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They’d finished third the season previously in their first season back in the top flight, but it’s easy to forget that Newcastle United spent most of the 1980s and the early 90s either floating around the lower half of the top division or floundering in the second one.

So when Kevin Keegan decided that the time was right to sell Andy Cole to Manchester United in February 1995 there was dismay around the club.

As a huge club in a devoted city, Newcastle have always had the set-up for success, but it rarely worked that way. And selling Cole, a man they bought when still in the second tier, seemed more than a little bit negative. For a club with ambition, it was the wrong move.

Even if, before the turn of the new year, Kevin Keegan’s side were out of the title race, perhaps winning the league was still slightly beyond a team who had just come up from Division One just over a year ago. But after a third-place finish in their first season back, they had to avoid becoming just another flash in the pan.

Even after selling Cole to United, the striker still finished as the Magpies’ top scorer in all competitions with 15 goals until his sale. Newcastle slumped to sixth that year, and the decline seemed inevitable.

It’s an event that probably shows that, in football, you can’t have everything. Cole was clearly Newcastle’s most effective player, but if a newly-promoted club – perhaps Newcastle themselves this season – came third in their first Premier League season, you’d probably expect their best striker and top scorer to end up at a club like Manchester United.

It was probably also a rude awakening to a new financial reality for many fans. Newcastle had missed out on the first Premier League season as they were in the second tier, and as a result, they’d missed out on a lucrative season in a league that was formed almost solely for financial gain.

And so when Manchester United were prepared to break the British record to sign Cole for £6m plus Keith Gillespie, Newcastle had to try to persuade the fans that if it was a step backwards, the idea was to get a running start.

But perhaps the most tragic aspect, looking back, was the Gillespie element. Persuading your fans that the sale of your best player is actually in the club’s best interests is a tough sell at the best of times, but sometimes getting a player in exchange just makes things worse. After all, there’s a reason Gillespie was offloaded by Alex Ferguson – he didn’t want him.

Such exchanges rarely work out, probably because the player you’re getting is never as good as the player you sold. Antonio Nunez came to Liverpool as part of the deal that took Michael Owen to Real Madrid, but rather than star for his new team, he became the subject of ridicule more than anything else.

Gillespie, however, wasn’t that ineffective, and Newcastle weren’t about to flop.

A sixth place finish without Cole meant narrowly missing out on a place in the UEFA Cup, and perhaps the lack of European football was a blessing in disguise for the Magpies. The summer saw the signings of David Ginola and Les Ferdinand, who would team up with Alan Shearer and serve as the ideal replacement for Cole.

Kevin Keegan’s side, in the end, didn’t really lose out by selling their best player, and in some respects they gained, as evidenced by their two second places in a row – their best Premier League finishes ever and their best league finishes since 1927 when they actually won the league for the last time.

Gillespie, too, played over 100 games for the club, assisting two of Faustino Asprilla’s three goals against Barcelona in the Champions League, a game which surely takes pride of place in the memories of Newcastle United fans when they look back on that period of time when Kevin Keegan had taken their club to dizzying heights and shown the footballing world that a newly-promoted team could play entertaining, attacking football and succeed – even if Manchester United somehow managed to overcome the Magpies with a frustrating regularity – and the arrival of Arsene Wenger relegated Newcastle to the supporting cast role in the Premier League.

The idea of selling your best player is always a tough one to take, even when transfer records are broken in the process. But being able to get a running financial start at building a side which could keep the pace at the top of the table for an entire season and possibly even win the league (as Newcastle should have done the next season) is smart business if done right.

When Newcastle sold Andy Cole, that’s what they did, and when Keegan resigned in 1997, the club couldn’t reach those heights again as losing the manager was more problematic than losing their striker.

West Ham United drew 3-3 with German side Altona 93 in their latest pre-season friendly on Tuesday, and Irons fans were once again impressed with the performance of new boy Marko Arnautovic.

The east London outfit completed an initial £20m deal to bring the forward to the London Stadium from Stoke City last month and he has already made a big impression on the pitch after previously scoring on his full debut.

The Austria international didn’t get on the score-sheet in his side’s draw in Hamburg on Tuesday, but the 28-year-old couldn’t have come much closer after rattling the post with a brilliant free-kick.

West Ham supporters were quick to have their say on the performances of Arnautovic via social media, and they are certainly impressed with his attributes, with some even saying that he is a bit like Zlatan Ibrahimovic with his style of play and mannerisms.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

According to reports in The Mirror, Tottenham Hotspur are ready to revive their interest in Lazio forward Keita Balde Diao as they are willing to offload Vincent Janssen following a disappointing first season with the club.

The Mirror says that the 22-year-old Serie A star, who was born in Spain but represents Senegal at international level, is keen to leave Lazio as he has so far refused to extend his contract which is due to run out next summer.

The report says that Juventus lead the chase for the attacker, who can play as a striker and scored 16 goals in all competitions last term including eight in the final six matches of the campaign, but that he is interested in a move to the Premier League where he has seen international teammates like Sadio Mane flourish.

