Vote: Are you satisifed with the progress so far?

I think it's safe to say that there have been some great articles on here over the last few days - articles that have created a debate and response in one form or another. Isn't that the goal?

The one thing that has struck me since, well all summer long actually, has been the divide between fans of NUFC. This isn't a divide about loyalty to the club as even someone with an outlandish view that is the complete polar opposite of your own still wants the club to do well. Instead it's more focussed on the transfer front with, I feel, a lot of different things thrown in on top.

So what happens if you strip it all down and just look at the footballing side of things? How do you think the board have done in that respect? Forget the lies, deceit, the tales of £35 million and expensive free signings. Forget what could have been, what might have been and what might happen in the future. Think of it purely from the point of a fan paying your hard earned to go and watch eleven men kick a ball about and ask yourself if you're satisfied with the football side of things.

Now of course much of this debate is going to be about transfer dealings. Personally I feel that what we've brought in so far has been excellent and the fact that we've done it on a shoestring is even better. I think we have some real class in our side, on paper of course, and that we are in a better shape than what we were last season.

Much will be made of the decision to sell Kevin Nolan, although let's be honest he didn't take much persuasion did he? Losing him is a blow in my opinion, but he is hardly the irreplaceable player that is being made out by some. People will bemoan the fact that we've sold our top scorer, but at the end of the day he scored 75% of his goals when we actually had a goalscorer. Where was he when we needed him?

Our midfield is probably the best that I've seen in a long time at Newcastle. Granted a lot of this is 'on paper' as it's still early days, but from where I'm sitting we have genuine class, pace, creativity and steel throughout the midfield.

Yohan Cabaye is the player that excited me the most. He has the ability to be able to pick a pass from deep. Think Barton but, well, younger and cheaper and with less history...

Sylvain Marveaux is that wide man we have been screaming out for. People will say he hasn't played since November, but at the end of the day he's passed two medicals at two different clubs over the summer. Is it really that much of a concern?

Demba Ba is the one player I have questions about, but only about his fitness. Strange really considering he hasn't missed that many games throughout his career and was a virtual ever present for West Ham last season. One to watch for sure, but if he can steer clear of his injury problems he could well be a twenty goal a season striker, especially with the ammo that will be coming his way from said creative, pacey, and dare I say it, flair midfield.

Yes there is still work to be done in the transfer market. Alan Pardew and John Carver have even said that there is still work to do and they still have the time and resources with which to do it apparently. Wait and see.

We've managed to get some genuine quality through the door and people turn round and say "well what if they don't work out". Fair point, but I would hope our scouting network would have looked at the players in question and judged their ability to perform in the Premier League - something which if we'd done under Shepherd I'm convinced would have made us potent.

Football is great as we all have an opinion on the way things should be done, but I sometimes think that people tend to snowball everything into one and use that massive snowball to cloud opinions on other things. Let it all go and think about the football for a moment.

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