By Jebediah
June 24 2005

Jebediah looks at the national tabloids and sums up all the stories relating to Newcastle United.

      Starting with The Sun, Mark Viduka of Middlesbrough is once again being linked with a switch to Tyneside. This comes as a surprise considering it was only recently Viduka said that he "Won't let anything stand in my way" with regard to playing for Australia in September and November. With such a shortage of strikers at Newcastle, most people would have thought Souness would have cooled his interest in a player that will be in and out of the club, and liable to pick up injuries when playing elsewhere.

      Meanwhile Aston Villa have moved to Alan Stubbs after cooling their interest in alleged Newcastle target and former player Sylvain Distin. Finally, former Toon player Jonathan Woodgate is expected to kick his first ball for Real Madrid during the pre season, with Madrid touring the USA, China and Japan.

     The Daily Star has reported that Newcastle's interest in Jorge Andrade looks set to fail. The player admitted that Graeme Souness had shown an interest in the Portuguese defender, however if he was to move to England his desire would be to play for Manchester United.

     A story that seems to be dragging on is Inter Milan midfielder Emre's proposed switch to Newcastle. The Mirror has reported that Graeme Souness has flown to Italy to discuss terms with the player, who apparently wants us to equal his £60,000 p/w salary he has at Inter, however Souness and Shepherd are understandably not so keen. Once the two parties have agreed on a deal, Souness will apparently turn his interest back to agreeing a fee with Fulham for Luis Boa Morte, or continue persuit his interest in Luis Figo.

     One final note, which is in most of todays tabloids, is former Newcastle hero Robert Lee has signed a new deal with Wycombe to play on for another year. With regard to this, The Sun claims that there is a clause in his contract saying he is free to continue his exploits as a Sky pundit at certain points during the season.