31 year-old Nigerian international Shola Ameobi has an ambition to make the Nigerian squad for next year’s World Cup in Brazil, and to do that he will need to be playing regularly next season.
Shola Ameobi – has looked sharp in pre-season
Newcastle have already brought in QPR striker Loic Remy for a season long loan deal, and Joe Kinnear will bring in another striker before September, with Lyon’s Bafe Gomis being our top target.
And if that happens then Shola will be 4th or 5th striker at Newcastle, and will probably not see much playing time.
This is what Shola Ameobi told Sky Sports News today:
“This year is a big year for me,” “I am in the final year of my contract and got the World Cup at the end of the year as well so it is important I put myself physically in the best shape I can.”
“For Newcastle I always give 100% like I always have, and if I am here that is what will happen.” “If they bring in strikers I might have to see what else is out there, because I need to be playing football – that is really important for me this year.”
“I have played here all my career and I love this club to bits, but I have put myself and my family and my situation first now – and make sure I am getting the games in because that hasn’t happened in recent years.”
As it turns out Shoal has looked in top goal-scoring form this summer so far, and he’s been Newcastle’s top marksman with four very good goals in pre-season.
But if he is to make the Nigerian squad then Shola must play regularly somewhere next season, although on his current form maybe we should try to keep him at Newcastle this season, and then he will be a free agent come next summer.
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174 comments so far
The puppy formerly known as prince
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:11 PM
Comment #41Though to be fair he’s probably on his best scoring form ever for NUFC (I don’t actually know what his best form is), he’s never had a stronger bargaining hand – especially as we still don’t know if Remy will be around after his court case!
The puppy formerly known as prince
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:14 PM
Comment #42Why can’t we loan him once we have cover – I really don’t care if he leaves for free next year, he’s probably earn’t that at least. Then if the worst happens we can always recall the speed demon whose terrorised all those defences down the years.
scout
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:21 PM
Comment #43The programme seller ran further than you in the cup game at Brighton
scottoon
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:23 PM
Comment #44Suppose Palace could come in for him on a season long loan. His four goals a year average might make him second leading scorer there….behind owngoal.
JackButler
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:39 PM
Comment #45I’m sure that Shola will find a way to eek out another season with us
Noah Another Ameobi
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:40 PM
Comment #46i agree with this season preview for the toon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l6z9mnuL-E&feature=c4-overview&list=UUKRhfECH6yJkLF5vxoFYy7w
Jamiemac
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:41 PM
Comment #47Anyone seen the newcastle-mad article on our best 11?
Have to say I agree with his choices and reasoning. http://www.newcastleunited-mad.co.uk/news/tmnw/does_pardew_know_his_best_11_802430/index.shtml
Personally i’d also have Saylor in for the City game and ease Yanga into the team with an easy home game. Yanga is my most exciting signing in years but showed far too much inconsistency at CB last year so I’d go safe with Saylor vs City.
Felipe
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Comment #48Shola has been a very good 3rd/4th striker over the years. I shall miss him when he’s gone.
JackButler
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Comment #49If Mapou isn’t used in the centre against City then he has to start at left back.
Just hope to god that Pardew doesn’t continue to insist on playing Sissoko as a No#10 or on the right wing and that Cisse is used as a out and out striker not a target man
Yohan Kebab
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:47 PM
Comment #50yanga and colo simply has to be our first choice cb pairing, however with two attacking fullbacks i feel it imperative to play anita, who has the experience to cover them and also the short passing skills to keep our game ticking over in the middle of the park
Jamiemac
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:49 PM
Comment #51Also agree with that youtube vid Noah posted.
Yohan Kebab
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:50 PM
Comment #52i dont agree that we have to have a certain best XI though, we need options, different styles for different opposition
for example against stoke, west ham i would have tiote/sissoko every day of the week, but against city, arsenal, swansea, i would have anita/marveaux
lesh
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:51 PM
Comment #53Mr Robson @12.
