Newcastle have been at it again! Swooping for Sylvain Marveaux on a Bosman free. The former Rennes attacking midfielder was expected to be a Liverpool signing but it failed at the last hurdle.

The 25 year old denied that it was for medical reasons but that basically the Toon had offered better terms.

“I do not want to go into details, but I did not sign for Liverpool because there was a contractual disagreement between the parties Thursday night.”

Pardew was delighted with the capture of new signing Sylvain Marveaux, “It’s a great coup to have signed Sylvain, who has received interest from a number of other clubs.”

“He may not be well known to many of our fans but he is a real talent and a player we have been keeping an eye on for some time.

“It’s been a good couple of days for us on the transfer front.”

It will be a great feeling to Newcastle fans that we have pulled one over Liverpool who took Andy Carroll off our hands together with Kenny Dalglish constantly being linked to our players. To have outdone them in the contract offer stakes certainly feels good.

It is yet another bit of great business. It is sad that Kevin Nolan has left but clearly there are other plans at Newcastle underway in which Nolan did not fit into. To have thrown a 5 year contract at Nolan, the terms he wanted, would have been a mistake for a player that likely would not feature too heavily in a starting eleven next season. An awkward situation for a club captain to be in.

That then puts focus onto both Joey Barton and Enrique the former declaring he would now love to fulfill his ambition to play in the Champions League with Newcastle United. At this stage even for the most devoted of fans that appears to be someway off yet.

Jose Enrique on the other hand is still ignoring the club and is now being heavily linked for a move to Arsenal as a replacement for the likely outbound Gael Clichy. The interest from both Liverpool and Arsenal will likely allow the club to get a size-able fee for Enrique should he decide to leave. This would allow further funds to be freed up for transfers.

We can’t complain it is what we all want signings, but so many of the core players from the previous two seasons leaving makes integration of those players a harder and significantly riskier task. The work ethic that had been made up could erode away. A certain Arsenal match in which Joey and Kevin propelled a magnificent comeback that will forever live in the memory. Would that happen without them? Still as we know all players have a value and a sell by date.

There is certainly some great business being done by Newcastle in the free transfer market and a squad that was shown up for depth now has an injection of improvement in terms of its raw talent. The squad is shaping up to be pacey something Pardew has always made bones about.

Thats 3 players we have now signed of French descent in Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba and Sylvain Marveaux. A total official cost of £4.3 million. However that won’t be the real figure as we likely had to pay signing on fee’s to the free transfers instead of their clubs. Not to mention higher wages. But it probably makes for a less risky transfer strategy.

That still leaves £30 million of transfer funds from the Andy Carroll sale because we would have been able to afford a few signings this summer even with that sale. We also got £4 million for Kevin Nolan which takes it back up to £34 million plus any further sales of Best, Ranger, Enrique and Barton. That could bring in a further £15-20 million. Not bad to be able to go shopping for 2 top notch bums on seats strikers.

It is likely we are going to sign two strikers as well because reading between the lines with Demba Ba and the fact that he is a bit like Mr Glass he won’t be a first team starter but more a fantastic squad option. It seems likely given the fact he took the number 19 shirt.

Things have certainly turned around the last few days after the doom and gloom from some supporters over Nolans departure.