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 Good's side led 3-0 at the break, but by the time our man was withdrawn, Ecuador had pulled two goals back, the second a spot kick after Aussie 'keeper Mitch Langerak was sent off.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.

Pap staying put - for now

In today's Shields Gazette, Miles Starforth is reporting that the club yesterday rejected a bid from Turkish side Fenerbahce for Papiss Cisse. That might not be the end of the story, though, with Russian outfit Rubin Kazan rumoured to be lining up their own approach.

The news is a timely reminder that some transfer windows elsewhere in the world are still open, and so, with an owner fond of cash in hand, our squad remains vulnerable. As regards Cisse specifically, there's no doubt he's a player spectacularly out of form - even last year he looked a shadow of the striker who was scoring for fun as we galloped to a hugely creditable fifth place in 2011/2. Even then, though, common sense dictates that it would be a huge mistake to cash in now - even with the arrival of Luuk de Jong we're short of numbers in attack, and wouldn't be able to reinvest the transfer fee in a replacement until the summer. The only problem is that, as ever, common sense is in short supply at St James'.

Fingers crossed any further bids are also rejected and Cisse rediscovers his fitness and touch in front of goal sooner rather than later - and learns the offside rule.

Cheik in

Even if Mr T's had a rough time off the pitch of late, things have been going well on it - named as stand-in skipper in Sideshow Bob's absence and back to something like the form that made him one of the best defensive midfielders in the Premier League. And now he knows he'll be off to next year's World Cup, after Ivory Coast qualified for the tournament via a two-legged play-off victory over Senegal. Mr T was actually suspended, while Papiss Cisse played for the latter, but couldn't score - something that must have frustrated Demba Ba, left on the bench.

Elsewhere, Nigeria also qualified, beating Ethopia 2-0 on aggregate, but Big Lad will be sweating about a ticket on the Super Eagles' plane to Brazil, having been omitted from the squad despite his recent return to the Newcastle starting XI.

Dream return for Dreamboat

It was a good weekend for our French contingent, as Les Bleus filled their boots in a 6-0 friendly rout of Australia. Dreamboat marked his return to the team with a fine goal, his low shot swerving through a defender's legs and into the bottom corner after nice build-up play from Samir Nasri and Franck Ribery, and two minutes after half-time Mathieu Debuchy got in on the act with the fifth. Loic Remy should be pleased that his recent goalscoring exploits in black and white secured him a start, even if he'll have been disappointed not to get his name on the scoresheet as well as the teamsheet, while Moussa Sissoko came off the bench in the last ten minutes.

Elsewhere, there was also a goal for Papiss Cisse - no more than a consolation against an Ivory Coast side for whom Mr T played and was booked (naturally), but a goal nevertheless and hopefully a useful boost to his confidence.

How to make friends and influence people

Over the summer, some fans voiced suspicions that Papiss Cisse's dispute with the club over wearing the Wonga-branded shirt was all just a ruse for the striker to force a move or secure an improved contract. Perhaps he's right in thinking he has bridges to build with supporters, then - bridges he's tried to build by inviting some over to his house for barbeques and games of pool. It's a novel approach, to be sure, and a generous gesture - though the odd sparkling performance and goal would be equally effective...

Cisse makes peace as Welby declares war

At last, some positive news: the dispute between Papiss Cisse and the club has been resolved. By "resolved", I mean that Cisse has compromised and agreed to wear a Wonga-branded shirt. I wonder if the club used his casino-frequenting habits as a stick to beat him with? Regardless, it can only be a positive to have our principal goal threat available, especially with JFK continuing to fail spectacularly in his remit to bring in new players.

As for Wonga, they've hit the headlines again today with the news that the Archbishop of Canterbury has announced his intention to force them out of business by expanding existing credit unions, plans which have now received the backing of Business Secretary Vince Cable. Would Cisse have a problem with wearing a Church of England-branded shirt, I wonder?

Quote of the day

"I feel absolutely ashamed of what he's done; there's not just me, there's been other people who've been supporting him. But what he's done now, seeing him in the casino, even if he wasn't gambling, I think this gives a wrong message. People will say, 'Look, this is Islam, they can pick and choose whatever they want', and Islam isn't about picking and choosing."

