Recently by Luke Edwards

Chris Hughton has got more calls right than wrong since he became Newcastle United's manager and his decision to give Andy Carroll the number nine shirt was a definitely the correct one.

Ok, so a player who has a court case for an alleged assault hanging over him, and one who was involved in a training ground bust up with another teammate last season, may not, on the face of things, seem like the ideal choice to fill such an iconic shirt.

However, with the number comes responsibility and by handing him the famous shirt, Hughton is challenging Carroll to not only score goals for Newcastle United, he is asking him to grow up and take on more responsibility.

There is no doubt the signing of Titus Bramble will divide opinion among Sunderland supporters but will there be a few Newcastle fans who quietly resent seeing their former player turning out for their bitter rivals?

We all know about the Bramble jokes. He became a player people loved to mock, but he was never as unpopular on Tyneside as certain sections of the media made out and he certainly wasn't as bad a player.

With hindsight, Bramble - signed by Sir Bobby Robson who knew a thing or two about players - was perhaps too young at 21 to be thrown straight into a side which was challenging for the Champions League, but he was.

Why on Earth are Sunderland so interested in signing Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck when it has the potential to do far more harm than good to the club's long term future?

We all know Steve Bruce is a wheeler dealer when it comes to making new signings, but I just cannot see the sense in this deal because Sunderland already have Martyn Waghorn's progress to consider.

Effectively, what Sunderland's manager intends to do is help the development of a 19-year-old centre-forward at Manchester United at the expense of a 20-year-old striker who has come through the club's own Academy system.

With adverts for the new Premier League campaign virtually on repeat on any Sky channel we are already been herded up for another gruelling ten months of domestic football.

When the England team fails, we always round on our domestic game, its failings and its shortcomings, the lack of young players coming through and the sheer number of foreign imports blocking their way.

And then.....we forget all about it as soon as we get to within excitement distance of a competitive ball being kicked..

Steve Bruce will be upset by the departure of Lorik Cana although it will have more to do with hurt pride than the damage it will do to Sunderland next season.

It took Cana just a couple of hours on his return to Wearside to ask for a move - a polite way of saying demand in truth - which suggests the talks with Galatasaray were far more advanced than they should have been.

Interesting to see Steve Bruce target a top eight finish for Sunderland this week, while also suggesting it will be virtually impossible to achieve. A novel approach to managing expectations at the Stadium of Light.

To translate, Bruce knows Sunderland aspire to be play European football - Niall Quinn has talked about this happening within the next two years - so he publicly indicates he shares that ambition while simultaneously implying it is unrealistic.

Simple but effective way of balancing the demands of the boardroom with the need to protect your own position.

I don't know enough about James Perch to say he is not going to be a good signing for Newcastle United, but it is slightly worrying to hear Nottingham Forest fans are perfectly happy to see him leave.

Apparently Perch had turned into a bit of a fall guy at Forest last season and the general impression on a brief visit to a fans forum suggests he was a nice guy who was never particularly rated on the pitch.

We came, we saw, we went home again with our tails between our legs and like every England fan I have lurched from mad optimism to bitter pessimism in the time it took Germany to dish out a thrashing. But this was not a bad dream, this is a reoccurring nightmare.

All that is left from this World Cup for England is the post-mortem. There will be plenty of finger pointing and everyone will throw a dice in the blame game trying to come up with an explanation for yet another failure. I'll save some time shall I? The players weren't good enough.

There is a lot to be said for doing things the easy way. It's easier, simplier and more likely to happen for a start.

However, there is also something exhilarating, brilliant and, ultimately, far more satisfying about doing it the hard way which is how England have to look at the rest of the World Cup.

Had those irritating Americans not scored an injury-time winner against Algeria, England would have finished top of their group, played Ghana in the next round and either South Korea or Uruguay in the quarters.

Did you know that the CIA has undercover operatives spying in Britain, despite the so called special relationship between the two countries and the fact we were the only ones stupid enough to ally ourselves with them in the illegal invasion of Iraq?

Well they do. In fact, America has operatives and agents working in virtually every country in the world, regardless of whether they are perceived as friendly or not. Then again, in the interests of balanced reporting I should also point out that so do we!

Every now and again these operatives blow their cover and it causes a bit of a furore so expect Robert Green to return to his American paymasters as soon as the World Cup finishes.