apparently is on Tyneside and will sign a five year deal subject to a medical.

Pulled out of the Bradford game yesterday

and will make his debut against.....Bradford.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

Answers

Okay so we are going to sign O'brien. Douglas Hall says that we have £100 million to spend on players because.... wait for it Newcastle have been prudent with their money?? (the word Bollocks comes to mind). So if there is 100 million to spend, can someone answer this. 5 games ago we were in 6th place and nicely positioned for a european spot, hell the champions league spot wasnt too far off!!! Surely we should have spent some of the money getting new players with fresh ideas ( a left winger would have been nice) to consolidate the league position and push on for the highest position possible. Instead newcastle does nothing and now finds itself looking towards a relegation spot rather than Europe. No player is going to want to sign for us when we cant offer them european football!!! Something is amiss and it all smells fishy to say the least. AM

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

I think our priority must be to switch training facilities and/or techniques, we cannot maintain premiership status if the training ground is responsible for systematically injuring our players.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

Do we blame the board for not allowing Bobby to spend a whole load of cash, selling class like Goma & picking up Quinn & O'brian does not strike me as good judgement.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

Looking at the NUFC.COM site and their list of transfers during Robson's time:

In, and still here, Gallacher, Gavilan, Bassedas, Cordone, Cort, Lua Lua, Acuna, Quinn, total cost : £17.8m if they all stay and play enough games

Out - Goma, Domi, Charvet, Ferguson, Howey, Ketsbaia, Robinson, Maric, Pistone, Dumas total in : £23m when they've played their qualifying number of games.

Couple of points. 1, the ins are no better than the outs. Three of the ins started yesterday 2, we have sold a defence of Charvet, Goma, Howey, Pistone this season, and we wonder why we can't stop conceding goals ?

None of the ins inspire me at all, not a single bit. Why shouldn't I read news of a £30m or £100m or £2.5bn transfer fund and shrug my shoulders. I really have little hope that this summers ins will be any better than last summers.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

The problem with your argument Macbeth is that Charvet, Goma, Howey and Pistone were on average - injured! Even when they played we couldn't defend.

BTW, in all the comings and goings, BR has also drastically reduced the wage bill - something that is part of laying the foundations for Douglas Halls predicted splash in the close season.

The only one of the four I regret selling is Howey, who mysteriously - nay miraculously - has become a regular at City, and is likely to be voted their "Player of the Year" - not a particularly high accolade I accept.

The logical conclusion to your argument, of course, is that BR should be replaced - then we start the merry-go round all over again.

I believe Bobby's hands have been tied, and wonder how many of his signings would have been made if he'd had a transfer budget of £30mm last summer? I know for a fact that Cort and Bassedas were definitely on his "A List"; Gallacher's done a decent job for us, but the others?

I don't believe releasing BR would be a good move. However, I do believe we need to get his planned replacement identified and installed this close season as Head Coach to work alongside Bobby in what must become a transition season. I can't see him being here after next season.
I still actually believe Alan Shearer has been earmarked as that man.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

Yeah reduced the wage bill, okay.

Getting rid of injured players, now that's a slippery slope to go down.

I just don't feel the first XI, or the squad, is any better for having had Bobby here for 18 months. I hate justifying transfers out to myself, as I 've mentioned before. On yesterday's performace (and all the others too) as Jonno puts it so well, we could put all of them on the funeral pyre and not really miss one of them. How many would Boro have asked to be in their side. I'm just down about it all.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

on judging your players you have to ask yourselves if you were in charge of the likes of Arsenal, Leeds, Chelsea and Liverpool and the other unamed clubs chasing Man U. Would you be want to buy any of our players? And would you be buying the likes of Quinn and O'Brian, or going after The Roberto Carlos type of player?

We are the second biggest club in that, we have the second biggest set of fans, second biggest stadium, turnover is likely to be the second biggest in the country yet we are way down the list in the players we have and the football that they play. I'm highly sceptical wether or not we will be improving the players in the summer despite what the Halls say. They talk big to get us to renew our season tickets, then will make excuses about the best players not wanting to come to Newcastle because we're not in Europe. I bet Keegan could persuade the world best to come here.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

Here's a fairly routine case to point out the paucity of our ambition.
While we're playing cat 'n mouse with Bradford over a 2nd rate PL defender, Spurs while sacking their manager, who had accused them of a lack of ambition, where lodging bids worth £17.5 million for Southampton pair Dean Richards (£10 million) and Hassan Kachloul (£500k), and French defender, Sylvain Distin, of Paris St Germain (£7 million).

Yes, that's the very same Dean Richards we could have had on a 'free' at the same time we were spending £12 million on Goma, Marcelino, and Franck the Pie Man! Grrrhh.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001