Kovac for free i would take, maybe.

But you've got to consider Boumsong is keeping him out of the team if he isn't playing, is that someone we want?

Besides am sure Boom will tell every Juve player never to join Newcastle, ever.

Grygera fee needs to be minimal, is he a CB or RB? or both?

7m would get you Grygera, Jankulovski and Kovac?

WTF?  In Football Manager world maybes....

Aye, i bet half the posters in this thread pissed the bed regularly 8 years ago.

The other half still continue to do so by the sound of things.

If they sold Richards for £18m, I'm sure Man City would sooner just hold onto Distin. What a deal for City though. £18m for Richards when they already have Trabelsi. Potentially a very good player for sure, but I reckon the £18m to strengthen elsewhere (even buy a Distin replacement) would soften the blow.

No thats taking it a little too far now.

Lets say footballs answer to Elton John?

I won't call Martins shit if he hits bad form because he clearly isn't; he can control a football, something that Ramage, despeite being paid around 56k a week can't do, and the funny thing is Ramage is actually older than Martins. How he is playing for us at this level is baffling. Just because he's a faux-Geordie imo

Just watch me go now, says Oba
Dec 28 2006
By Lee Ryder, The Evening Chronicle
 
Oba Martins today said he agrees with the people who criticised him when he first arrived at Newcastle.

The Toon No 9 has chalked up nine goals since arriving from Inter Milan for £10m, after enduring a sluggish start to his career on Tyneside.

However, Martins revealed he is loving life at Newcastle and has predicted a bright 2007 for himself and team-mates.

He said in an interview with allafrica.com: "I begrudge no one for the many things said about me in previous months.

"But people should understand that any player coming to a new territory will need some time to settle down.

"It is a whole new environment, new style, new culture and new orientation.

"I thank God that I am doing better than when I just arrived. It means that the coming year will be good.

"Newcastle is a club with ambition and we have every reason to do well next year.

"We lost out of the Carling Cup in the quarter-finals, but we are gradually inching up the table in the Premiership and will continue to move up. The next few matches will be the key.

"We are also in the round of 32 in the UEFA Cup and there's still the FA Cup."

Nigerian international Martins also had high praise for boss Glenn Roeder.

He added: "I commend the coach. He is a good leader and he gives us confidence.

"For him, I will always go out there and do my best."

Probably not. But then apparently Madrid are touting Cassano around England and with our clubs strong links with Madrid i'm sure we'd be asked first, or somewhere near first.

With us touting Luque around Spain, its only a matter of time before the penny drops in someones head.

Maybe Cassano doesn't find a move to us appealing? I wouldn't if i wasn't a fan, and he is ambitious and temperamental

It's Moore bad news for Glenn on injury front
Dec 28 2006
By Alan Oliver, The Evening Chronicle
 
Newcastle United defender Craig Moore has suffered a setback with his hamstring injury.

And that leaves Glenn Roeder wondering when he is ever going to be able to field a recognisable back four again.

Roeder heads back to the North West for Saturday's game with Everton without FIVE of his defenders - Moore, Titus Bramble, Olivier Bernard, Stephen Carr and Celestine Babayaro.

And that could well be considered as six, as Nobby Solano, who has had to be used at right- back by Roeder, only has a 50-50 chance of returning as he recovers from a groin injury.

The United boss admitted today: "To be perfectly honest I cannot put a comeback date on Moore, Bramble, Bernard or Carr.

"Babayaro has had a scan on his hamstring injury and it revealed that there is a grade one tear which will keep him out for two or three weeks.

"Moore has broken down and this is probably due to all the previous hamstring injuries he has suffered in his career.

"Bramble is only back in very light training - and I mean very light - and we don't really know when he will be back. The same applies to Bernard, who is having an operation on his hip.

"And as far as Carr is

concerned, he is fat c***, but there is still bruising on his brain and he cannot strike a ball with his melon head. His return is open-ended - it could be tomorrow or years.

"Solano has a chance for Saturday, but if not he should make Manchester United on Monday."

United's defensive injuries mean that Roeder has been forced to use no fewer than SEVEN of his men at right-back this season - Carr, Solano, Steven Taylor, Peter Ramage, Paul Huntington, David Edgar and James Milner, the latter for a spell in the win at Blackburn Rovers earlier this month.

Roeder, of course, also has strikers Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi as long-term injury victims, while the United boss is not expecting Charles N'Zogbia back until "some time in February".

And plans to have Damien Duff back on the bench at the Reebok Stadium on Boxing Day had to be abandoned after the £5m signing suffered some reaction in training.

Roeder added: "Duff has done some extra work over Christmas after his knee operation and as a result his calf tightened up, and it seems that no matter what we do we cannot win.

"But the only consolation is that, apart from Kieron Dyer's freak eye injury, every injury we have had actually occurred during matches, until Babayaro was hurt in training last Thursday."