Got to love a bit of optimism!

Honestly, it wasn't only outsider who were surprised by Nolan's departure. I'd seen a fair amount of Cabaye because of watching Gervinho on crappy streams since we were linked to him. He looked class any time I saw him, but it was fairly out of the blue when he came and it was a MASSIVE gamble on the part of the club replacing (as you said) a goalscoring captain with a fairly unknown quantity in Cabaye. It's shown to be a great move and I do believe it is in no small part down to the fact that our chief scout had watched since he was a teeenager, and is also a Geordie himself (and knows who/what will fit in at our club!)

If Tiote or Cabaye goes, there are a number of up and coming french midfielders I would like to see us move for (and hopefully for 1/2 or 1/4 of the transfer cost).

Our club have been very intelligent with our overseas PR, granting exclusive rights to french sports channel CANAL to our game highlights and player interviews. We're becoming more and more well known (and due to our current possition) known for our success. This can only be a good thing!

 

Apparently HBA has been misquoted and actually told a French reporter "we can go far".

 

boooooooooooooo!!!