On another slow Newcastle United news day, Jose Enrique has urged the club to capitalise on the fantastic start to the season by adding the extra players needed to give us the best shot at finishing the promotion job off. It appears Jose is fearful of the fact that losing too many players could jeopardize [. Click to continue reading...

I'm all flustered this morning. For some reason my dog took to ferocious barking sessions last night, which had me twice out of bed and searching the premises, cricket bat in hand, ready to cover drive any burglars I found. However no burglars nor any obvious reason for my dog's frantic barking was found. Click to continue reading...

Yesterday's biggest news is of course our 2-0 win at Crystal Palace, which puts us in second place, behind 'Boro on goal difference. Hughton, reflecting on the game, said: "It was very pleasing to get the three points, and especially the clean sheet, away from home. "We said to the players before the game that we expected a [. Click to continue reading...

There are rumours that Newcastle United will make an announcement about the sale of the club on Monday, although I can't find a direct quote from anyone at the club about this announcement. Other rumours suggest it may be late next week before we find out anything. Sky Sports claims that talks are continuing with Barry [. Click to continue reading...

If you remember, the press were claiming that 'D-Day' for the club sale saga was either going to be Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday this week. Since Tuesday and Wednesday have been and gone without anything happening, the big day must be today. I suppose if Tuesday was 'D-Day', Wednesday must have been 'E-Day' and today must [. Click to continue reading...

Thanks to last night's win over Sheffield Wednesday we go 3rd in the Championship, behind Cardiff and 'Boro on goal difference, sharing 7 points with 5 other teams. Chris Hughton said of the game: "I don't think it was the prettiest win, but nonetheless it was very pleasing. "I think we needed that second goal for the [. Click to continue reading...

The takeover farce is, as usual, suffering from conflicting press opinions. First we hear from newspapers like The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Journal that Ashley arrived at the training ground in his gunship to join Llambias and Moat in takeover talks. Then The Chronicle comes along and says Ashley isn't there for takeover talks at all but is merely [. Click to continue reading...

As far as the sale saga goes, this week really must be it. I can't believe Ashley would let it run into the last week of the transfer window to sell the club, leaving mere days to strengthen the extremely threadbare squad. According to press articles of late, 'D-Day' is either today, tomorrow or Friday. Click to continue reading...

The Mirror claims that a new bidder is going to enter the race to buy Newcastle United before Wednesday's deadline, although they say Barry Moat still remains in pole position. Apparently the bid will be made direct to Ashley, rather than Keith Harris at Seymour Pierce, and - I presume - without having performed a due [. Click to continue reading...

Yesterday seemed a bit frenetic, what with Steven Taylor apparently on his way to Everton, Duff seemingly on his way to Fulham and the signing of Manchester United defender Danny Simpson on loan until January. I think the signing of a new player, albeit only on a four and a half month loan, marks a bit [. Click to continue reading...

Poor old Chris Hughton deserves a fair bit of credit for quietly taking over a job he doesn't want and just getting on with it. Ashley's dumped him in it a few times now but Hughton simply remains unruffled, appearing to treat his frequent calls to stand-in as manager of one the most media-exposed teams in [. Click to continue reading...

Newcastle have a home draw against League One's Huddersfield in the second round of the Carling Cup. Huddersfield are currently managed by Geordie Lee 'Jigsaw' Clark who played for us between 1990-1997 and 2005-2007, the latter period including time as first team coach and reserve team manager under Glen Roeder. Click to continue reading...

Still nothing on the takeover and some reports have indicated that Ashley has not set a deadline for completion, although I think it's reasonable to assume that some sort of deadline will eventually be set to allow him time to do some work on the transfer market if he has to keep the club. As we [... Click to continue reading...

The Daily Mail is reporting that Barry Moat must find another £10m for his offer if he wants to buy Newcastle United after Ashley is said to be 'insulted' by his current offer. Let's have a whip round. The Guardian speculates that Moat is making his bid with backing from local nightclub owner Allan Rankin, rather [. Click to continue reading...

