Demba Ba has been a revelation on Tyneside this season.
Demba Ba – has been a revelation on Tyneside
And Newcastle will shortly have to do without their number one goalscorer, as the Senegal International will soon head off to the African Cup of Nations.
Alan Pardew was hoping to keep him at Newcastle until 15th January, and the tournament starts a week later, but the news is that he will likely not be successful.
Manchester City have apparently failed in their attempts to keep the Ivory Coast brothers – Yaha and Kolo Toure – at the Etihad stadium until mid-January, and they will now depart probably around January 8th for the tournament.
That means Demba Ba and Cheick Tiote’s last game will be on January 7th in the FA Cup third round, when Newcastle are at home to Blackburn Rovers.
Demba Ba has scored 13 of Newcastle’s 23 goals in the league this season, and when he leaves Newcastle, some of our strikers will need to step up to the plate, and those include Shola Ameobi, Leon Best, Peter Lovenkrands and others.
Ben Arfa could play a withdrawn striker role, as could 19 year-old Haris Vuckic, and the Slovenian has an eye for goal too as we witnessed last Wednesday when he had very good game in the middle of the park for the Magpies.
Demba Ba talked to the daily mail about hos ambitions when he arrived on Tyneside last June:
“I don’t really expect to score 10 or 15 or five or 20 goals – when I first came I just wanted to play, to have fun on the pitch, to show the whole club that the trust they put in me I was going to give it back.”
“That’s what has happened. I just have fun when I play, and think people see it on a Saturday or a Sunday.”
“I don’t think our recent results have affected anybody in the team and personally, it hasn’t affected me. When you look at the schedule, we have played three of the top teams and we could have got more from that.”
“We just missed some of the little things that could have made a victory or something else. But it hasn’t affected me and it hasn’t affected the team, and we are just going to try to get back to winning.”
The Newcastle players cannot become too anxious about getting that next win – we haven’t won in the last 6 games – because that will interfere with their game, as it did against West Brom last Wednesday.
The players should try to relax, because after all we are in no danger of relegation, and indeed we can still finish the season in a very high 7th place and maybe even qualify for Europe.
Alan Pardew will do his very best to prepare the lads for the Bolton game on Boxing Day, and it will be a late but very welcome Christmas present if our boys can get all 3 points.
Howay The Lads!!
Comments welcome.
22 comments so far
archaeomag
Dec 25, 2011 at 1:50 AM
Comment #1Happy Christmas Ed, Happy Christmas All,
and season’s greetings to Demba Ba and the rest of the Squad.
LewSpi
Dec 25, 2011 at 2:07 AM
Comment #2First off, Merry Christmas to all, and I hope you’re keeping well Ed.
Secondly @goalsbringsmiles (I think this was your UN)
Before you go ahead and have a pop at me (from a couple of days ago), I suggest you go back, read my comment again and think really hard about what I wrote. At no point did I actually say we were good enough to play in that style, I was simply stating how the successful teams are playing at the moment.
And yes, I said front four, because I meant front four. I suggest you watch how City line up in their next game, you will see that they quite blatantly start with a ‘front four’, more often that not it will be Silva, Aguero, Nasri and Milner/Balotelli. Behind them will sit Toure and Barry who will win the ball and spray it about amongst the ‘front four’.
I also think due to the fact that proceeding your 2 or 3 comments, numerous people corrected you on other points which you made (Perch), this completely falsifies your comment about my ‘football terminology being laughable.’
Klatoon
Dec 25, 2011 at 7:52 AM
Comment #3Another reason for me to hate AFCON,my beloved Uganda missed qualification by a whisker and now we have to lose 2 of our most important players,for a long time too because I.Coast and Senegal are clear favorites to make the semis.
cyprus
Dec 25, 2011 at 8:04 AM
Comment #4Ba may prove to be our best ever and I’ve seen them (almost) all… Power, deadly turn of pace, commands the ball, can score from anywhere… Could Cabaye or Taylor have blasted a free kick in with the same aplomb? Would honestly not exchange him for any forward. Only Van Persie is in the same league.
chris_g
Dec 25, 2011 at 8:07 AM
Comment #5Ed, I think you’ve written a very misleading headline – I don’t think you can state as a fact that we will lose Demba Ba earlier than planned in January.
