The high season for Newcastle transfer rumours has kicked off with a classic ‘double swoop’ on the cheap, from a Premier League rival.

Alan Pardew; ““We paid a lot of money for him and, in this situation, you’re looking for a bit of character from a player; that’s what we have seen in him.”

A bit like a vermin infestation it is difficult to trace back where this particular rubbish story first started.

Four weeks have passed since we submitted to Arsenal and there are more tenuous transfer stories flying round Tyneside than there were free Bon Jovi tickets floating round Wearside (if JBJ wanted to play to a half-empty ground, he came to the right place).

Last summer I had to check my glasses when i saw Liverpool had paid that for Swansea’s Joe Allen and I’m still thinking that must have been a misprint… While elsewhere, Chelsea paid £32m for Cabaye’s old teammate, Eden Hazard.

At Toulouse as man and boy he will not be on great money, though his team currently sit second from top, behind free-spending PSG, they are still only averaging sixteen thousand crowds.

It is great to see him willing to do it but should there be any need for Demba Ba to have to repeatedly say how settled he is at Newcastle United and not agitating to leave?

There should be no pressure on Alan Pardew to sell any player he doesn’t want to leave and the achilles heel of whatever is happening at St.James’ Park, is that the manager clearly has not got the final say on players in and out.

Newcastle is the rumour capital of the world when it comes to the football club.

Would Newcastle United have signed both a striker and a defender in this transfer window or was it always one or the other?