New blood

With the fixtures list for next season now available (and printed on nufc.com) and Emre a Newcastle player in all but name if press reports are to be believed, it will be interesting to discover what Souness envisages will be the team taking the field against Arsenal on the first day of next season.

From what I can gather, Emre is a left sided central midfield player, and as such must be hoping he gets the nod to start alongside Scott Parker in the centre of the park next season. With Dyer presumably on the right, and Milner currently favourite to start on the left, it looks like JJ and Faye will be left to warm the bench (particularly if we succeed in offloading Butt and Bowyer before the transfer window closes).

Presumably attention will now be turned to adding another quality centre-back and at least one if not two strikers to the payroll, and the disposal of those players unwanted by the manager (namely Viana & Bellamy). Whether we succeed in bringing in the players Souness wants, and equally ditching those he doesn't could well mean the difference between another season of lurching from one self-inflicted injury to the next, or a quite season of steady improvement.