St Michael's day

Another win, another goal. Michael Owen first goal at home. A better performance compared to last time when we played to a draw with Fulham. And also an improvement from last week's win at Blackburn. With more players coming back from injury, hopefully we can put on some sort of a run which could see us propel into the top 8, with only Chelsea, Charlton and Bolton who are more than 3 points ahead of us.

More to follow.....

Pre match: vs Fulham

No wins, no goals. Only one point to boast. And now, languishing in 19th spot. All is doom and gloom at the moment. Or is it? Despite a poor or should i say, a terrible start to the campaign, i think most of us can still remain optimistic about the outcome of this season.

Souness manage to dogde the exit door last month where 3 previous managers was unable to escape. Now, with 3 signings made in the last week of the transfer window, Souness should boast that it is his team that is playing. Even fat fred has come out and said that including finishing in the top 6.

So no more talking. Its time to prove it. Against Fulham. 3 points in the bag? C'mon now, we have Owen is team. He should get us the goals we desperately need. But wait a minute, he still need services if he is to score. Just ask Big Al. With Emre and Dyer out, we are short in supplies of ammunition. Even Solano is suspended. So, we are very thin in the centre of midfield. Amdy Faye might slot in if Bowyer is unable to play. Faye is the worse player we have now. Although he earn praises for his performance at Portsmouth, he has yet to find his feet here. He needs to find it quick because if not, he is never going to make it.

But at least we have Scott Parker. With Jenas gone, Parker can be our main player in the centre of midfield. Its his time to shine.

I'm not sure what formation Souness is planning to use and i hope its not the 4-5-1 because its never going to work. 4-4-2 is the best unless he wants to try 4-3-3. But whatever it is, we need something special to get out season going. And the time is now....

Nobby's back home

After saying yesterday that Solano wasn't coming back and that Souness made a bad decision not to take up Villa's offer, i was wrong. Thankfully and fortunately because Solano did come back. I was so estatic when i heard the news and he made it on time before the transfer window closed. 2 minutes to be exact. Perhaps with Luque who could be playing on the left hand side of the midfield, Solano will bring the much needed balance in the team, which was sadly missing since he left 19 months ago.

From Nufc.com --

Transfer deadline day saw the public unveiling of Michael Owen but there was still more movement ahead of the deadline.

The return of Nolberto Solano to Tyneside was confirmed just before midnight despite Freddy Shepherd stating earlier in the day that the deal was dead.

Aston Villa wanted £1.5m plus James Milner on a season long loan which seemed too high a price to begin with but the deal was resurrected at teatime and after a medical Solano signed a new contract.

Nobby returns on a two-year deal with an option to extend that a further 12 months. Meanwhile, Milner travelled the other way to join up with his former boss David O'Leary despite Shepherd's earlier comment that there was "not a chance" of Milner going out on loan.

Solano still has two games to serve of a three match ban so he misses the Fulham and Blackburn games. When he does play he will be wearing his old no.4 shirt - vacated by Nicky Butt while he is on loan at Birmingham City.

O'Leary gave a clue earlier in the day that the deal could be on when he seemed to be resigned to losing Solano and was quoted in the Birmingham Evening Mail as follows:

"I won't let him go to Newcastle unless we get our money back, or a player on loan. He would love to go to Newcastle. The problem we then have is that if we stop him, does he then go into a sulk? That's the way of it with players today.

"He sees what Newcastle are doing with Michael Owen and the size of the club and he wants to be a part of that. He says he wants to go to a 'bigger' club."


I'm just glad that he's back. Most of us were hoping and praying that he would come back even 19 months ago since he left us and our hopes and prayers paid off. Welcome back home Nobby.....