Quote of the day

"Newcastle are looking to recruit a host of English-based players this summer after making a flurry of French signings for the 2013/14 campaign."

I'm not sure quite what the Daily Star's Gary Jones has been drinking, but it must be enough to have him seeing double or even treble if he thinks Loic Remy and Luuk de Jong constitute "a flurry of French signings".

The quote appears in an article suggesting that the Silver Fox has targeted Aston Villa duo Andreas Weimann and Fabian Delph. Both are young but with Premier League experience and have performed reasonably well in a struggling side this year, Delph in particular - but with Villa looking to rebuild themselves this summer, they will no doubt be reluctant to part with them unless at a premium. That said, perhaps we can exploit the uncertainty now surrounding the club's ownership...

Quote of the day

"I feel sad and frustrated, but not angry. I want to help my team and I can’t. It hurts a lot. I want to take the ball and give the maximum for the team. When I see we are losing games 3-0 or 4-0, it is very hard for me and I’m on the bench. If I was involved on Saturday, I think I could make a difference. I would like to try. ... I think I can give a lot for the club. I just want to play. I’m fit. I’m not injured. I’m ready to play."

HBA makes clear in no uncertain terms that his current (though perhaps permanent) absence from the first-team squad is nothing to do with ongoing injury problems. This falling-out with the Silver Fox has come at just the wrong time - without Dreamboat since January, we've been crying out for the sort of creativity and guile from advanced midfield positions that, when on his game, he's capable of providing.

According to the Metro, Liverpool could be looking to exploit the rift between manager and player in the close season, though that does beg at least three questions. First, if HBA can't get into our squad, then how could he expect to force his way into the first team of a side currently challenging for the title? Second, why would the Scousers want a player who would not only not be an improvement on what they already have but also potentially prove a disruptive influence in the dressing room, or at least a difficult character to handle? And third, all of this rather assumes that the Silver Fox will still be in charge in the summer - what if a new manager comes in and is prepared to give our most mercurial Frenchman another chance? Either way, it seems Liverpool are unlikely to get an opportunity to see him in action next Sunday.

Quote of the day

"We have limited resources at the moment and when we lose one or two key players it hurts the team badly. That is what the manager has had to put up with, unfortunately. That is something the club have to put right for next season. We need quality players and we need a quality squad as well. This has all been brought out to a lot of people but we, as players, knew that. I think the fans are getting to see that now."

Big Lad shows he's got the balls to state the obvious and point the finger at Jabba, though perhaps only because he knows he'll almost certainly be shown the door in the summer. It's also worth pointing out that he appears to exonerate the Silver Fox of his share of the blame and to excuse the woeful lack of effort displayed by the players he does have at his disposal (Big Lad included)...

Quote of the day

"Fans can forgive a defeat, but they cannot forgive a team that simply does not try and this one is on its holidays. ... With no chance of going down or qualifying for Europe, they have simply given up. How can you do that when 52,000 come along to cheer you on?"

Forgive me for quoting from the Sun, but Wor Al hits the nail squarely on the head in his latest column.

Quote of the day

"What I try to teach the players is to be responsible for your actions – don’t try to blame anyone else. And so I’m going to go somewhere else to try to be a great coach."

No, not the Silver Fox, but recently departed reserve team manager Willie Donachie, who resigned last month after a post-match confrontation with Remie Streete got out of hand. As some on Twitter have pointed out, it's hard to see why Donachie was suspended when the Silver Fox was only fined and given a formal warning for his own dust-up at Hull on Saturday. One difference is that Donachie's disagreement was with one of our own players, whereas the Silver Fox's aggression was directed towards someone in the opposition ranks, and an ex-Mackem to boot. That hardly makes it any less serious, and indeed the fact that the Silver Fox's moment of madness was beamed into pubs and living rooms around the world on Match Of The Day arguably makes it more so.

As for Donachie, he was effusive about the welcome and support he'd had on Tyneside, and commented: "They’re really the club – the fans." A subtle dig at Jabba and his fellow suits on the board?

Quote of the day

"Went to London for dinner. Wish I hadn't. Scumbag football hooligans turn Covent Garden into a disgusting Cesspit"

Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, takes to Twitter to comment on Sunderland supporters enjoying themselves in the capital ahead of this afternoon's League Cup final.

Much as we like to mock the Mackems, on this occasion we're firmly in their camp. Post-Hillsborough verdict, you'd have thought Tory MPs would be rather more reticent to use such inflammatory language - though, as the FSF are keen to point out, football supporters continue to be demonised in certain quarters. In any case, as numerous people have pointed out on Twitter, there was much more littering and mess as a result of the celebrations surrounding William and Kate's wedding and the Jubilee, as well as every year after New Year's Eve and Ascot - presumably that put Mr Halfon off his supper too...

