Final Transfer Day Thoughts
Well it's all wrapped up now, teams are set til the end of the season...

I'd like to say a hearty "Ha Ha" to Liverpool who missed out on at least 2 or 3 possible targets in the last few days, seems like they wanted Owen, but couldn't cough up the dough, same deal with Simao and Nobby came back to the Toon as well...

Not much to say with Arsenal, Chelsea or Man United.

As far as Jenas goes, I'm totally cool with it... We paid 5m for him, sold him for around 7m so fair enough... He wanted to go, was sick of life in the North East, I figure he'll rape someone and end up in jail within a year or two, I don't think he's got his head on straight...

Unfortunately I won't get to see Nobby play on the 10th as he's suspended for 2 matches :(

This Saturday I'm off to the Mad Hatter in Mississauga with my mates for England's World Cup Qualifier - England v Wales... Should be a cracker... I'll be wearing my Owen England Shirt :)  ¶ 9:23 PM 4 comments

  Nobby back in Toon! From the looks of things, appears that Nolberto Solano is heading back to the Toon, this makes me very happy as wee Nobby was a great little player and I was very sad to see him back his Trumpet and go... With his crosses, Shearer and Owen I'm thinking Champions League contenders!!!  ¶ 4:01 PM 0 comments

  Owen is better than Beckham: Best Owen is better than Beckham: Best

Here you go, the real deal from Georgie Best... BTW, this reminds me of one of my favorite lyrics from a song ever... From the Streets' song, "Such a Twat"....

"Smacking Down Glasses at Georgie Best's Best Session Rate"  ¶ 11:57 AM 0 comments

  www.UpTheToon.com :: View topic - Owen unveiling - [EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS] Some cool pics of Michael's arrival at SJP...

http://www.upthetoon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=274  ¶ 11:10 AM 0 comments

  Cask Ale Festival :: October 22nd and 23rd at Volo: Mark Your Calendars The Bar Towel :: View topic - October 22nd and 23rd at Volo: Mark Your Calendars

This is super exciting! A Cask Ale festival in Toronto!

12 Cask Ales, wonderful, some more links/info for y'all!

What is Cask Ale? Here's a great link to CAMRA's Web Site which describes Real Ale / Cask Ale

Where is Cafe Volo? Here's their WEB SITE
Volo is run by a great guy named Ralph, super nice, super interested in beer, please support this festival, tell everyone you know... In addition to serving great beer, this place boasts amazing Italian food, support the local beer scene in Toronto!  ¶ 1:07 AM 0 comments

  NUFC.com's Take on Replacement Players Interesting Article on NUFC.com comparing those that have gone vs. those that have come in since Souness arrived, I seem to arrive that in terms of quality, it certainly appears that we've upgraded...

Strikers:

Out
Kluivert - I was super excited when Kluivert joined, but he didn't give a sh*te about Newcastle, was injured half the time and didn't seem to want to break a sweat when he did play, a massive disappointment, happy to see him gone...
Bellamy - Loved his pace and tenacity, seemed to be improving his finishing too until he left, oh well...

In
Owen - Time will tell, but certainly a MASSIVE signing for us, let's hope he can continue his great form from Madrid and bang in the goals!
Luque

Midfield:

Out
Robert - One trick pony, aside from his free kicks he added little... Au Revior!
Butt - Never really settled after joining from Man U...
Ambrose - Seemed to be a decent player, but did quite have the quality to succeed in the Premier League.
Viana - Disappointed that he didn't want to come back and fight for a place this year, oh well, hopefully he'll do really well on loan and we can at least recoup most of the £8.5m we forked out on this flop...


In
Emre
Parker
Faye
Clark

Defence:

Out
Hughes - Was a loyal, hardworking, reliable squad player, sad to see him go for a measly £1m
O'Brien - Never going to be good enough for us, wanted first team football, off you go...
Bernard - Stupid c*nt, this MORON walked out on us once before, then fought over a contract and ended up a Southampton, got relagated and last time I check is still without a team, what a dumb twat... I loved him as a player, but clearly he's a fool to walk out on United, so screw him!

In
Moore
Boumsong
Babayaro


  ¶ 11:28 PM 2 comments

  I hate Man United...
If you hate Man U Stand Up...
If you hate Man U Stand Up...
If you hate Man U Stand Up...
If you hate Man U Stand Up...

If you're like me and most of my friends, you have a fierce hatred for the red half of Manchester, and have probably enjoyed all the turmoil of this year, the Glazer takeover, etc...

If you want a laugh, you have to check out this site, a spoof site that is meant to be written by a 12-year old American Tampa Bay fan... anyhow, nuff said, check it out:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/ManchesterBuccaneers
  ¶ 10:27 PM 0 comments

  MaXxed Football Forums This is a really, really, really awesome site to download Football-related videos... You're going to need a BitTorrent client, like Azureus but I'll be posting something up like a tutorial on that later...

