Pap staying put - for now

In today's Shields Gazette, Miles Starforth is reporting that the club yesterday rejected a bid from Turkish side Fenerbahce for Papiss Cisse. That might not be the end of the story, though, with Russian outfit Rubin Kazan rumoured to be lining up their own approach.

The news is a timely reminder that some transfer windows elsewhere in the world are still open, and so, with an owner fond of cash in hand, our squad remains vulnerable. As regards Cisse specifically, there's no doubt he's a player spectacularly out of form - even last year he looked a shadow of the striker who was scoring for fun as we galloped to a hugely creditable fifth place in 2011/2. Even then, though, common sense dictates that it would be a huge mistake to cash in now - even with the arrival of Luuk de Jong we're short of numbers in attack, and wouldn't be able to reinvest the transfer fee in a replacement until the summer. The only problem is that, as ever, common sense is in short supply at St James'.

Fingers crossed any further bids are also rejected and Cisse rediscovers his fitness and touch in front of goal sooner rather than later - and learns the offside rule.