Ba, Collocini and Krul are named in a slightly stronger team than the first leg, with Cabaye, Cisse, and young Adam Campbell on the bench in reserve.

My ‘expectations’ for this season would probably be to finish in the top 10. My hopes however, would be to emulate last season and take the fight for the last Champions League spot down to the wire once again.

Newcastle largely dominated both possession and chances with Cisse having one cleared off the line and Shola thinking he’d broken the deadlock only to see it ruled out for offside.

German third tier club Chemnitzer FC have today started selling tickets for their pre-season match with Newcastle United on Friday 13th July but there could be some disappointed fans, of both teams.

Not a lot of people know this – All clubs who were represented by players in pre-tournament qualification, and/or at the Euros themselves, will all share a pot of 100m Euros!

However, in terms of saving money in the long run, rather than going to France (Abeid), Holland (Krul) and Italy (Santon) for our youngsters, why not spend a little extra developing our own young players?

Mike Ashley has a collection of ‘must have toys’ that no other retailer has, what is more they are all securely (with one exception) tied up on long contracts and anybody who wants one will have to pay through the nose.

Tim Krul, Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa are just 3 of the 74 players at the European Championships who currently play in the English Premier League.

They add up to 20% of the 368 players travelling to Poland and Ukraine, the highest number by far of any league.

Alan Pardew is doing a magnificent job and always value for money in his post-match press conferences, watch here to see what he said after Liverpool. Also Krul and Williamson interviewed.

The one player who I have no doubt will join that list as ‘long-term signed’ is Demba Ba, he has two years to run and I have no doubt the club are working to tie him down and also eradicate any possible ‘cheap’ get out clause.