Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today – in no particular order of priority.

The news today is that the David Rozehnal passed his medical last night at St. James’ Park and should sign for the club today. Also whether Freddy Shepherd stays at the club is still being awaited – as no report to the Stock market has yet been made.

We have a piece today on the Board Meeting yesterday and why Freddy Shepherd may be pondering his position at the club more than people realize. Obviously it’s a stop gap position and Freddy will not have the power he once had. We also expect Rozehnal to sign today after passing a medical last night

Freddy ShepherdNews today from Sky Sports that Bakari Sagna wants a move to Arsenal and he has pleaded with his club – Auxerre – not to deny him such an opportunity. That doesn’t look good for Newcastle’s chances of signing Bakari – although the Arsenal club aren’t exactly stable right now – with Wenger’s future at the club in doubt.

Bakari Sagna We have our own piece on the Alan Smith saga which started last Friday. If Sam Allardyce really wants Alan then we think the odds are in our favor to get him. Nothing will be decided until Smith returns from his Florida holiday this Thursday – but look for a quick end to this after that. To us it depends on whether Sam really wants Smith at the club – if he does – we’ll have him tied up by the weekend.

Alan SmithWe have a piece on Alan O’Brien’s move to Hibernian. Looks like Sam made an attempt to keep the youngster by offering him better terms – but we have still lost him. Newcastle have to do a better job at giving our youngsters the chance they deserve. Alan didn’t get it – even when Duff and N’Zogbia were both out injured. The death knell at Newcastle for Alan was the signing of Duff from Chelsea – who we simply didn’t need. The priority at Newcastle has always been to the players we have brought in – and that is wrong.

Alan O’Brien Finally here’s some quotes that miss whatever they were trying to say – to lighten up the day

‘What will you do when you leave football, Jack, will you stay in football’ (Stuart Hall, Radio 5 live)

‘ We actually got the winner three minutes from the end but then they equalized’ (Ian McNail)

‘ I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel.’ (Stuart Pearce)

Stuart Pearce (does he need glasses)

As we get new and worthwhile Newcastle news during the rest of the day we’ll add these to this report if necessary.

We always appreciate your comments on these stories.