Despite the breakdown of Kieron Dyer's move to West Ham, Sam Allardyce is happy with the way the Newcastle board do business.

Allardyce: "Yeah relations are fine. They are listening, the process is pretty smooth now.

"I compile a dossier, put together the information on a player and give it to Chris (Mort).

"I then ask them to progress it. I'm talking to Chris once or twice a week at this stage, we all keep up to speed and we all know what's happening and what direction we're moving in.

"We don't want to miss a transfer by miscommunication. There is a lot of disruption by people trying to stop a transfer you're trying to make happen. It was nice to do the Alan Smith deal in one day - it's a miracle!

"It's a difficult period because we have so many balls in the air. Most fall by the wayside but I think it's better to have more feelers out there. The more you have, the more success you will get."