Why get rid of Leon Best?

Leon likely to leave SJP?
There is a little bit in The Sun (yes, yes, titter titter) today suggesting that Leon Best has been told that he will be allowed to leave St James’ Park over the summer.

Apparently the club will accept somewhere in the region of £4 million, and if Leon wants to go then he is free to graze on the new pastures of another club. In fairness it’s not bad considering the money that we paid for him, but I’d much rather keep him at the club over the rest of our current strikeforce.

Now don’t get me wrong, I had hoped that we’d end up with better than Best over the summer, but in my mind he is the only one of our current strikers who had actually proved a point and had deserved another shot at it this season.

He scored six goals in 11 league appearances, which isn’t to be sniffed at and makes me wonder just how many he could have got had he not suffered that ankle injury. Compare that with Shola Ameobi (6 in 28 appearances) and Peter Lovenkrands (6 in 25 appearances) and, as you may have noticed, it compares very favourably.

Add to that the fact that Best is five years younger than Shola and seven years younger than Lovenkrands and, well you can see where I’m going. Needless to say I’m left scratching my head.

Of course it is The Sun so large pinches of salt must be taken, but for me there are other strikers that we should contemplate booting out the door ahead of Best. The imminent arrival of Demba Ba will mean that he is going to be one of our first-choice strikers, but in the event of injury who would you rather call upon? Look at the stats!

Baffling, but then again I know I should never be baffled with happenings at NUFC

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.

104 thoughts on “Why get rid of Leon Best?

  1. Must admit that I’m a little concerned with regards the number of players that are being linked with a move away.

    Always expected some to go but we’re potentially moving towards wholesale changes & that’s quite risky…

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  2. Keep Leon. He deserves another shot. Especially in a team that could produce more opportunity. Best struck me as a bit of a ‘fox in the box’ type striker. Considering we’ve lost Nolan who had that knack, Best could really be quite important.

    While I like the idea of improving the squad, I’d rather look at improving on the other ‘strikers’ we have. I’d be surprised if this rumour was accurate, especially considering what Leon did to get his shot. I’d like to think Pardew looks at him favourably.

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  3. Best is the best striker we have, he did very well in the games he played and took his chances when given, more than can be said for Loven or Shola although to be fair Shola does come on and put away a few important goals now and again esp against those dirty mackems

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  4. why get rid of best? he is a championship striker thats rarely fit…and isnt going to take the club forward

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  5. You could have stopped at your first sentence Toonsy…. More rubbish reporting from the press… 😈

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  6. MADNESS 👿
    Makes no sense to offload Leon Best. He’s shown a good positive attitude on the pitch and is a million times better than wor Strolla ffs. But I dont want to get started on him. 👿
    Thing is tho I just dont think Pardwho? likes him or rates him, which is a problem if he wants to get a game.
    Time will tell on this one, but hopefully its just BS. 😕

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  7. 27 games 6 goals in one and a half seasons……..and he is the future of nufc 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

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  8. £4 million for Best? I’d take that any day. But I’d actually have a player ready to come in to replace him if we let him go.

    I know how crazy that must sound eh! Being prepared by thinking ahead? That’s like witchcraft to Fatman!

    Sell them all you feckin idiot!

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  9. Makes me wonder if/what he has stil up his sleeve to bring in b4 the window closes. we might all be quite surprised.

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  10. Rumours that Pardwho? is after bringing in a top spanish striker on a free, paying him £50K p/w. Silky skills and natural goal scorer. Goes by the name of xisco 😯 Never heard of him 😆

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  11. Maybe he’s another difficult character like Ranger behind the scenes or perhaps he’s fallen out with Pardew? You never know sometimes, based on his performances seems very odd though.

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  12. J R @9
    Looking at those figures, he’s still a little bit behind messi !
    He,s actuallt a little bit behind my Mother in law.

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  13. jonny-knobber, no one said he’s the future of NUFC, but he could be a good squad player to keep, and like someone else said, it will cost more than £4M to replace him.

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  14. @Angel Of Death E-Mail him it using the contact us bit, or you can e-mail me and I’ll get it too him 🙂

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  15. for me………i would sell all our strikers including best cos at the end fo the day.. they are ****. But Ba will have broken knees by mid season so i hope we do bring in some other strikers otherwise we will have krul up front.

