Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today – in no particular order of priority.
Geremi has now signed for the Magpies and will arrive on a free transfer from Chelsea on a three-year contract – once his work permit has been obtained.
No mention here of a ₤2M signing-on fee that was reported in all the papers yesterday – wonder where that one came from. We’ll have to assume it really is a free transfer – that it cost us nothing to actually sign him.
The news today turns to the trip to Austria the squad will make and what Sam plans to get out of the 10 day visit. We also turn our attention to who could be next in the door following Geremi’s capture from Chelsea. We look at the possibility of Habib Beye arriving at the club for around ₤2M – and the chances look good.
- We have a piece on Sam talking about the support staff he is building at Newcastle – which is similar to what he had at Bolton. Sam talks about his ideas and why the system has been successful. We have a feeling the system will – if anything – be expanded at Newcastle once he settles into the job over the next year or so. But no more will we diddle daddle on the transfer front until late August. Expect his staff to research the players during the season and be ready to move early in the summer. Also expect some players coming in out of the blue – but they will turn out to be decent buys – no doubt.
Sam Allardyce
- Now that we have Geremi almost tied up at the club – attention shifts towards who may be next in the door at Newcastle. We think it’s probably between Edmilson and Habib Beye. However, we expect the Brazilian not to sign until January. We run a transfer update on the Sengelanese star Beye – and look at the chances of him coming to Newcastle – which we think are quite good.
Habib Beye
- We have a transfer update on Eidur Gudjohnsen – who we are pursuing from Barcelona right now. His father and agent is being a little unrealistic in thinking his son’s future lies at Barcelona – with so many top strikers there. We also believe Barcelona will at some point inform Eidur that his future probably lies away from the Nou Camp. When that happens we hope we can get in there and sign him quickly – for around ₤4M.
Eidur Gudjohnsen
- First news out of pre-season training is a long talk by Sam to the Journal which we feature in an article this morning. Sam as usual talks a whole load of sense and what he expects from the playing side of his team. All players start with a clean sheet – and the squad departs today for their 10-day training camp in Austria. It will be a timefor everybody to get to know each other – including the training staff.
Sam Allardyce
- Finally here’s some quotes from the football world to lighten up the day. 😀
‘Ian Rush is deadly 10 times out of 10, but that wasn’t one of them.’ – Peter Jones
Neil Sullivan has stopped absolutely everything they have thrown at him…Wimbledon 1, Manchester United 1.’ – Mike Ingham
‘It’s headed away by John Clark, using his head.’ – Derek Rae
‘Strangely, in slow motion replay, the ball seemed to hang in the air for even longer.’ – David Acfield
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