Gosling to fly the nest?

So Dan Gosling, out of contract in July, may be off to Bournemouth? That figures - the life of a lazy seaside convalescent whose best years are receding into the distance will suit him well.

Meanwhile, Paul Dummett's red card against Liverpool has been rightly rescinded - for what little it matters.

New deal for Dummy?

It looks as though Paul Dummett's reward for an impressive pre-season and an encouraging introduction to the first team, culminating in Saturday's goal against Liverpool, will be the offer of a new contract. That's if the Silver Fox gets his way - and you'd imagine Jabba wouldn't be inclined to quibble given that the young left back is just the sort of cost-free homegrown player he wants us to be producing.

Here's an interview Dummett gave in the summer to the Ronny Gill, in which he talks about the importance of self-confidence when you're training with your idols, the value of last season's loan spell at St Mirren and the encouragement he's received from the Silver Fox.

Dummett has said he'll be involved on Sunday whether as a player or a supporter - in truth, it looks like being the latter, with the Silver Fox saying a fit-again Saylor would "get the nod over Paul because you need experience in the derby". Saylor obviously greater experience, but you do wonder whether he's not actually the greater liability in the circumstances - a player who is just returning from injury, who is always liable to do something daft and rash (see the sending-off in his one appearance of the season so far, at Man City) and who will be given a particularly torrid time by the Mackem crowd...

The boyo done good

Setting transfer window issues aside, congratulations to Paul Dummett, whose elevation to the Newcastle first-team squad has resulted in a similar elevation to the senior Welsh squad for the forthcoming international fixtures. Whether he makes his bow alongside the world's most expensive player remains to be seen.

Fellow left-sided player Shane Ferguson has been enduring a tougher time at Birmingham. Despite creating the opening goal for Matt Green with a delicious cross in the 3-2 defeat at Leicester, the Northern Irishman was dropped to the bench for Saturday's visit of Ipswich. Blues appear to have continued last season's form, much to Lee Clark's dismay, and the picture is even less rosy off the pitch, as detailed in a recent post on The Two Unfortunates.

Meanwhile, Mehdi Abeid scored a somewhat fortuitous goal for his loan club Panathanaikos at the weekend. Scoring is something that Adam Campbell wasn't given the opportunity to do on loan in Cumbria - he's already back on Tyneside, a clearly disgruntled Silver Fox commenting "That didn’t work out at Carlisle, and he won’t be going back there". He may only be back temporarily, though, with a move to hook up with Conor Newton at St Mirren a possibility.

Steve Davis may have talked up Brad Inman's future, but his recent past at Crewe has been far from encouraging. He played for 21 minutes off the bench as the Railwaymen lost to League One leaders Leyton Orient, and was then handed a start for the trip to Swindon last weekend - only for the home side to romp to a 5-0 victory. The identity of the Robins' first scorer? Inman's former club colleague the Lone Ranger.

On the subject of familiar faces, the Reserves were beaten 5-4 by West Ham yesterday, despite taking a three-goal lead through a Jonathyn Quinn hat-trick. You ain't seen nothing like the mighty Quinn? Well, the Hammers had - one Elliot Lee, who grabbed a hat-trick of his own, two goals coming from the spot. The onlooker with conflicted loyalties? That would be his dad, Rob Lee.

Staying up?

Conor Newton and Paul Dummett may have won admirers north of the border during their successful loan spell with St Mirren, but their performances evidently haven't gone unnoticed at St James' Park either, with the club deciding to offer the duo new deals.

They could yet decide to join the Buddies permanently, possibly for no fee, but Newton at least seems keen not to turn his back on his hometown club, even while remaining realistic about his chances of making the grade: "I would like to test myself down south at some point in my career, but I've only been playing first-team football for the past four months, so I'm not naive enough to think I'm just going to walk into the side at Newcastle. So the next few months are crucial for my development. But I would love to make it at Newcastle and get a chance to play in those black and white stripes. It's what every lad from the city dreams of. Right now, though, I will just bide my time."

Perhaps the best solution for all parties would be for the pair to sign the new contracts but be allowed another season on loan in Scotland (in the SPL, St Mirren having narrowly avoided relegation this season) - whether that will happen, though, we'll just have to wait and see.

Best Buddies

While our first team was busy getting cheated out of a point (if not all three) at the DW Stadium, other Toon employees past and present were enjoying an equally eventful Sunday afternoon.

St Mirren's capture of the Scottish League Cup, their first silverware for more than 25 years, at the expense of Hearts owed a great deal to players borrowed from another side in black and white stripes south of the border. Left-back Paul Dummett supplied the assist for the Buddies' second goal, which swung the match in their favour for the first time, before fellow loanee Conor Newton rifled in what turned out to be the winner. A cup triumph in front of more than 44,000 people probably beats turning out for the Reserves each week.

There was less delight for the Silver Fox's predecessor Chris Hughton as his Norwich side travelled to the Dark Place. They were in the lead when goalkeeper Mark Bunn was harshly red-carded for handling outside the area, before old boy Sebastien Bassong was penalised for handling inside, despite Steven Fletcher being offside in the build-up. Craig Gardner scored the resulting penalty but the misfiring Mackems rarely looked likely to get a win and Hughton will be happy enough with a point in the circumstances.

Meanwhile, Saturday saw Jermaine Jenas grab his second goal in successive games on loan at QPR. The first helped defeat the Mackems at Loftus Road last week, and the latest gave 'Appy 'Arry's multi-million-pound mob the lead at Villa Park, but they couldn't hang on and remain deep in trouble.

Sammy's a Smoggie (temporarily)

With our stars returning to form and fitness alongside our clutch of January imports, it's no surprise that Little Big Lad has been sent out on loan - something that would surely have happened sooner had we not suffered such a grievous injury crisis earlier in the season. The Smogs' gain - he certainly has the potential to make a big impact in the Championship run-in - is also ours, as he should return a better player for some regular first-team football at a good, competitive standard. You could argue that he's had his chance to shine for us but has flattered to deceive, so this is an important opportunity for him.

Meanwhile, three of our other loanees were reunited north of the border on Saturday. Conor Newton and Paul Dummett lined up for St Mirren, and Mehdi Abeid for their hosts St Johnstone. Abeid was withdrawn just after an hour, but not before his corner had set up Rowan Vine for the only goal of the game.

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.

Jan the man?

Antennae will no doubt have been twitching all over Europe at Jan Vertonghen's confirmation that he'll be leaving Ajax at the end of his contract in 2013 - if not sooner. What's more, the Belgian centre-back seems to have his heart set on a move to England: "I hope to continue my career at a good Premier League club where I can stay for many seasons. I will miss Ajax and I do not plan to sell my house [in Amsterdam]. But I want to get to know England and the unique atmosphere of its stadia."

So do we stand a realistic chance of landing someone who could be the new Phillippe Albert? Not really, no. Every one of the big boys in and around us in the league would benefit from having the classy, composed defender in their squad, and the fee would most likely be prohibitive - even if Jabba has shown a willingness to loosen the purse-strings to capture Papiss Cisse - so I'm afraid I don't hold out much hope.

Meanwhile, Reserves defender (and sometimes captain) Paul Dummett joined Gateshead on loan at the start of the week. The Welsh U21 defender played the full 90 minutes on Tuesday as his new side ran out 2-0 winners over Hayes & Yeading, former Magpie Kris Gate getting the first goal. Dummett is in good company at Gateshead, who are managed by Ian Bogie and also include ex-Toon men Craig Baxter, Martin Brittain, Alan O'Brien, James Marwood and Chris Moore on their books.