You’ve hit the nail on the head when you referred to some folk showing a lack of respect for Shola.
Like him or not, superstriker his isn’t but few could argue that he has never bust a gut for Newcastle United. He’s a willing guy who’s scored some important goals for us and should be shown the respect he deserves for being a true professional.
He is a human being with a family and should be afforded respect – not be the subject of abuse that many of his critics could not take were it directed at them!
Much the same applies to Pardew and this barrage of abuse and criticism that’s been apparent before the season starts is, in my opinion disgraceful and potentially damaging to our players’ morale.
Best supporters in the world eh? Think about it when you’re being negative.
Felipe
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:54 PM
Comment #54Well said Lesh…
Belfast
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:55 PM
Comment #55I’ll be glad to see the back of him. Hasn’t been anywhere near good enough for years, yet still gets new contracts every few years for some really strange reason.
Maybe he’s blackmailing Ashley….
lesh
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:56 PM
Comment #56scottoon @ 37
I’m not sure your comments would register with some posters who seem to be so obsessed with slagging off Pardew that they probably don’t realise that undermining him is very unhelpful when he’s trying to get the best from his players.
Belfast
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:57 PM
Comment #57Catchy has re charged his batterys I
Belfast
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Comment #58Catchy has re charged his batterys I see
Felipe
Aug 9, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Comment #59or maybe you just wouldn’t no a footballer when you saw one. Let me think about this. About a dozen professional football managers have continued to select him as a 3rd/4th striker. A few so called supporters have abused him mercilessly throughout that time. Nothing is black & white but who might be right..
mindshaft
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Comment #60I doubt Shola will be too worried about what people on here say, I doubt more than 10% have even been to a toon game at St James Park
He’s scored some important goals but a lack of consistency and lately his injury record hasn’t helped his cause – still he’s done more than Steve Harper ever did (i.e. sit on bench 90% of his career)
Mister Tuff
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Comment #61What a boring day for football news. All quiet on the Gomis front – still cannot get my head around what is holding the deal up -is it us being too tight with his personal agreement, is the the OL Chairman or is it Marseille tapping up. A bit worrying. At his age I would have thought Toons offer to OL was very good -especially as his contract ends in the summer. I wish I knew a bit more. Oh I know who will be able to answer all these questions -if he comes back on the blog- after being chased away. -Yes Secret Sausage will know all the details, he’ll know all the background information. Come back Secret Sausage we love you, you are a hero.
(Do you have a relative called Furtive Frankfurter).
JackButler
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Comment #62lesh
Pardew has been publicly criticised by Jonas for the poor training sessions that he used last season, and thats after they players complained to him themselves, as for him trying to get the best out of the players? well if he had done that last season we wouldn’t have had to rely on Wigan loosing their last two game in order for us to retain our premiership place
scottoon
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:02 PM
Comment #63Lesh – the issue is not about whether the slagging undermines him. It is about his actual ability to get the best from his players, and I for one don’t think he can do that now. The effort was just not there last season. For whatever reason, in the 5th place season the lads workrate was second to none. Unfortunately, too often last season they resembled the side that capitulated at Aston Villa in the relegation year – no heart or desire. I can only blame Pardew for failing to instill those qualities.
Felipe
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:09 PM
Comment #64and what does undermining him the week before the season starts achieve exactly?
JackButler
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:11 PM
Comment #65Felipe
Do you think that anything that is posted on here actually gets back to the players?
The only thing that undermines Pardew is Pardew himself
Belfast
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:12 PM
Comment #66I have it on good authority that he reads the blog everyday.
Felipe
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:12 PM
Comment #67There’s a lot of people on this blog who seemed to find it amusing that Pardew is favourite for the sack. They can’t see the irony in that their own undermining of Pardew is largely the reason for that. I think most of them are willing the team to struggle just so they can come back on here and say I told you so. How sad is that?
