Ivor Allchurch and Stuart Pearce join Gallacher and Shearer in national hall of fame.

Two Newcastle legends, Hughie Gallacher and Alan Shearer, were inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame at a ceremony on Thursday night.

Chelsea will bring with them new signing Samuel Eto’o and one of our featured auction items is a signed ticket from when the star striker played for Real Mallorca v Newcastle in the UEFA Cup.

Of course at one time no successful English team was complete without a good sprinkling of Scottish players, Newcastle United being no exception; names such as Hughie Gallacher, Jimmy Scoular and Bob Moncur roll off the tongue and they all feature in the Mag Auctions this week.

Spending big has not served Newcastle well, although it did get us close briefly and thrillingly in the nineties. The club suffered from persisting with that policy long term. The end product of that period of lavish spending being nothing but a disjointed squad assembled by various managers. Each one spending millions to their own end and no clear long term thinking at the club to influence proceedings.