The boy Den Good

Congratulations to Curtis Good, who can now boast as many full international caps as he can first-team appearances for Newcastle. The 20-year-old defender, currently on loan at Dundee Utd, made his debut for Australia on Wednesday night in a friendly fixture against Ecuador, putting in a performance that the Guardian's reporter rated as "solid" and lasting 66 minutes before succumbing to a hip injury.

While England toiled to an uninspiring 1-0 win over Denmark at Wembley, the game across London at the New Den served up splendid entertainment. Good's side led 3-0 at the break, but by the time our man was withdrawn, Ecuador had pulled two goals back, the second a spot kick after Aussie 'keeper Mitch Langerak was sent off. The South American side went on to equalise and then, three minutes into stoppage time, to grab a dramatic winner after Good's replacement Alex Wilkinson was guilty of giving the ball away.

The knock and the final result didn't seem to take much gloss off the evening for Good, who gushed: "You dream about it your whole life - it's the absolute highlight of my career. I felt so confident out there." It will serve as vital big-game experience - not least because his previous taste of such an occasion ended in acute disappointment, when he was hauled off at half-time as Bradford lost 5-0 to Swansea in last season's League Cup final. Hopes are high that Good might one day be ready to step into the first team - but let's not forget the sad case of another promising young foreign defender, Tamas Kadar, who failed to live up to his considerable potential and is now back in his native Hungary.

While Good was turning out for the Socceroos, Mathieu Debuchy was busy playing all but the final three minutes of France's 2-0 victory over the Netherlands. Loic Remy and Moussa Sissoko both also appeared, though only from the bench.

Elsewhere, Papiss Cisse and Mr T were on international duty for Senegal and Ivory Coast respectively - the latter mustering an impressive 2-2 draw in Brussels against a Belgian side many people (myself included) fancy to be a real force over the next few years, though the game was most notable for a staggering miss by Villa's Christian Benteke.

Finally, Fergie got a welcome reminder of what it's like to lace up his boots, enjoying a spell as a substitute as Northern Ireland laboured to a stalemate in Cyprus. Much as I like Lee Clark and want him to do well, it's baffling as to why he's excluding our winger from his Birmingham squad. Leaving him twiddling his thumbs on the sidelines is doing no one any favours.

Good news for Dundee Utd

Lest the club should be accused of inactivity on the final day of the transfer window, I should point out that something did happen: Curtis Good joined Dundee Utd on loan. The Australian defender has followed young reserve colleagues Conor Newton and Adam Campbell in signing up for a temporary spell north of the border. He's only featured for us once since signing in the summer of 2012, in the League Cup fixture at Morecambe earlier this season, so it's hardly surprising he's jumped at the chance to gain some first-team experience.

Meanwhile, the loans of James Tavernier and Haris Vuckic to Rotherham have been extended to the end of the season - understandable and expected, as it was a no-brainer from the perspective of both clubs and both players.

No fairytale

While his parent club may have enjoyed their Sunday afternoon (Paul's match report to follow), the same cannot be said of Curtis Good, whose League Cup final dream turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Despite impressive vocal backing from 32,000 supporters at Wembley, Bradford were ruthlessly destroyed 5-0 by a Swansea side who showed no concern for sentiment. Our man, playing at left-back, was withdrawn at the interval with the score at 2-0.

The Bantams' season is far from over, though, with the play-offs still a possibility. Squeezing in depends on how quickly they can put yesterday's thrashing and all of the media kerfuffle behind them. After the caviar of Wembley, it's back to the bread and low-fat margarine of League Two on Wednesday, when Dagenham & Redbridge are the visitors.

Final fantasies for Brad and Curtis

Congratulations to Brad Inman, who - unlike any of our first team - will get the opportunity to strut his stuff in a club competition at Wembley this season. His Crewe side made it through to the final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy last night at managerless Coventry's expense - though they came close to throwing it all away in spectacular fashion, conceding twice in injury time (including a calamitous own goal) and ending up clinging on for a 3-2 aggregate victory. Their opponents at Wembley will be League 2 outfit Southend, who overcame Leyton Orient in the other semi-final.

