Here’s what Derek Lambias said: “Naming the stadium the Sports Direct Arena helps up to showcase the opportunity to interested parties.

“We are now actively seeking a long-term sponsor wishing to acquire full naming rights for the stadium.

“Our shirt sponsorship deal with Northern Rock will also expire at the end of this season, which presents would-be sponsors with the opportunity to acquire both the naming rights and shirt sponsorship deals.”

Shirt sponsorship is one thing but renaming an entire stadium can provoke some real negative responses for brands from vocal fans.

We don’t need this kind of distraction whilst our team is concentrating on a high flying premiership campaign.

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The good run of games  has certainly been a shock to fans so far. Including myself, I was looking at a bit of a struggle to grind out results with the loss of key players who performed well last season. Losing Carroll had been a body blow but some astute transfer market buying brought in Ba and a handful of players who would turn out just fine for the club. Admittedly, Ba eventually found some form and thankfully he’s been fantastic.

Ba’s eye-catching performance is fantastic for us at a crucial time for Newcastle trying to push through it’s second year in the Prem since relegation. However, I seriously hope that the unpredictably of Mike Ashley and board don’t see this as an opportunity to cash in much like the situation of Andy Carroll. What Ashley should look at is expanding our team in the New Year. Newcastle is a big club with a small team in comparison and so far Alan Pardew has made some great additions to the team through players like Ba and Cabaye. Let’s hope that Ashley does the right thing and provides funds for Newcastle to endure this most gruelling of football campaigns.

November represents a bigger test for us. Everton on Saturday and queuing up behind them are Man City, Man Utd. and Chelsea.  I’m not expecting miracles against these big spending clubs but certainly I expect Newcastle to play with same determination and spirit that has brought the team to position 3 in the table.

The good start doesn’t exactly mean it will be plain sailing all the way. This weekend sees the Mags against Blackburn who won decisively against a weaker Arsenal. We’ll have the home support behind us but it’ll be no push over.

Tonight also sees us in action against Forest. The news is that Ben Arfa makes a return after the horror tackle which left him missing most of last season. Let’s hope he has a stellar match and show us some of the massive potential he obviously has.

With the Barton saga now firmly behind us, we can start to concentrate on the game and with some faith remain in the top 10 this season.

Newcastle originally wanted to sell Barton who only had one year left of his contract but clearly his actions have peeved off some. Jose Enrique is another player who is heading out due to comments made about decisions at the board.

Clearly fan opinion would be split on this but I have to say if Barton had so many grievances he should have spoken out using a different forum. Personally, I don’t like having players talking down the club at what is a crucial time.

Arguably, we’ve lost two of our best players notably Nolan and Barton now. But if Barton is not happy then he needs to go but us fans are worried that the inability of the club when it comes to bringing in more players and talent.

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25-year-old midfielder, Sylvain Marveaux came aboard on a free transfer from Rennes over last weekend. Not bad following Demba Ba’s move from West Ham. Demba bagged 7 goals in 12 appearances but doesn’t take the still vacant #9 shirt donning the number 19 shirt instead. High hopes for the fella come the new season.

The big question is can NUFC tempt Charles N’Zogbia back into the fold. As I remember correctly, N’Zogbia took a swipe at Newcastle when he left citing something about our relegation and winning trophies at Wigan? But anyway, he’s impressed at Wigan despite the awful season they had just barely managing to keep out of the relegation zone. I would welcome his presence in the team once again. Someone who’d I’d have second
thoughts about would be bringing Scott Parker back in. Great midfielder but very injury prone.

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Pardew can certainly talk of his desire to bring in players of stature like Berbatov in but it’s not going to happen.

As fans we expect that the £35m sale of Andy Carroll will be used appropriately to pump up the squad – a new striker would be good for a start. As much as I like Ameobi, Lovenrands and Best up front, they don’t have the scare factor of Carroll at his prime. Certainly there might be some quality to extract from West Ham and Birmingham but I’m not going to speculate at this stage.

Players leaving this summer will be varied. Sol Campbell has already walked and Joey Barton, arguably our best player in the team to date has not signed a new contract beyond next season. The temptation would be to sell.

News that we welcome Lille’s Midfielder Yohan Cabaye seems like a very good move. However, let’s wait and see how this summer pans out.

The revival really started when Diaby was sent off for pushing Barton and Nolan in a stupid act of petulance from the French international. The incident occured when Barton made a perfect tackle robbing Diaby off the ball but the fact that the tackle was quite forceful prompted the Arsenal player to man-handle and shove Barton to the ground. 10 out of 10 for Barton here who acted completely professional and did not retaliate in anyway.

By then Arsenal were showing real weaknesses with Best making the score sheet and 2 penalities allowing Barton to slot both in. The real beauty came at at the end when Cheik Tiote (who was having a storming game anyway) scored a screamer of a goal which sent fans into raptures.

History writes that Arsenal are the first team to lose a 4 goal lead. In fact, Newcastle could have won it if Leon Best did not have a perfectly on-side goal disallowed. Nolan could have done a little better at the end but I don’t think us fans have much to complain about the second half performance.

In terms of mind set, I think this result sets us up perfectly for the next games and hopefully we can get this free signing in plug the hole at front in the meantime. And no, Theirry Henry was not the answer.

Standing at the Putney End with high anticipation that the team go beyond the Carroll saga and find some form to prove to fans that we still have what it takes. It proved a quite fanciful thought where the game ended up 1-0 at the end with bad guy Damien Duff providing the only goal in the second half.

I have to admit that the first half, Newcastle played well and we had the Cottagers in the back foot most of the time. It was really disappointing to see Shola Ameobi pick up a broken cheek bone injury so early on. off he went and on came Nile Ranger who was largely ineffectual for the rest of the match. Let me make it clear we did play well but I couldn’t see where the next goal would come from but I was in for a completely different game in the second half.

Off came the Blues Brothers knock-off act and on came the players after the 15 minute interval. I’m not sure what Pardew had said during half time but the team looked tired and undynamic. Passing slowly became unprecise and Steve Harper had to really keep his wits between the sticks. After a barrage of abuse the Toon fans were giving Duff, it was some rough justice to have him put one past Harper. By then it was game over as Newcastle tried to get the equaliser but with no quality to connect with the ball.

The whistle went and dejected fans trudged out for the long walk through Fulham Palace park. An audible ‘F*ck You Ashley!’ was shouted out by a lone Toon fan and that was all we could muster after a disappointing night. It feels now that we have a real fight for the club to keep it’s head above water with the next fixtures now looking really challenging. In fact, I’m not sure if we can pick up much points if any, from the next three games ahead. By then Pardew’s head may well and truly be on the block knowing how Newcastle operates these days.