Newcastle city councillor and Muslim Dipu Ahad on the revelations that Papiss Cisse is "an occasional visitor" at Aspers Casino, where Jabba infamously lost £1m in an evening. Like Ahad, I've been defending Cisse's stance with regard to the Wonga-branded shirts as a matter of principle for some time now (though also querying why he didn't have a similar problem with Virgin Money), and have been inclined to be dismissive of persistent suggestions that his behaviour was cynically motivated by a desire to engineer an improved contract. Now that his nocturnal activities have come to light, I'm afraid those suggestions look to have a lot more weight.

Time to Ciss and make up

OK, so Wongagate is getting serious now, with Papiss Cisse missing from our pre-season tour of Portugal. Whether the decision was his or the club's is unclear (the BBC news story implies the former), but either way relations between the two parties are clearly not in good shape. Just as well that he's not our #9 and main goalscorer, and that we've made a raft of other high-quality additions to the squad to compensate for his loss. Eh? Oh.

The Toon party has flown out for friendlies with Rio Ave (Saturday) and Pacos de Ferreira (Tuesday), off the back of a 4-2 victory at Motherwell in our opening pre-season fixture on Tuesday evening. It may have been a very young and scratch squad that triumphed over the SPL runners-up, but three senior players - Goofy, Moussa Sissoko and Sylvain Marveaux - weighed in with goals while Haris Vuckic, finally back to fitness, opened the scoring.

Does my APR look big in this?

So Papiss Cisse is allegedly refusing to wear a Wonga-branded shirt on religious grounds? It's not exactly news - the potential issue was raised back in October, when the deal was first inked - and at the time we did wonder how wearing the Virgin Money logo was any different. But the fact that the issue hasn't been resolved is a worry, given that Cisse, erratic though he was for large parts of last season, is our go-to man for goals and currently the only player in the squad you'd definitely to muster double figures. A solution is needed - and that solution isn't to flog him to either Anzhi Makhachkala or Borussia Dortmund.

This all comes as a distraction when we should be looking at bolstering our forward options. Wigan's Arouna Kone reportedly has a £6.5m release clause while there's talk of Demba Ba being made surplus to requirements at Chelsea by returning manager Jose Mourinho. However, the former is the subject of serious interest from both red and blue halves of Merseyside, Ba proved somewhat incompatible with Cisse in his previous spell on Tyneside and both are, like Cisse, practising Muslims so would presumably also have a problem with our new sponsor...

Newcastle United?

"Every player is together. We are totally focussed on Saturday's game at West Ham and the two games after that. We have a strong bond and we want the best for our Club, our manager and our wonderful fans. We are not happy about recent results. Nobody is happy when they lose, but this has only made us stronger as a group and we will come through this together. There is no divide in the team."

I don't know about you, but this Papiss Cisse quote reads as though either delivered at gunpoint or pre-penned by the club to be parroted to the press. Certainly, I'm far from convinced and in any case actions speak louder than words - so let's wait for the evidence of Saturday afternoon.

Big Lad, big headache for the Silver Fox

Congratulations to Big Lad, who on Wednesday evening belatedly made his full international bow at the age of 31 - and for the country of his birth, Nigeria, rather than England. He never had the opportunity to team up with former Toon colleague Obafemi Martins, instead finding himself as Martins' replacement, but did manage to set up the Super Eagles' third and final goal in the victory over Venezuela. Having felt "honoured" by the experience, he's now hoping he's done enough to force his way into Stephen Keshi's Africa Cup of Nations squad. The Silver Fox could be forgiven for hoping otherwise.

Elsewhere, the domestically suspended Sideshow Bob helped Argentina keep a clean sheet against the mighty Saudi Arabia and, from a club perspective, it was a relief that Mr T, Davide Santon and Tim Krul spent all evening on the benches for their respective countries. However, the fact that Dreamboat didn't feature in France's win over Santon's Italy was less worthy of celebration - his absence due to an injury that might rule him out of tomorrow's visit of Swansea. With Spidermag having limped out of last weekend's disappointing home defeat to Fat Sam's West Ham, we suddenly look very light in central and attacking midfield areas.

A further source of frustration is that Papiss Cisse might also miss out due to administrative error. He withdrew from the Senegal squad for their friendly with Niger (as did Demba Ba) with a slight back injury, but it seems that the communication never reached the national team's coach and now they're threatening to bar us from playing him. It could only happen to us...

