Are Newcastle the new French embassy?

Cheaper. Previous success in that market. Full internationals for fraction of their actual value. We'll stay up. Easily.

Nouveau chateau

I'm just wondering if this will now be the NUFC model of scouting followed by other clubs. I admit they do seem like a decent signing, given their price tags.

The question is to NUFC fans is, will you become annoyed if some of your French signings flourish well and then basically use your club as a stepping stone to other bigger clubs? I know Demba Ba has already done it but some fans were happy for him while others weren't.

Ba we took a risk on and it worked. There is no other evidence we're signing players to sell them on for a bigger fee, the Carroll bid is an anomaly. Also it's not just France we scout as we've signed Anita from Ajax, Cisse from Freiburg and Santon from Inter in the past 18 months. It's just we know it won't take too long for these guys who we've bought to settle and in the position we're in we need them to settle quickly.

"It's just we know it won't take too long for these guys who we've bought to settle and in the position we're in we need them to settle quickly. "

That is a good repsonse to my article question