The flying Dutchman?

I'm not sure what's most surprising in this article: the fact that Tim Krul has lost his place in the Dutch national squad or the claim that, were he to leave in the summer in a bid to regain it, one of the prime candidates to replace him would be Fraser Forster.

Let's take that first point. While Krul has suffered slightly with form and fitness issues since the turn of the year, just as the whole team have, he remains an excellent goalkeeper and is surely worthy of consideration for his country ahead of the likes of Swansea's Michel Vorm. That extraordinary match-winning display at Spurs back in November should have secured him a slot for life...

As for the second, we would look rather silly to have let Forster go only to then buy him back (no doubt at an inflated cost). For his part, Forster was desperate to leave St James' Park and get the first-team football he craved, apparently aggrieved that his path to our first team was blocked by Krul. As the Dutchman's replacement, he wouldn't have to worry about that any more, but nevertheless, having left slightly under a cloud, you do wonder whether he would really "welcome a return to Newcastle", as the Journal insist. Perhaps the widely anticipated ousting of the Silver Fox, the man who denied him the opportunity to stake a claim for the position, would be the key to any deal.

Tim K-ruled out with injury

Thursday's tremendous victory over Metalist Kharkiv came at a cost, with Tim Krul taking a knock towards the end and arriving back on Tyneside on crutches and with his ankle in a cast. The Dutchman is expected to be out of action for up to five weeks - a serious blow, especially given his exceptional second-half display in Ukraine.

With Steve Harper also struggling for fitness, that means Rob Elliot is set to take his Premier League bow against Southampton. After shaky beginnings in a friendly and a League Cup tie, Elliot has looked more assured and with a full-strength defence ahead of him should be afforded decent protection. Here's hoping he seizes his chance - and any shots and crosses that the Saints rain in on him - with both hands.

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.

A friendly in name only

A shame that the only thing to report from yesterday's dull 0-0 with Den Haag was the fact that some of our players were reportedly subjected to racial abuse by a minority of home supporters. The club issued a terse statement saying that the matter would be discussed and resolved privately with our hosts. It must have left a sour taste in the mouth of Tim Krul in particular, who had been vocal in his delight at going back to play at his first club in the run-up to the game.

Dreamboat a driving force for the French

OK, so if this site is your sole source of footballing news (and if it is, you're mental), then you might be forgiven for not knowing that there's a major international tournament on at the moment. With the quarter-finals already underway, we'd probably best take a quick look at how those with Toon affiliations have got on thus far...

Let's start, most obviously, with Dreamboat. A fine performance in the opening draw with England, in which he troubled Joe Hart from distance on more than a couple of occasions, was followed by an even better one in the victory over hosts Ukraine. After play was suspended for an hour due to a freak thunderstorm, France took the lead and Dreamboat doubled it with a clinical strike using his lesser spotted left foot before rattling the post. His evening was curtailed on 68 minutes by a knock which then kept him out of the final game against Sweden, the French defeat only serving to underline his increasing importance to the side. While we can rightly be smug at having snaffled him up on the cheap last summer, we can't ignore the fact that these performances will be putting him firmly in the shop window whether we like it or not.

HBA, by contrast, has had markedly less game time. He appeared as a sub against England, running into blind alleys and surrendering possession cheaply on a couple of occasions, and then failed to spark when handed a starting place against the Swedes, hauled off just before the hour mark.

Still, he's fared better than Tim Krul, who sat twiddling his thumbs on the sidelines while his misfiring colleagues in the Netherlands side slumped to a truly shocking hat-trick of defeats, thereby making a mockery of anyone who predicted they would win the trophy - such as yours truly. Hopefully some good may have come from it, though, if Krul has been able to sweet-talk Luuk de Jong into contemplating a move to Tyneside.

Old boys Shay Given and Damien Duff had an even more horrific experience as the Republic of Ireland were sent packing pointless, Given forced to pick the ball out of his net no fewer than nine times over the course of their three matches. For England, James Milner and Scott Parker both started all three group matches, while Rocky was selected for the Sweden fixture, scored with a trademark header and can feel slightly aggrieved at being the fall guy for Wayne Rooney's return.

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.

Net profit and loss

Congratulations to Tim Krul, who has - as anticipated - been named in the Dutch squad for Euro 2012. Our young custodian will be battling with Swansea's Michel Vorm for the role of back-up to the national number one, Roma's Maarten Stekelenburg.

From our perspective, hopefully he might put his time with the squad to good effect by talking up life on Tyneside to Toon target Luuk de Jong. (Unfortunately, he can't do likewise for Heerenveen's Bas Dost, the 32-goal striker having been omitted and now the confirmed subject of a £7m bid from newly promoted West Ham.) Whatever his relations with de Jong, though, they're likely to be decidedly friendlier and less frosty than with the squad's star striker, Robin van Persie. Rumours of training-ground bust-ups imminent, methinks...

While our current first-choice 'keeper enjoys himself in Poland and the Ukraine, the player he's replaced once again finds himself contemplating his future. Steve Harper seems resigned to the fact that he'll need to go out on loan again to get the first-team action he craves - and I suspect he's right.

"It's onwards and upwards, really"

The words of Tim Krul, following the announcement that our young Dutch stopper and his captain Sideshow Bob have both inked new long-term deals (five and four years respectively). While neither have been quite so infallible of late as they were in the first half of the season, they're cornerstones of our team and so this can only be good news.

Of course, as with the six-and-a-half-year contract signed by Mr T last season, it's not a guarantee that both players will be in our employ for the full length of their deals. But it does signal our intent and help to ensure we'll be properly recompensed if either was to leave, as well as serving as an indication that key squad members are pleased with the club's progress and uninterested in looking for moves elsewhere.

Turf war

Today brought news and rumours that other clubs are trying to muscle in on not one but two of our transfer targets.

First Bolton became the first club to go public with a bid for Crystal Palace winger/striker Wilfried Zaha. Trotters boss Owen Coyle isn't getting his hopes up, though, acknowledging that the two clubs are "way apart in terms of valuation". A much likelier outcome than Zaha moving to the Reebok is a furious final-day bidding war - one which we probably wouldn't win either, given the financial clout of some of his other suitors.

It'd probably be much the same story if the Sun are right and Arsene Wenger is eyeing up Watford's Adrian Mariappa to help shore up Arsenal's shaky defence. We've apparently now had no fewer than three bids rejected by the Hornets and had Steve Stone on a watching brief for their Friday night FA Cup tie against Spurs, but the paper alleges there was representation from the Gunners in the stands too.

On the other front, there have been no rumblings of imminent departures. Prior to Saturday's game, Tim Krul - one of the likeliest targets - declared "I'm playing for the club I've always wanted to play for". Of course, with Jabba around that doesn't necessarily count for that much - while we couldn't sell the Dutchman completely against his will, there's no doubt that his future will be largely determined by whether or not a sufficiently sizeable bid materialises before close of play tomorrow. Here's hoping not.

Quote of the day

"I want to stay at this club for a long, long time and, hopefully, because I am still only 23, I can do that. I am loving life, and going to places like Old Trafford is special."

Music to our ears from Tim Krul. It seems he hasn't realised that he could be going to Old Trafford every other week if he was to move to Man Utd - long may his ignorance continue.

Also talking enthusiastically about the club of late is Obertan Kenobi, who experienced life both in Manchester and St James' Park: "I have never experienced anything like this at Newcastle. So many people follow the club and the passion around it. It's unbelievable. All the people wearing the shirts. It is great in a way but sometimes quite hard and we have been lucky with the results so far. It is good – you feel really loved." There was a caveat, though: "But I think it may be difficult when we lose." And, predictably enough, the Frenchman expressed puzzlement about the Geordie dress code: "I don't understand English people. It's freezing and just to look cool they wear T-shirts. I prefer looking really horrible, staying in my car and keeping warm..."

Behind the scenes

What we can glean from this fan's report on a morning spent at a training session:

* Alan Pardew is a bit of a "silver fox" with a hint of the Swiss Toni about him. "Keeping Jabba happy is a lot like making love to a beautiful woman...".

* Yohan Cabaye feels sufficiently comfortable on Tyneside to swan around wearing a neckerchief, and is part of our French clique's Breakfast Club.

* Tim Krul is a banana-eating giant. "He stands next to me and puts a giant hand on me and I feel like an actual midget... I imagine this is the feeling Dennis Wise gets when he stands next to anyone that is older than the age of 8".

* Little Big Lad really does have "scarily skinny" legs.

* The quality of the training pitch is such that there's no excuse for poor passing on a Saturday: "the grass is unreal. I mean seriously, it makes my carpet in my lounge look bobbly".

(Thanks to Bob for the link.)

Forst out

As if following Kazenga LuaLua's lead - to all intents and purposes a Brighton player who just happens to be owned by us - Fraser Forster has gone back to what he knows for a second loan spell at Celtic.

Earlier in the summer Pardew claimed he had a tough decision to make over who to retain at St James' and who to farm out. However, it seems that Tim Krul - now a full Dutch international and selected for Saturday's curtain-raiser - remains Steve Harper's understudy and probable long-term replacement. The manager's decision might have been influenced by Forster fluffing his big chance to impress in pre-season.

The logic behind Forster's move might be questionable and curious given Pardew's previous comments about the poor quality of Scottish football making loans a waste of time, but it does at least mean the talented youngster remains on our books and will continue to amass first-team experience in front of big crowds.

Of our other loanees, neither LuaLua nor Michael Richardson appeared in their temporary sides' midweek fixtures, though James Tavernier (supported by ex-Newcastle reserve 'keeper Adam Collin) helped Carlisle to another clean sheet away from home.

Knacked knee nobbles Harps

Tim Krul will continue to deputise for Steve Harper against Blackpool, with Alan Pardew announcing that Harps' knee injury may even mean going under the knife. Not that that's really cause for concern. Man Utd may not have been at their best on Tuesday night while Mr T and our defence were stout and resolute, meaning the Dutchman was less troubled than he might have otherwise anticipated, but he did have to pull off a magnificent save from the Little Pea just two minutes in.

With Fraser Forster continuing to excel north of the border and Ole Soderberg keen for action too, Pardew's been speaking recently about having to juggle his 'keepers again next season. It's a nice headache to have - if only we were blessed with such potential riches in other areas of the pitch.

Meanwhile, it's nice to see that not everyone has been moaning about their treatment at the hands of Tuesday night's St James' Park crowd - Stephen Ireland has described himself as being "taken aback" by the reception he got when appearing of the bench for his Toon debut. We've been critical of the on-loan midfielder around these parts, but he looked surprisingly lively and you have to give him credit just for making it onto the pitch, given his partner Jessica Lawlor's recent car crash. Here's hoping for a swift recovery for her and a few dynamic performances from him.