Out of Africa

A reminder that it's not just England whose qualifiers for major tournaments are shrouded in controversy and farce: confirmation that Senegal have been disqualified from next year's African Cup of Nations, the spot taken by the Ivory Coast instead. That means that, as expected, we'll be without Mr T rather than Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse in January. While it's a worry to be deprived of our defensive midfield lynchpin, we did have to cope with his absence at the start of this season, and Vurnon Anita and Bigi have a bit of time to step up to the plate.

It'll be all riot on the night

Confusion appears to reign supreme following the abandonment of yesterday's second-leg qualifier for the African Cup of Nations between Senegal and the Ivory Coast. The game was stopped after 70 minutes, with visitors the Ivory Coast winning 2-0 (and 6-2 on aggregate), following rioting among home fans sparked by a controversial penalty decision.

It's not yet been confirmed whether the result will stand, but the likelihood is that we'll be without Mr T rather than the two Dembas come January. Of more immediate significance, however, is the wellbeing of the players. The Ivory Coast side had to be escorted off the pitch by riot police, but thankfully there aren't as yet any reports of injuries. Let's hope they're shaken rather than stirred.

Ba humbug

What to make of the comments made by Demba Ba's agent Alex Gontran in the wake of Monday's thrilling draw at Everton, secured by two Ba goals? "Since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, Demba doesn't understand the management. If he continues to be a substitute all season, we'll look at other solutions."

Well, for a start, Ba hasn't even been a substitute all season so far - on the contrary, he'd only been omitted from the starting line-up once before Monday, and that was for the trip to Atromitos in the Europa League. Instead, the issue is perhaps that he (or his agent) feels as though compatriot Papiss Cisse is getting favoured ahead of him at present. It may have been true that Ba was forced into a less familiar self-sacrificing role for the good of the team when Cisse arrived from Freiburg last season, but this campaign Ba's been deployed more centrally while Cisse has not been immune to being benched, having sat out the return fixture against Atromitos.

Paul has suggested that surely the ideal solution is for the Silver Fox to pick them both but simply alternate which of the pair spearheads the attack, therefore making them take turns in the less natural wider role. Eminently sensible - except there will be times when going with what is essentially a front three (with HBA) isn't a wise move. We tried it at Stamford Bridge and were comfortably beaten, so I don't think the Silver Fox was necessarily wrong to switch to 4-5-1 for another tough away game - the problem in the first half against Everton was more the fact that the players within that system let him down, especially Ba's replacement Sylvain Marveaux.

The Silver Fox's reaction to Gontran's little tantrum has been predictable enough in some respects - "I have spoken to Demba [about his agent] and told him I was disappointed with some of the comments around him" - but he did also drop the significant bombshell that the £7m release clause in Ba's contract hasn't expired after all and could yet be triggered. I suppose 'Appy 'Arry's currently between jobs, so someone's got to tout around the price tag of one of our best players...

Not-so-funny bone

Bad news from the Netherlands, where Tim Krul has sustained an elbow injury in training and is travelling back to Tyneside, missing his country's midweek World Cup qualifier away to Hungary. The weekend had started very promisingly for him, too, with a clean sheet in the Dutchmen's victory over Turkey.

That knock - and his potential absence from next Monday's league fixture at Goodison Park - compounds the fact that we're also likely to be without our skipper for a handful of games, Sideshow Bob having picked up an injury in training while away with Argentina. Raylor and Danny Simpson are already ruled out, but one consolation from a defensive perspective is that Perchinho should be fit again.

There was also a positive to take from Senegal's play-off fixture with the Ivory Coast. The latter may have won 4-2 (even without the help of Mr T), but Papiss Cisse scored for Senegal. Hopefully now that he's remembered where the goal is, he can push on and get back into the sort of explosive, prolific form that meant he made such a huge impact in the second half of last season.

It's Seneg-all looking rosier

Two unexpected boosts for our prospects for the forthcoming season. First, Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba been surprisingly omitted from the Senegalese squad to face Team GB and others in the Olympics (while Fat Sam's new West Ham signing Mohamed Diame has been selected - heh heh heh). And second, we now know that January's Africa Cup of Nations will only deprive us of either our striking pair or Mr T, not both, after Senegal were drawn against the Ivory Coast in the final qualifying round. A serious stroke of good fortune on both counts.

