Beattie

Newcastle are trying to sign Rangers duo Barry Ferguson and Madjid Bougherra in a double deal, skysports.com understands. Magpies chief Joe Kinnear is looking to bring a number of new faces into the club during the winter transfer window. The Rangers duo are very high on Kinnear's wanted list and talks began earlier this week. Both midfielder Ferguson and defender Bougherra have Premier League experience with Blackburn and Charlton, respectively, and Kinnear sees the duo as ideal signings. Newcastle are looking to take advantage of Rangers' current financial situation and swoop for the duo. "I have enquired about Ferguson, but we will wait and see what the outcome of that is," said Kinnear. "We are finding it difficult to bring certain players from clubs. Our bids haven't been accepted so far. "The problem is two or three clubs are in for the same players. At the moment, there could be teams bidding more than us. "It would help if I could move some of the players here and get the finances in that way. But we have had no bids for them." Gow offer Rangers boss Walter Smith insists the only bid they have received is from Wolves for Alan Gow, who impressed during a six-month loan stint at Blackpool. "We are not looking for anything else at the moment. With it being the transfer window, there will be speculation," said Smith. "There is nothing we can do about that but we have had no other enquiries for anyone else other than Gow. "We have had one enquiry from Wolves for Alan Gow. Negotiations are ongoing and that is the only enquiry we have had for any player. "There are 28 players on the staff and we have to adjust that number a little bit and we have to wait and see what happens with that over the next few days but, so far, that is the only enquiry we have had for anyone." Smith, though, did concede the club would sell if a deal was too good to turn down. Numbers "There are obviously players in our squad that we wouldn't like to lose," he added. "We were in a situation last year when Alan Hutton was sold to Tottenham. "We didn't want to lose him but the bid was such that we had to take it from a purely financial sense. You can never say that won't happen again. "We would want to try to keep the group who have been involved in playing on a regular basis together and add to that if we can. "First and foremost, we have to adjust the numbers that we have and that's the group who haven't been taking part in a lot of the games." http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_4738893,00.html The whole Ferguson thing is a bit of a bolt from the blue which hadn't really been spoken about that much but the Bougherra thing we obviously all know about.

Where's this from? That article sounds rather.. I dunno. Unprofessional.

Rangers are weighing up a move for Inverness midfielder Don Cowie and St Mirren goalkeeper Mark Howard. (Various) Jesus..

Can we combine the 2 betting threads?

Reading are away to Birmingham. Leeds are away to MK Dons. Wycomble are away to Shrewsbury.

Was looking in work tonight and we've got some interesting specials on the market for McGeady. Got a market for where he'll be at the end of the January window.. he's 4/7 still to be at Celtic. Loan moves don't count, meaning he'd had to move permanently elsewhere for it not to be counted as Celtic. One for the harder hitters given the price but fuck me it's a good shout. Also getting even money for McGeady to be the first to leave Celtic between him, Strachan and Boruc. Artur is 4/1 but I forget what Strachan was.

STEVEN NAISMITH continued his comeback from a serious knee injury today with another goal as Rangers beat an experimental Hamilton side 5-0. The teams met in a closed-doors friendly at Murray Park and the former Kilmarnock forward played almost 70 minutes before coming off. Gers led 1-0 at the break thanks to Nacho Novo's strike before Naismith doubled the advantage with a penalty after DaMarcus Beasley was brought down. It was the 22-year-old's second strike in as many games after he found the net on his return against St Mirren's reserves last Tuesday afternoon. Aaron's brace, one of which came from the spot, and a Kyle Lafferty effort seated this afternoon's victory as assistant manager Ally McCoist looked on. Didn't see this posted.. no doubt a pretty weak side to play against but you would say it's good to see everyone who bagged a goal on the scoresheet.

Gave Strachan dogs abuse on Saturday.. cheeky wee cunt deserves it.

Ladbrokes coupons are a bastard for that.. I don't see why they need to be different. Ladbrokes shops are a fucking nightmare. Their online service is brilliant and are who my account is with, but their shops are brutal.

