By Matthew Jones
June 23 2002

Sir Bobby Robson is after a central defender to replace Distin who returned to hias club after his loan expired, and he claims the next signing will be "a better player than Jaap Stam". Big words indeed. Is that signing Boavista defender Petit? According to the Sunday Sun it is! Talkofthetyne.co.uk have reported that Petit may be our next signing. Apparently, he is better than Jaap Stam (According to none other, but the Sunday Sun)

Sir Bobby Robson is after a central defender to replace Distin who returned to hias club after his loan expired, and he claims the next signing will be "a better player than Jaap Stam". Big words indeed. Is that signing Boavista defender Petit? According to the Sunday Sun it is!

Mind you, the Sunday Sun have a dreadful record when it comes to gazing into the transfer crystal ball. They've linked us with more players than we care to remember this summer and nothing has come of any. The one they 'knocked back' as "rubbish", was the bid for Rivaldo. The following day Sir Bob said, "yes, we have made a bid for Rivaldo. It's in the hands of his agent".

But it would make sense for Sir Bob to bring in another player from Portugal, to ease the burden of a totally different culture and life-style to what Hugo Viana is used to. After all, he's only 19.

As for Petit being better than Stam ... who are we to say?