Tottenham supporters were quick to have their say on the rumour via social media, and they have urged the club to get the deal done with some saying that he could be Spurs’ Mane, while others feel he is exactly what they need.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

According to reports in the Daily Mail, Chelsea have launched a £25m offer for Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Blues boss Antonio Conte is keen to provide competition for Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses in the wing-back positions and he sees the 23-year-old – who played on the left in the Community Shield win against the Premier League holders at Wembley on Sunday but has mainly featured on the right – as the man to answer his problem.

Oxlade-Chamberlain has just one year remaining on his Gunners contract and is yet to come close to signing a new one, but the Daily Mail says that Arsenal have rejected the initial advances of their London rivals despite the fact that they could lose the England international for nothing in 2018.

Chelsea supporters were quick to have their say on the rumour via social media, and they were largely divided with their opinions.

While some are hoping that they story is true as they feel he would be a good addition, others feel that “Moses is better” and that Oxlade-Chamberlain would be a “waste of money”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

With the transfer window due to close on Thursday, bets are being placed here, there and everywhere on players potentially moving clubs.

One man who has dominated the transfer gossip columns this summer is Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez, who has been heavily linked with a move to Manchester City.

Bookmaker Sky Bet have the North-West outfit as favourites to nab the Chile international’s signature, with the odds moving from 1/2 to 4/9 throughout the day.

The shift in the betting market comes after numerous media outlets, including BBC Sport, reported that City are determined to make a move for Sanchez before this week’s deadline.

Pep Guardiola is understood to be willing to use Raheem Sterling in a player-plus-cash deal that would result in the former Liverpool winger moving to the Emirates.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has maintained that Sanchez will not be leaving the club this summer, but the player’s unwillingness to sign a new contract speaks volumes.

The 28-year-old is currently in the final year of his deal, which means that he could leave the club for free at the end of the season.

It would be a huge blow for Arsenal to lose him without getting any financial boost given his influence in the team.

Last season, Sanchez scored 24 goals and produced 10 assists in the Premier League.

Tottenham’s trip to West Ham this weekend is partly a quest for revenge as far as Spurs are concerned.

Last season, though in reality just months ago, Mauricio Pochettino’s side traveled to the London Stadium for the first time in a game they had to win to keep up any pretence of a title challenge. In the end, they lost to a late Manuel Lanzini strike and their title tilt dissipated under the floodlights of the new Hammers home.

The reality is perhaps slightly more nuanced. In the end, it wasn’t really that one defeat which gifted Chelsea the title, and even if Spurs had won the game they would still have finished second in the league barring a Chelsea collapse.

Most likely, they’d have finished four points back instead of seven, but no-one will remember the number in the years to come. They might, harshly enough, remember West Ham as the team that ended their chances, though. Such is football’s selective memory.

Head to head – Spurs Dominance

Despite being a Premier League fixture for the vast majority of the Premier League years, it’s still unsurprising that Tottenham have the edge in this one. Despite being a firmly established and upward looking Premier League side, West Ham have spent years fighting the drop or settling for midtable finishes.

But while the stats bear that out – 20 wins for Spurs to West Ham’s 14, ten more goals for the north London club and the fact that West Ham have won under half of their derby games at home – they aren’t hideously one-sided.

Over the last few years especially, Spurs have been by far the more successful side in the league, finishing in the Champions League spots and finding themselves in title contention two years in a row. And yet West Ham will always raise their game for an occasion like this one, especially in front of their home crowd. And indeed, West Ham’s seven red cards to Tottenham’s two probably tells you all you need to know about where the emotion lies.

Top scorer – Teddy Sheringham

A jaunt through the top scorers list for this Premier League fixture throws up quite a striking find: the top five scorers are all feted Spurs strikers. From the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann and Dimitar Berbatov on three goals, to Jermaine Defoe and Teddy Sheringham, who tops the list with eight, each one has pulled on the Lilywhite shirt with distinction.

But the interesting part is the fact that the top two on the list, Sheringham and Defoe, are Old Boys of both clubs, with strikes in this London derby for both teams. Perhaps that hints that neither side has had a dominant striker. Until now.

This weekend, Harry Kane can level Defoe’s tally with another goal in a London derby. He’s only had a few years at the top and scoring goals, but Kane is already closing in on the legends of this fixture, and his London derby goal tally is already superb. Pretty soon we could be talking about Kane as the undisputed top scorer in games between West Ham and Spurs, and the frightening thing is he’s only 24.

Unforgettable match – Lasagna-gate

There may have been more pulsating, more jaw-dropping games of football between these two irrepressible rivals, but nothing stands out for drama and historical curiosity as the 2006 showdown between the two on the final game of the season.

Needing a win to ensure fourth place and Champions League football ahead of their north London rivals Arsenal, Spurs had to travel to Upton Park to face another bitter London rival West Ham at the Boleyn Ground. The night before the game, in a London hotel, as many as ten of Tottenham’s players were struck down by a stomach bug hiding in a badly-cooked lasagna.

