Baggies nobble Nouble

While Bigger Lad was being told he faces assault charges, our promotion rivals West Brom were busy announcing that West Ham's Frank Nouble will be joining them on a month's loan from tomorrow.

Nouble, signed from Chelsea in the summer, is a powerful and pacy striker who has until recently been getting games for the Hammers, his opportunities now having been restricted by the arrivals of Benni McCarthy, Ilan and Mido at Upton Park. What's rather galling about the deal is that a fortnight ago I speculated about our prospects of taking one of the Hammers' young forwards on loan - and now it's our closest rivals who've beaten us to the punch.

Meanwhile, Bigger Lad isn't the only Geordie to find himself in the headlines for the wrong reasons today. Gazza's arrest in north Yorkshire last night on suspicion of being drunk in charge of a vehicle should be a sobering and salutary reminder to our young striker of how the careers of even the most talented footballers can go off the rails.