The fee involved is officially undisclosed although it is rumoured to be in the region of £3 million. It is another deal that Newcastle have made a profit on having signed the striker from Coventry for an undisclosed fee of around £1.5 million during our Championship season.
All in all I wish Leon Best success in the future. He scored some important goals for us and filled in after Andy Carroll left for Liverpool and whilst Demba Ba was away at the African Cup of Nations. All in all he scored 10 goals in 39 appearances for us which doesn’t sound so impressive, but when you consider the fact that he didn’t score in his first 13 (Championship) appearances and that a lot of his appearances have been as a sub it starts to look a bit better.
A willing worker who rarely causes off-field problems, Best will be tasked with trying to help fire Blackburn Rovers to promotion. He is undoubtedly a better player now than when we signed him so the drop down a division, combined with regular football he would be unlikely to get at St James’ Park could be good for him and his career.
As mentioned previously he signed from Coventry City in the January of our promotion season and failed to find the net in his 13 Championship appearances for the club. He was forced into action again when West Ham turned up at St James’ Park and was given his first Premier League start, which was marked with a stunning hat-trick. That was in January 2011 but by mid-March he suffered an injury which ruled him our for the rest of the season, which was a shame after he’d scored six goals in ten starts.
Best returned to action this season and scored both goals in a 2-1 victory against Fulham, an equaliser at Aston Villa and the winner in a 1-0 win against Queens Park Rangers. Once again though his season ended prematurely as a injury took hold again.
The most appropriate way to sum Leon Best up, for me anyway, is by wishing him nothing more than success in the future. He wasn’t a bad player for us but at the end of the day there are also better available and we should be looking to recruit those to make the step up to a higher level and increase strength in the squad.
From a transfer perspective though we now definitely need another striker as our pool is starting to look light on numbers. We have Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba, who are both likely to be playing at the African Cup of Nations later on in the season, plus Shola Ameobi. Beyond that though we are looking at youth and reserve players like Nile Ranger, who may not even be at the club for much longer, hopefully!
Anyway, thank-you Leon Best and good luck at Blackburn Rovers.
by @SkySportsChrisB 7:03 PM reports that toon have ended the chase for jong after haveing there final bid turned down and will not over pay for him
icedog(Quote)
3mill 😯 we couldnt give shola away.
the lad gave his best and didnt seem to cause any bother,just not good enough ime afraid,good luck to him
icedog(Quote)
Yep not really good enough for us now, but done a job when called upon and dragged us out the shyte after the gypo ****** off to Liverpool.
All the best, Best 😉
toonsy(Quote)
@ Ice
: (
floydy(Quote)
If hed learn to time his runs off the last man he could have been good enough for the big time, He was decent enough with both feet, Not bad in the air and his hold up and link play was ok.
Blackburn have bought well so far with Best and Murphy but i still think they will struggle with Kean in charge the guy is so far out of his depth its cringeworthy…
CC(Quote)
Good luck to you, Leon. I like the kid & hope he does well.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Mathieu Debuchy @MathieuDebuchy
if Newcastle United sign up Douglas,Teixeira ,Luuk de Jong and a few others im not gonna lie im getting overly exited about the season ahead
hitman(Quote)
So long Best you tried your best but that just wasn’t good enough 😉 onwards and upwards.
Big Dave(Quote)
Hitman where is that from because they have it down as Douglas, Teixeira as if they are 2 different people 🙄
Big Dave(Quote)
😆 😆 😆 Hitman thats a fake account 😳
Big Dave(Quote)
Alreet lads, how’s everyone doing?
Been off the blog for a fair old while, finishing off Uni and the like so i’ve not kept up with the blog much or Newcastle in general so I’m pretty shocked to see this headline 😯
Wish Bestie all the best, went from being a clown to cult hero in my eyes, obviously not on the same scale as Colo but I really did think (and still do think) that he’s a good player, he was never going to be prolific but his workrate and hold up play were top notch and its ridiculous how he wasn’t in the Irish squad imo. Hope he does well, but not too well as quite frankly I still fecking hate blackburn…
Newkie(Quote)
Hitman sorry that one might be right there was another couple of fake ones floating about yesterday 😕
Newkie you need to keep up
Big Dave(Quote)
Sorry Dave, going through the backlog of what I’ve missed right now 😎
Newkie(Quote)
Congratulations to Leon Best, I think he served the toon well, and 10 goals ion 39 starts is a good record imo.. The lad has really quick feet, and scored some great goals for the toon, good luck Leon..
Giving up the chase on De Jong, and getting rid of Best all on the same day, something isn’t right there… 😉 😉 We’re really short on strikers now with Best and Loven gone, and the prospect of Ba and Cisse going missing for 6 weeks in Jan… That just leaves Shola the makkem slayer as back-up…not too good … 🙁 🙁
Munich Mag(Quote)
MM – Aye I reckon the same thing. They wouldn’t let go of Best unless they were confident they had someone lined up to replace him/be better than him IMO.
May take a while to get said player but I reckon they are on to something.
toonsy(Quote)
nar dave thats his real twatter m8.
fknos but it sounds promising
hitman(Quote)
why let best go with oot having somone in the bag
hitman(Quote)
I just get a funny feeling that LDJ could be a smokescreen as we don’t normally work that way.
Toony hows young Billy and the Lass doing ❓
Big Dave(Quote)
Toonsy, there’s gotta be something going on, we’re way too lightweight up front at the mo…. 🙄
Munich Mag(Quote)
Dave – I get what your saying about the smokescreen bit, and it may well be, but if you think about it, what have the club actually said or done to confirm anything, or deny anything? Even his agent doesn’t really mention us by name which makes me wonder….
Which brings me to Hitman’s point…. I reckon they have someone lined up already.
toonsy(Quote)
exactly MM theres somthing in the offing
hitman(Quote)
Dave – They are both fine bud. He’s 11 weeks old tomorrow. Flying by 😯
toonsy(Quote)
defo toonsy,there fkin has to be.
but then again this is lameass and ashley
hitman(Quote)
Where’s Richietoon these days, still blootered from all that partying down Spain way ? 😆 😆
Munich Mag(Quote)
Surely even if LDJ doesn’t work out then it suggests confidence in Ba staying? Hopefully…
Newkie(Quote)
We could buy Vossen for £5m – £6m as a replacement for Best.
Buy Debuchy for RM , play Jonas at RB and replace Loven with Obertan up front.
If we lose Ba , and De Jong stays at Twente , we can go back in for De Jong in January when his value will be down to about £5m.
sidekick(Quote)
See them lot on lifes a pitch think theres a 50/50 chance of Colo to city…seems unlikely to me, but one player out wouldn’t surprise me…for bigger money than best.
Newkie(Quote)
They’ve always struck me as a bit muggish anyway….and they make Lawro seem lively.
Newkie(Quote)
good luck Leon
billquaymag(Quote)
So when’s this £3m for Best gonna get reinvested into the team? 😯
witters(Quote)
WITTERS,its spent mate on the trip to see the dutch birds couple of nightclubs 😉
icedog(Quote)
Toonsy ,Did you see my post about the shirt?
kimtoon(Quote)
KIM i saw it 😀 come on toonsy give the lass a answer,you never been slow in the past talking to women richie told me 😀
icedog(Quote)
Ice ,you spying on me again 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
KIM not really just watching for the thread your writeing 😆
icedog(Quote)
Think we will regret this and losing Guthrie, definitely good squad players and we will be worse off without them both. Good luck all the same to them both
cornish-magpie(Quote)
Kim Ice has his eyes on you Lass 😆 and meant to ask have you decided what your 1st article is going to be about ❓ or will you just go with the flow
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave @37, Think I might go with the merits of using a saucy pic as your avatar 😉
Ice@35 Your persistent ,I’ll give you that. 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
KIM see even dave is waiting for your thread,not that we would push you like
but you do know we are only trying to get you to be able to join the 500 club 😀
icedog(Quote)
Kim I did tell you 😆 if you can’t find the other one I would suggest you take a new one 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
ICE 😆
kimtoon(Quote)
Dave ,Camera phone is playing up 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
Ice if she gets that saucy pic up we could think about voting her in to the 500 club 😉 then when she does her 1st thread we could keep it going until she becomes a fully qualified member of the 500 club
Big Dave(Quote)
You’ll have to make do with Lewis WHEN the shirt arrives. 😀
kimtoon(Quote)
I’m not even gonna ask what the 500 club is . 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
I would usually come out with a comment of ‘for £3million I’ll drive him there myself’. But I don’t think Best is actually that bad and that is probably what you have to pay these days to get a striker like him. He never really had the breaks at Newcastle or broke into the ‘top 2’ strikers at the club which might have given him more confidence. He had that dry spell at the end of the championship season but all strikers get those, look at Demba Ba and Torres even. Overall I think Best and Lovenkrands were great signings for the club that chipped in with the odd goal and were value for the money. Good look to Leon and I hope he does well for the Venkeys. 🙂
DJG(Quote)
Kim its all good 😉 what side was that panorama on, im watching some crazy guy on a bmx on ch 4 the guy is amazing
Big Dave(Quote)
KIM Dave is chairman,ime vice chairman Richie is secretary as he always writes guff,so there is the treasurer job going,Batty wanted it but we will say no more on that 😉
icedog(Quote)
looks like weve had a 8 mill euro bid excepted for douglas 😕
batty(Quote)
Dave it was on BBC1 at 8pm ,was interesting too.
Batty ,Where did you hear that from?
kimtoon(Quote)
Ice ,I’m not good with money mate ,slips through me fingers for some reason. 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
Ice 😆 😆 speak of the devil and batty appears 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
kim http://web10.elfvoetbal.nl/nieuws/196791_jans-verliest-aanvaller-aan-concurrent
batty(Quote)
Kim ide watch these 2 they are on aboot the swinging 500 club they both attend 😉
batty(Quote)
DAVE aye he has with the wrong player or the wrong fee
KIM dont worry dave has a good net 😉
icedog(Quote)
Undoubtablely we now need another senior striker in the close season. What I will be interested to see is if it is another stop gap Sibierski, Lovenkrands, Best type … or someone that is gonna come in and challenge Demba and Cisse. LDJ would have been good but like people have said it doesn’t look hopefull.
DJG(Quote)
Hello
toonsy(Quote)
Batty 😯 Wow ,you know i’ve had a sheltered life ,I’ve never heard the like.
Ice @55 I’ll have a soft landing then. 😀
kimtoon(Quote)
Batts @ 53 never heard owt about him 😕
Big Dave(Quote)
http://web10.elfvoetbal.nl/nieuws/196781_twente-accepteert-bod-van-newcastle-en-lijkt-douglas-kwijt here dave ya lazy fcker 🙂
batty(Quote)
TOONSY your ears burning like 😀
icedog(Quote)
Kim you stick with us and you’ll remain sheltered , and wont let Batts lead you astray.
Toonsy hows Europe going ? not pissed off with driving yet
Big Dave(Quote)
Batty @60 I wouldn’t take too much notice of what it says in that link mate. It’s just a typical misleading headline that newspapers write to attract a bit more attention (the editor of one of the other NUFC blogs tends to do the same sort of thing 😉 ).
The headline does say that Twente have accepted a bid, but I can’t see anything in the article to substantiate that claim. As far as I can see it just says that Douglas SEEMS to have got the transfer he wanted, according to various reports in the English media. In other words, there’s no substance to the story whatsoever.
Chris G(Quote)
Ice – Am I being talked about again? Must be popular. Glad I can fill a void in other peoples life 😆
Dave – It’s just a job now bud. Novelty has gone. Only so many times you can see the Eiffel Tower and things like that. The money keeps me going though 🙂
Kim – Funnily enough I e-mailed you just before I read your comment. I shall kick some **** and get it sorted 🙂
toonsy(Quote)
Nee avatar for me anymore by the way. The comment made at 22:27 wasn’t actually me, I was sound asleep, so somebody is trying to play funny buggers 🙄 I’ve had to change my e-mail address or the other choice was doing what Ed does and make everyone log in to post a comment.
toonsy(Quote)
Toonsy….Can someone nick an avatar and name?(well obviously they have) but didn’t think they’d be able too. I’ve nicked Ice’s avatar before but only had it with my username.
Are you back to the “blakey” avatar as thats the only one that ever shows for me anyway, but it’s also the one that has shown @57 😕
richietoon(Quote)
Best has an amazingly quick turn that reminded me of Gerd Muller from the 70s.
brisvegas(Quote)
Looking like the Toon are going to block Cisse playing in the Olympics…..allegedly 😯
richietoon(Quote)
Sad to Best go… seemed like a good bloke and a good team man…
I see there are no signings today….. I hope Ice doesn’t take the lost bet too hard
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Rich – Nah. I have no avatar now 🙁
toonsy(Quote)
Toonsy…I mean the imposter at 57 shows as Blakey for me, as does ya comment @64..no avatar at 65 though…..unless “no avatar” Toonsy is the fake 😯 😆
richietoon(Quote)
Aussie….what was the exact bet again, 3 out 2 in?
richietoon(Quote)
spot on Rich… it was supposed to be by the end of last week but I extended it 48hrs…. not a bet I am really happy to be winning, would rather we signed someone. Still I will have to give Ice some grief 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
beer o clock
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Did Colo’s new contract not start on the 1st, counts as a signing, shirley? 😉 😆
It’s looking like if LDJ wanted to come here, he’d have to try and force thru a move……maybe 😕
richietoon(Quote)