Ketsbaia

His advisors said today: "Hatem will go to Newcastle. The relationship between him and Deschamps has reached the point of no return and we just want Marseille to backtrack and let him go. Hatem has always been honest with OM while they have mocked him. In early July Deschamps told him he had to find a new club and that's what we did."

Depends if Bellamy brings his 9 iron to the party then it could be like something out of Gladiator.

This. When he was telling the press that we weren't interested in Campbell and people were just reading too much into his relationship with him Sol was out the back getting fitted for training bras.

What did I tell yiz?

Given the shite he spouted about big clubs before he left I'm not surprised he's moving on so quickly. Wigan FFS.

I think the frustration comes from the fact we're not bidding from him outright but then it was always clear we were never going to spend much if any cash this transfer window. Marseille are the ones playing funny buggers and moving the goalposts, not us. On Saturday we had a deal agreed and then when the bid for Diang came in suddenly they decided they might want to keep him. Our best chance of signing him is for HBA to throw a massive strop which is likely given his history.

According to some France based journo who writes for WSC L'Equipe are saying that he's adamant he wants to move to our gaff, he's willing to fight for it and contrary to Hughton's claims we have spoken to him and offered him a central playmaking role.

Bruce wants him

I said this at the time [when it happened] on another forum. That discussion forum being newcastle/kiddies-online, and i was probably a lone voice on this. Souness substituting him a fortnight earlier was the thrown cigarette which started the fire, and Bellamy's bewilderment and subsequent tirade when heading for the showers was completely justafied. Souness arrived at the club with an already manufactured view of the player in question.That move [on Souness' part] was the opening salvo in a war of two strong personalities, with Souness flouting his ego & position of power by making a non-footballing based decision. Footballing-wise it made no sense whatsoever. With three points very much there for the taking you don't substitute a fit and the team's best player and most productive on the day, and the team's most damaging & creative outlet on the counter-attack: especially away from home. Bellamy is just one of those characters [regardless of which club he's at, and whom he is playing under] who busts his guts come matchday [and out on the training pitch and is prepared to say it how it is. Football ability should supercede personality quirks, it's up to managers to man-manage them, and that doesn't include physically assaulting them in the aftermath/out on the training pitch. This is going back a bit but in one game, during Keegan's 1st stint as manager, Beresford was having a shocker. Giving up possession cheaply being the main crime committed on the day. Being close to the dug-out, KK was able to convey to him that he had to pick up his game. Beresford told him to 'fuck-off' or something like and was substituted. Beresford lost his spot after that, on performance based merit [i think it was an emerging Howey in a reshuffle of the back 4, somebody will correct on this] but their professional relationship didn't suffer: there were no bruised egos. Unlike the case of Bellamy, Beresford wasn't banished from town & sent to a competition comparable to the Russian Frontier for the remainder of the season. BTW i'd have him back in a heartbeat. Bits in bold spot on. He called Souness a prick at Charlton, that was it really. Souness is a complete cunt of a man more so than Bellamy, his constant blame at everyone but himself sums that cunt up when talking about NUFC. Bellamy was and is without any doubt our biggest game changer of the last 10 years, would be criminal to say we don't want him because of his fall out with someone who is an arsehole. If Bellamy's honest with himself he probably loves this club more than any he's played for regardless what he might say, and he'd come back. He should count himself lucky. In the stand there were a few thousand Geordies calling him worse Bellamy ran that game.

He probably would have but that doesn't get away from the fact that when he left he was easily the best player on our books. He's a gobshite but Souness was just as bad if not worse. Didn't he nearly break Bellamy's legs in training as part of some pathetic "I'm the Daddy now, Banks!" brinkmanship.

I said this at the time [when it happened] on another forum. That discussion forum being newcastle/kiddies-online, and i was probably a lone voice on this. Souness substituting him a fortnight earlier was the thrown cigarette which started the fire, and Bellamy's bewilderment and subsequent tirade when heading for the showers was completely justafied. Souness arrived at the club with an already manufactured view of the player in question.That move [on Souness' part] was the opening salvo in a war of two strong personalities, with Souness flouting his ego & position of power by making a non-footballing based decision. Footballing-wise it made no sense whatsoever. With three points very much there for the taking you don't substitute a fit and the team's best player and most productive on the day, and the team's most damaging & creative outlet on the counter-attack: especially away from home. Bellamy is just one of those characters [regardless of which club he's at, and whom he is playing under] who busts his guts come matchday [and out on the training pitch and is prepared to say it how it is. Football ability should supercede personality quirks, it's up to managers to man-manage them, and that doesn't include physically assaulting them in the aftermath/out on the training pitch. This is going back a bit but in one game, during Keegan's 1st stint as manager, Beresford was having a shocker. Giving up possession cheaply being the main crime committed on the day. Being close to the dug-out, KK was able to convey to him that he had to pick up his game. Beresford told him to 'fuck-off' or something like and was substituted. Beresford lost his spot after that, on performance based merit [i think it was an emerging Howey in a reshuffle of the back 4, somebody will correct on this] but their professional relationship didn't suffer: there were no bruised egos. Unlike the case of Bellamy, Beresford wasn't banished from town & sent to a competition comparable to the Russian Frontier for the remainder of the season. BTW i'd have him back in a heartbeat. I'd agree with that. He had the same opinion of Robert, who he dropped like a sack of shite when he arrived before he started blathering on about "wide workers". My favourite memory of Souness' time at NUFC is when he did the phone in with Mick Lowes and every other call was from a someone extremely fucked off he wasn't picking Robert He was shipped out completely for arguably the tamest of his regular interviews with the French press where rather than slag off anyone he just claimed we were in a better team the year before which was near impossible to dispute.

We usually set off about 8am from North Shields (Metro) In all likleyhood we might get a bar open at 7am for those who are keen. Pick ups on route are no problem. I'll have to ask wor lass what time we arrive back, could be a goer though. I'll drop you a PM with numbers (2 or 3) if it's doable.

What times does the coach leave? I get back off my jollies the day before so I may have to give it a miss but I'm interested.

Do yourself a favour and don't go on the Ben Arfa thread N-O. I think there's a few actually on the verge of doing themselves in.

I've gave Stevie a follow.

As much as I dislike Ashley that's tinfoil bonnet stuff. Barmy.

The President of L'OM said he's joining us, apparently.

Rob, what the fuck are you babbling about you senile auld twat?

We approve registrations now? Christ Have done for about 4 years (ever since we had all those spam-bots signing up donkeys years ago and posting all manner of shite). That's a bit harsh on Magma tbf.

We approve registrations now? Christ

Just look at his face. Just look at his face.

I think he fancies himself as the new Roy Keane unfortunately. I'd rather him kicking the opposition in their box than close to ours.

you could be right as hughton seems to rate barton, but who sits and holds the midfield if we play that line up? I'm assuming we'll play a five man midfield with Nolan given license to come forward like we did last year which would negate the need for an out and out holding midfielder. We may as well start with ten men if we play Smith, God knows we'll finish with that man players on the pitch.

Harper Perch Williamson Coloccini Enrique Routledge Guthrie Barton Gutierrez Nolan Carroll

At least we can say we've won the biggest trophy in European football.