Fancy any of these freebies?

Rumour has it that NUFC are looking at players who are out of contract in the summer as part of their recruitment drive.

Fair enough. It makes sense to have a look at what can be had on the cheap, and sometimes you can pick up a real bargain like a Demba Ba for example.

What sort of players can we expect to see on a free transfer though? I mean a lot of people said over the summer that if you pay peanuts you tend to get monkeys or various other ways of suggesting that money had to be spent to acquire quality. I happen to agree, but spending money on transfer fees is not the only way to strengthen a squad as we are witnessing right now.

So given that we scrabbled around in the bargain bin last summer, what can be found this time around?

I've been mooching about and I've found a pretty comprehensive list on transfermarkt.co.uk. Click that link and have a look for yourself. Use the arrows at the bottom right of the list to navigate through to the next page, and use the 'competition' drop down menu to change league. Suffice to say that there is some talent coming to the end of their contracts.

Now taking into account our general policy of recruiting players who have their best years ahead of them I've managed to come up with a few names that I'd be interested in. Now I'm not a football manager, and neither are you, and it's important to remember that this is just about opinions so if you disagree with my picks that is fair enough. Feel free to nominate your own.

England

Junior Hoilett - 21 - Blackburn
Gary Cahill - 25 - Bolton
Solomon Kalou - 26 - Chelsea
Royston Drenthe - 24 - Everton (on loan from Real Madrid)

I'm going to stick with England as I know what the players are like so I can form a better judgement of them and these four are the ones that jump out at me. However I know a lot of you guys have interest in other leagues around the globe so it will be interesting to see what you can come up with. Just remember that any suggestions will have to meet with the criteria that the club has with regards to signings.

Sure it would be nice to grab a Berbatov or someone like that, but the fact is that we aren't going to pay his wages so it's kind of pointless even discussing it. Paying obscene money is not the new Newcastle way anymore.

So go on then, have a look and let us know if you fancy any of them, from whatever league. I've had a quick look at France and nothing jumped out at me and I followed that up by looking at La Liga before visions of Xisco and Luque flashed before my eyes and I gave up.

Happy bargain hunting!