Harry Stevens is State of the Game’s new Newcastle United columnist

Jonathan Woodgate, Thomas Graveson, Wayne Bridge, Mark Viduka, Robert Huth, Lucas Neill and Zat Knight were all linked along with a host of others with the toon during the transfer window and although slightly buoyed by the signing of Duff I can?t help but feel a bit deflated. After so much speculation we have signed five players: Damien Duff (5 million), Obefami Martins (10 million), Giuseppe Rossi (loan), Olivier Bernard (free) and Antoine Sibeirski (undisclosed), of whom only the first two I could say I am really happy with.

Five players and a little over 15 million spent doesn?t sound too bad but things don?t look as rosy when you consider that A) We have a squad that is in desperate need of strengthening at both ends of the field with quality and experience (preferably of the premiership sort) and B) Sibierski has hardly set the premiership alight, Rossi is only on loan, Martins is almost an unknown quantity and Bernard couldn?t cut it at rangers (even Boumsong could cut it at Rangers!). So we didn?t bring in some players we could have done with, that?s ok, we can all sit and hope that come January we are relatively (will Dyer ever be fit?) injury free we can finally make some decent additions to our squad, a central defender and striker being the most wanted.

If only that was all toon fans had to worry about - the news after deadline day revealed yet another shocking case of Freddy Shepherd playing up publicly. James Milner, someone I thought was a long term replacement for Solano on the right wing and an exiting young talent, had all but signed for Aston Villa and was actually in the city expecting it to be finalised when Freddy told him to come back to Newcastle, apparently with no explanation.

This move sparked outrage from Villa?s new owner Randy Lerner and manager Martin O?Neill, it also probably upset Milner who now has to train with a club he knows were keen on getting rid of him. In light of this does our chairman do the honourable thing and apologise publicly to Milner and explain himself? Your joking, instead he issued a statement on www.nufc.co.uk avoiding the Milner subject altogether and shifting the blame for Newcastle?s transfer policy the window ? ?There is no-one to blame for us not getting other players in before the transfer deadline - it is the window to blame? .

News back in August that Newcastle may be subject to a takeover would undoubtedly be greeted from the toon army faithful, although for the moment that story seems to have quietened down a fair bit.

In other news Michael Owen is due to have surgery on his right knee this week, although it would be pretty miraculous to see him play at all in the black and white stripes this season and hopefully our new no.9 Obefami Martins will be fit to play against Fulham this upcoming Saturday.

In some ways the summer could have been worse, and I definitely feel more optimistic now then at this time last year, I am confident in Glenn Roeder?s ability although I had hoped for a few last minute deals such as Bridge and another striker/defender but maybe we should (and maybe Glenn has himself) learnt from last year that after all, spectacular last minute deals don?t always work out, Albert Luque for 9.5 million anyone?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Newcastle United. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.