Ben E.

Ouch.

Oooh. by De La Soul

Work by Gang Starr

Travelling Man by Mos Def

Classic by Kanye West, Rakim, Nas and KRS One

Award Tour by A Tribe Called Quest

I did type up about 15 before re-reading the original post. Pretty strong 5 though, I think.

I really don't like that Celtic top. The new Rangers one, however...

Stephen Ireland is fantastic, but he doesn't seem like the type of player Chelsea would go after to replace Joe Cole.

Is the talk of Newcastle having no transfer budget coming from the statement they put on the website? Apparently "capital outlay" means long-term expense, so that would suggest to me we won't be spending a lot, but not that we won't have any money to spend. I think we'll do alright if we get a couple in, providing we don't sell anyone.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new Puma kits, hopefully they'll do something retro- looking like they have with the Tottenham shirt. I can't remember the last Newcastle shirt I've really liked either.

Oh Coloccini, you're the love of my life

Oh Coloccini, I'd let you shag my wife

Oh Coloccini, I want curly hair too.

WE. ARE. PREMIER LE... Never mind. Match was great yesterday. Everyone sitting around me was positive about the team for a change and Coloccini's chant may be my new favourite football chant. It's a big ask for us to stay up next season but I hope we do, I hate the Championship.

Congrats to Grimsby! That must have been a long 25 games.

Oh, Barnsley. You know you've had a bad day when Danny Guthrie puts in a Man of the Match performance.

Sorry if it's been mentioned, had a quick scan through and didn't notice it. The 360 version only (I think) is £15 in Sainsburys.

FIFA broke, so I decided to give this a chance for £15. I hated/didn't give enough time to the demo, so I hope I enjoy the full game more.

Looks like James to Stoke could be back on, according to BBC anyway. Also, Mike Williamson has apparently had his medical at Newcastle. Anyone know much about him?

I hate this first HBK match against JBL. So Orton runs in which is fine but there is no DQ he just keeps beating me up. So I'm like ok it's a no DQ match and I take a chair to Orton. I got Dqed So I am doing it again and Orton just wont leave! It's like one of those matches you are meant to lose to advance the story but you're supposed to win! I am so frustrated right now

I had trouble with beating him too, untill I tried Irish Whipping them both into the same corner, so the second one kind of splashes the first (hopefully I described that well enough). It took Orton out for long enough to pin JBL for me, so if anyone is stuck on that match, the Irish Whip thing is worth a try.

Yeah, it was at my end too. I just couldn't believe he didn't score. He redeemed himself with his finish later on, thankfully. I don't think Newcastle deserved the win though.

I'm never really confident of a Newcastle performance, although we're ok at home. I'm going, so I'll probably be looking forward to it more closer to Saturday, but at the minute I'm not at all.

Why do I get the feeling Newcastle have never been for sale at any point during the summer and that it was all just another big con?

It's very possible. I tend to think either Ashley's terms of sale are ridiculous, or people are taking one look at how the club is being run and instantly want nothing to do with it.

I hope Hughton doesn't get the the job full time. We may have won games this season, but of all the games I've watched I don't think we've put in a really good performance yet. I think the wins are to do with teams either paying us too much respect, or the difference in quality between the players, but not anything of Hughton's doing. Seems like a nice bloke but I don't think he has the balls to be the manager full time.

Me too. As it stands now, I want the game but don't want to spend the money on it.

So, do you only get these awesome low prices by going to the Midnight launches? I'm tempted, but I don't have time to play it until tomorrow night, maybe even Saturday night.

So, Newcastle vs. Ipswich on BBC2...

Nicky Butt's lack of passing skills is annoying me.

EDIT: Nolan, yay.

EDIT: Oh, and again!

Of all the players to sign on loan, Zurab Khizanishvili? Really?

Plymouth today, kinda nervous for it. I'm hoping the players will respond well to the Blackpool game.

Playing the demo and then a quick game on '09, this felt like a step backwards to me. Passing feels a lot more awkward and sluggish, as does shooting. Can't remember the last time I didn't end up buying both PES and FIFA, but I won't buy this.

Very happy with Lovenkrands coming back. He was good for us last season and we desperately need more players in.

Kranjcar for the rumoured 2-3 million is robbery. Great deal for Tottenham there, adding to their already fantastic squad.

We're too good to die![/delusion]

I'm just hoping something is sorted by tomorrow and we can actually try to get some players in. We're doing well now, but the squad's paper thin.

The start of the season has been nice, although with these wins and goals all of the Sky Sports News Geordies are getting annoying again.

Went to Newcastle - Reading today, and saw Shola Ameobi score a hat-trick. Good times. I'll be at the Newcastle - Sheffield Wednesday game on Wednesday too.

I was still playing Football Manager 2007 until I found a 09/10 Update for FM'08 last week. I wasn't any good at all on '09, and didn't really like '08, so I've just stuck with '07.

Steven Taylor comments, Friday:

“I’ve read every week that Alan Shearer is going to be named manager. Then Joe Kinnear is going to get the job, then Kevin Keegan and then Alan again. I don’t get it. It’s a joke. The players are very frustrated because all we want to do is have a manager and a bit of stability. That’s all we ask for. “The new manager should be given time to do things his way and, if he wants something, just give it to him. The chairman, if he loves the football club — not as a business, but as a club — would do that. I’m devastated that Alan hasn’t got the job. We haven’t got a clue what’s going on.

"We’re taking responsibility. Who is going to help us? Relegation has brought us closer together. Last year, we probably thought we were too good to good to go down. It was boring around the place. It just felt dead. There was no life until people realised we could get relegated.

“Until Alan took charge, we didn’t have meetings. People would walk into the changing rooms and out on to the training pitch and I wouldn’t see some lads until we were out there. Now we mix for an hour or so before we go out. We feel more humble and we didn’t have that last year.

“Now, if set-pieces aren’t right, we practise until they are. Last season, it was almost a case of thinking ‘they’ll be okay on Saturday’ . They weren’t. Maybe it was a lack of leadership. We have to hold our hands up, admit our mistakes and put them right.

“There’s no big ‘I am’. We are Championship players. It feels like us against the world. Who will give the motivational talk before kick off? It depends which players are left."

The bolded part is where I think they've taken that from. From the third quote onwards is the more positive stuff.

Optimistic, but very nervous about the game today. Steven Taylor's said all the right things pre-season in terms of the squad being more of a unit now, but I'll believe it when I see it. It'd be nice to see the team working for eachother on the pitch though.