The request by Man City to keep Yaya and Kolo Toure until mid Jan was, I think, lodged with the Ivory Coast national team. If they have [apparently] refused that request then yes, it’s probably safe to assume that the same will apply to Tiote. But Demba Ba doesn’t play for the Ivory Coast, so why would their decision affect him? Presumably we made a separate request to the Senegal national team in respect of Ba, so shouldn’t we wait for their response before jumping to conclusions?
Klatoon
Dec 25, 2011 at 8:15 AM
Comment #6Chris_g
very true and also,Senegal are well stacked in the striker department; Mamadou Niang,Papis Demba Cisse,Mame birame Diouf,Demba ba so im sure they may consider letting him stay abit longer. *fingers crossed*
WWJBD
Dec 25, 2011 at 8:15 AM
Comment #7Merry xmas lads hope everyone has a grand old day.
And Ed stop sticking blogs up and have a day off its christmas for goodness sake! Haha have a good day everyone (specially u Ed)
JackButler
Dec 25, 2011 at 8:29 AM
Comment #8Merry Xmas all, hope you all have a great time 🙂
Tombox
Dec 25, 2011 at 9:32 AM
Comment #9Merry Christmas to you from Queensland Australia.
ToonMauritius
Dec 25, 2011 at 9:48 AM
Comment #10Merry Christmas to all NUFC Fans, Best wishes from Mauritius
Lee Dodd
Dec 25, 2011 at 10:05 AM
Comment #11Merry Christmas Ed. I hope That 2012 Brings You Good Health and a Ticket for Newcastle United at Wembley In May . As Far as Demba and Cheick we always knew it would happen. Mike Ashley needs to get the Safe Open and Hand Over A few Million or Twenty £££££££££££ . 2 New Strikers a Midfielder and 2 Central Defenders will be Just The Job !!!!
catchy in norway
Dec 25, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Comment #12he will be missed 🙁
merry xmas fellow nufc fans,
overall 2011 has been a good year, sitting in 7th is better than we xpected, lets hope 2012 continues on the same path
🙂
geoff777
Dec 25, 2011 at 10:08 AM
Comment #13Merry Christmas to all.
Best wishes from
Benarrabá,
Andalucía,
Spain
Toonboy_83
Dec 25, 2011 at 10:16 AM
Comment #14Happy Christmas everyone.. It’ll be a perfect Christmas if we get all 3 points tomorrow.
HWTL
paulcyclesworld
Dec 25, 2011 at 10:20 AM
Comment #15Merry Christmas everyone! Hoping we get the 3points tomorrow
Brutooon
Dec 25, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Comment #16Merry Christmas Everyone !!!
Demba Ba will be a big miss for us in January
Lets hope Leon Best can score enough goals to keep our momentum. Leon Best as lone striker and HBA behind him
cornishman
Dec 25, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Comment #17Merry xmas all.
Demba Ba scores a hat trick at Bolton, Newcastle United sign a quality centre half and a striker in January and go on to qualify for Europe. Yep its a fact and remember in May you read it here first.
The Cornish optimist has spoken.
Troleibusiukas_LTU
Dec 25, 2011 at 12:32 PM
Comment #18Merry Christmas everyone!
Linksm? Kal?d?!
From
Lithuania,
Trakai.
shamsoftabriz
Dec 25, 2011 at 3:17 PM
Comment #19Merry Christmas Ed! Currently in Greensboro, NC, not far from your neck of the woods. Sending you good karma for the holiday season. May Newcastle give as a post-Christmas gift Monday morning and secure 3 points for Bolton!
JP...from The Rock
Dec 25, 2011 at 6:17 PM
Comment #20Merry Christmas everyone 😀
Lee Dodd
Dec 25, 2011 at 6:22 PM
Comment #21We Should get Alex and Wayne Bridge Even Onuoha from Man City They would Give us Good Needed Experience and Cover. Then all we need is a Few Quality Strikers !!!
Rumsfeld
Dec 25, 2011 at 8:10 PM
Comment #22In Leon Best we trust