Quote of the day

"Matchday and commercial revenue is a key driver because that's where the Club can compete with - and outperform - its competitors to enhance its spending capabilities. Ultimately the income the Club generates, particularly, given the restrictions of the Premier League FFP Rules, from matchday, commercial i.e. non-TV income, will directly impact on the strength and quality on the pitch."

The club's board issue a veiled warning to supporters contemplating a boycott over Jabba's continued ownership of the club: do so (whether by simply staying away or by refusing to give money to club catering services and bars, the course of action proposed by Neil Crossley and Time4Change) and you'll be harming the club and the team rather than the owner.

The comment appeared in the statement accompanying the accounts for the year ending June 2013. Commercial revenue was up on the previous season (24.2 per cent to £17.1m), presumably partly due to the contribution of sponsorship from Wonga, though the purchase of a club-branded onesie for me by my work colleagues will also have helped...

Matchday revenue was also up, by 15.9 per cent to £27.8m. Given that this was partly attributed to the additional Europa League matches, which also contributed to the media revenue, then one does wonder why that competition is apparently regarded with distaste. The answer, I suppose, lies in the fact that media revenue overall was down eight per cent to £51m, that this is tied to our league position and that last season's lowly finish wasn't offset by our European adventure. In this regard, it could be argued that we should prioritise the Premier League and that Europe was a distraction (a source of injury and fatigue) that proved costly in terms of our league position. I'd maintain that we should have built a squad that could cope with the dual demands, but I doubt that's the way the powers-that-be would see it.

One positive (particularly in relation to many other clubs) is that we're no further in debt than we were last year - we still owe Jabba his £129m loan, but it's interest-free and there's no timescale for repayment (though presumably that does mean he could suddenly insist on it).

Update: In his post about our accounts on his Football Economy blog, Wyn Grant notes: "The argument that lacklustre spending by Ashley will be justified by the arrival of financial fair play rules is something of a gamble. It still remains to be seen how these complex rules will be implemented in practice or whether they will be subject to a legal challenge." A very valid point - as laudable and honourable as our apparent determination to play by the rules is, we might be left looking like chumps if others flout them and suffer little or no punishment as a consequence.

Quote of the day

"This is a great loss for us so obviously I was sad but I am happy for him because PSG is a great club. I had the opportunity to talk a little with Yohan Cabaye and it is clear he is really happy there."

Mathieu Debuchy, talking to the French media, sounds as though (as expected) he's pining for his chum and perhaps even angling for a move to Paris himself. Bayern Munich are also reportedly interested, but he'll have to rediscover his pre-Christmas form for us before he can even dream of following in Dreamboat's footsteps.

Talking of our departed midfielder, he scored his first goal for his new club against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night. Given that, according to Laurent Blanc, the prospect of Champions League football was his primary reason for swapping Newcastle for PSG, he probably won't be too chuffed to have only featured from the bench...

Quote of the day

"I am sad to see anybody lose their job and he did a lot of good work here – but the decision was the board’s decision."

Let's unpick this statement about JFK from the Silver Fox, delivered during his pre-Chelsea press conference.

1. Come on, you're not "sad" at all and you're fooling no one by pretending you are. You're as delighted as the rest of us that you've won that particular battle.

2. Likewise, you're fooling no one with that platitude about him doing "a lot of good work". He did fuck all - unless, that is, you consider pissing off countless players and staff by mispronouncing their names to have been a positive contribution.

3. "The decision was the board's decision" - when you say "the board", you mean "Jabba", right? And so JFK didn't jump but was indeed pushed after all? That would confirm that Jabba has at least some semblance of common sense, and that, as many of us suspected, our outgoing director of football didn't have the decency to admit he was failing in his remit and do the honourable thing by resigning.

The Silver Fox did also say, though, that he wasn't opposed to the idea of working with a replacement, if the role is retained and filled - and indeed he suggested, in a slightly wistful tone, that gone are the days of managers being intimately involved in transfer negotiations. Not a viewpoint you'd expect King Kev ever to endorse...

Quote of the day

"It’s a terrible debut for me – I’m so disappointed. I’m happy to be here and to play, but it is not the beginning I hoped for. I had a couple of chances, and I expect myself to finish better there. I’m not satisfied with that."

Luuk de Jong's post-derby comments exhibit a refreshing honesty and refusal to shirk personal responsibility in defeat. In fairness the damage had already been done by the time he was introduced at the break, but I like to see a player admit disappointment with his own performance - a few others could learn that lesson. Of course, such talk is worth little unless he now works hard and makes amends.

Quote of the day

"If Newcastle played in the Champions League, I can tell you that Cabaye wouldn't be here."

An interesting comment from PSG manager Laurent Blanc on his club's newest acquisition - not least because Dreamboat turned his back on Champions League football with Lille to join us in the first place. That this was the sole factor in his decision to move to Paris is therefore very doubtful.

