Reports from Spain are saying that Newcastle have agreed a fee with Deportivo over their 22 year old striker Francisco Jiménez Tejada or more familiarly Xisco. Fee is thought to be around 7 million euros plus another 3 million euros in clauses.

No official confirmation has been released yet but Deportivo’s coach Miguel Ángel Lotina has apparently confirmed after Deportivo’s victorious start to the campaign against Real Madrid that he is aware of the transfer. Deportivo fansite Riazor.org confirms that the player is flying to Newcastle to pass his medical.

Judging by the reactions from a lot of Deportivo fans he is quite highly rated by them. Their fans describe him as a strong striker who is surprisingly quick, technically gifted and one of their biggest talents.

We’ll wait and see what happens but surely it can’t be too bad if it keeps Shola and Smith out of the team.

Tomorrow’s Daily Mail is actually expecting Smith to complete his Everton move sooner than later. Get your party hats out!

And so it is finally here, the first home game of the 2008/2009 Premier League season. And with it comes our first of many Who The F*** Are…? articles, this time only to be published for our home games. So then, this Saturday will see visitors from Bolton bring their best XI out onto the green grass of St. James’ Park. Both teams confident after achieving a good result in their first fixture of the season. Newcastle drawing at Old Trafford, and Bolton beating Premier League new boys Stoke. Based on both teams performances, we could expect to see an entertaining match at St. James’ Park that comes almost with a guarantee for goals. Though, as history will show, Bolton are a very difficult team to face when they are away. They tend to defend themselves great and make the home sides have difficulties starting their play. Though, then again… (more…)

Newcastle United have this morning announced that our final pre-season friendly against Valencia has been delayed, and will now kick off at a later time of 5PM.

It appears there has been a problem with the plane bringing the Spanish stars to the North East, and so the club feel they had no alternative but to push back the start time.

A statement on the official site, nufc.co.uk, read:

NEWCASTLE United’s pre-season friendly against Valencia at St.James’ Park on Saturday August 9 will now kick off at the later time of 5pm.

This is due to the delayed arrival of our opponents from Spain following a technical issue concerning their aircraft.

Supporters using corporate areas will still be able to enter the stadium from 1pm.

We apologise to supporters for any inconvenience caused by circumstances beyond the Club’s control.

It seems likely that refunds will be given to those that have bought tickets and are now unable to attend.