The Guardian (amongst others) is reporting that Ashley will appoint David O'Leary as manager if, as expected, he takes the club off the market. The Guardian is also reporting that Newcastle deny they'll appoint O'Leary. It's all looks like sheer press invention to me but let's have brief look at O'Leary's management career anyway. Click to continue reading...

We got our Championship campaign under way with a 1-1 draw at West Brom last night. In the first half we looked the more fluent side in possession but, rather like last season, the final ball into the box often lacked quality. Duff probably had the best chance of the half when Carroll set him up [... Click to continue reading...

It seems there was no breakthrough in the talks between Moat, Llambias and Harris yesterday and a report in The Chronicle claims that the sale saga could drag on for another week before Ashley calls it a day and takes the club off the market. North East MP Nick Brown has now called for Ashley to [... Click to continue reading...

As reported on this site yesterday Bassong has gone to Spurs and Beye looks likely to be leaving for Hull. Sky Sports is also reporting that 19 year old winger Jonny Godsmark has been loaned to Hereford for 6 months. The club has confirmed that Alan Smith will be captain against West Brom as Nicky Butt [. Click to continue reading...

The Guardian reports that the sale of Newcastle United is imminent. Apparently Ashley is being urged to accept a bid from a consortium led by Tyneside businessman Barry Moat. It is thought that Moat, who has financial backing from investors in the United States, is Keith Harris's preferred bidder. The Guardian speculates that if Moat gets [. Click to continue reading...

According to The Chronicle, Bassong has been fined two weeks wages for his failure to travel to Dundee for last weekend's friendly. Hughton had previously stated that Bassong wouldn't have featured in the game anyway because he's serving a ban for the West Brom trip and Hughton wanted to field a team against Dundee that [. Click to continue reading...

Chris Hughton has told the BBC that he fears he will lose more players while the sale of the club drags on. He said: "Possibly we might end up losing one or two more. "Where we are at the moment, there's always going to be speculation about the players." Additional players certainly will need to be given the [. Click to continue reading...

The weekend has of course been largely given over to the sad death of Sir Bobby Robson and the rest of the news seems less important now. However I'm going to try and catch up a bit today. In our final pre-season friendly we managed a 1-1 draw with Dundee. Our goal came from Andy Carrol [...] Click to continue reading...

The news has of course been dominated by the sad death of Sir Bobby Robson, a man who managed to command universal respect and affection throughout the game and beyond. I will dedicate today's news roundup to some of the tributes to Sir Bobby. There's a nice obituary in The Chronicle. I like Sir Bobby's quote [. Click to continue reading...

Predictably, a lot of the chat has been about the suggestion that an Iranian tycoon called Sirous Mahjoob is bidding for Newcastle United and may (re)install Kevin Keegan as manager. Much doubt has been cast on whether this chap actually exists in the first place, let alone whether or not he's bidding for the club. Click to continue reading...

A lot of the papers have picked up on The Profitable Group withdrawing their interest in the club. The Telegraph quotes Steve McMahon as follows: "We have pulled out. How long can you keep hanging on? "We have put a bid in and we have had no communication, no response - nothing. "It really is poor form from Newcastle, [. Click to continue reading...

A few of the papers - such as The Telegraph - are going with the story that Oba Martins wants to join Wolfsburg, the Budesliga champions. Martins told the Wolfsburger Allgemeiner Zeitung (which I presume is a newspaper and not an exotic fast food outlet): "The Bundesliga is on the up and could soon become one [. Click to continue reading...

Today I can begin with some good news. England beat Germany 3-2 to win the Sir Bobby Robson Trophy with goals coming from Les Ferdinand, Alan Thompson and Alan Shearer. The night, however, belonged to Sir Bobby Robson and his cancer research foundation to which the proceeds of the game were donated. Sir Bobby is, [. Click to continue reading...