Belfast
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:15 PM
Comment #68Think he’s favourite for the sack due to the whole Kinnear situation tbh
Rotonda heights
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:15 PM
Comment #69I like Shola, he’s a very personable guy but I have friends who support other teams and the over riding comment they always make whenever they seem him play is how lazy he is.
Do you think for a moment that Pardew takes on board what we think.
We are not undermining him or the players’ confidence. Pardew is doing that all by himself and he doesn’t need to look any further than himself yet still always look for other scapegoats.
Pardew never accepts the blame for anything and is always full of veiled comments covering his own backside and apportioning responsibility elsewhere.
Pardew makes football hard work when it should be enjoyable.
DokToon
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:16 PM
Comment #70i support NUFC, all of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly… opinions are one thing, but gametime, its us toon vs the world…
JackButler
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:17 PM
Comment #71Felipe
I hope he is sacked and it has nothing to do with me wanting to say ‘I told you so’ it’s simply because he’s not good enough. We will never see the best of the players we have while this man is in charge.
He may be a gentleman and a really nice bloke but he’s simply not good enough as a manager
Felipe
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:18 PM
Comment #72JB
If I was a Newcastle player I would be reading it, why not. We all found it, why wouldn’t the players, they’ve got plenty of time on their hands. But it’s not just on here, it’s not for nothing that we are called ‘deluded’ fans. A large number (I would hate to say a majority) live in cloud cuckoo land thinking it’s just a matter of signing their latest list of favourite players off the telly and coming up with their own team on paper. There’s very little connection with the reality of injuries, schedules, coping with the opposition or a multitude of other things. It’s embarrassing on here sometimes.
Felipe
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:19 PM
Comment #73JB
So if you’re hoping he’s sacked you must be hoping we do badly this season. WTF?
I rest my case…
Felipe
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:20 PM
Comment #74@Rotonda
I know for a fact that he does…
Ruddy Marveaux-lous
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:23 PM
Comment #75BREAKING NEWS:
“Alan Pardew has been sacked following the revelation that he has lost the support of the nufcblog. Reports have confirmed that trouble has been brewing on the blog for months, and this is yet another example of ‘blogger power’ forcing the manager out.
“Our sources have told us that a few of the senior bloggers voiced their concerns about results last season, and held a secret meeting with the other bloggers to discuss the club’s future.
“With news being reported that Pardew has lost the support of both the senior and younger bloggers, Mike Ashley had no choice but to sack the Newcastle manager”
Rotonda heights
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:23 PM
Comment #76Felipe
Doesn’t that say everything that some fans would want us to lose to get rid of such a p..s poor manager.
Most fans aren’t stupid. Well ok some may still want to see the endless mediocrity and dire performances that
have been served up but the majority I suspect have had a gut full .
Pardew has been very lucky the crowd has never turned on him despite some of the worst performances ever seen.
I think I’ll scream if one more person days we finished 5th 2 seasons ago (sandwiched between 12th & 16th.) Roeder got us Europe one year and he wasn’t good enough either.
JackButler
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:23 PM
Comment #77Felipe
My basis on wanting Pardew gone is based on the players we have at the club and not on a fantasy list of who I’d like to see us sign.
The pro Pardew brigade will always throw the 5th place finish in there to justify his position as manager but then amazingly absolve him of any fault for last season’s debacle.
Our injury list was atrocious but then our training sessions were very light and had no intensity so the players fitness levels and conditioning was not where it was supposed to be which means we picked up even more injuries. That added to the fact that he constantly played players out of position is it any wonder we were almost relegated
Rotonda heights
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:24 PM
Comment #78Ruddy
YAY party time ….!!!!!
JackButler
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:26 PM
Comment #79Felipe
I will never hope for us to do badly, never mate. He should have been sacked as soon as the last ball of last season was kicked, if not before then.
Wanting him replaced is simply admitting the obvious and that he will be sacked sooner rather than later, better to do it now than when the season has began
Indian Magpie
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:29 PM
Comment #80Rotonda
Dalgleash got us second and he was not good enough either