Happy Birthday Gabriel Obertan!

Shamrock

Today is Gabriel Obertan’s 27th birthday, so lets put aside our frustrations with the man and wish him all the best! Whilst he has our attention, lets take a little stroll down memory lane with the Frenchman.

Born in Pantin, France – a young Obertan would become a product of the much celebrtaed Clairefontaine academy – which has produced the likes of former Toon players Hatem Ben Arfa, Sabasten Bassong, Louis Saha and Thierry Henry. Yeah we wish… He continued his schooling of excellence within the Paris-Saint Germain set up before making his mark at Bordeaux from 2006 to 2009. This period included a short loan at Lorient before his searing pace caught the attention of none other than Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United, whom Gabby turned out for between 2009 and 2011. His career did not take off at the higher echelon of football and that is when he found his way to us.

Alan Pardew’s Newcastle United saw something in Obertan at Premier League level that Manchester United did not – and promptly shelled out somewhere in the region of £3m for the French flyer. It took him 5 months to register his first Toon goal – in February 2012 – latching onto a Peter Lovenkrands ball and firing home during a 2-o victory over Blackburn Rovers. It would take Obertan 3 years in total to register a goal at St. James’ Park – scoring on October 18, 2014 with the winner against Leicester City F.C.

Gabby represented France at all youth levels, but could never make the jump to the senior side. This will be explained by a number of factors – such as an extensive history of injuries involving his hamstrings and more importantly his lack of footballing intelligence. It has been a frustrating time for Gabby here at the Toon. He has such raw pace whilst his work ethic and professionalism has never been in doubt. The sad truth is, he is just not cut out for it at this level. His indecisiveness means he appears to get himself into good positions when running with the ball – but when it comes to releasing it – the ball will find itself more often than than not flying wide of the target or failing to reach a teammate in goal scoring position.

Here is an example of one of Obertan’s best moments for Newcastle United;

Unfortunately, this example from his Manchester United days should have been all Alan Pardew needed to know before deciding whether to sign him or not;

Gabriel Obertan has represented out club 77 times, scoring 3 goals and registering 10 assists in about 4-and-a-half years. That’s roughly 17 appearances a season, mostly from the bench – in which he has directly contributed just shy of 3 goals a season. It’s fair to say it’s not worked out here at the Toon and with his contract running down this summer – we will be waving ‘Au Revoir’. In the meantime though, lets just simply wish the man best wishes on his birthday.

About Shamrock

Like everyone here, support Newcastle United. Not the easiest side to feel good about at times, but it's our side!

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248 thoughts on “Happy Birthday Gabriel Obertan!”

  6. 😆 mate, this tirade has been going on for two threads now and I have been very restrained.. Love is not a word I would use… stalker is more like it 😆

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  14. Thank God for that.

    They looked better than we have all season away from home though. Reckon they’ll do OK of play like that. We need to improve our away form that’s for sure. Difficult game we will have against them at home.

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  15. AMF: never talks about football on a football site. I mean never, ever, never ever. Just a bit of a ***** now and then, And he is not even good at that.

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  20. Now then, we have another chance to turn the screw on the Scum and if other results go our way then we MUST take advantage. There have been plenty of results go in our favour lately but we keep failing to take advantage and it’s gonna cost us big time if we don’t wake up.

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  21. Georgio: he only played like 6 monthr before he did his knee in, My time was Alan Kennedy and Irving Natrass, I was in the old Leazes End and we always seemed to score in the Gallogate and AMF was always pissing down my leg after he had 18 pints before the game.

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  23. GEORGIO I loved T Green,it’s a pity with his injury which today he could have had it fixed enough to play on

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  25. We all already know that Scum are gonna get yet another three points off the soft lads and Schteve. 🙄 , so need to beat Stoke and get a 4 point gap in now. 😉 Hopefully Leicester smash Norwich today although one nowt will do.

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  27. Firstly, welcome to the new lads. Sorry it’s taken a couple of days to greet you but good luck everything. I’m not on Facebook and don’t use forums so I’m of little help in that respect 😛

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  29. Secondly, apologise to Ice as I asked you about Pup then disappeared on you. I found out my mam has breast cancer so as you can imagine I got a little sidetracked. I didn’t get round to reading your reply (if there was one) but I hope he & his family are well mate 😉

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  31. Sharpy, hang in there mate, my mum went through breast cancer and came out the other side.. been about 20 odd years of clear tests..stressful stuff mate, all the best..

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  33. Tony Green, what a player if even for such a short time, got his autograph somewhere 😛

    Sharpy…Sorry to hear about ya Mam, 2 of my mates lasses had breast cancer and both of them beat the fecker, sure your Mam will too! 😉

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  34. Eric…Was it you who mentioned Burry the other day? you can’t be from there surely…you’re not refined enough 😉 😆

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  35. Sharpy, that’s awful news about your mum. Take heart in the fact that survival rates are really excellent now, I have 2 friends who beat it and one has been clear over 9 years now.

