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. Dear me, I hope BSN9 isnt reading he will have your head in the sand for mentioning those two players. 😆

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  2. Depends if our team gel instantly, there’s going to be a lot of new faces in there who’ve never played together

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  3. I will do a break down of the fixture later and determine is it a good fixture list for us.

    by a glance,it seems is good,knowing that the gap the club face a top club is quite far apart.

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  4. Haha – personally I don’t think we’ll get Berba, maybe Insomnia. I was just asking the question because you never see a skint bookie. And they didn’t make their billions by basing their odds on tidbits and trivia. So by using that logic, there must be summit innit.

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  5. Toon chicken, you do make a good point but surely Berbatov would have other clubs in for him. Just can’t see him coming here for he must be on big wages and demand a big transfer fee for someone close to Nolan’s age. Just wouldn’t fit our transfer policy.

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  6. “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.”

    And it’s moronic attitudes like that which have let below average players milk this club dry and keep us from winning anything for so long. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with recognising a player isn’t up to the job and critisising him!

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  7. Ahmed – aye mate, exactly the reasons why I don’t think we’d be interested. On the other hand, he would be the 20 goal a season striker we crave and apparently Manure would let him go for £9m – which isn’t out of our price range.

    His wages would be a huge sticking point I would imagine, but if we could negotiate a deal based on performance – goals etc. it might be a gamble that fatty is willing to take.

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  8. TC,

    Find it strange he is on those odds with the bookies, must be some ramping going on somewhere preying upon the fact he grew up a hardcore toon fan

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  9. Moreno – yeah. I was thinking the bookies may have lowered the odds on purpose to dangle a carrot in front of us Geordies who often think with our hearts first and our brains second. The sly dogs!

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  10. Do you not think bad buys and management have let below average players bleed the club dry rather than fans supporting players on the pitch?, one of which you clearly are not. If not then I despair for you. Your need to hurl abuse on every post you’ve made indicates the level of intelligence I’m dealing with here so obviously I’m wasting my time, unless you are under 12 which is a distinct possibility in which case there’s time for you yet I suppose. 🙄

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  11. Angel, that’s a gem of a pic @53.

    Different to but its entiment reminds me of a poster produced to celebrate the The Carnation Revolution in Portugal, 1974. I group of soldiers with red carnations in their rifle barrels.

    And Ahmed @54, ever the optimist!

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  12. Seriously doubt we’d get 4m for Best. I mean Nolan (a much more valuable player to the club imo) went for less…

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  13. Lesh I certainly aim to be more optimistic than being pessimistic like many of the anti Ashley crew. As for Best going for 4m, don’t exactly think we’ll get an offer like that. As I’ve said we need players in first before anything else.

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  14. Simply because Leon Best is not good enough!
    Most of all he lacks speed.

    Concerning the team in general. Everybody expects Jose to leave this summer.By far the best left back in the premiership. A pity that Nolan left – but he made the choice himself. Premiershipplayers aren`t really underpaid – are they?

    Bartons talk of exodus concerning players making the way out of NUFC is just rubbish. Personally, I woluldn`t mind if Barton left the club. He is a troublemaker.

    What NUFC needs is players focused on playing football. Players with a professional attitude outside the football ground.

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  15. I havent seen alot of games, but i think Best is more proven than Løvenkrands and Shola.
    Hope they would offload Løvenkrands to FC Copenhagen

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  16. @4411 it might help if you actually read the comments properly mate. Then you’ll see where it came from 😉

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  17. I’m not and you’re not,but you again show your lack of intelligence by using abuse again to try and get some non existent point across 🙄 Nowt against having ago at players or criticizing I just don’t think when they are on the pitch(as long as they are trying their best) is the place to do it. Again did you cheer when Best scored? I suspect so as it’s a team game and not about indiviuals, that’s assuming you’ve ever been to or played a game in your life which seems unlikely as you seem to be unable to grasp the concepts of “team” and “support”
    Your boring me now so I’ll leave it at that, I won’t bother checking again for the next comment which will be abuse and will no doubt come at the next break between your lessons.

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  18. Agreed-Best should be kept, he’s no world beater but he’s still a good player, I think him and Shola up front together in our cup matches will work pretty well, and either can step in for a bit of first team action if injuries come along.

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