sense.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today in no particular order of priority.

We concentrate on some of the Newcastle players today with news on Shola Ameobi, Geremi Sorele Njitap Fotso (for short – Geremi) and Michael Owen. There’s also a good story originating in the Northern Echo on why Sam Allardcye was persuaded to come to Newcastle.

Nothing at all yet on transfer activity but we expect Sam and others to be working furiously on bringing at least 3 new defenders to the club.

• We spotlight Shola Ameobi today now that looks to be over his hip injury. Shola needs to score goals this year to get (and keep) his place in the Newcastle line up. There is great competition for places next season but we think now that Shola’s fit he’ll be a lot better than most fans think. But Shola just has to start scoring more goals to be a viable striker at Newcastle – although he has learned from the great Alan Shearer – how to make his immense physical presence felt.

  Shola Ameobi

• A good interview today with Geremi from Newcastle World TV. We believe Geremi can be one of Sam’s best signings at Newcastle and this boy certainly gives 100% effort and has the vast experience to go with it. He’s going to be massive for us next season – and he certainly seems happy – we’ve never seen him smile so much. The picture below with Big Sam is just a great photo of the two of them.

  Sam and Geremi
  A new rock group?

• Good story today originating in the Northern Echo on one of the things that persuaded Sam to join Newcastle. It was the excellent players already at the club like Michael Owen and Kieron Dyer. But it looks like Sam was tempted most by the possibility of managing Michael Owen. You don’t get the experience to work with England’s best striker too often. It’s interesting that Sam keeps mentioning how he admires Dyer. In management you usually get what you expect from people. Sam expects a lot from Kieron – so we hope he can bring out the best in him – then we’d really be motoring next season.

  Michael Owen

• We’ve heard a number of stories over the last couple of days that Oba Martins has turned down an approach from Arsenal. We take a look at the validity of that story today and quote someone close to Oba. Of course with his release clause Sam Allardyce is still concerned about Oba (and even Michael Owen) although we think Oba is too excited about what’s happening right now at Newcastle to want to leave. A few wins early in the season and Oba will start to see he is playing at one of the real hot beds of English and European football. Just think what it could be like if we were actually successful again.

  Oba Martins

• Here’s some funny football quotes for today – again from Ron Atkinson. This is to lighten up the day.
  

  “His head just disappeared into his shoulders.”

  “He had acres of time there.”

  “Think of a number between 10 and 11.”

  “There’s lots of balls dropping off people.”

  Ron Atkinson

Ed Harrison writes at the best Newcastle United blog on the planet.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today in no particular order of priority.

Sam offered some good quotes on various Newcastle players following the 3-1 win against Hartlepool United last night.

News also that Newcastle United have finally become a private organization again – as their shares have been delisted from the London Stock Exchange.

• Lots of good quotes from Sam Allardyce after the game against Hartlepool United last night. Sam was very pleased with the showing of Shola Ameobi and Michael Owen – our goal-scorers last night in the second half. He had some good things to say about the two strikers – that were essentially missing through injury last season. They are essentially two new players for us next season – and they both looked good last night.

  Fit Shola Ameobi

• Joey Barton started his Newcastle career in style as he was the star player for Newcastle last night. Sam had some glowing praise for the 24 year-old but his playing ability has never really been in doubt. It’s his character that we are worried about. We quote Joey on his England career and the falling out he had with Stuart Pearce at Manchester City. But it’s essentially in Barton’s hands (or feet) as to whether he can fulfill his immense promise at Newcastle.

  Joey Barton

• When you look at the team that was on display last night we had a lot of the youngsters taking part and we look at some of the players. Quite a few of them will be pushing for a place in the first team squad this season – which is good for the club. Certainly the youngsters last year did a great job when they were brought into the team. We still believe Newcastle needs to concentrate on youth at the club – because it will save us millions over the years. There were a number of youngsters on display last night – several of them who will make the grade at Newcastle (hopefully).