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  36. Sharpy stay strong for your mam mate ,i know what your going through .I lost my mam in sepember after a near 3 year battle against Cancer . I hope your mam pulls through and gets back too good health.

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  37. To be honest, if Mbemba, Lascelles & Dummett are fit and challenging for the three CB positions, I don’t see Coloccini as being a miss, the form he is in. Steven Taylor is also there until the summer (who I believe is also past his sell by date and should not be offered a new contract).
    Dummett I think of as a natural successor to Coloccini. On the left hand side of defence, he is more than capable of taking that position from Coloccini in my opinion. He is a CB not a LB, where he has done his best and come in for unfair criticism at times.
    Mbemba would be the obvious choice but I think Lascelles offers the chance to play a more orthodox centre half, as he is an aerial target. I would love to see those two fighting it out to play alongside Dummett. (Who I predict will be better than Coloccini soon) Would anyone like to place on record that they think I’m wrong? 😛 😛 😈

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  39. Richie: I am from Newcastle. Well, almost, Seaton Burn which is exactly 6 miles North because there is a bridge to mark it.

    And how can you (me) pick up a fckn cold in the tropics (Thaland)? I have had one for a week. and I will be reporting it to the NHS and Chicago health people as well.

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  43. So Everton have been bought by some Iranian businessman for £200m. We’re going to get left further and further behind unless the fat one sells up to someone with ambition beyond mediocrity.

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  44. SHARPY aye mate I did reply to you,sorry to hear your bad news,as a lot have said they are quite good at fixing that now a days,chin up

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  48. Richie/Ice was Green that good? A lot of older fans reckon he was the best player we ever had. If he was better than Pedro then he must have been good.

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  51. Georgio..I only saw him on tv so probably not the best person to ask, he was very good for a short period of time and what I’ve seen but nobody beats Pedro in my time…in my opinion that is.

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  53. Eric 😆 I still have a house in Burry (fortified obviously) and my brother lives in Wideopen and my parents in Brunswick Green.
    When were you there?

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  54. Frazer Forster has gone 667 mins & counting since conceding – a #SAINTSFC top-flight record

    Whoa, has he really improve or the defence he got are awesome.

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  55. DJG…He was a midfielder so can’t really be compared to them and didn’t even manage 40 games so can’t be judged on someone who performed over a number of years.

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  58. DJG….Unfortunately he never got the chance to be a club great because of the injury. 😥

    Eric..I haven’t been to either of those for years, the club has gone as has Burry’s. Going back next month, will be staying at Burry farm cottages though, out of gunshot range 😆

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  59. New guy Andy. For some reason my email is playing up and I can’t mail you.

    I have had a long think about your offer and due to having a family to look after and a full time job – I am going to decline your offer.

    Good luck running the blog and make sure you guys look after these here posters. Toonsy has done an excellent job over the years and you have big shoes to fill. Keep good quality articles coming regularly or the blog will die, which is what I have been trying to ensure will not happen for several months now.

    Everyone else – I will be drastically cutting back in my writing. Might actually retire so to speak. Time for the new guys to step up and the old guard to move aside.

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  60. Richietoon: I had a really good time with friends from Brunswick Village and Hezzelrigg. Like I was going back in time.

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  62. Eric…Aye, it’s only to see my mates I stay at Burry…it’s very much like going back in time cos it hasn’t changed since the 80’s 💡

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  63. Sham…Thanks for all the articles and I hope you don’t retire and keep writing your articles, the place won’t be the same without them.

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  68. Eric…Nah, Robson Green was a couple of years above me and was from Dudley, his brother was my year.

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  70. Richietoon: my nephew lives in Dudley. When I saw Robson Green on US TV i knew he was from Dudley. Straight away. I mean, just then, He said hot-tel. Only people from Dudley say say hot-tel.

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  74. @Shamrock – thanks for your reply. And no worries, it sounds like you’ve grafted a lot down the years/months and kept the main readership happy!

    Nicky Toon and I are working on bringing in a regular writer who can produce two articles a day as well as searching for many other feature columnists to get the site live and vibrant again.

    @everyone else – a new site design to make the site a bit more ‘2016’ should be expected soon and after your suggestions regarding the predictor comp, we’re going to try and build some sort of framework where people can login from their account, make a prediction and submit it and have an automatically updating leaderboard. I feel as well, that instead of people putting in £3 each or whatever, we might be able to use the site’s status to wing a few sponsors to pay for prizes i.e. we could get a bookie on board to give away a free bet as the first prize!

    Anyway, I’m waffling now. Good to see the Mackems lose today! :mrgreen:

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