I am of course not saying there aren't any good players in Spain and I clearly said I rate Coloccini in my post. I don't think it is unfair to compare them with Marcelino and Luque they have similar price tags, similar clubs, similar positions....

I stand corrected regarding Gutierrez, it seems he is acting very professional and I hope it continues.

Krakow

That is a lot of money for a Defender in my book and smacks a little bit of desperation, but the man seems to be rather experienced and is only 26 years of age so could prove to be worth the money. A lack of real defensive stability seems to have been at the forefront of the Geordie's problems over the past few years.

Cutierrez cost no more than 4million. He is not that much of risk IMO. Gutierrez has everything needed in a player to do well in the Prem. As i have already said he is strong, skillful and hard working. It is right that in the past Newcastle have got a shocking record in buying from spain but there is a totally different structure in place. We have a new owner, scouts and manager. And it is about time one of our signings pays off

Ive always liked Duff as a player and Keegans way of playing will suit him.Do you not think that the young lad Andy Carroll might get a go up front.Ive heard he is very highly rated up there?

Some might say that it is a lot of money but since we do have problems at the back we needed to buy a proper CB. He has proved that he is a quality defender and i am hopeful it will be a successful buy for the club. IMO he is the final piece of our defence and his experience will help the others at the back feel more confident. If he does the business on the field i don't care how much he cost. In all my years of supporting Newcastle we have had a crap defence. If he can play a part in making us stronger at the back, he is worth every penny!

GoonerGullHoop - I don't think he is good enough to be honest. I would love him to prove me wrong but he is already 19 and although it sounds young, nowadays the better younger players have already made an impact for the first team by that age. The chances are that the club will be buying a new striker so he will spend the year on loan or in the reserves. He has a great record for the reserves but i feel he may have to move on to a lower club to continue his development.

Good to see Keegan making signings in the right places. Coloccini should be a great pairing with Taylor. Them two centre back, Beye right back and Enrique/Bassong left back should be an improvement on our previous defences.

Don't know if bassong is going to be a big hit, but he did well pre-season, impressed KK enough to sign him so hopefully he'll do good.

i think he will be used more as a back-up for CB. I still feel keegan wants a proper LB to challenge Enrique. I have not watched him play but i don't see him being that good anyway.

We have sold Abdoulaye Faye for 2.25million to stoke and Shola Ameobi has been given permission to speak to Ipswich Town

If you were looking at potential full backs, I'm surprised you didn't try for Shorey, despite Villa perhaps being able to offer better things in terms of European Football. He was available at a very decent price and would have been easily good enough to challenge Enrique for a place in the side in my opinion.

I personally would rather get a younger left back for cover. I want to stick with Enrique for at least another season. He has worked hard over the summer and lost over a stone. He never had a pre season last year and towards the end of the season he started to play much better.
Also i dont think Shorey would have came to us over Villa. IMO we are the bigger club but he would get more football at Villa.

Coloccini looks like money well spent going on today's performance. Doesn't look bad up at corners either, so hopefully he continues to play well.

I was also impressed with Gutierrez, from what i saw from the first half. He's got good pace, strength and can cause a defence problems. I also saw him helping out in defence aswell, so he also looks like money well spent.

What's Gutierrez's natural position? Left-wing? Although he has looked versatile from pre-season viewings.

A side of...

-------------------- Martins ------- Owen ----------------------

---- N'Zogbia ---- Guthrie --- Creative Midf. -- Gutierrez --

----- Enrique ---- Collocini ------ Taylor --------- Beye -----

----------------------------- Given -----------------------------


...ain't bad at all.

Or alternatively Gutierrez on the left and Milner on the right. Either, or.

Against the better teams or away from home then bring Butt in and sacrifice a striker to make things difficult and more compact.

Gutierrez can play on both. Keegan seems start him on the left because him and Milner are our best wingers. They can both can play right and left so maybe they will swap as the season goes on. I agree with what you say about Butt. He was a very important player for us last season but i think Guthrie looks better. Even though Butt got man of match i thought he was out classed by Guthrie. We are still waiting for that creative midfielder! I don't even know who we are after, the club are keeping things very quiet.

I have to give Keegan credit - he has made some great signings this summer, and although Newcastle fans should not get carried away, they can certainly be more possitive about the future of this team. I was also very impressed by the moral throughout the team. They all seem to be playing for each other, and were playing with their tails up.

I would like to know who has been involved in the transfers so far. Many people have said that Keegan has "no control" over who comes in or even goes out. Hopefully that is wrong. A lot of things have changed since Keegan was last here. We now have the likes of Dennis Wise (Executive Director), Tony Jimenez (Vice President and Player Recruitment) and Jeff Vetere (Technical Co-ordinator). From what i understand Wise and Vetere will scout players and Jimenez will conclude the deals. I pretty much know for a fact that Keegan was behind the singing of Guthrie but i don't know about the rest. We have bought from Spain twice this season and it looks set to continue with the loan singing of Javier Saviola. The main reason for this is that both Jimenez and Vetere have very good contacts over there. By the looks of what we have bought so far i don't really care how the "team" works. The only problem is the speed of deals but hopefully that will improve over time.

So no one knows anything about the ''wow signing'' Ashley has promised?

Could it be someone like Moutinho or Aimer? Talking of Aimer, didn't you bid for him a while back. What happened?

He went to Benfica. There was talk that we tried to get him at the last moment but we must have failed. I would love to get Moutinho though.

Any truth in the Saviola talks? If they're true, even if it's just a loan, then that would be fantastic. At his best while at Barcelona, he was such a good player. If we got him, the Argentenian influence could really boost our squad, as the two that we've signed have already shown.

Regarding the deals already made, the club have been so much better with them this season than last. It could may well have something to do with the three guys JJ mentioned who are working for the club in the background. But something has definetly changed, with that being the obvious conclusion. Last season, player such as Smith, Cacapa, Rozehnal, Faye we brought in. On paper, they looked like fantastic sigings. Smith had a great record with leeds, cacapa was lyon captain with bags of experience, good things were thought of Rozehnal aswell. But it turns out those 4 i mentioned were useless last season. faye was half decent at a push, but he's already moved on.

This season we've only got 4 new faces, but three already look settled and useful to the club. this season's signings look far more planned out and thought about than last.

Saviola is a very good player but who knows how he'd do in the EPL.

Maybe it's a risk worth taking. He's a good enough player, but how he does in the EPL as you say is a different story.

Real Madrid have confirmed we are in talks.

I hope this isn't the wow signing. I used to love watching him play for Barca but we are in greater need for a playmaker type.