The Romain invasion

A warm welcome to the club to Romain Amalfitano, the forward-thinking midfielder having joined the club as expected. He fits our recent bill to a tee - young (22), French and on a free transfer - and arrives on Tyneside fresh from helping Stade de Reims to promotion to Ligue 1.

He wasn't our first official signing of the summer, though - that honour fell to 16-year-old centre-back Lubomir Satka, recruited from our one-time European opponents FK ZTS Dubnica. Very much one for the future.

The Slovakian could soon be joined in our defensive ranks by a pair of Frenchmen: Mathieu Debuchy, the Lille right-back still firmly on our radar, and Mapou Yanga-Mwiba. The latter's name would be difficult enough to pronounce, let alone work into a chant, but we like a challenge.

Yanga-Mwiba is in France's provisional squad for Euro 2012 and helped unfancied Montpellier claim the title ahead of the likes of Marseille and moneybags PSG. The club's president Louis Nicollin looked on as expensively acquired big names flopped before relegation prompted a policy rethink, resulting in a shoestring budget and a strict wage cap. According to the BBC's Matt Spiro, "modern-day Montpellier is founded on hard work, exceptional spirit, homegrown talent and some extremely shrewd signings". Remind you of anyone in particular? (And yes, let's count Big Lad as "homegrown talent"...)