Taylor is currently out with a shoulder injury but this news comes as a little bit of a surprise knowing that the player has always been loyal to the club. I guess he just priced himself out.

It will be interesting to see if he’ll end up at a different club in the few days but until then he’ll be a free agent by summer 2011.

UPDATE:

A statement from his agent reads:
“Figures released to the media do not accurately reflect the position of either Steven or his agent.

“Both (Taylor and the club) remain happy to continue negotiations over a new and extended Newcastle United contract.

“Steven was disappointed and surprised to hear through third parties that the club had decided to transfer list him.

“He has always given 100% to the club and will continue to do so given the opportunity.”

Joey Barton played fantastically well in midfield and it seemed fitting that our moustachio-ed friend would start off our impossible scoreline. It was nearly about to be Aston Villa’s day with a early penalty attempt which was sent way over the bar by John Carew. Only minutes later Barton took his chance by powering swerving shot in to goal. 1-0! All credit to Villa, they managed a goal which didn’t count because of infringement. It was Nolan who soon added to our goal tally with an excellent bit of play between Enrique and Carroll.

Andy Carroll proved far too much fro Villa’s defence to handle. The hero of the day and probably to make the back pages tomorrow as a possible stand out talent for this season. His hat-trick of goals sent the opposition packing. Coupled with Nolan’s brace, it was Newcastle’s season finally getting off the ground and a 6-0 scoreline to announce that this Newcastle side is something else!

The Shields Gazette reports that Danny Gutherie and Lovenkrands may be fit for selection on Sunday against Villa.

Chris Hughton said:

“Danny felt his knee two days ago, and Peter felt his groin the day before the game,”

“They both travelled, and we expected both of them to be fit. It was a bit of a blow not to have them available, but the fact that they were very close means we’re very hopeful they’ll both be available.”

It was a real shame to have left out those players on Monday night but no use risking them when more battles are ahead of us. Great news for us.

We’ve got a few in the medical room with Steven Taylor, Dan Gosling, Leon Best and we are awaiting fitness news on Sol Campbell.

Speaking on the official site, Carroll said:

“I had my chance, and I should have put it away. We had a few other chances as well, and we could have been ahead.

“But overall, I thought we did well. We knew it was going to be difficult, and it was, but for the first 35 minutes we did well.

“We kept the ball well and didn’t let them do what they wanted to do. Then the first goal went in and they took control.”

It was great effort but unfortunately the finish wasn’t there. We know players in the squad like Carroll will deliver when it comes to Sunday and beyond. This Man Utd game is far from being the defining point of the season. It was always going to be a massive battle at Old Trafford to get the first goal but utlimately Berbatov managed the first goal. Not many teams have the honour of  beating Man Utd at home.

However, it does expose our fragility which would concern Hughton and not to mention Ashley. Perhaps a couple of new names on the roster wouldn’t be amiss particularly when we have a bit of an injury issue in areas across the team. Let’s see what Hughton’s next move shall be.

The only shot worth mentioning was Andy Carroll’s missed header in the 10th minute from a Barton corner. Carroll certainly has the potential to be a great striker but he’s very much work in progress in my opinion.

Onwards from here and this will not be the last of many massive challenges we face in the next few months.

Manchester United  3-0  Newcastle United

Next match: Aston Villa at Home on Sunday

Team news shows that Sol Campbell will probably not feature due to fitness issues but possibly the back line up to consist of Williamson, Enrique, Perch and Coloccini.

Injuries still to Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor and Leon Best mean that they would sidelined for the coming few months anyway. Upfront, will be Andy Carroll who will be making his debut in the #9 shirt in a competitive match. Our player of last season, Kevin Nolan, will be unleashed again in the Premiership and the hope is that he can build on his achievements from last season.

Manchester are missing Rio Ferdinand as the most notable injury but a strong line up as usual with World Cup flop, Wayne Rooney leading the pack.

I’m excited for the start and will be keeping my expectations in check. As tradition goes Manchester Utd start off rather timid at the beginning of seasons and are vulnerable  (Burnley anyone?). Difficult to say, the players are up for the game which is great and we are nothing like the same team when we exited the Premiership. Bring ‘em on!

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For example, I can spotlight three ex-Newcastle United players over the past week: Shay Given, Craig Bellamy and now Charles N’Zogbia. Starting with Shay; he joined Man City with winning trophies in mind. On paper, Man City look promising however, the performance of Joe Hart and Shay being placed on the bench doesn’t bode well for him keeping his #1 shirt. He even said in a thinly veiled threat to leave the club if he was on the subs bench on Saturday. Well, he was and Joe Hart practically kept Man City in the match. His future is somewhat cloudly but he may yet go to Arsenal (or Liverpool, who probably need a good goalie right now). His colleague, Craig Bellamy took a leaf from Shay’s book and basically expressed similar sentiments: he didn’t even make it on the subs bench. News today say that player is black listed and seems to have played his last game. Rumours suggest he may join us but would we want him there knowing that he’s neither reformed character or no restraint. Lastly, N’Zogbia who bailed out on his team at the last minute and probably contributed to the highly disorganised display of the Wigan side against Blackpool. Apparently, he wants out.

Do players need to get some perspective here from their lives of high pay and fast cars? If speculation is true, should we be condoning the actions of Hatem Ben Afra? What does his actions say about his character if we take him on?

Sky will be televising the match to be played next week on Wednesday 25th with a 7:45pm kick off.

The official site informs me that this happens to be the first time we have ever faced each other so a bit of a historic night.

Make sure the lads have drunk their milk

Elsewhere, no news of the apparent  injury to Andy Carroll which was mentioned last week but he did have a run out to the spectacular open training session yesterday. Perhaps we could be lucky there.

Meanwhile, Chris Hughton is looking to bolster our team with yet more signings before the window shuts in September. Speaking yesterday, he said:

“It’s difficult, but it’s about getting the right players in at the right values.

“We know how difficult the Premier League will be and we know we need to increase the squad.

“We are in the process of hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, doing some business.”

“I think Newcastle will go down, they were the stand-out team in our league but we beat them 3-0 at home and drew at their place. Unless they add ten or 12 squad players they could come down. I wasn’t that impressed with them, although they ran away with the league, when we played them we absolutely battered them here and I think they will struggle.”

Hmm, all because Derby (who incidentally happen to be still in the Championship) beat us once, he thinks anyone else can. We win the league with over 100 pts, he doesn’t mention that either.

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