We’re delighted here at State of the Game to help our friends at North East football magazine ‘Players Inc.’ publicise the release of Issue 7 of their great magazine covering all of the main talking points in football in the North East, from Newcastle United, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Hartlepool United and Darlington.

?Players Inc? is a monthly magazine covering all aspects of North East Football. Founded in July 2005 ?Players Inc? aims to bring you the views of some of the most respected names in North East Football and from the most important people in North East Football?.you the fans!

Every 2 months we will be bringing you a mixture of hard hitting articles written by people who have played at the top level and letting you have your say on your particular clubs fortunes. We are on the look out for regular contributors for our publication, so if you feel that you have something that you want to get off your chest then drop us a line on paper or a tablet of stone, or email us using a virus free pc, or ring us on our phone number and we will give you the chance to let the world know what you really think. We are also on the look out for match day sellers at all North East grounds.

So if you fancy making yourself a few quid before you cheer on your favourites then please give us a bell. We pay very good rates. Honest! You may also be interested in hiring one of our former players for a sportsman?s dinner or an end of season presentation night. If you are, then, once again contact ?Players Inc? and we will guarantee you a night to remember. Look forward to hearing from you all. Enjoy??

Email: playersinc@hotmail.com

Website: www.playersinc.org.uk

Telephone: 07950180922

Contact Steve at Players Inc about getting your copy today. Players Inc have a great range of football writers including State of the Game’s own Gareth Johnson so give them your support.

We’ll be covering the draw as it happens for the UEFA Cup first round as British clubs Tottenham Hotpsur, Newcastle United, West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers, Derry City Hearts and Rangers wait to see who they’ll face.

The first-round matches are played over two legs on 14th and 28th September.

A total of 40 teams will then advance to the group stages, where pools of five teams vie to reach the knockout stages.

The winner, runner-up and third-placed team from each group advance to the last 32 where they are joined by eight clubs knocked out of the Champions League.

The competition will culminate in the final at Hampden Park on the 16th May.

UEFA Cup First round 2006/2007 Draw:

Levadia Tallinn v NEWCASTLE
Molde FK v RANGERS
DERRY CITY v Paris St Germain
Sparta Prague v HEARTS
FC Salzburg v BLACKBURN
WEST HAM v Palermo
Slavia Prague v TOTTENHAM

Monaco hosts today’s UEFA Cup First Round draw as 80 teams prepare themselves for their ticket to a European adventure. While the glitz and glamour of yesterday’s Champion’s League draw mightn’t be quite as evident, the UEFA Cup still holds some of it’s old glory and there is a strong selection of Europe’s big footballing names, both seeded and unseeded, with which to make for an interesting tournament this season.

These 80 sides will play each other home and away before the winners progress to the group stages where eight groups of five teams will play each other once.

For today’s draw the sides have been split into seeded and unseeded groups and then further divided into eight pools of ten teams, five seeded, five unseeded from which the draws will be made. Seeded teams can only play unseeded teams from within their own group or pool. Confused yet? Have a look down the following tables to see which of the British clubs involved (Newcastle United, Rangers, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Hearts, Blackburn Rovers and Derry City) have the toughest possible draw.

We’ll be covering the draw live here at State of the Game from 1200 BST.
(more…)

We’ve been through countless discussions here over whether Newcastle United are a big club and if they are, just how big are they but the answer, from the business world’s point of view at least, could well come over the course of the next few weeks or months.

The Jersey based investment company, The Belgravia Group, have confirmed their interest in mounting a takeover bid for the North East club and have already held talks with the majority shareholders in the club, namely former chairman Sir John Hall, chairman Freddy Shepherd and Sir John Hall’s son Douglas.
(more…)

Not that we like gazumping the tabloid press with scurrilous stories about alleged shady meetings between contracted players, their “superstar” wives and the man who holds the purse strings at an unnamed (damn it, I put the name in the headline) Premiership club but I’m sure the Daily Mail didn’t really have an exclusive on it anyway.

Can we believe the stories that are emanating from that most respected of previously mentioned tabloids and the North East that Freddy Shepherd and the Beckham Siamese Twins have already had a very private (and serious) meeting about Senor Beckham trading in his sombrero and souvenir donkey and swapping them for a polo neck jumper and a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale in the land of Ant and Dec for next season?