  Paul Huntington

• We have an article about Kieron Dyer today after Sam Allardyce talked in glowing terms of Dyer’s capabilities today to the Evening Chronicle. We think it’s time that Kieron really produced for Newcastle with the performances he has been promising for the last eight years or so. No doubt he can be a magical player and we look forward to Sam being able to get the best out of the former Ipswich player next season. If Sam can’t then nobody can.
  

  Kieron Dyer

• Newcastle United have finally gone private again and now Mike Ashley fully owns the club. We hope in this article that funds will now be readily available to Sam Allardyce – as he attempts to complete his buying for the summer – by bringing ion 3 additional defenders. We also think the takeover was handled extremely well by the Ashley team.

  Mike Ashley
  

• News today that Franck Queudrue thinks the move to Newcastle may be complicated. Since there has been no bid from Newcastle it’ll be very complicated if we don’t bid for him.
  Sam Allardyce did state yesterday that he had no interest in Franck so we’re not sure what will happen to Franck – but would be surprised if anything happens soon. We personally would like to see Queudrue join Newcastle – but believe that is now unlikely.

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  Franck Queudrue

• Here’s some funny football quotes for today – again from one of the funniest managers – Ron Atkinson. This is to lighten up the day.
  

  “They must go for it now as they have nothing to lose but the match.”

  “If Glenn Hoddle said one word to his team at half time, it was concentration and focus.”

  “Beckenbauer has really gambled all his eggs.”

  “I think that was a moment of cool panic there.”

  “I would also think that the replay showed it to be worse than it actually was.”

  Ron Atkinson

Ed Harrison writes at the Newcastle blog.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today in no particular order of priority.

Sam gave quite a lengthy interview with Sky Sports News last night and most of the stories emanate from what he said during the interview.

Certain players like Heinze and Queudrue will not be coming to Newcastle and Sam is still pursuing defensive reinforcements.
News of the raid on three Premiership clubs yesterday morning is still covered widely – with Newcastle being one of the clubs raided.

• The first story we run today is related to Sam’s long interview with Sky Sports News in which he basically rules out Franck Queudrue and Gabriele Heinze coming to the club. We add Habib Beye to this list since less than a week ago Habib said he was staying at Marseilles. So there’s three players we can rule out – but don’t think these moves will not be resurrected in the press despite Sam’s statements last night.

  Gabriele Heinze

• Sam also speaks about the defenders he still wants to bring to the club before the season starts on August 11th at Bolton. Sam’s looking for big strong defenders but he admits almost every other Premier club is into the transfer market now – which makes things more difficult since there is now more competition for each player made available.

  Sam Allardyce

• Good news today in that Sam has met with Oba Martin’s agents and they assure Sam there is no truth in the rumors that Oba wants to leave Newcastle. Sam is still nervous about the release clause in Oba’s contract which means that a club could come in before August 31st – make a big enough bid and Oba could be off. We also discuss the possibility of Edmilson arriving in January from Barcelona – which we still think is a strong possibility – and obviously Sam thinks very highly of the Brazilian.

  Oba Martins

• Sam also speaks about the defenders he still wants to bring to the club before the season starts on August 11th at Bolton. Sam’s looking for big strong defenders but he admits almost every other Premier club is into the transfer market now – which makes things more difficult since there is now more competition for each player made available.

  Sam Allardyce
  

• For the first time Sam expresses some frustration at the new board and their slowness in going after transfer targets. Sam has to explain to the board – who are all nearly brand new to football why he is after a certain player – and from what Sam says it has slowed down progress in the transfer market for us. That’s becasue we are often too slow in pursuing targets. Sam is not patient as far as transfer targets go and he is extremely motivated to build a good squad for the coming campaign – which may explain some of his frustration.

