Newcastle United pulled off a coup today in the signing of Senegalese striker Papisse Demba Cisse. The former Freiburg striker has nine goals from 15 appearances so far this season, and finished last season as one of the top goalscorers in the Bundesliga with 22 goals to his name.

The striker signs on a 5 and-a-half year deal, and the transfer fee is thought to be in the region of £7.

Liverpool's failure to defeat Stoke at Anfield means that a Newcastle win against QPR on Sunday would see the Geordies move up to sixth in the Premier League. How much has Kenny Dalglish spent? How much have Newcastle spent? Oh yeah, and Liverpool have Stevie G. the world's greatest ever midfield player (ahem).

With the last two teams to defeat Manchester United coming together at St. James's Park in the FA Cup third round, this could be a more entertaining game than many are predicting. With Demba Ba and Cheick Tiote not being able to play for Newcastle Until the 26th of February, those two spots are now up for grabs.

The transfer window is well and truly open, and with Newcastle United having taken just 5 points from the last 24, there are many areas of the squad which needs strengthening.

First up doing the rumours on Twitter is Finnish footballer Thomas Hesakmi Hesakmi appears to be a very raw talent and it could be likely that Newcastle have unearthed another diamond (along the lines of Mehdi Abeid).

The Newcastle United lineup to face Swansea City is as follows:

Krul; Simpson, Perch, Coloccini (c), Santon; Obertan, Cabaye, Tiote, Gutierrez; Best, Ba.

There are returns to the Newcastle team for Coloccini and Tiote.

The subs are: Harper, Williamson, Abeid, Vuckic, Ben Arfa, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi.

Sad and tragic news broke today about the passing of Gary Speed, who took his own life.

Gary Speed had an illustrious career playing for five different clubs and receiving 85 caps for Wales.

I'll always remember Gary Speed for his unsung hero's role in Sir Bobby Robson's midfield, his galvanising displays in the Champions League, and those headers against Kiev and PSV.

As Newcastle United's season continued to unfurl, and the winning streak continued to lengthen, accusations leveled at NUFC was that they hadn't played 'anyone' yet with 'anyone' presumed to be the top four (this despite Newcastle playing both Arsenal and Spurs and coming away undefeated).

Newcastle United are third in the league, were even in second place for a couple of hours, and all is well on the football field. Fear not Toon fans, Mike Ashley and cohort Derek Llambias are always here to bring us crashing back down to earth. Sure enough, they are going to rename St James's Park to Sports Direct Arena.

Alan Pardew sent out an unchanged lineup against Wolves, and Demba Ba continued his impressive scoring streak as NUFC moved up to third place in the Premier League (albeit temporarily), after defeating Wolves.

Demba Ba was in the right place at the right time as he headed home a corner, and Jonas Gutierrez slotted home a nice finish after dribbling past several Wolves defenders.

According to Jim White, Sky Sports News presenter, the talk of last night's game against QPR was all about Joey Barton. Barton, who had been handed the captain's armband would turn out to be the least of Newcastle's worries as a total of six players made their debuts for QPR.

The London club put Newcastle on the back foot right from kick-off as Taraabt and Wright-Phillips were running the show.

When Andy Carroll left Newcastle United back in January the fans were told that all of the £35 million would be invested in players. Here are the players we've signed since then:

• Yohann Cabaye (around £5 mil)
• Demba Ba (Free transfer)
• Silvain Marveaux (Free transfer)
• Mehdi Abeid (Free transfer)
• Davide Santon (Undisclosed thought to be about £5 million)
• Gabriel Obertan (£3 million)
• Rob Elliot (Thought to be around £250k)

In that same time period, we have let go or sold the following players:

• Sol Campbell (Free)
• Sheki Kuqi (Free)
• Kevin Nolan (£4.

It has now been confirmed that the much rumoured transfer of former Inter Milan full-back Davide Santon to Newcastle United is now completed.

Santon, an Italian International has signed for NUFC on a currently undisclosed fee (thought to be around £5 million). The Italian defender will wear the number 3 shirt and has signed on a five year deal.

Newcastle United beat Sunderland 1-0 thanks to a Ryan Taylor free-kick and move top of the Barclays Premier League.

Match Report to follow.

Newcastle United ended their tour of the United States with a game against MLS Team Columbus Crew. I had the pleasure of traveling to Columbus this week and was pleased to say that the Toon Army was well represented there were black and white shirts everywhere!

Columbus started off really well and were knocking it around well for the first few minutes of the game.

Newcastle United's game against Kansas City got off to a decent start last night, and was by all accounts a good 45 minutes of football. The second-half though was a bit of a snooze-fest with the Toon only having a Danny Simpson shot at goal for anything worth remembering.

The main talking point though was the injury to Hatem Ben Arfa.