Early Season Newcastle Rants and Raves.

The premiership season is now off and running, so prepare yourselves for more frequent football talk.

After three weeks, Newcastle are 1-1-1, giving them 4 points, and having very definite MIXED feelings about the upcoming season. While I'm very happy with our draw at Man Utd and our clean sheet win vs. Bolton, and the overall difficulty of the early season, which is now behind us. I am, however, a bit less thrilled at the manner in which we lost to Arsenal this past weekend, though, looking like the Newcastle of old: rushed, unorganized, and feeling lucky just to share the same pitch as the infinitely more deserving Gooners.

The off-field news has all been doom and gloom, as usual for the London press. According to them, Keegan is ready to quit, Ashley is ready to sell, Owen is ready to walk, and the sale of the under-performing and never-achieving-expectations James Milner is reason alone to shelve the entire season. (This kid is NEVER going to deserve his 12MILLION pound price tag- he runs like a horse and has a heart of gold, but he can NOT look up when he's dribbling and has a cross like a 4-yr-old girl. Just FORGET about him using his weaker left foot. Off with ya, Jimmy. Thanks for everything, but we've got more important things to worry about.)

The close of the summer transfer window is always a turbulent time at St. James Park, and this year is no different. This off season, Keegan has already done a fantastic Job. We made quite a bit of green on the sales of Emre, Rozenhal and Milner. After the purchases of Jonas Gutierrez (who's already become a fan favorite), Fabricio Coloccini (with some of the best hair since Keegan's playing days), Danny Guthrie (very young central midfielder who was supposed to be a squad player but easily walked onto our starting XI) and Sebastian Bassong (versatile defender who passed a trial before being signed) we're still actually 1M pounds in the BLACK. Now compare this to Roy Keane's INCREDIBLE panic spending (almost 40-million pounds in the red) at Sunderland, who now sit in the relegation zone (I know, still early days), and tell me King Kev has been out of the game for too long.

Just tonight, two new signings came through the door: Deportivo La Coruna striker, Xisco, and Valencia midfielder, Ignacio "Nacho" Gonzalez on loan. Depor's fans are GUTTED that we've taken Xisco from them, since Curly-ccini came from Depor this summer as well. Apparently, they were the two best players on the squad. Gonzalez is highly rated, but apparently couldn't get much playing time with David Silva ahead of him. So while I've heard glowing reviews, I'll have to wait to pass judgement on this one.

At least one more signing is rumoured to be on their way, and the Michael Owen contract saga is always an ongoing affair. These will be watched with very close eyes.

However, the other HUGE piece of NUFC transfer news is that Everton are rumoured to be ready to push through their 3million-pound bid for Alan Smith and all that's left is for him to agree personal terms. If this happens, it will certainly be one of the most efficient moves the club will have made all summer, because while we will be losing a net of 3m in transfer fees on him (brilliant Sam Allardyce bought him last season for 6m) his 60,000 pound/week salary will not be missed in the slightest. And maybe, just maybe, this surplus in wages can be reinvested into the club via Michael Owen's new contract.

Now, one final piece of recent news in Joey Barton's inclusion in the Arsenal game, and its odd effect on the conclusion of the match. I'll break it down quickly if some of you didn't see it(shame on you). Barton is a very bad boy. He's a jerk, actually - a true waste of human flesh. Just a true thug at his very best moments. He recently got out of jail for beating up a 16 year old kid outside of a McDonald's restaurant in Liverpool, and I was NOT happy when Keegan fought to keep him in the club. Ashley wanted to fire him on the spot, but Keegan insisted that he could really continue to help the club. I thought - this guy would be fired if he were in any other profession than football. I don't want to be associated with him, so I don't care how much he could help the club - he should be punished. But to be honest - since those initial emotions have subsided, I'm actually quietly excited about having Joey back in our squad, and here's why.

Yes, he's a horrible human being. Please forgive me in advance for overlooking this, because I'm really not. I know this - but I've gotten past that now, and I ask you to do the same. 1) He takes pressure off the rest of his team mates. The same as how some of the Bulls loved playing with Dennis Rodman. This guy takes all the bright camera lights on to him, and off of the rest of the team PURPOSELY, so all they need to think about is their sport. 2) He makes the OPPONENT constantly think about him when he's on the pitch. This weekend, you should have SEEN how he took young Samir Nasri out of his game. Barton came on, hearing the incredible boos swelling through the crowd and was just soaking it all in. He LOVED it - JUST LOVED IT. Then, at the first 50/50 ball, he lunged in BEFORE Nasri got there, and made a perfect challenge for the ball. He won the ball, and Nasri fell awkwardy after being well beaten in the challenge. But because he's Joey Barton, Nasri thought it was somehow dirty and illegal. So, the next time down the pitch, Nasri, like the sad, intimidated child that he is, cowardly stuck his foot out and blatantly tripped Barton from behind - in the rule book a straight red card. But apparently, none of the four referrees saw it (yeah right) and not even a foul was called. 3) He gives a "cutting edge" to Newcastle United. We've been in mid-table for a while, we haven't had a real character on the squad up until Jonas just joined, and having Joey around just makes things more interesting, and we automatically become a little more tough and physical as a team. I love that, and it makes for some really interesting football. And 4) HE'S ACTUALLY A GREAT CENTRAL MIDFIELDER. This is something that people seem to overlook because they're so much more interested in the drama that is Joey Barton. And of course, the London press would never actually care about football ability for a Newcastle player - they're only interested in headlines. He's got phenomenal pace and stamina, and he's a very creative player going forward - something we've been drastically needing since getting rid of Emre.

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, that was nice. Thanks for reading my rant. I know it was a bit unorganized and flatlined, but it sure was therapeutic.