No offence but backing Barcelona tonight was suicidal. They were already confirmed as group winners and as a result fielded 7 under-21's. Having not come close for a while I was back to the usual 1 doing me tonight.. Burnley.

Alexander didn't put a foot wrong when he was in and to be fair must be wondering how many clangers his competition has to drop before getting another chance.

Stoke just equalised..

Edinburgh derby should be interesting.

2-2.. gutting for Pompey.

Spot on...

I agree completely. Only thing I can think of is that maybe he's showing in reserve games and in training that he isn't as good as we all hope he is.

Think he's just applied. Never know mate you might become this world renowned sports scientist and end up at Old Trafford

Looks to be out for the SEASON. KEVIN THOMSON will learn his fate later today but it looks as though the midfielder's season is over. Thomson suffered considerable knee damage as he tussled for the ball with David Fernandez at Kilmarnock yesterday. He was in major distress as he lay on the Rugby Park turf and had to carried off by stretcher following the incident eight minutes from the end of the 4-0 win. Thomson had been a stand-out in the match but it now looks unlikely he will play again this season, which is a massive blow. Club doctor Paul Jackson accompanied the stricken player to hospital this morning where tests were carried out. The results will be available later today but Rangers are gearing themselves for bad news. MORE ON THIS STORY LATER. Upsetting news.

Boyd and McCulloch are good mates. If Boyd says he was having a laugh with him, then that settles it.

Aye Alex is well at the wind up there.. love it.

Fucking Watford. All my teams are pretty much sewn up and Watford are 3-2 up in the 84th minute. Managed to lose 4-3. Alan Gow with the winner of all people.

Arsenal 4-4 Spurs:cool:

Birmingham, Dundee Utd, St. Johnstone, Leeds and Celtic gave me a nice return today. My mate, however.. was playing on my Ladbrokes account earlier (handed me a tenner so I loaded in funds) and won a grand playing fucking Deal or no Deal. Gonna be gutting withdrawing a grand and handing it to someone else!

Oct 24 2008 by Hugh Keevins WEST BROM will go back in for Rangers’ Kevin Thomson in the January transfer window. The midfielder was a target for Tony Mowbray in the summer and the Midlands club have been monitoring developments since. The return of Barry Ferguson from long-term injury plus the signings of Pedro Mendes and Steve Davis may reduce Thomson’s chances of a regular game at Ibrox. The right transfer fee could tempt Rangers to part with the player they bought from Hibs for Ã?£2million 18 months ago. Thomson has recently had to contend with becoming the victim of mindless vandalism, having had his car daubed with slogans in Edinburgh. Last week in an interview with Record Sport, he told how he hoped not to become part of the Old Firm goldfish bowl. He said: “If I wanted to draw attention to myself I could. But I’m a quiet-living guy.” West Brom have made a decent start to the Premiership after winning promotion last season but last Saturday’s 4-0 hammering from Manchester United convinced Mowbray new signings are necessary. He said: “We know the positions that need to be addressed and we’ll be doing that in January.” Not the most reliable of sources, I know, but still thought it was worth discussing especially considering the whole 'Who gets dropped?' question surrounding Barry's return. Personally I'm a big fan of Thomson and would be sad to see him go especially to a rotten mob like West Brom. I hate how we're so narrow-minded (not so much us as fans but because we know how unambitious our management are with team selections) that it has already been pre-determined someone drops out for Ferguson. Considering our apparent lack of natural width I'd be happy to see Walter try a genuine 4-3-3 (none of this '4-3-3 when attacking and 4-5-1 when defending nonsense) with the 3 consisting of Thomson holding and Ferguson and Mendes further forward with possibly Boyd or Miller as the figurehead and the likes of Lafferty and Novo either side but playing as genuine attacking threats as opposed to in the midfield. But that's just one way of fitting in all 3 . So is it set in stone that Thomson gets dropped? If so, may we aswell cash in on him?

Times like this I hate being a bookie and hence being otherwise engaged most Saturdays