Perhaps he crossed the Channel in the first place on the promise that we too would soon be competing in what's branded the world's premier club competition - if so, the move was missold to him. Admittedly we came close to qualifying in Dreamboat's first season on Tyneside, but that was due to an unlikely combination of factors working in our favour - mainly players fit and in top form while some of the usual suspects underperformed.

Quote of the day

"They are not a big club. And I hope another club tries to buy him. As a player I would not even want to spend a week there."

Poor old Rolland Courbis. Such a shame for the Montpellier coach that his best player Remy Cabella feels rather differently about us - and that his agent (and father) is adamant the winger will move to St James' Park this transfer window.

One player possibly going in the opposite direction across the Channel is Dreamboat, with the Torygraph's Luke Edwards reheating claims of a £20m+ bid from moneybags PSG. All we can do is sit tight and hope such a bid doesn't come in - if it does (and that looks increasingly likely with every performance like Saturday's at Upton Park), then the odds are that Jabba will cash in without giving it a second thought.

Quote of the day

"We believe Port Vale and The Sentinel are mutually beneficial and that a successful, positively publicised Port Vale is good for our city."

From a joint statement issued by Port Vale and local paper The Sentinel, after "several days of discussion" resulted in the lifting of a ban. Jabba, take note: this is how to resolve a dispute with the local press in a mature, reasonable fashion - through constructive dialogue. That doesn't seem to be an option, though, with Head of Media Wendy Taylor's letter having petulantly declared "our position on this issue is not up for negotiation".

Quote of the day

"This kind of fight is nothing new — see recent examples at Manchester and Southampton — but the club should keep in mind that the press often tend to be the victors when football bosses get too big for their boots. For NUFC fans, it’s another example of people at their beloved club throwing their weight around for the sake of it, and this time the local press has sadly become unwitting target."

Sebastian Payne of the Spectator weighs in with some commentary on the ludicrous press ban.

Quote of the day

"I worked very hard on several targets and we made a number of bids for players, but for various reasons - some of which were outside the club's control - we were unable to secure our targets. It was not an easy task to improve the quality of the current squad with the financial resources at our disposal, particularly in a window in which the value of players was grossly over-inflated and the demands of agents likewise. We will continue to operate in a financially responsible manner, buying only the right players for the right prices and not paying over the odds or making costly knee-jerk decisions."

JFK finally crawls out from under the rock he's been hiding beneath (or, more likely, from out of the Mediterranean villa he's been lounging about in) to spin some lame excuses about what happened - or, more precisely, what didn't happen - in the summer. I wonder how many people who invested in Saturday's programme did so to read that toss?

Quote of the day

"At a time when every other Premier League club is strengthening their squad, it defies belief that Newcastle United's is numerically weaker than the one that finished last season. To not make one player purchase this summer is astounding and calls into question the ambition of Mike Ashley and those tasked to run Newcastle United on his behalf."

Following the club statement allegedly from the Silver Fox, NUST respond with a far more blunt and honest one of their own.

Quote of the day

"I knew Pope Francis was a San Lorenzo fan. He has a season ticket and everything. You could tell he still really loves San Lorenzo when he spoke with us last week. I shook hands with him. He is always speaking about San Lorenzo and so for me as a fan it was amazing."

Presumably the Pope is also busy telling all and sundry how exciting it was to meet Sideshow Bob and how he's always speaking about San Lorenzo too...

Quote of the day

"Supporters are the lifeblood of any football club so introducing a new Forum which will enable Newcastle fans to share their views and ideas with the Club's decision makers is a very positive step. "Direct, structured communication is vital to building a strong, sustainable relationship with our supporters and we are looking forward to working closely with them for the benefit of Newcastle United."

Fine words from Lee Marshall, the club's PR and supporter liaison manager, but only time will tell whether this newly revamped forum will genuinely give fans a voice - and, of course, whether the notoriously cloth-eared Jabba will be prepared to listen.

Quote of the day

"Newcastle United is a magic name, a name forever in lights."

The Winnipeg Free Press back in 1949, during the club's tour of the US and Canada. How times have changed, eh?

Here's When Saturday Comes' Paul Brown (via the Guardian) to recount the eventful jaunt, during which we won all ten of our friendly fixtures. A certain Mr Milburn scored in them all, racking up 31 goals in 31 days.

Quote of the day

"I would expect to be down the road with a transfer when we are in Portugal. I am hoping that Joe and Lee Charnley get something over the line."

The Silver Fox seems to be in much the same boat as us, then - hoping and praying that signings come soon, rather than confident deals will materialise. Needless to say, that's just not good enough - a fact only underlined by the fact that down the road 5under1and are busy snapping up anything that moves.