Time for Ba to put up or shut up!

Listen up Demba
Listen up Demba
Well you just knew it was going to happen didn’t you?

Once again this whole Demba Ba debacle is being dragged through the press and once again the whole situation is causing uncertainty at a time where we really don’t need it.

According to the press Ba’s advisers have been chatting to QPR and are fully abreast of all the options open to the striker. Whilst it’s only the press suggesting this though I don’t feel that,on this occasion anyway, they are far wrong in their assertions and there is definitely something going on behind the scened with regard to Ba’s future.

My own personal feeling is that it’s a matter of when and not if Ba walks away from St James’ Park, but the antics over the last few weeks have actually started to make me wonder if that would be such a bad thing after all. He’s been our top goalscorer, both last season and throughout this season, but has him being played in a position which is detrimental to the team been the defining factor in all of this?

Alan Pardew has carried the can for altering the formation, with some suggesting this is to accommodate Ba who was reportedly unhappy with being played out on the wing. Personally I think there is some truth behind that and even though you can blame Ba’s entourage for going to the press, you can only blame the player himself if you listen to his comments in the wake of the Everton match earlier on in the season.

Of course Pardew has been rewarded with goals from one of his strikers, but it’s also knocked the stuffing out of another and with Ba looking increasingly likely to move on is this such a wise move?

It’s my opinion that Ba has been more than a little bit selfish. Yes he has been scoring goals this season and heaven knows where we would have been without them, but you could just as easily say that Cisse might not have lost so much form had we persevered with the way we were playing at the back end of last season.

The problem I have with Ba right now is that he seems to be playing for himself at the moment with little thought to the team. He’s shooting from anywhere right now, seldom tries to set up a chance for another player and seems more interested in putting himself in the shop window ahead of anything else.

Alan Pardew has backed Ba all the way. He’s accommodated him, defended him in public and praised him when due, so how does Ba repay him?

By letting this circus roll on and on…

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.

236 thoughts on “Time for Ba to put up or shut up!

  1. munich ba knew the crack when he signed for us ,so pay ba more then how much should we pay benny cabaye krul tiote etc ,hes a greedy fck who every 1 knows he aint gonna sign so fck him of

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  2. MM I haven’t actually seen anyone saying he ( Ba ) isn’t worth more money so thats got nowt to do with it, But where does it stop does our best player Benny then go and demand more money and to play where he wants to play the same as Ba ?. then Cabaye etc .
    As for your earlier quote on the circus around Colo’s and his 90k wage hike did I miss that ??

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  3. DJG

    That line-up looks really good.

    The only thing I would do is swap Cabaye and Anita.

    If we brought in Remy, Debuchy and a strong passing centre back and lost Ba I would be delighted with that business.

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  4. Dave , What really irritates is the fact that we were all backing Ba to come good and regain form when he had his lean spell and just like Cisse he couldn’t hit a barn door and skyed and miscued plenty too ,yet we kept the faith. Yet it seems that since the season start loads have been on Cisse’s back and all of a sudden he’s **** ,convieniently forgetting those brilliant goals last season and the great stuff he did in Germany but most of all that he should be in the number 9 slot.

    MM@72 did you say that about Ba last season?

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  5. Kimtoon #79

    I made the exact same point earlier. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cisse had a great 2nd half of the season and Ba (if he stays) has a quiet one.

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  6. The Kid ,Aye ,I am only asking for parity ,why can’t we have some faith in Cisse like with Ba when he was off form. We owe a debt of gratitude to both strikers for last season ,though some seem to think only Ba can save us 😯

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  7. There is a certain poetic justice that Big AL is on MOTD tonight to sit in judgement on the woeful display by Villa ,given the taunting he got in our relegation season. :mrgreen: 😆 OH how I love Karma 😆

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  8. Well it’s not been a bad weekend ,we won ,we’re a point above the scum and Villa got stuffed .Add to that me dad looked a lot better when i visited him in the heart unit today and might even make it home for xmas day and I’m one happy bunny. 😉

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  9. The Swans got a good result V Manure today ,that puts more pressure on us now as they will really want to make up for what they will consider 2 dropped points. 🙄

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  10. al this player v player and splits between fans stuff, boils down to Pardews inability to manage two similar strikers at the club.
    He should have told them they are fighting for the one position and they will be rotated according to form, fitness and performances.
    Instead he buckles publicly to Ba’s demands, instead of putting him in his place.
    To be fair to Cisse, he has never said a word and just got on with what he has been told to do, for the team. However, its also fair to say Cisse has had a good few chances to show the boss what he can do, and has fluffed every oportunity given to him.
    Naturally Ba wants to keep on scoring to keep his prefered place at CF, but no way is he deliberately hindering Cisse, by not passing to him, or when he does pass, over hitting it. Thats tosh imo.
    Ba may also feel that if he isn’t scoring, who else is? Certainly none of our defensive midfield. or defenders.
    To be honest the whole thing is a fucking mess and needs sorting out one way or another.
    And Pardew comes out of all this looking weak and clueless. Which he is IMO.

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  11. 7 different scorers for chelsea today.
    And they missed a penalty 😯
    I would love it if the villa scum get relegated more than any other team.
    1) for the **** they gave us when we went down and
    2) for their scummy fans defacing the Sir Bobby Robson memorial garden last season. Inexcusable, brainless morons.
    I live in hope

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  12. Munich Mag 2 hrs, 25 mins agoKimtoon, Cisse is paid a lot of money to get his **** together. He should just knuckle down and get on with it. Start putting the ball in the net, and the rest will take care of itself.
    ——-

    spot on , just like Ba did at the start of the season , oh no wait …….

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  13. BB@99

    Scummy bastards that’s for sure. Don’t even get me started on the accent.

    Hello@100? What are you on about? Ba scored the first goal of the season for us…. 🙄

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  14. Good quote from QPR’s Nelson: “St James’ Park is one of my favourite places, especially with the rain lashing down, the wind biting and the passionate crowd. That’s what English football is all about. Maybe I’m just old and sentimental.”

    Good defender, good lad.

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  15. Agree with Eminem at 55, well said mate. Everyone’s fear of BA leaving this summer has morphed into hate! It makes it less pain full that way.
    Everyone is now watching BA to see how greedy he is and when he doesn’t pass its more confirmation that he is looking after his own game. And when he does pass, well, um, er, ahh, he should do it more often. 🙂
    The ‘horde’ has jumped onto this and blown this out of proportion. I reckon Dekka has slipped to number two on the ‘hordes’ most hated list 🙂 🙂

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  16. @Beardsley’s boots. Weak men don’t make decisions that **** off 50,000 Geordies, they also don’t put their hands up and admit when they have disagreements with players, especially one as popular as Collo. As much as Pardew can sometimes happily avoid discussing the dreadful football we were playing a few weeks back and not explain why he was persevering with a 4-4-2 that wasn’t working, he is still pretty realistic and straightforward about many of the games we play. And he never ceases from making the decisions he thinks are right, whether we like them or not. Doesn’t seem too weak to me.

    We’ve had a post-last season honeymoon fall, where players have felt disillusioned (lack of investment), had injuries, had Europa League, Pardew not controlling the long ball, luck and results going against us, leaving us short of confidence, quality football and players. I reckon Pardew, having taken a fair bit of stick and having tried to protect himself a bit, may just turn this season around- given a chance. And that’s what it’s all about.

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  17. There’s just something not right with ba. rushing to take a free kick in injury time when you’re winning rather than keeping the ball just screams “me, me, me”
    he is top scorer for us for the second season running yet it seems like a higher proportion of fans want him gone.
    Maybe this has been mike ashley’s greatest gift to some fans, we would rather (potentially) weaken our team and only be left with players that actually want to be here. no more mercenaries. the post sbr year were incredibly unenjoyable because of them. relegation gave us a clean slate, ba is the first since to cause proper problems if he stays (barton/enrique causing problems basically immediately followed by them leaving)

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  18. ST

    I agree with some of that. I think Enrique was causing problems since Jan though, when the deal was essentially done. After that he just enjoyed crossing it across our box to let other sides get a shot in.

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  19. Ba is a striker – strikers love scoring goals – Ba takes free kick to try and score goals.
    Sometimes there is nothing sinister in these actions. I like the fact that we have a striker that is hungry to score goals.

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  20. Again, like most of the times he shoots from 20 yards, Ba took shots from the FKs that he should have done and that nobody else could. As soon as Marv came on, he let him take the kick. Should he have done better with them? Definitely. Was it greedy to shoot? Come on.

    It’s not like he was pulling the free kicks from 30 yards out to shoot from.

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  21. or 30 plus or whatever. Those that should have been lofted, were lofted. I mean, its not like we fucking score from those anyway is it. Although Anita’s deliveries definitely seem to be better than Cabayes.

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  22. Agree about Anita, he should stay on f/kick, corner duty even when Cabaye comes back.

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  23. Aussie

    The horde! 😆 Dave won’t be happy with that nickname, don’t go winding him up more now.

    He definitely should. It’s not like he can cause any damage in the box anyway given he’s as short as Richie ❗

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  24. Aussie, you don’t need to nowadays. Whenever I mention someone saying something, Dave leaps at me with accusations! Or it might just be the fact he’s getting senile and needs reminding of what he said the day before…. 😀

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  25. Newkie 😆 that’s where my term of endearment the ‘horde’ has come from. You don’t want to step out of line and question the popular beliefs on this blog site 😆 😆

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  26. Aussie 😆 Indeed, you’ll end up with a horse’s head in your bed, and I tell you it will be sulking like Ba not smiling like Cisse!

    Well, at least we can rely on Rod not taking any side at all and maybe bringing a welcome break to the bitching…

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  27. Newkie 😆
    Rodz has changed now that he is working for the man… He has gone all corporate and has lost his edge :mrgreen: 😆

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  28. (THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)

    I’m at a loss how people can criticise Ba for demanding to play the main striker.

    He’s looking after his own interests. It’s not his fault the club won’t buy players to fit in around him. His reputation as a top CF relies on him scoring goals.

    It’s simply down to Pardew and the club to make a decision what they want. It’s Ba’s prerogative to ask to play his natural position.

    Selfish? No more selfish than the club who drop Cisse. You can’t blame a player for looking after his own interests if his own interests are to do the role he has trained to do.

    If he wasn’t getting the goals, Pards would drop him like a shot. If he wasn’t scoring over a long period he would be shipped out and discarded like used fish & chip papers.

    No. I disagree with your views that its Ba’s fault for fighting what he is trained to do.

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  29. (THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)

    Jeez. Just posted the above without scouring posts.

    I’m in agreement with Aussie. 😯

    Totally agree with your sentiments. Ba is getting criticised for scoring goals and being selfish. 🙄

    Wow! 😯

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  30. I knew you would come around Troy 🙂 If BA didn’t have an escape clause in his contract, do you think there would be an issue with his supposed greedyness??

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  31. Big Dave@77, we all know where you stand regarding Ba and Cisse, for me it’s a closed issue now, not worth debating.

    I’m sorry but you have lost me off regarding Collo, I think you’re getting confused. Read my quote again, and in fact my full quote…. “there was no circus surrounding Collo’s wage hike to supposedly 90k a week. The club made him an offer which he quite liked, and the deal was sorted. Demba Ba is being handled differently. The circus is unavoidable, and the club should take at least half of the blame.”

    Kimtoon – regarding “MM@72 did you say that about Ba last season?”.
    My answer is no.

    So what if our best player Benny goes to the club, and Cabaye. Do you think they will NOT go to the club and ask for a pay rise in the course of the next 2 – 3 years ? Or will they only do it because that dastardly Demba Ba who plays with a frown on his face, is greedy and scores 20 goals in one of the the toughest leagues in the world has done so ?

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  32. Hello @100….sorry, you need to try better than that mate if you wan to debate 😳

    Did you mean the “putting the ball in the net bit”… You cannot mean that happy smiley guy Cisse 😆

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  33. SolanosTrumpet@105. Ba is a winner mate, he wants to win.

    I saw Marv crack a super free kick past the post in the last ten minutes of the game, with Demba standing alongside him. He then congratulated Marv on being so close.

    Who would you prefer to take the free kicks in dangerous situations, in front of the goal ?….bearing in mind that i.e. Marveaux isn’t usually on the pitch at the time. I brought this point up earlier in the blog, but as usual no-one picked up on it and reverted to type of maintaining the vendetta against Ba and being greedy and wanting everything for himself.

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  34. In Cisse and Ba we have probably one of the best striking duos EVER at NUFC, and a whole bunch of toon fans on this blog want rid of the main man because he is greedy, moody and is wanting to negotiate a better deal.

    Pay him the money, but more importantly SHOW SOME INTENT IN THE TRANSFER MARKET, and things may quiten down.

    There again, maybe Ba is just the peak of the iceberg of discontent within the ranks at the toon ?

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  35. All this stuff about people are bitching about Ba so it’s easier if he leaves 😯 wow ,it must be nice to live in such a simplistic world 😉 Frankly ,I’m now at the point that I don’t care one way or the other ,I’m so sick of the distraction his bloody clause is causing and the way the team is unbalanced because he needs to be in it as well as Cisse that the sooner it’s sorted the better. Let’s hope the club can sort out his contract remove the clause and move on ,but they still need to sort out the Cisse issue as clearly one has to go .Now if Cisse leaves and Ba stays with that clause still in place I dread to think where we are. Also I am terrified Benny will go to Chelski 🙁 Oh quick I better start slagging him off 🙄 .

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  36. oh i havent critisized ba about his ability ive just told him to sign or **** off cos hes startin to **** me right off ,like i say he knew the crack when he signed ,i reckon qpr will sign him in jan and it will make ba out a lieing **** 😉

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  37. KIMTOON but you, Big Dave and a bunch of other bloggers on here are the ones that reckon that Ba should be moved on 🙁 , so that smiley lad Cisse can be given a chance to flourish.

    I reckon we should give him a pay rise cos he is a proven 20 goal a season striker. Ashley is trying to keep him on the cheap by quoting his dodgy knees etc etc. Ashley also knows that he is gambling on the fact that no-one is daft enough to take a gamble on Ba by paying SO much money to release him from his clause. It wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t have to pay half of his 7,5 million transfer fee to West Ham or his agent, or someone, and we’d be left with nowt at the end of the day 😆 The buying club would have to pay a HUGE investment for him It can only end in tears 🙂 Ba will stay at the toon . 😉

    We were gash at the start of the season with a full squad, INCLUDING Cabaye and Ben Arfa. Now Ba is being battered cos he has scored half of our goals, but he is huffy and greedy…and poor Cisse is suffering 😆 😆

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  38. kkforever so what if Ba “knew the crack” when he signed 😕 😕

    In the 2 years he has played for the toon he has proven himself to be a brilliant buy, and scored the goals to prove it. Now he wants more wedge, it’s part of the deal. The circus is part of it, look at Rooney at Man Utd, Huntelaar at Schalke, Sterling at Liverpool, Walcott at Arsenal… they all do it, Ba is no different. I wonder if the clause in his contract is his idea or our idea ? At the end of the day it’s there. If he had proven to be a diddy we would have breathed a sigh of relief, now it is biting us in the ***.

    If he moves to a club outside of the top ten in the EPL then I’ll agree with you he’s greedy, and also add he needs his heed looked at 😆 😆

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  39. MM , Yes I say move him on if he won’t sign improved terms and get shot of the clause otherwise he is continueingly holding us to ransom every window and we constantly have the worry of losing our MAIN as you put it striker. Yes he is talented and scores lots ,so will Cisse given the same backing I’m sure ,but that’s the problem he has been shunted out which is not his normal position and now folk are slagging the lad off cause he’s snatching at bit chances . As for the club playing on the dodgy knees thing ,I don’t know that they were able to get insurance on him so if true then fair play to cite the knee issue,after all isn’t that why stoke and others backed off 😕 and also why he is looking at the big pay days.

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  40. MM, here is a little scenario for you . We give Ba his required pay rise on a say 5yr deal leaving the club open to all other players stepping forward for more wonga like BA, THEN BANG , his knee goes and he’s finished but we still have to pay up his contract .How would you feel about that ,knowing we had taken a risk with club finances?. I know any player can get crocked but apparently the risk is high with him we are led to believe. We don’t have a bottomless pit of cash like Chelski and Citeh to write off such huge losses and No one player can ever be bigger than the Toon.

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  41. Ang about ang about.

    Aussie, Troy, Munich and myself agree

    on the other hand we have Solano and Dave agreeing, (plus the rest of aussies so called Horde 😆 )

    This really is one strange time of year.

