Actually I'm getting a bit sick of all this, 'He's foreign so he's useless and only here for the money ' rubbish. This might be the case with Van Hoidonk and a few others but we shouldn't generalise.

I don't mind Bobby Robson going for a whole team full of foreigners as long as they are potentially better than what we have at the moment. South Americans in particular seem to settle in well at Newcastle . Nobby is virtually an adopted Geordie, and the others in Bassedas and Acuna are starting to settle in well. As for Cordone, he cost less than, Serrant, Brady or Hamilton, I know who I would rather have. Admittedly some of the Europeans have been a bit of a problem, but there are good and bad in every nationality. We've had some great foreign players in recent years such as Tino, Pav, Ketsbaia, Ginola and Albert , all of whom became Geordie heroes in their time at Newcastle. How many "local heroes" have we had in the last few years? Beardsley, Shearer, Clarke, Watson. (Can we include Lee, Bez and Barton? are they local?)

On the other hand we've had some such as Hamman , Maric and Dumas that were only here for the money then again we've had some dodgy Britts in Kitson, Rush and Ferguson.

As for quality , and value for money, the foreign market has got to be better than the British one, Solano cost £2.5 million, Acuna a million , what does that get you on the British market these days? A nineteen year old lad from Brighton or a Blackburn reserve defender.

The point of this rant is, not all foreigners are crap because they are cheap. And they are certainly not all just here for the money. Sir John Hall's dream of 11 Geordies would be nice, but does it could never happen. Not unless we played in the Nationwide league that is. Even when the youth Academy is producing players, we would be lucky to get one player per season that would be good enough to get into the squad. And how "Local" would they be? Our best "Local lad" at the moment is Shola Ameobi . Shola was born in Nigeria, but has lived here most of his life, he and we consider him to be a geordie. Perhaps in the future the Newcastle United scouts will be patrolling the shanty towns of Johannesburg and Buenos Aries rather than the playing fields of Wallsend or Whitley Bay looking for youngsters to invite to our youth Academy. The world is becoming a smaller place we have to accept that players from overseas will, if we want to remain a premiership force, make up the bulk of the Newcastle United team. This isn't necessarily a bad thing . Foreign players should not be used as a scapegoat for the teams deficiencies. ... Here endeth todays sermon.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Answers

No problem with any of that Rik and me money is safe I see

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Totally agree Rik.

I would add a small comment that a manager must bring in players with an eye towards team spirit and has to bring in players with the right attitude, who are going to be able to settle in the area etc. This is always going to be slightly more difficult for someone from a different country and probably a different language but it is not insurmountable. It is a detail that we have perhaps overlooked in the past with someone such as Maric for example.

11 Geordies gets harder every year because of the net migration away from the North East. I think MOST contributors on here do not presently live in the North East although the vast majority were born there. They will never be lost to the Toon Army but what about their children and grandchildren?

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Jonno The boy is reminded every week of his heritage along with converting a few of his friends to the cause. It's magic to hear them play in the back garden when they all start singing.

" With a N and an E and a Wubble U C"

I,ve also met many young Aussies who's parents or grandparents were Geordies and they also have a very strong connection to the Toon.

It's in the blood man!It's in the blood.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Having a German dad, Jewish Palestinian mum and Austrian, German and Russian grandparents (RIP) I'm certainly not going to complain about foreigners coming to Newcastle! I think we all get a buzz from a player from abroad coming to the Toon, liking it and being taken aback by the support. But there are question marks over some of BR's signings - not cos they're foreign, but cos they might possibly be a bit crap. And even the ones who aren't foreign. I haven't really ssedas, Acuna looks ok and Cordone is yet to impress. So where's Gavilan and these others? None have made an immediate impact. YBR's off the point with this "I can't buy the best, the best costs £30m" stuff. That's a bit disingenuous - noone's realistically expecting him to buy £30m players, but the fact is he has spent £15m or whatever and he seems to have done so largely to make up the numbers. I'm quite happy to give these players time, but I think BR's covering his arse slightly - when he signed LLL, I reckon he thought he could put him straight in the first team, even if that wasn't ideal. Now it's obvious he's way out of his depth and probably needs a couple of seasons to get the speed of thought and technique needed at this level. And I don't think anyone is 100% confident about Cort's ability. The truth is, you can find good 'cheap' talent - how much was Pahars? Solksjaer? Wanchope? Di Canio? Bowyer? etc. - I'm just yet to be convinced BR's plumped for the right ones.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

To be fair to Bobby, Dan - you can unearth cheap talent like those you mention around the Leagues, but rarely under the kind of pressure Bobby's been working with since he came here.

I would suggest these diamonds are invariably the result of an ongoing program of scouting, research, monitoring and hard work that should be in place. The question is was that in place, or has he had to establish that kind of program. The latter would be my guess.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Totally agree with all on this matter. In reality, I afraid there's no such thing as a totally one nationality club team anymore.

We have to realise the fact that to compete effectively, we have to bring in quality players, not just British but foreign ones as well. By some quirk of fate, we usually end up with underperforming signings but, imo, it all was just plain bad luck and probably bad judgement by the back room staff.

BTW, read that we have a 16 yo trailist from...Paraguay who comes highly recommended by Galivan's dad. I feel it's only a move in the right direction, catching them young and if he does turn out to be a gem, it would cost us nothing.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

I have no problem with overseas players. Playing for the Toon in the Prem is a canny place to find yourself and I hope this will make them proud. They f*ckin should be. However, when I was a keen but ordinary footballer I liked to play in teams that shouted at each other, you know "I'll git the big un ye git the space", "Man mark that tw*t for the next 15 mins", "They're sh*te doon the left - give it to Nobby".
NUFC at present are not a team that does this and it is a weakness.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Heednhands, I think you'll find that our players shout "we're site down our left, give it to Nobby" ;-)

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Can it only be coincidence that the European ban on English clubs in the mid 80's which so many hacks blame for the influx in foreigners to the league occured at the same point in time as the Teachers strikes where the common occurence (at least in our school) was of cancelled after school activities, such as sport? Also would help to explain why there haven't been any noteable British Chess Grandmasters.

On top of that aren't all the kids too bothered about Pokemon and PlayStations to get off the arses and learn to play football at a decent level - or is that just the kids down here - there was a news story on TV yesterday about a 3 year old wanting a video player for their room, can't see them knocking a cross field ball 25 yards to feet in their teens.

Or after reading stories on here they want to get into software and have the life of Gav?

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Bob: Reet theday wu’ll be gannin 4-4-2 but If it gans rang wu’ll gan a fluid 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 yis knaa what I meen.
Goma: scarre blue, but she is complicated zis football
Cordone: que?
Acuna: But she is so clold today. Clold is this perfecto word?
Big Al: Reet I want nen o’ this tippy tappy shite - just welly up the FECKIN middle ‘n’ that
Rob Lee: Facking cants!
Barton: Fackin right my son.
Cordone: Clold? FECKIN? 4-4-2? Welly?
Domi: £22000 zis week, £22000 next week, but zis is so bad.
Bob: (muttering behind his hand): oh fuck!


-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Crying with laughter heedenhands, priceless :-)

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000