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  16. Our strikers are ok in fits and starts but thats about it, i would replace the lot as none of them are consistent enough. Having looked like we were concentrating too much on midfielders, its nice to see that we are addressing our goal shy forward line.
    Demba Ba was a real handful for West Ham last season and provided he can stay fit he will give us what we have been missing since AC went.

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  17. I wonder if Krul will play for Holland in the pre season friendly against England Aug 10th. 3 days b4 season kicks off. CRAZY.

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  18. Yeh just copy and paste it to him, unless your one of the site writers? In which case you just click new post. Do you know his e-mail?

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  19. @Beardsleys Boots how will it cost more than £4m to replace him……..if ba is confirmed today we have already replaced for nowt !!

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  20. Shola is a waste of space. Newcastle will never get anywhere bringing him on just to run down time. My expectations are always low when he plays.

    Please lose him! What is it they see that I don’t? Or am I just crazy and blind?

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  21. When Mark Douglas said there’s one surprising exit imminent and he said more of the Ranger calibre than Enrique, Best certainly didn’t cross my mind. I’d like to see a few players signed before anybody leaves in my opinion. On a more positive note he did say that two deals were as good as done. Ba and Barnetta may be?

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  22. So 10/11 out and 3/4 in – thought we had a small squad last season, we’re gonna be stuffed if we get injuries / suspensions

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  23. Craig is correct in his assessment above of all our strikers. They are below standard. Best is a better player outside the box than in. Doesn’t have that instinct or gamble enough. Good outside the box.

    This could all be leading to the the return of Judas

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  24. Jeez, if we get 4m for Best I’ll bow down in honour of Ashley and Llambias’ bargaining prowess.

    Still for me he’s just a cha$pionship player, pretty slow, poor technique and tends to slow things down – pretty much like Nolan. We’re obviously moving in another direction.

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  25. Let’s say we buy Erdinc and get Ba on a free, that we play HBA behind a sole striker as opposed to the wing (as suggested by Pardew) that leaves one starting berth for one of Erdinc, Ba, Best, Ameobi x2, McLoven, Xisco and potentially Airey. I think we can afford to lessen the strike force by allowing Ameobi Snr, McLoven and Xisco to move on, Keep Best, Airey and Ameobi Jnr as back up and league cup games. I’d also start blooding Vuckic in the premiership albeit from the bench and try him in the hole behind the striker.

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  26. stu79……….you are right mate…best is basically pap but he looks ok cos he is surrounded by even worse strikers ffs…
    4 million for Best – not a chance.500k maybe or 1million tops. $ million hahahahahahhaha Where do the papers get this **** from!

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  27. As Toonsy said, it’s from the Sun, what more can you say.. 🙄

    Personally, if Best is sold & Strola stays, I’ll be changing my thoughts on what Ashley & Pardew are trying to do with the Toon, until now i’ve been very much behind most of what they’ve done but this move would be a tipper in my case!!

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  28. How the @uck does shola survive,am baffled Surely best has more to give. And now he plays internationls for nigeria ffs.
    Must be keeping him just to play the scum 🙄

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  29. Best ain’t the greatest player but he’s better than strolla, loven, xisco – maybe the feeling is that the others are unsaleable and we might get 1 – 1.5 million for best
    When are we gonna spend the 35 million from Carroll sale, we’re basically funding buys and wages by selling players at the moment !

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  30. Best of a bad bunch(pun intended) from what we have imo, so one striker who gets injured with 6 goals in 11 games being replaced with a striker who has a dodgey knee 7 in 12, improvement or treading water. Time will tell…..assuming the media is correct!!

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  31. the reason we still have Strola is because no one will take him off our hands… 🙁

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  32. Shola is safe because there is no interest in him from other clubs, do you think he would be so ” loyal” if his agent tapped up another club for him on bigger wages, i dont hink so.

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  33. I was not a fan of Best when he came here and was very surprised that he signed , however his form when fit last season was good and deserves to be here next season imo.

    I dont think we had a small squad just an imbalanced squad , we had 6 strikers and similar num of centre mids , yet no cover for lb or the wings really , so that needs to be addressed.

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  34. Best is Championship level on his best day and not even that on his average day. Did nothing inthe cnapionship with Coventry. Barely did anything for us and then gets hailed a hero in the Prem for 6 goals 3 of which in one match! I really don’t understand whether people who say “he’s in the black and white so back him” are serously that stupid or just naive. Good riddance.