  Deputy Chairman Chris Mort

• We did cover the news of the Newcastle raid last night and also gave some additional background on the findings of the Steven’s report. While the reports say the two investigations are not linked – the evidence garnered by the Steven’s inquiry was apparently handed over to the London police force and seem to have formed the basis for the raids. We beleive it’s the agents involved who are under investigation and not the clubs – but you wouldn’t believe it by reading some of the reports.

  St. James’ Park

• Other stories that are reported today:
  • The squad numbers have been released this morning for next season. Czech defender David Rozehnal takes over the No.4 shirt, while fellow new boy Joey Barton will be wearing No.7. Mark Viduka, who was Big Sam’s first signing as Toon boss, will don the No.36, and most recent arrival Geremi will be sporting the No.20 jersey.
    Elsewhere in the squad there are new numbers for Nobby Solano (15) and Albert Luque (19).
  • Joey Barton talks again about coming to Newcastle to win trophies – and he seems excited about the prospects for next season. Hopefully – before too long Joey can help us win that trophy that hasn’t happened for almost 40 years.

    Joey Barton

  • The Journal reports that Newcastle have held talks with a second French left-back. Both Newcastle United and Wigan Athletic are both said to have been in contact with Franck Signorino of Nantes – as a possible alternative to Franck Queudrue – now that we know that move is not going to happen.
• Here’s some funny football quotes for today from one of the funniest managers – Ron Atkinson – this is to lighten up the day – which we all need at some point
  

  “I know where he should have put his flag up, and he’d have got plenty of help.”

  “That’s not the type of header you want to see your defender make, with his hand.”

  “You don’t want to be giving away free kicks in the penalty area.”

  “Liverpool will think ‘we could have won this 2-2.’”

  Ron Atkinson

We always appreciate your comments on these stories.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today in no particular order of priority.

We are linked with Ronaldinho in the News of the World today – but maybe that’s another ploy by the NOTW to sell their papers with sensationalized news. In any case we do comment on the story but think we have a lot more basic things to get right with the Newcastle squad than go spending a ridiculous amount on the Brazilian.

We still have no idea whether Sam Allardyce has persuaded Oba Martins that his future lies with Newcastle – but we do run an article on Oba today.

Also some really funny quotes from our own Sir Bobby Robson – carrying on from yesterday’s hilarious quotes from Uncle Bobby – one of the really great football personalities

• A story in the News of the World which may be more hype than anything. News that Newcastle enquired about Ronadinho while they were discussing Edmildson, Gudjohnsen and possibly Deco. We comment on the story but we think it would be a nonsensical signing for us given the current state of the squad and the other things at Newcastle which are so much more important to accomplish before we even think of bringing superstars into the club. Sounds too much like what the past management would be doing.

  Ronaldinho

• We run a story on our very own James Milner today and point out what a great example he is to the youngsters. We’ve already had a 12 year old Sean comment that he looks up to James – and in fact idolizes him. James of course is and always has been a model professional and we are so pleased he has signed onto Newcastle for another four years. James can turn out to be one of the great ones at Newcastle – and let’s see how many games he gets in for Newcastle. At 21 years-old he already has played close to 200 first class games – not too bad for on so young.

  James Milner

• We still haven’t heard anything about whether Oba Martins will stay at Newcastle. Sam was supposed to discuss the situation with Oba last Friday but Newcastle have not yet announced anything about the situation. Maybe they are waiting to see if Arsenal do put in a transfer bid for him. We still are being linked with some forwards so we’re still not sure what will happen. We hope Oba will stay at the club – he has too much potential to let go.