Lightning strikes twice

Well, the Xisco Kid, to be more precise. After mustering a grand total of one goal prior to Wednesday, our misfit striker came off the bench to score two vital winners for Deportivo La Coruna in the space of a week. Those goals, against Tarragona and then Huesca, helped propel Depor back into the top flight at the first time of asking following last season's relegation.

Talking of Newcastle players who've recently assisted in other clubs' successful promotion bids, new arrival Romain Amalfitano has been speaking about his "winning mentality" but remains modest and realistic enough to realise that just breaking into the team is going to be tough. His apparent versatility could be a useful asset but could equally prevent him from staking a claim to a regular place.

Meanwhile, Amalfitano's compatriots HBA and Dreamboat both lined up for France on Sunday as les Bleus recovered from two goals down to beat upstarts Iceland 3-2. Dreamboat was deployed in a somewhat unfamiliar anchoring role, while HBA had a hand in the strike that gave France a foothold back in the game, one which came from the boot of wanted man Mathieu Debuchy. Iceland's second, incidentally, was scored by another player once linked with us, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson.

There were also recent international friendly appearances for Tim Krul, unfortunate to be between the sticks as the Netherlands fell to a shock home defeat by Bulgaria, and Papiss Cisse, named as the Senegalese captain for what proved to be a narrow victory over Morocco.

Euro jackpot for Toon stars

Congratulations to HBA and Dreamboat, who've both made it into the French squad for Euro 2012. The latter would have been miffed to have been excluded, but the call-up may well have come as a surprise to HBA, given that he hasn't turned out for Les Bleus since August 2010, shortly before Nigel de Jong intervened to rearrange the bones in his leg. Laurent Blanc or his scouts must have been impressed by his form in the second half of the season - and, in view of some of the goals he's scored, that's hardly a revelation.

While our French duo could well face England in Poland and the Ukraine, there's a good chance that on 26th July Old Trafford will witness Team GB's defence attempting to do what many Premier League back fours haven't been able to manage - namely, contain our Senegalese strike pair Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba. Tediously enough, the Cisse-to-leave rumours have already begun, with the player quoted as saying that, while he's "happy for now" at St James' Park, his dream is to play for Real Madrid. It's since been claimed that this is just media shit-stirring, apparently - not the first time comments supposedly made by a Newcastle player in an interview given or at least reported in France have been rubbished.

With the season soon to be over, thoughts are inevitably turning to where the next value-for-money gems are to be unearthed. Stade de Reims midfielder Romain Amalfitano is rumoured to have already signed, and we've looked to France again in bringing Marseille's young defender Christophe Lowinsky in on trial. Perhaps mindful of the fact that Mr T came from Dutch football, we also seem to be scrutinising opportunities in the Netherlands, with talk of moves for FC Twente defender Douglas and his striker team-mate Luuk de Jong persisting alongside a claim that we're among a clutch of clubs keen to clip the wings of Heerenveen by poaching Luciano Narsingh and Oussama Assaidi (though Fulham are apparently in pole position).

Quotes of the day

"Wow just seen cisses goal. Goal of the season for me."

"2 of the best goals of the season both scored by the same player in 1 game. Pardew has made 4 out of the leagues best 5 signings this season."

Wayne Rooney and Little Saint Mick respectively take to Twitter to comment on Papiss Cisse's two breathtaking strikes against Chelsea (Paul's match report to follow). They really must have been special for Mick to say something nice about us. Both players are no doubt desperate Cisse repeats the trick on Sunday...

Filling the shirt

"When I took that number I admit I was a little bit scared, it was a big number, and there was such a big expectation with it but at the same time I thought ‘Well, why shouldn’t I wear this shirt and show everyone what I can do?' "

Papiss Cisse, talking to the Telegraph recently through French interpreter Lauren (which begs the question what has happened to Olivier Bernard?) sheds some light on his background, his love for the Peugeot 206 and his approach to goalscoring.

He also mentions he recently watched a certain football film, and the parallels with Santiago Munez aren't lost on him either - hopefully, like Munez, his goals will fire us into the Champions League. Hopefully we won't then flog him on to Real Madrid in the summer.