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  42. (THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)

    Well said Munich about Ba. 😉

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  43. Kim….that’s exactly the reason why he will stay at the toon, but the circus will continue. In fact the longer it goes, the LESS likely he is to leave, because he’s getting older and clubs will be even LESS willing to take the huge financial risk. As I mentioned above, it will all end in tears. 😉

    Don’t misunderstand me, my main issue is some blokes blathering on that Cisse is playing so poorly purely because of Demba’s greed and selfishness. Cisse is playing poorly because he is off his game at the moment, as is the rest of the team. Thank goodness we have Demba Ba’s goals this season, cos believe me without them we would really be in the shoyt.

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  44. Everyone’s fear of Ba leaving has morphed it into a hate campaign.

    My word, what a ridiculous statement.

    If Colo or Ben Arfa were likely to be off nobody would have a bad word against them.

    Ba is selfish. He plays for himself and that’s fine, but only if you form a system around him as the main man.

    But there are better olayers to form a more attractive system of play around and Ba simply doesn’t fit into that of he continues to play his selfish game.

    I don’t care if he takes freekicks, its his selfishness in open play that pisses me off. He will score just as many playing unselfishly like he did at Wigan.

    I feel the team will have a better balance with Cisse in the middle and two genuine wingers out wide.

    OR Ba in the middle with two wingers out wide,, so in that regard, Pardew is to blame.

    I just feel Cisse is the better option in the long run.

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  45. Maybe everyone should be more angry at ba’s agent, than the player himself. I have negotiated pay rises in the past and I have mentioned other companies that were potential suiters as a tool to drive my money up. Sometimes you have to be a little ruthless in your negotiations to get what you deserve. It doesn’t mean you want to leave, it is about being paid what you are worth. I am a firm believer in paying performing staff more over those who are just coasting.

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  46. munich his goal scoring record is no better than cisses ,iam sure if cisse was playing in the middle just like ba is cisses record would even be better instead of runnining in from the right all the time ,but no ba is starting to think hes bigger than the club

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  47. KIMMY@136. The clue to the whole scenario which you cite is in the details of the “improved” contract, and the accordant insurance issues. I don’t believe Ashley would leave himself wide open to that scenario, and as long as the “knee issue” prevails that is a brilliant bargaining point for the club.

    At the same time Ba has done his bit for the team and cracked in the goals, and deserves being rewarded for that gift, because believe me he is a top striker…

    Maybe that is the reason that Ba is peeved amongst other things 😕

    That’s why I also reckon Ba will stay at the club, no one will fork out the wedge for him….

    However, all blather aside, Big Dave and his like minded vouching that we get rid of Ba so that poor lad, happy smiley Cisse, can develop, need to explain to me how we seamlessly replace Ba’s 20 goals a season ?

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  48. JJ, I sympathize with your views mate, I remember a time when I was totally wrong on something and it wasn’t a nice feeling 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  49. kkforever@142 I disagree that Cisse would be a better option directly through the middle than Ba.

    I also don’t think Ba is starting to think he is bigger than the club.

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  50. MM,

    I said it before, I’ll say it again. When Owen was here, people said if it weren’t for his goals we would be in ****. Yet, when he left we played far better as a team.

    I don’t believe for one second we would be any worse off without Ba in the team. We have been pretty useless with him in it for the majority of the season. I think he is part of the reason for that.

    In fact its so blatant to me I can’t see how others can’t see how his selfishness affects other players around him. Because he simply cannot or refuses to see the pass of through ball when its on and opts to shoot from anywhere instead.

    If players continuously get ignored when he has the ball, then eventually they stop making those runs when he is in possession because they know they get ignored anyway.

    Apart from this, he doesn’t deserve 90k a week. If we simply paid him that, then would Benny come knocking? Or Colo?

    He began in the same way last season and only ended with 16 goals, just 3 more than Cisse who played half a season less.

    So we pay him 90k it disrupts others around him, they want pay increases too, and then he goes on another barren run like he did last season.

    If we buckled to his demands it would very likely put us in a predicament we don’t want to be in. So quite honestly, taking everything into account. I want him to go.

    That doesn’t mean he isn’t a good striker. Or won’t score goals at another club. But for me, its a better move for us, with his current demands and attitude that he moves on.

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  51. KIM on BA,i see pardew fell out with colo as colo was having trouble in dressing room with some french speaking players,wonder who it was 😉 😀

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  52. Aussie @ 144

    I sympathize with you that this feeling of being totally wrong must be such a common occurrence in your life. Considering how bad it makes you feel and how often it happens.

    If you need someone to talk to mate, I’m here for you.

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