  Oba Martins

• Other stories that we’ve already covered in the last couple of days:
  • Franck Queuedrue will be talking to Sam Allardyce by phone tomorrow once he has talked to new Fulham boss Lawrie Sanchez about his future – which obviously doesn’t lie at Fulham. Queudrue’s wife would like to return to the north east area so as long as Sam wants Franck we believe the deal will be done.
  • News today that Rafa Bentizi has put a ₤20M tag on Peter Crouch. Peter’s a good player who we were after in January for ₤8M – what’s going on at Liverpool? They have already way overpaid for Torres ( ₤27M) and Babel ( ₤11M) – and seem to expect other teams to be that stupid – certainly not Newcastle – these fees are just ridiculous.
  • News still about Rod Fanni and that Newcastle appear to be in pole position to get the 25 year-old Frenchman – but other clubs are also interested. That’s not surprising – in fact we would be disappointed if other weren’t interested. Rod is an excellent player who will only improve at Newcastle. Rod can play right back, center back and defensive midfield – excellent utility player
  • A piece on Newcastle World TV in which Michael Owen talks about Mark Viduka and how he is looking forward to working with Mark next season. Michael seems to be returning the compliment – since Mark talked glowingly about Michael a couple of days ago.

  

  Rod Fanni of Nice

• Here’s some funny football quotes for today from one of our best ever managers Bobby Robson – a really warm and wonderful football personality and one of the best English managers ever – this is to lighten up the day
  

  “The first 90 minutes are the most important.”

  “In a year’s time, he’s a year older.”

  “He’s got his legs back, of course, or his leg – he’s always had one but now he’s got two.”

  “I said to the lads at halftime, I said – there was nothing to say.”

  

  Sir Bobby Robson
  my quotes are up there

We always appreciate your comments on these stories.

Ed Harrison writes on the Newcastle United Blog.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today – in no particular order of priority.

The highlight for us today is we are linked with two very good players. One is Deco – who continues to be linked with Newcastle because Barcelona would like to sign Frank Lampard from Chelsea – and therefore would be able to let a central midfielder go.

Also linked with us is Gabriele Heinze of Manchester United who seems willing to leave Manchester for more regular football next season. We think it will be difficult to capture either player because – for one thing – we cannot offer them European football next season.

• The news continues to be that Mike Ashley would like to attract a world class player to Newcastle before the transfer window ends in August. Once player we are linked with is Deco of Barcelona and since we’ve been in contact with Barcelona for Edmilson and Gudjohnsen we hope some progress on Deco may have been made. We have a Newcastle Transfer Update this morning on Deco.

  Deco

• We have a piece today asking what is Newcastle’s best strike partnership next season. Most think that Mark Viduka and Michael Owen will be first choice but probably Sam will use some rotation system to keep the players fresh and on their toes. With four good strikers Sam also has some good choices during games – where he will be able to impact a game by changing his strikers accordingly.

  Mark Viduka

• News today that Newcastle may be after Gabriele Heinze from Manchester United and we run a Newcastle Transfer Update story on Gabriele. We think it will be difficult to capture Heinze because he wants European football and we think it would be difficult right now to attract him to Newcastle. However, Sam Allardyce has a good relationship with Alex Ferguson and competition is from Liverpool and maybe Real Madrid. Ferguson would not want Heinze to end up at Liverpool.

  Gabrielle Heinze

• Australia just about made it through against Oman in the Asian Cup when Everton’s Tim Cahill scored a very late winner to save Australia from embarrassment. Mark Schwarzer in goal had a good game and saved his country with a string of good saves. Next up for Australia is Iraq on Friday before their final group game against Thailand on Monday. Rumor has it that Roy Keane is interested in taking Mark Schwarzer to Sunderland for next season.

  Tim Cahill

• Here’s some funny (or even stupid) football quotes for today from commentator Kevin Motson – this is to lighten up the day
  

  “The unexpected is always likely to happen” “Brazil – they’re so good it’s like they are running around the pitch playing with themselves.”
  

  “For those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are in the yellow strip.”

  “England could have been 1-0 down on two occasions now.”

  “The referee is wearing the same yellow-colored top as the Slovakian goalkeeper. I’d have thought the UEFA official would have spotted that – but perhaps he’s been deafened by the noise of this crowd.”

We always appreciate your comments on these stories.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News