Top of the mornin'

Liverpool have a tendancy towards Spanish players and Arsenal are very french but it seems Newcastle are steadily collecting the Republic of Ireland squad. All four of our Irish first-teamers have been selected for the friendly against Holland next week. On top of that, three of the Dutch squad could be Newcastle players by the time the window shuts. Ex-magpie Andy O'Brien is joined by previous transfer target Robbie Keane in the squad, who we regrettably failed to swoop for and who is now enjoying life at Spurs.

Our boys headed to Riga this morning with Roeder stopping to tell reporters that theres slow progress in the transfer market and that he hopes to have everything sorted by the Wigan match, if not, definitely by the time the window closes until January. Impatience is creeping in.

Notable players in the Republic of Ireland squad to face Holland on August 16th:

Shay Given (Toon)
Stephen Carr (Toon)
Alan O'Brien (Toon)
Damien Duff (Toon)

Robbie Keane (Ex target)
Stephen Elliot (S*nderland - yes an international player there)

So out of their four best players, three of them play for Newcastle plus a future star and the other nearly almost might have come...we can always dream.