MarkD

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with long leather coats and ladies' sunglasses!

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The man is an inflated egotist but I thoroughly enjoy reading his articles and long may he continue. More club chairman need to grow some balls and make the FA accountable.

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Having no direct contacts with players or within the club, I rely on my own intuition, the interweb thingy and my 'mole' (brother is sub-editor of sports desk at national paper). All of these things tell me MO will be back before the weekend - but the give away was the sly smile and lack of words given by our captain in the post match interview last night. When asked about MO, his 'It doesn't matter what I want' reply and inability to keep a straight face confirmed a lot of what I'd been told/thought.

Hopefully not repeating too much here but key points seems to be; a) Newcastle and Real Madrid have some history over possibly questionable transfer fees/activities (Woodgate) where one side has helped the other out with an overly large fee - possibly a reciprical action? b) MO left Liverpool. We did not make him go, force him out, refuse to offer him a contract. As much as he is a better goalscorer than our current crop, we should not go on bended knee to him. Team spirit - and more importantly managerial decisions - should always come before the desires of any player. c) RB has identified that our squad is poor and with a medium-degree of funding has attempted to rectify this. He knows what he needs and is working toward fixing the obvious deficincies within his initial plan. d) Real Madrid have never played honest and open with us - don't expect them to now. e) Most importantly, September 1st is coming and it cannot come soon enough.

Been backed in to 7/4 after having been seen near the training ground looking at property.

Do you think the journos play Rafa Bingo?