Oba Martins has finally come out and said he has no intention of leaving Newcastle and that he is extremely happy at the club.
Certainly after scoring an opportunist goal after 11 minutes last night the fans were very appreciative of Martins’ contribution and he is a fan favorite.
All summer of course there has been speculation linking him with a move to Arsenal but Oba has finally put that one to rest.
Obafemi Martins – very happy at Newcastle
Oba told the club’s official website today:
“I will keep my mouth shut. I am not going anywhere, I am still a Newcastle player.”
“I am very, very happy here, so I am not going anywhere.”
“I believe you need competition.”
“We have many games to play, so everybody will have to play together.”
Martins was shot into the summer headlines after it emerged that he – as well as Michael Owen – has a get-out clause in his contract – Martins is for £13M. Arsene Wenger is an firm admirer of Martins, who scored 17 goals in his first season on Tyneside.
However, like Michael Owen, Oba has now made it clear of his intention to stay at Newcastle and battle it out with Michael, Mark Viduka, Shola Ameobi, Andy Carroll and the re-emerging Albert Luque for a place in the starting line-up. Suddenly Newcastle seem to posses an all powering list of strikers and it may well be that we need to loan out 19 year-old Andy Carroll for the season – with Hull City of the Championship very willing to take him on laon.
Martins started the Celtic game alongside Luque last night and they both looked deadly in front of goal scoring 3 opportunist goals between them before half time. It will be interesting to see if the club now attempt to renogotiate Martins’ contract to remove the get-out clause.
Comments welcome.
16 comments so far
Dave
Jul 27, 2007 at 11:11 AM
Comment #1I’m Oba the Moon 🙂
Dave
Jul 27, 2007 at 11:14 AM
Comment #2Obajoyed even!
Bosck
Jul 27, 2007 at 11:14 AM
Comment #3Saw the interview on Newcastle World last night. Looked totally genuine about what he was saying as well. His attitude to press speculation is just to ignore it which is why he hasnt said anything before now.
Dave
Jul 27, 2007 at 11:18 AM
Comment #4Obaviously he’s a raw talet. Sorry…I’ll stop it now.
roscoe
Jul 27, 2007 at 11:24 AM
Comment #5Oba and Oba Again….
paul p
Jul 27, 2007 at 11:39 AM
Comment #621 not 28 obefemi martins!!!!!
MightyMilburn
Jul 27, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Comment #7Delighted Oba is staying and that he finally came out and said it.. but like Owen.. why didnt he come out earlier? Dont want to sound too pessimistic – but if I loved the place where I was I wouldnt wait 1-2 months for pre-season matches “to let my actions on the pitch do the talking (Owen)” or say it openly..
Bosck
Jul 27, 2007 at 12:06 PM
Comment #8MightyMilburn as i said above, in his interview Martins said that his attitude to press speculation is to ignore it. This is probably the first time anyone has asked him directly whether he is staying so he answered whereas before he ignored it.
Trust me his attitude in the interview seemed brilliant. He is not even concerned about the competition for places if there are 6 fit strikers, as he says that there are plenty of games for them to share the workload of scoring and he was clearly a fan of Big Sam as he called him. He did the whole interview with a smile on his face. I honestly think there is nothing to worry about as far as oba’s commitment is concerned. Have a look on the official site in the newcastle world section and you can watch the interview and see how sincere he is.
Kash
Jul 27, 2007 at 12:16 PM
Comment #9BSA knows how to keep players sweet. He did it with Anelka, Diouf, Djorkaeff, Okocha, and he’s now done it with Owen & Martins. I can see BSA basically saying;
“Look boys, what I want to do is make sure you don’t tire yourself out but get you playing at full capacity when you play.” – ie I’m gonna get alot of output without you having to put yourself on the line for it.
AlexW
Jul 27, 2007 at 1:11 PM
Comment #10lets hope he will sign a new contract without that deadly release clause, same to owen, come on boys really show us your committed
paul p
Jul 27, 2007 at 3:32 PM
Comment #11lets hope so boys. was a nice start to the weekend last nights result. lets hope they can get some signings in today/2mora and make my 30th birthday even more special!! come on toon. dont let me down please!!!
George
Jul 27, 2007 at 3:55 PM
Comment #12I am pleased that OFM is staying at Newcastle, but what i can not figure out is why it took him so long to make up his mind. Or has he just been quiet like Michael Owen. Either way i am pleased and makes us have a more potent strike force than last year.
Would not like to be SA who has to decide who to play though. Good luck .
Bosck
Jul 27, 2007 at 5:11 PM
Comment #13George – This is really starting to frustrate/annoy me now, read the interview or watch it on newcastle world. Martins has not said anything until now because he does not respond to mere paper speculation. The first time someone has asked him directly as they did after yesterdays game he has told them straight that he loves it here and isnt leaving.
Nothing to work out – doesnt respond to mere endless press rumours does reply to direct questions.
Why do we have to make such a big issue when people say they don’t want to leave by trying to work out why they didnt say it earlier. He doesnt want to leave end of, lets leave it at that.
George
Jul 28, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Comment #14Bosck as you rather curtly say this is annoying you now that OFM does not answer to paper talk.
Well my answer to you is, if you had listened to a radio interview he had done only 5 or 6 weeks earlier, you would have heard him say ” i am not too sure about what i will be doing for the new season”. His words not a papers. Like most footballers for some reason they have short memories and can not remember what they said or done a couple of weeks earlier.
Bosck
Jul 28, 2007 at 11:08 AM
Comment #155-6 weeks ago allardyce had only been in charge for a month and martins had not had a chance to meet him as he was away with nigeria, so it was perfectly reasonable for him to say †i am not too sure about what i will be doing for the new season†as he knew nothing about allardyces plans or whether he was even in them.
why dont we be positive for once and believe that oba does actually love the club and its fans
George
Jul 28, 2007 at 12:10 PM
Comment #16how can we be positive and believe what players say when time & time again they break thier contracts and end up being caught out with their lies. Since the end of last season i have been extremely positive and supportive of all at NUFC and all my comments will back me up on this.
When paper gossip starts i tend to ignore it, however, it did take OFM a long time as with MO to actually say something, i do not mean the press, i mean to the manager, how many times ona live tv sport interview was SA heard saying once i have spoken to ?????? we will have a better idea of what is happening, and do not forget that SA said on Sky Sports News, he thought that OFM was leaving to go to Arsenal as requests to speak to him had gone unheard. So who is at fault?. Is it the manager. Is it the supporters, or is it OFM for waiting to see what happened, in this case see if Aresenal or anyone else came in for him. And do not forget the Italian connection that were asking about OFM and had made an approach to NUFC. Just remember, the club wanted us to part with our money for season tickets. Did you not want ot know who was staying and who was going. How would your boss feel if he did not know if you were staying or going.
I am positive, but when i look at all these foreigners in our game topping up their pension funds, no i do not trust them. The £ signs talk too much and sway opinion.