Michael Carrick, Edgar Davids and Robbie Keane, to name just a few, were all taken ill but forced to start the final game of the season, attempting to win or simply match Arsenal’s result in order to make it to the Champions League the next season. But a patched-up team failed to overcome their final hurdle as Arsenal beat Wigan 4-2 in their final ever game at Highbury to overtake Spurs on the line and pip them to fourth spot. Food poisoning is no laughing matter. Right, West Ham fans?

Shared hero – Scott Parker

Honourable mentions must go to some of the strikers listed above who have graced both teams. Teddy Sheringham is a real Spurs legend, but was in the twilight of a glittering career when he joined the Hammers. Jermain Defoe, on the other hand, played for West Ham at a very different part of his career-span, but his behaviour in refusing a new contract and suffering disciplinary issues in his final season at the club didn’t sit well with Hammers fans, even if all of that is now a decade ago.

Perhaps, then, the most heroic player to have played for both clubs in the Premier League era is Scott Parker. The only man to have played for North, South, East and West London clubs in the Premier League is also the last man to have won the Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year whilst wearing a West Ham shirt and winning three consecutive Hammer of the Year awards to boot.

Although Parker only spent two seasons at White Hart Lane, his contribution – in the first season especially – was immense, and he was rewarded with a place in the PFA Team of the Year and a fourth place finish in the Premier League, though once again Spurs missed out on Champions League football as Chelsea’s European Cup victory forced the Lilywhites into the Europa League. He is now back at the club in a coaching capcity.

Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has confirmed that Matt Ritchie and Christian Atsu are expected to be fit for the club’s Premier League match against Southampton a week on Sunday, reports the Chronicle.

What’s the latest?

Question marks were raised when Ritchie and Atsu were forced to withdraw from international duty with Scotland and Ghana respectively.

Ritchie is said to have been struggling with a thigh injury following last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool, while Atsu has a knee problem.

Despite not being deemed fit enough for their nations, the duo are likely to be available for selection in nine days’ time when the team take on Southampton on the South Coast.

What’s the bad news?

The Chronicle claims that Atsu has been delaying possible surgery on his knee problem by having injections to make sure that he can play.

The publication states that if the midfielder were to go under the knife, then he would be facing a three-month layoff.

That is concerning news for the club given that it is likely at some point that Atsu will require the operation.

The 25-year-old has shown significant improvement this season after joining the club on a permanent basis from Chelsea.

So far, the Ghanaian has scored one goal and produced one assist in seven Premier League appearances.

According to reports in The Mirror, Newcastle United striker Aleksandar Mitrovic is a January target for Premier League rivals Brighton and Hove Albion, and Magpies fans have been quick to have their say on the rumour.

The Mirror says that Seagulls boss Chris Hughton sent his scouts to watch the Serbia international in action for his country in their 3-2 defeat against Austria on Friday, as he looks to boost a frontline that has scored just five goals in their opening seven top flight fixtures this season in the New Year.

Even though the 23-year-old has scored two goals in two appearances in all competitions for Rafa Benitez’s men this term, his future has once again been brought into doubt because of his poor temperament after he was handed a retrospective three-match ban for elbowing West Ham United’s Manuel Lanzini in August.

Newcastle supporters took to social media to give their thoughts on the news, and while some said they should “ask for £30m” after Brighton refused to sell Anthony Knockaert to them previously, others said “they can have him”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

According to reports in the Daily Mail, West Ham United are ready to offer striker Diafra Sakho a new contract if he continues to perform, and Irons fans have produced a mixed reaction to the rumour.

Despite missing the majority of last season through injury and then trying to force an exit during the summer window by completing a medical with French side Rennes when the Hammers hadn’t agreed to sell him, it seems as though he could be in line to extend his stay at the London Stadium.

While he is yet to start a Premier League game under Slaven Bilic this season, the 27-year-old scored in both of his appearances in the EFL Cup and he netted the last-gasp winner at home to Swansea City before the international break, in which he also netted an important goal for Senegal.

West Ham supporters were quick to have their say on the story via social media, and while some said it was “excellent news”, others weren’t as happy and described him as “lazy, disinterested and greedy”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

Manchester United supporters have backed Romelu Lukaku to return to the scoresheet in Tuesday night’s Champions League clash with Benfica.

After a blistering start to his United career, Lukaku has now gone five games without a goal for the Red Devils.

That has led to some criticism of the 24-year-old, which prompted United boss Jose Mourinho to leap to his defence during Monday’s pre-match press conference.

Indeed, Mourinho claimed that Lukaku, who is rated at £63m by transfermarkt.co.uk, should be immune from criticism due to what he brings to the team, in addition to branding the Belgian ‘untouchable’.

United’s official Twitter account posted the view of Mourinho on Monday afternoon, and the majority of the club’s fans agreed with what their manager had to say.

Indeed, many are backing Lukaku to return to the scoresheet in Tuesday’s clash with Benfica, where the Red Devils will look to book their spot in the knockout round of the competition with two matches to spare.

A selection of the best reaction can be found here: