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.
I’d normally say have one for me, but Fosters is like gnats **** 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Good luck to Best, always put the effort in and started season well up front with Ba – personally liked the bloke and seemed a good lad tho I’ll prob have to ditch my leonbestismint t-shirt
We’ve lost Guthrie, Smith, Loven, Best from first team squad, we def need to bolster with more quality
stevep(Quote)
Batty,
That article just says, “apparently a bid has been accepted for Douglas according to the English Media”.
We all know there isn’t a British journalist who knows **** all about what is happening at the Toon. Incredibly I find the most reliable Lee Ryder and then Scott Wilson… Mark Douglas and the rest know absolutely nothing…
JJ(Quote)
I also just don’t see us paying 8mil euros for someone with a year left on his contract… There is just no way.
JJ(Quote)
Luke Edwards is still saying the club are confident on De Jong 😕 Twente are entitled to ask as much as they want for their players but it seems risky to me to knock back €17m for two players with a year left on their contracts, If they leave on a bosman they would more than likely not recieve a penny as douglas is over 23 and De Jong would almost certainly sign for a club in another country which would stop them getting compensation.
Think about it Schteve…
CC(Quote)
I thought De Jong had 2 years left?…maybe wrong 😕
richietoon(Quote)
Well if thats the case del boy might as well give chleski the £10m burning a hole in his pocket and get Sturridge… 😉
CC(Quote)
True, but think he’d pick spuds over us…as Londons such a great place to be 🙄
richietoon(Quote)
Is he actually going there or is it lazy journos putting 2+2 together becuase AVB used to rate him…
CC(Quote)
lazy journos 😯 probably, I thought he didn’t get on with AVB(assuming he’s manager) as he kept playing him on the wing 😕
I thought you still had to pay compo to clubs for young players, at least from EU countries, didn’t we have to pay summat for Olivier Bernard?
richietoon(Quote)
Aye he did play him there but he is isnt getting played at all now, I cant remember mate i remeber when wham tried to steal Bernard for nowt and got stopped, Im just going off when Celtic signed matthews and ledley from cardiff and didnt have to pay owt because fifa have a cross border policy for bosmans…
CC(Quote)
God knows mate, might try and read up on it later if I remember 😐
richietoon(Quote)
Good luck at Blackburn Leon thank you for your effort in a black and white shirt. The blackburn fans will love His steely determination,remember the fightback against Arsenal and the hat trick against West Ham, he proved to be a far better and more reliable player than the malignant waste of space Michael Owen and we’ve sold him at a profit. I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing him a successful future. 😉
Tommy Gibb(Quote)