Leon Best – Is he good enough? Vote now!

Can Best be the main man?
It’s fair to say that Newcastle aren’t blessed with having a natural successor to the number nine shirt.

In fact the way that I am feeling now I reckon that we might as well retire it as it clearly only really means anything to us fans – a particularly raw point after the departure of Andy Carroll to Liverpool, especially after we repeatedly heard how he was living the dream in our number nine shirt amongst other stuff.

However, we are having to struggle on after the departure of Andy Carroll, although to be fair we would have had to struggle on anyway as the Judas has been out for ten weeks with a thigh injury. It has presented an opportunity to other players though, and I’m looking squarely in the direction of Leon Best when I say that.

Best has had his critics since he arrived at Newcastle from Coventry City for a fee of anywhere between £500,000-£2 million depending on what you read. He struggled to fit into the side mainly because Carroll and Peter Lovenkrands were doing so well last season, which meant that the lad had to watch from the sidelines. Never upset a winning team and all that claptrap.

He was arguably our best player in pre-season and scored against Carlisle and PSV Eindhoven before suffering an ankle injury that kept him sidelined for the first four months of the season. He was, harshly in my opinion, branded a failure as he hadn’t done anything at Newcastle, but then again he had never been given the chance to do anything really. Judging a player on only a handful of substitute appearances is the wrong thing to do in my opinion.

Fast forward a few months and Leon is getting his chance, and boy is he taking it. Six goals in ten appearances is probably more than any of us had hoped for, but it’s his all round play that has impressed me more than anything. He can run, head, shoot, finish, hold up play and spot a pass, and he has improved since he was first given the nod for the first team by Alan Pardew.

But is he good enough?

I don’t want to sound critical of Best, but I just don’t think that he is the man to take us forward. Now I know that he has done brilliantly and has proved to be a more than able deputy in the last few games, but would you be happy to rely on Best for next season as well?

Where would you put Leon Best in the grand scheme of things? Would you be looking for someone to play next to him so he could retain his place in the team next year? Would you view him as a backup option? Or do you think that he is just not good enough?

As I said, it’s hard to be critical of Best given the goals that he is scoring and how he is playing at the minute, but if you were to ask me if Best was the man to fire us towards Europe either next year or the year after or whenever, then I would have to say no.

That’s my opinion, now let us hear yours!

[poll id=”8″]

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

108 thoughts on “Leon Best – Is he good enough? Vote now!

  1. BB-

    Thx mate! And Idk about the 9 shirt. I mean, I feel pretty disillusioned about that after the Judas. Was barely his for a year and he left his boyhood club, the club that brought him through and made him a star. He was living the dream, and then he left at the first big whiff of dirty stank-*** money. What a t*ssp*t *******.

      (Quote)

  2. Our best striker, no pun intended, is whoever is banging in the goals for the team, simple as that.

      (Quote)

  3. Why is it not ok for a player to come to NUFC and make themselves a BIG NAME here? Why do we always have to be looking to buy a big name?
    Is it because we have been spoiled (Ha!) in the past?
    Or is it because when we do make our own big name, he doesn’t want to hang around for long enough to become a legend but would rather chase the big bucks instead. Hmmmm!

      (Quote)

  4. OH so aswell as screwing us over Judas will also have the pleasure of being known as our last No9 ?? I think there will be other No9’s 😉
    FJ I am not saying that he is not our No1 striker at the mon but tbh he isn’t really got that much competition for the No1 choice, I just dont see him as being our longterm answer, I hope im proved wrong but thats how I see it

      (Quote)

  5. I se you’re as bitter and twisted about the Judas thing as I am O’h 👿 😥

      (Quote)

  6. Big D how old is Besty?
    Do you think he should be better than he is at the mo?
    Do you not think the lad is getting better game by game?

      (Quote)

  7. BB I have nowt against a homegrown No9 or a present player making themselves the No9. but I just fear what could happen while we are waiting for them to become that player.

      (Quote)

  8. BB- oh yeah, mate. Doesn’t help that my best mate is a bindippers supporter. It’s like a bad break-up with a woman. Ya just can’t stand seein’ her around places and ESPECIALLY not with your best friend. If I ever ran into him, I’d punch his Geordie *** down on general principle (and then get sued for a fortune lol!).

    Davey- I’m sure you’re right, man! And yeah, it would be ashame to think of Judas as our last #9. Eesh… *shudders* 👿

      (Quote)

  9. BB I think he is about 25ish, and yeah I do think he should be better than what he is now, but I am pleased with how he is doing.
    But I still dont think he will become the player we need.
    I just think with all the sh1te the Fat Man has put us through has made us accept what we have got, Like a make do and mend sort of way.

      (Quote)

  10. He got an excellent reception on Sunday. I think they were just glad to see him on the pitch seeing as he was injured and then overweight.
    He didn’t look sharp, but then you wouldn’t expect him to.

    Now, the other guy they bought Surez(spelling?) is a class act.

      (Quote)

  11. OH – Probably because he cost them a fortune. Probably more relived than anything else.

    There’s a mate of a mate of mine who supports the red scouse lot and he’s not sure it’s the right thing, but talks about AC being the future and all that. He thinks they paid far too much for him.

      (Quote)

  12. Yeah sounds like sense Dave.
    Maybe he would be better as a number 2 striker, not leading the the line.
    Its good to see him working hard tho. That’ll do for a start. Just hope he continues to get better.

    If we are going to retire shirt numbers then I would start with the number 8 shirt. Gutthrie isn’t fit to lace Bearsley’s Boots 😀

      (Quote)

  13. MT aye two good strikers l/pool got for 50mil the price of one striker to chelsea,bloody good deal in my eyes

      (Quote)

  14. Liverpool fans were saying Carroll is an animal and should be banned alongside Joey Barton 4 months ago.

    It’s different when he’s in your team. Gerrard should be banned too.

      (Quote)

  15. Just been looking at the Table, and if we assume that wigan and wolves are sunk, then any of the next 10 teams could join them. Only 6 points between them all. Its getting very tight, and could be decided by Goal Diff.
    I hope we dont get dragged into it, but at least we have + GD atm.

      (Quote)

  16. Retire the no9 shirt ! WTF for, we’ve had some right ***** wearing it in the past and bar supermac and shearer post 60s we’ve had no one of note. Carroll had/has potential but you would hardly call him world class and best has a better goals/games ratio since he’s been starting
    It’s unlikely we’re gonna sign a top class striker and even if Ashley tried to loosen purse strings I doubt a ‘name’ would come to toon unless we paid well over the odds in wages, we can however get a decent partner for best

      (Quote)

  17. Cheers Batty, I think I might leave the tie off next time though, so I don’t look as though I should be standing in the dock for crimes against football. 😆

      (Quote)

  18. I have absolutely nothing against Best, like what I’ve seen and hope for more, but I have to say the jury is still out on him to some extent. Not on his effort or anything like that, because I think he works hard. But take out the hat trick and it’s 3 goals in 8 matches, right?

    I dunno what that amounts to on percentages and whatnot, but if we want a 20 goal per season striker, this rate would suggest he’s not quite there. Again, this is not to suggest he’s not a good striker or that he won’t develop one way or the other, but he just doesn’t appear to be the superhero some of us seem to be waiting for.

    Dunno.

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *