Midfield Movement

Once again West Ham and Newcastle are in the headlines with Scotty Parker sealing his move to West Ham from Newcastle for 7 Million. He's had a decent couple of seasons at Newcastle but hasn't really set the world alight though that was probably more down to the quality of his team-mates then his own performances, plus he first rose to form under Curbishley at Charlton so he should slot in pretty easily and we might be seeing some much-improved displays from him next season. He will replace Mr. Reo-Coker who looks like he's on his way to Villa with only a fee between the two clubs standing in the way of this potential move. And to complete this little transfer dance, Joey Barton has agreed personal terms with Newcastle who should sign him for about 5.5 million in the next couple of days. So, who has done best out of this? Out of the three I'd definitely have Barton, he's cheaper, just as good as the other two, and sounds like he might have grown up. However he may still go to jail, which is a slight downside but still better then listening to Reo-Coker go on about how he wasn't wanted enough. Both West Ham and Newcastle have done good business and it's quite interesting to note that Joey and Scotty both resemble their managers...the reserved midfielder and the psycho midfielder under the reserved and psycho managers...I’ll leave you to work out which one is which.

Poor Ben Foster has cruciate knee ligament damage, which means we won't be seeing him for a while. It's a pity because he looks like he could have pushed both Van Der Sar and Robinson for the Man Utd and England jersey respectively, but that's football. Good luck to his recovery.

Incredibly, Newcastle are rumoured to be interested in a central defender....sorry, what's that? 2 central defenders! Amazing, I thought I’d never see the day that a manager comes into Newcastle and sees what any football fan has seen for a long time...the defence is shite. So Ben-Haim may be joining his old manager, and David Rozenhal of PSG looking like he's on his way. Don't know much about Rozenhal but it looks like Big Sam is crafting a decent little side together, if Owen can stay fit (much touching of wood) then I’m looking forward to seeing how they gel.

Finally, sorry about the first post, technical issues with blog, and good luck to England tonight. We're making an awfully big fuss about beating Estonia, even Big John Terry has come out and told us to blame him if it all goes wrong...I hate to ruin his grand gesture but maybe if he saved statements like that for World Cup quarter finals, rather then a qualifier against a team ranked 110th in the world, we would all take a little bit more notice.