A brilliant Friday to you all - a Friday before a huge weekend of season-ending fixtures. The Championship Playoff final will happen (1500 BST Saturday) and we will know if I get my ultimate wish to see Ian Holloway back in the Premier League (respect and sympathy for Chris Hughton who I would love to see back in the PL as well). The Champions League Final will occur (1945 BST Saturday), and as it no longer directly effects Newcastle United, John can sleep well knowing that his support for any team English will not end up destroying our own Champions League hopes (in fact, it would destroy Tottenham's CL hopes and perhaps remove them as a contender for certain of our players that have been rumored to be Spurs targets. Maybe this is not a bad thing.) Also on the weekend, an Edinburgh derby will be contested for the Scottish Cup (also 1500 BST Saturday), the first time since 1895/96 the two squads have met in the final of this particular competition. Plenty of excitement tomorrow - but that's all non-Newcastle.

Today's news- Davide Santon, Luuk de Jong rumors strengthen just a tad, James Tavernier offered new contract and Newcastle's summer tour plans look to be on the verge of being set. Take the jump and let's see what's going on!

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Right - so we're 3 days into the off season and we still have our squad intact (at least so far as we know). Don't fear though, Toon Fans, August 31 is a long long long way away and there is plenty of time for the repeating cycle that is Newcastle Fandom to repeat itself. In today's links, Demba Ba makes comments sure to warm the souls of the eternal optimists, Alan Smith scores in the League 1 play-offs then gets attacked, and Alan Pardew readjusts my expectations for the summer and we determine that we will never ever know what happened at the end of the Everton match.

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A tremendous season in the Premier League has wrapped up with Europa League qualification. As the close season starts, it's time, as supporters of interlopers in the Top 6, to gird ourselves for the headlines that have already started. If you were unaware, all of our players are leaving, we're never going to survive next year and so on and so forth. "Pardew Fears Toon Exodus" and other similarly doom-saying headlines will be the order of the days to come and every player on the squad would like to go play at a "big club". We are looking at bringing in some excellent players and have some excellent players in the wings. Time will tell how the Toon will deal with the increased fixture load, but for the time being, it's time to enjoy what the lads and Alan Pardew have achieved.

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And that's about as much time as we'll get. After the jump - looking back and looking forward.

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Rockets4LIFE took home the inaugural CHN Predictions League trophy Sunday after basically leading the competition wire to wire. The game was conceived by Rockets, so it's only fitting that he gets to enjoy the first taste of victory. Congratulations to Rockets4LIFE and to all who participated. Here's the final table:

Rockets4LIFE – 64 points
Robert L. Bishop – 48
Other Side of the Pillow – 47
BetterDeadThanRed – 38
bcschles – 37
wuds100 – 33
lowellthehammer – 24
johnjmurphy17 – 24
51dimes – 19
Pradajames – 15
RealDealNeal – 13
MychalShannon1 – 12
johnjahafanclub – 12
Coldson – 9
Ricoz – 8
shuddertothink – 5
sniperinthemist – 2
mjtig – 0

shuddertothink, sniperinthemist, and mjtig: It's been nice knowing you, but you've been relegated to the Leeds United blog. Happy trails!

(jk, obvsly)

Bolton Wanderers were relegated Sunday after failing to record a win against Stoke City on the final day of the season. The game was marred by controversy, as replays showed that Jonathan Walters appeared to knock the ball out of goalkeeper Adam Bogdan's hands for the Potters' first goal.

Bolton spent a lot of time in and around the relegation zone all season long - a 6 match losing streak after an opening day win ensured that - but this wasn't supposed to happen to this team. In 2010-11, Wanderers finished 14th with 46 points and 10th in both goals scored and goals allowed. Not many expected that Bolton would fall backwards so quickly and so dramatically.

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The 2011-12 Premier League season began as one of very little expectation for Newcastle United. Most of those who were really paying attention didn't expect the Toon to be contending (let alone qualified) for Europe, nor did they feel that Newcastle would be caught up in the relegation scrap. The thought was that most likely would be a safe but not spectacular campaign. Over the course of 37 matches, however, this edition of the Magpies had encouraged the Toon Army to dream again. With that came elevated expectations for on-pitch performance which is why this last match of the season was all that much more disappointing.

In all honesty, the Toon have not lost many matches this season. When they have, the failings have been spectacular and it can't be said that the match with Everton did not buck that trend. With it all to play for (and early scores at least suggesting that a dream scenario might be possible), Newcastle came out and were played off the field by the Toffees. Fittingly, the first goal from Everton went in via Mike Williamson's backside fairly early and it was almost all downhill from there in the first 45 minutes. A 2-0 deficit heading into the locker room at halftime was about right, and to make it worse, a Yohan Cabaye shove of a ball boy mid-half typified the attitude that the lads were sporting. Embarassing play and shocking behavior.

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