Our other Aussie youngster was already lined up to make an appearance on the Wembley turf, of course, with Curtis Good's Bradford taking on Swansea in the League Cup Final on Sunday. Best of luck, lad.

A bright future and a dismal past

So it wasn't quite the deathly quiet transfer deadline day we'd been expecting. There was another arrival, for a start: Servette's Kevin Mbabu. Surely some mistake, though - the dreadlocked defender is Swiss, not French... Also unlike our other transfer window signings, the 17-year-old is very much one for the future - albeit a player who, according to the Journal at least, we've nicked ahead of Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs.

Meanwhile, the Xisco Kid is no longer a drain on our resources, his contract having been terminated by mutual consent. No sooner had he been released than he'd signed up with Spanish second tier side Cordoba. And thus ends his unhappy history on Tyneside, one which started promisingly enough with a debut goal. But that came in a dreadful home defeat to Hull and turned out to be the only time he hit the net for us in eleven measly appearances over four and a half years. £5.7m per goal - even 'Appy 'Arry's eyes would water at that sort of statistic.

Also continuing to ply their trade away from St James' Park, though only temporarily, are Curtis Good and Bradden Inman, whose loans at Bradford and Crewe have been extended until the end of the season. Mehdi Abeid is our latest loanee, farmed out to St Johnstone in the SPL and with plenty to prove, you'd imagine, following the Silver Fox's recent comments about the failure of our young players to suggest they're able to make the grade. (Incidentally, whatever happened to the Silver Fox's opinion that the SPL is too weak for our players to learn much there? He'd already sent Paul Dummett and Conor Newton to St Mirren even before Abeid's move.)

Good bad news for Bradford

Curtis Good's loan spell at Bradford has got off to an unusual beginning. While the Australian defender is eagerly hoping to be involved in tomorrow night's League Cup clash with Arsenal, he's found himself the reason that the Yorkshiremen have been booted out of the more prestigious FA Cup. Good made his Bantams debut in the Second Round tie against Brentford, only for the FA to decree that he hadn't been registered in time to play. Not his fault, of course, but hardly the most auspicious of starts.

Happily, Saturday brought cheer for three of our other loanees, with Paul Dummett, Marcus Maddison and Good's compatriot Brad Inman all scoring for their temporary employers. Even then, though, it wasn't all good. Inman's goal (and an earlier assist) may have set Crewe up for a comfortable away win at Preston, but Maddison's strike was Blyth Spartans' consolation effort in a 5-1 drubbing at Marine, and Dummett's St Mirren couldn't find a winner against nine-man visitors St Johnstone and remain second bottom of the SPL.

Good news

Confirmation then that Curtis Good has finally signed on the dotted line and joined the club on a six-year contract worth a rumoured £10k per week.

While it seems unlikely that he'll be ousting Sideshow Bob from the side immediately, the length of the contract implies that we've got high hopes that Good will develop into a real star in the future under the tutelage of the Newcastle coaching team.

The fine line for the Silver Fox will be whether he still needs to add an additional centre-half to bolster the squad over the next couple of seasons, or whether the likes of Good and James Tavernier, who has been providing centre-back cover during pre-season, are sufficiently well equipped that no further cover is required.

Loic who’s talking

According to TBW, we’re sniffing around Marseille striker Loic Remy, a player who notched 20 goals at just under a goal every two games in Ligue 1 last season.

With Leon O’Best and Peter Lovenkrands already departed, and the Lone Ranger’s prospects of a first-team return looking slimmer than a supermodel with an eating disorder, we’re effectively down to Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba and Big Lad as our striking options for the forthcoming season. With Ba’s contractual release clause still operative until the end of July, we’re a week away from potentially being reduced to two recognised strikers, which makes sense of our interest in Remy (particularly if he’s cheaper than re-signing Rocky from Liverpool).

With Lille lining up a right-back replacement for Matthieu Debuchy, a pre-requisite before they sanction his transfer, it could be that we also see some progress on that transfer shortly.

Also worth noting is the impending arrival of Australian defender Curtis Good from Melbourne Heart FC to bolster our ranks as our global recruitment drive continues.