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  35. I don’t know if this is new or not, but we’re favourites to sign Berbatov @ 6/4

    Same odds as Insomnia who we’re also favourites to sign! 😯

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  36. I think we just favourties for those two players as Berbatov has previously stated he was a toon fan and we need a striker, whilst N’Zogbia has said on twitter St.James Park has a great atmosphere and he loved playing there so personally I think it’s just a case of we’re favourites based on the above and not anything more than that.

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  37. If this is true, it’s absoulute madness to let so many go at once and expect incomers to meld in the short close season

    🙄 🙄 🙄 😕

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  38. “I really don’t understand whether people who say “he’s in the black and white so back him” are serously that stupid or just naive”………Really, if you support the team, then while they’re on the pitch playing for that team you support each and every one of them, if you don’t then you are not supporting the team surely? It’s not really a hard concept to grasp is it? I’m assuming you didn’t celebrate a single Leon Best goal either or surely that would be hypocritical would it not?
    You don’t have to like or rate the player but once they cross that white line they are representing the team you love, that’s why a fan will always back them.

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  39. August
    13 Arsenal (H)
    20 Sunderland (A)
    27 Fulham (H)
    September
    10 QPR (A)
    17 Aston Villa (A)
    24 Blackburn (H)
    October
    1 Wolverhampton (A)
    15 Tottenham (H)
    22 Wigan (H)
    29 Stoke (A)
    November
    5 Everton (H)
    19 Man City (A)
    26 Man Utd (A)
    December
    3 Chelsea (H)
    10 Norwich (A)
    17 Swansea (H)
    21 West Brom (H)
    26 Bolton (A)
    31 Liverpool (A)
    January
    2 Man Utd (H)
    14 QPR (H)
    21 Fulham (A)
    February
    1 Blackburn (A)
    4 Aston Villa (H)
    11 Tottenham (A)
    25 Wolverhampton (H)
    March
    3 Sunderland (H)
    10 Arsenal (A)
    17 Norwich (H)
    24 West Brom (A)
    31 Liverpool (H)
    April
    7 Swansea (A)
    9 Bolton (H)
    14 Chelsea (A)
    21 Stoke (H)
    28 Wigan (A)
    May
    5 Man City (H)
    13 Everton (A)

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  40. The 2011/2012 Barclays Premier League fixture list has just been released. Champions Manchester United travel to West Brom on the first day of the season, while new boys Swansea have a tough trip to Man City.

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  41. Isnt that what that Cwarrr or whatever he’s called said?
    I think it may have been my guess too but can’t bloody remember 🙄 😆

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  42. Samuel Eto’o : “I am currently considering my options. I have one month to decide as to whether I want to stay put or choose to move to the Premier League,”

    Our proven European goalscorer and next captain?

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  43. Man Utd on my birthday. Would love nothing more than a victory that day. Two interesting games first up though in Arsenal and Sunderland.

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  44. Nae feckin home game when I’ll be over home for Xmas 😥
    Bolton away but I’m not going wi Jay Jay this time, bloody jinx 😀

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  45. Richie well said mate, but I still dont think Best is the player to help take us forward, yeah he did score in 4games but he is the type of player that needs a good run in the team to get any sort of form. So if we have strikers lined up that will be playing regular, I dont see the point in holding onto Best. Im surprised to say it but I think Strolla is a better option for a player to come on to cover for 1 or 2 games, with no games before hand to get bedded in.

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  46. The 2011/2012 Barclays Premier League fixture list has just been released. Champions Manchester United travel to West Brom on the first day of the season, while new boys Swansea have a tough trip to Man City.

    This is an NUFC blog. Why would you pick out Manure’s and Shitty’s games b4 ours???

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  47. Gotta say 2 away fixtures over the festive period is a bit ******* unfair.

    Bolton away on Boxing day and Liverpool away on NY Day.

    Howay man Premier League – use ya swede.

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  48. Aye Dave,there’s players I’m not that keen on but once on the pitch I back them 100%. Ref Best “if” we play a faster pass and move game it’s probably going to pass him by a bit.

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  49. 26 Bolton (A)
    31 Liverpool (A)
    January
    2 Man Utd (H)

    Thats a tough week over the festive period.

    RE: Best – ridiculous to sell him over the likes of Lovenkrands. He is great backup and has proved he deserves a shot.

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  50. @Toon Chicken: i am too anxious and hit the post comment button without continuing it. 😆

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  51. Ahmed @46

    Re: Berba – Do you really think the bookies would risk thousands of pounds on something as trivial as that?

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