It sounds almost too unbelievable to be true until we dig a little deeper. A site not a million miles from here ran an article a couple of weeks ago by one of the world’s finest football writers (ahem!) asking which club would want David Beckham? My conclusion at the time was that he wasn’t suited to or wanted by any of the top five clubs in the country and in view of his massive wages and need for a big enough stage to soothe his ego, Newcastle United would be the only logical destination for Beckham to come back to England to.

Some may cry that the Toon hierarchy are indulging in a bit of baseless rumour mongering to lift poor season ticket sales and with Michael Owen injured until 2007 it wouldn’t surprise any of us if this was true. What has changed since I wrote that article is that Ramon Calderon has taken over as Real Madrid president and installed Fabio Capello as head coach. Maybe Beckham has been told that the new coach is more than prepared to ditch the old guard at Madrid and no amount of shirt sales in the club shop will save the artist formerly known as Golden Balls. Who knows?

Three people know for sure what was discussed and unless either of the Beckhams or Mr Shepherd get on to State of the Game by e-mail tonight to tell us, we might all have to wait for tomorrow’s Daily Mail to see what other “facts” they’ve been able to unearth.

A million Geordies wait with baited breath.

With Portsmouth assistant manager Kevin Bond expected to join old friend Glenn Roeder as Newcastle United assistant manager before the end of the week, speculation is rife that Jamie Redknapp will join the coaching staff at Fratton Park alongside his father Harry.

Jamie Redknapp has worked as a Sky Sports football pundit since retiring from football last season and his time as a Southampton player under his father’s management shouldn’t stand in his way of becoming accepted as a member of the Portsmouth coaching fraternity.

During his time at Tottenham, Jamie Redknapp was often seen giving instruction to other players from the bench and it had been suggested that he would begin his coaching career at the North London club after his career finished but following a swansong at relegated Southampton, he now appears set to follow his father again to the South coast.

It won’t be the first time that Harry Redknapp has looked to his close family for coaching support either as his brother-in-law and former West Ham colleague Frank lampard senior was also his assistant manager while he was boss at the Upton Park club.

Never a stranger to tabloid front page scandal, Newcastle United midfielder Kieron Dyer has been arrested and questioned by police after allegedly indecently exposing himself to a female staff member at an East Anglian hotel.

The incident, which took place at the Swallow Nelson Hotel in Norwich at the end of April, supposedly occurred after a drinking session involving Kieron Dyer and friends, including Titus Bramble’s brother Tesfaye who plays for Stockport County.

Dyer attended a police station this week along with his solicitor and has now been released on bail pending further investigation.

A Norfolk Police spokesman said: “A 27-year-old man was arrested yesterday morning on suspicion of indecent exposure and was released on police bail pending further enquiries.

“The arrest relates to an incident in Norwich on April 30.”

Newcastle United have moved quickly to deny rumours that star striker Michael Owen will activate a ?12m release clause in his contract and move to European Cup finallists Arsenal.

Speculation has been rife since Owen moved back to England with Newcastle last summer following a less than successful spell at Real Madrid but the Toon hierarchy have continuously denied that their main asset will be going anywhere.

Owen’s injury problems during his first season on Tyneside limited him to only 11 games in the black and white stripes but with 7 goals in those games he displayed again just what a lethal finisher he is at Premiership level and that goalscoring prowess has now apparently captured the attention of Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.

Newcastle used their open chequebook policy to beat off competition from Owen’s old club Liverpool to sign him for ?17m last summer and while it’s been an expensive gamble that hasn’t quite paid off for Freddy Shepherd just yet, there is no indication that Newcastle are ready to cut their losses and sell one of England’s top marksmen.

Whether Owen actually has a release clause in his contract could be the deciding factor once and for all about whether Freddy Shepherd or anyone at Newcastle United actually gets a say in the matter.

Leage Managers’ Association chief John Barnwell has attacked the Premier League for opening the flood gates for clubs to appoint the “butcher, baker and candlestick maker” as Premiership coaches following their decision to allow Glenn Roeder special dispensation to take over as Newcastle boss.

Barnwell has declared himself absolutely furious that the premier League have circumvented the rules to allow Roeder to take up the post despite not holding the UEFA Pro coaching licence usually required for coahces with less than ten years relevant experience to coach in the top flight.

Barnwell said: “Football is full of failed geniuses - full of them. Preparation in football management is vital.

“Go and ask Jose Mourinho. It doesn’t happen overnight.

“The UEFA Pro Licence stops those people who make the appointments from appointing the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker.

“But prospective managers are now looking at it and thinking, ‘If I want to manage in the top league, I don’t need to bother to get qualifications, do I? What am I bothering for?’.

“The Professional Footballers’ Association have blown their lid as well. All their guys will think they don’t need to bother (with the UEFA course) now. So I’m absolutely furious.

“It’s not about Glenn Roeder. He’s been on a minimum wage as an academy director.

“He’s had three years to get his qualifications and suddenly because of circumstances he’s been jettisoned into the job and quite likes it.

“Results have started coming, as they often do with a caretaker manager, and I suppose it’s very easy to give him a massive contract.

“To go from not a lot of money to a lot of money, good luck to him.

“His name is being used and Newcastle are using that as a vehicle and we’re not. People have forgotten the same thing happened with Eddie Gray at Leeds, and Steve Wigley at Southampton and here we are, still in the same position.

“Why have regulations? When the lights are red you shouldn’t go through them.”

“We’ve taken 70-80 people through that programme,” said Barnwell. “What are they going to think now?

“Newcastle go on about Roeder but Roeder signed up to the (UEFA) course and he didn’t do one week. He’s had three years.

“Why didn’t he go on the Pro Licence four months ago?

“Roeder cannot manage in the Premiership by the regulations but they have seen fit to give dispensation because it’s convenient.

“Does that mean every other regulation which is inconvenient we can argue over? I suppose it does.

“To all those people who have bothered to go through the B licence, the A licence and the Pro Licence - because they want to manage at the highest level - and all those people who say we didn’t have a national coach qualified enough, it all flies in the face of that.

“If we are a professional business, you have professional qualifications. The decision just lacks all credibility.

“We have had 400 managers dismissed in the past five years because the majority were badly prepared. You have to prepare to go into football management.

“Why can’t Englishmen get jobs abroad? Because they will not appoint you if you don’t have the proper licence.

“That’s what Sampdoria did with David Platt - they said, ‘No, off you go’.

“There’s no guarantee with qualifications that you’re going to be successful. What it does is give you a better chance.”

Regardless of John Barnwell’s feelings it seems that Roeder will still be named Newcastle boss on Monday and as Barnwell says, the proverbial floodgates will now open.

Once again in Premiership football, it seems that regulations are only to be enforced for some clubs and not others.

With today’s news that Newcastle United have received a special dispensation to allow them to appoint Glenn Roeder as their new manager despite his lack of a FIFA Pro coaching licence, the race to identify just who will be taking the reins at St. James’ Park appears to over.

With Newcastle having performed so well under Roeder’s stewardship it would have been a disaster for the club to not have been able to consider him for the role full-time and although the ruling hasn’t received the backing of the League Managers’ Association, it will surely have the full backing of the Toon Army.

Freddy Shepherd has hit back hard at the LMA for their comments about Newcastle trying to bend the rules to appoint Roeder and makes a very definite case for why his club have fought so hard to ensure that Glenn Roeder is able to take up their manager’s post.

“I am very unhappy at some of the comments coming from the LMA in recent weeks surrounding our efforts to find the right man for the vacant managerial position at Newcastle United,” he told the club’s official website, www.nufc.co.uk.

“Glenn himself was a member of the LMA while at West Ham, and is about to begin the Pro Licence course again, so I find it both disappointing and surprising that they should take such a stance.

“There is only one vacancy at Newcastle and we can only appoint one person.

“Whoever we decide is the right person to become the next manager at St James’ Park, we would fully hope and expect him to receive the complete backing of the LMA and his fellow managers.”

Roeder is now expected to be unveiled at a press conference at St. James’ Park on Monday.