Pancrate and Hall surplus to requirements. Will Best be next out the door?
Posted on May 5th, 2010 | 72 Comments |
Fabrice Pancrate, Fitz Hall and possibly Leon Best will be moved on as Hughton looks to free up as much cash as possible to help him in the transfer market. I can’t see them three players leaving freeing up too much to be honest as I’m not so certain that their wages will be massive, or whether we will recoup the majority of money we paid to Coventry City for Leon Best back in January. Either way, Pancrate, Hall and Best appear to have not done enough in their time on Tyneside to warrant being a paasenger in the Premier League.
Fabrice Pancrate was signed as a free transfer back in November, and marked his arrival on Tyneside with a spectacular goal against Watford which left a few fans thinking that we could be seeing something exciting in what was otherwise a non-existant right side of midfield at the time. It didn’t work out that way, and Danny Guthrie found himself played out of position on the wing in preferance to the Frenchman. With the arrival of Wayne Routledge back in January the writing appeared to be on the wall for Fabrice and he found himself eventually struggling to even make the bench towards the climax of the season.
Next out the door will be Fitz Hall, which is a much more difficult move to make in my opinion. The defender joined us back in January on loan from QPR, and despite struggling with a hamstring injury over the last few weeks has always done well when deputising for either Fabricio Coloccini or Mike Williamson. He also came in handy as cover whilst Steven Taylor recovered from a knee injury.
Although it was only a loan signing, there was a thought that the move could be made permanent during the summer. The question is whether he would get a sniff at the first team ahead of a fit Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini or Mike Williamson? I don’t think he will, and we still have young Tamas Kadar waiting in the wings to make an impact on the first team, whilst rumours continue to circulate that we are in the market to sign Motherwell defender Mark Reynolds again.
Now onto Leon Best, a much disputed subject among fans. Will the Republic of Ireland international be moved on in the summer? Some fans say he just isn’t good enough, whilst others remain convinced that the boy could come good given some time to settle. Either way, Best has failed to score in 13 appearances and I am sure that many of you reading will already know my opinion of what we should do with Leon Best.
I just honestly don’t think he is good enough, although he will always get my support whilst he is wearing the shirt. Fair enough, if he had got a goal early in his Newcastle career things could have worked out different and he could have gained the confidence to kick on from there, but he didn’t and I think we should now try to offload him back to a Championship club. I also think he is too similar to players like Andy Carroll or Shola Ameobi, and whilst being similar is not necessarily a bad thing, I don’t think he would be able to challenge either of them for a place in the first team.
That’s my two cents anyway!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Good reading of the situation Toonsy. Best is nowhere near good enough for the Prem. He didn’t even look good enough for the Coca Cola. It’s obvious that Hughton was desperate for cover up front but Best was the only mistake he made in Jan. Move him out.
As for new signings generally – how about Curtis Davies at Villa. And what do you think of Colo being given the holding midfielder role? S Taylor at right back?