The latest NUFC Fans Forum has now been and gone, with the minutes - including some interesting snippets of information, and some inevitably glaring holes - published online, and among the reassurances that the club are aiming for top ten, and think fan ownership would be a bad idea (seriously? That's a shock!), there's news on the imemdiate future of two new signings. With Newcastle under-strength at the back, and facing a tough season with just three centre-halves - two of whom having already been out injured - reports emerged that Nottingham Forest centre-back Jamaal Lascelles might have been on his way to his new parent club early to cover the gaps in the squad. That would have made perfect sense, since the player isn't getting any playing time at Forest at the minute, and might as well be sitting on the bench at Newcastle. But no - the club confirmed to the forum that there are no plans in place to recall either the centre-half or his goalkeeping team-mate, who will also join Newcastle in the summer: "It was stated that the club are delighted to have secured both Jamaal and Karl Darlow. While they will be big assets to the squad in future, it was not true that they could be recalled from their current loan deals until the end of the 2014/15 season. So no clause was entered into the loan deal to allow a recall, which is a major shame. It's not like the club had any intention of keeping Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, and having pretended to be committed to a replace first, sell second model earlier in the summer, it's unlikely they really intended to replace him. So they probably knew that they would be going into the season with just three centre-halves when Lascelles' deal was cut. If we weren't all Newcastle fans, it'd be hard not to wish something would happen to one of the three centre-backs currently available, just to teach them a lesson.