MaXxed Football Forums - powered by vBulletin  ¶ 6:14 PM 0 comments

  Owen in his new Jersey http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~707011,00.html  ¶ 6:03 PM 0 comments

  In the Gallowgate Just got an email from Adrian, he's picked up the tickets for the Home Match v Fulham that I'm off too, and I'm in the Gallowgate end, not too far back near the goal! I'm super pumped!  ¶ 5:17 PM 0 comments

  Newcastle United - My Squad Analysis
If our players can stay fit we have a helluva team, unfortunately aside from Midfield, not an incredibly deep squad though...

Strikers:
Clearly Shearer and Owen, Both England internationals, they'd play together at any of the top clubs, together they should bang in 50 goals this season... Shola on the bench..., Chopra back in the reserves where be belongs.

Midfield:
Luque, Emre, Parker, Dyer - Parker has done magnificently since he's come, I think he's finally an upgrade over Speed, even when he was at his best, he's very strong in the tackle, great engine, great passer of the ball. Dyer when he's fit (unfortunately about 30% of the time), can terrorize defenses... Emre looks like a great buy, very busy, very creative, and Luque for me is a bit of a unknown, but has international experience with Spain, looks to have a good left foot... Then on the bench we have Jenas, England International, Bowyer who I really like, gives 110%, can score goals, Milner who shows some promise, he has pace, can play on either wing, Faye who's a reliable squad holding midfielder, N'Zogbia who looks like a good prospect down the left. Also our latest free signing Lee Clarke, again seems a reliable squad player...

Defence:
Carr, Parker, Boumsong, Babayaro - I'm satisfied with this group, but I think it's in the fullback positions that we're short of cover, I have no idea why they sold Aaron Hughes for £1m to Villa, he was someone you could slot into any of those positions and he'd do the job, perhaps he's thinking that Taylor will now fill that position. Bramble seems to do well when playing with Boumsong, I haven't seen Craig Moore play yet, but if he's the captain of the Ozzie national team he can't be that bad...

This squad of players SHOULD finish 5th or 6th if they perform, possible even challenging Liverpool for 4th if they excel, but unfortunately it's not nearly that simple, but at least with Owen, Emre, Parker and Luque we appear to have invested in proven class and QUALITY which gives us the possibility to do something this season... I also think Sheppard is showing some confidence in Souness... Also I'm OK now with the 1 point from a possible 12, I mean not many teams will get anything off of Arsenal and Man United, (and in many ways we were really unlucky not too!) Bolton are tricky too and West Ham are obviously full of confidence at this point, so it's not a huge deal, clearly we NEED to get 3 points at Fulham, but I'm confident that we will, I'll be there for crying out loud!!!

HOWAY THE LADS!

John.  ¶ 11:43 AM 0 comments

  Michael Owen to the Toon?

Will he or won't he?

I'm refusing to give up hope, I mean, I certainly didn't believe it when the rumours first starting coming up, no more than I believed that Rooney would sign for us...

But now that a bid has been accepted, and he's bothered to come up and meet with Sheppard and Souness, I mean, there's got to be a decent chance right?? It would be a laugh if he did sign as just about a month ago I got myself a new XXL England Jersey w/ Owen on it, from eBay!!! Transfer window closes in 2 days so this saga can't go on much longer, I expect something will be released tomorrow...

  ¶ 10:13 PM 0 comments

  A picture of the cottage... Here's the great little cottage that we stayed at up at Balsam Lake, we had a wonderful time. The kids had a blast down at the beach... I learned how to start and operate a little motorboat! If I'd had the 'net while we were up there I'm sure a site like this would have been useful!

We had satellite TV up there, which was great, so I got to watch Newcastle lose to Bolton 2-0 and Man United 2-0, Lucky me!

I got an email from my buddy Adrian from Newcastle, he's picking up tickets for me tomorrow for the Fulham match on September 10th! I'll be at St. James! I can't wait!!

Tonight we had a little Friends and Family match with Henry's soccer team, had a fun time, then on the way home we thought we'd take the van through the car wash, but we forgot to take the soft shell carrier off the top, which was filled with our pillows and blankets we'd taken up to the cottage! (Something like this) Doh!

I'm just chilling on the couch now, watching the EPL Review show from the weekend via the XBOX, blogging it up w/ my laptop...  ¶ 9:57 PM 0 comments

 
Here's a lovely picture of the Sleeth's Golden Retreiver Dakota  ¶ 4:17 PM 0 comments

 
Here's a shot of me with a stoopid Black and White hat and a can of Guinness...  ¶ 4:15 PM 0 comments

  My first blog post! Talk about not bleeding edge...

Ok, I've decided to jump on the blog bandwagon... This is my first post... Funny thing is I don't even have much to talk about today, hmmm... Let's see...

Basically I'm going to try to post up my thoughts on various stuff I'm interested in, Newcastle United, Beer, Technology, keep friends and family up to date on stuff that's going on, post some interesting pictures... I'll try wherever possible to include direct hyperlinks to stuff too so that it's easily to link off and explore!

Just returned from a fantastic week of holidays with the family away at a cottage on Balsam Lake, in the Kawartha's just south of Coboconk... Had a wonderful time... I'll post up some pictures of the place...

Just picked up my new passport today, which I'd completed the application for online at http://www.ppt.gc.ca/menu_e.asp - This saves some time as they ushered me to the front of the queue at the office, and it was sent back to me in less than a week!  ¶ 3:46 PM 0 comments