Demba Ba in Newcastle for medical.

Posted on June 17th, 2011 | 52 Comments |

Demba Ba.
Ba: In Toon.
Former West Ham player, Demba Ba has been filmed at St James’s Park while in Tyneside to have a medical for Newcastle United.

As we published on this ‘blog on June 11th, the chief football writer of the Sunday Mirror, Paul Smith, alleged after a converstion with Derek Llambias that the player had “agreed terms on Friday night” (10th June) with Newcastle United,. However it WAS from a Sunday Mirror journalist, and the player has a degenerative condition of the knee which will only get worse with time. This scuppered a move to Stoke before he signed for former club, West Ham in a deal which enbled him to leave on a free transfer if the club were relegated, which, of course, they were.

The 26 year old striker was somehing of a success at West Ham last season, scoring 7 goals in 13 appearences for the Hammers, with the player also scoring 40 goals in 103 games for German Bundesliga club 1899 Hoffenheim before his move to the Premier League.

With Newcastle currently expressing a wish to sign younger players with good resale potential, it would seem somewhat strange that the club would now be signing a player over 26 with a degenerative knee problem who would face problems with medicals at any future clubs, as well as the potential for his knee to get much worse with the rigours of playing in the Premier League.

While his transfer would be a free one, and he is a good striker, his free status may be reflected in a larger salary package, but time will tell!

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1092 articles on this blog.

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52 Responses

  1. Ba for free is always good deal but I can’t understand why Ashley try to sell all of important squad member like Nolan Barton enrique Best Jonas. What the plan or no plan at all ? How it can help strengten our team status next season ?

  2. Agree with ya there fella you dint sell that many of the top players or should i say top teams dont dismantle there squards like seems to be the case with ours

  3. “I can’t understand why Ashley try to sell all of important squad member like Nolan Barton enrique Best Jonas. What the plan or no plan at all ?”

    Because he knows nothing about football and Derek Llambias knows even less?

    That’s what Kevin Keegan would say anyway Ginkoh. :-)

  4. Maybe because Ashley manage our club like his branch company, players as his employee, nothing more nothing less. He’s the chairman. He can do anything he want to if he thing it will be good ofr company. It’s all about business.

    But in the football world, you can’t do that because it’s not all about employee ability like business company. Spirit,Determination, Respect, Team Bond, Mental,
    social relation, it’s the game of human being, game of passion that’s why everyone love football.

    But someone never learn.

  6. Calm down lads its the Star thats reporting that Best can leave , but there is no quotes or evidence in the story to back up the crap they print . Just because we are ready to sign a striker for “free” they want to cause a stir by claiming Ashley will dump another for 4 million . Think about it guys if he was sold it would cost Ashley more to replace him with a striker of equal quality and of the same sort of age . It ain’t gonna happen .

  7. It’s unavoidable selling our better players. Enrique won’t even discuss a new contract so forget about him. Nolan wanted a five year deal which at his age he was really lucky to get, its only cos west ham are desperate. Think about it, with a five year deal at 55 grand a week nolan must be laughing, if we had given him that come 32/33 he wouldn’t have been much good and we would gave been stuck with a player on our books on ridiculous wages. Baron will also leave because be knows he needs one last pay day. These players might be good for 1 maybe 2 years but five years No. Well done board, just need to get some young exciting players now.

  8. Agreed toondave , its nice to see some supporters understand Ashley has too take a stance against the players wanting to fill their pockets at the expense of the club and therefore its supporters , Who help pay the players over inflated wages .

  9. Sentimentality is obviously not an issue for our owner…so how is it that Shola, Xisco and Smith have not been listed for sale. There’s $140 grand a week between the three of them.

    I’d be shocked to see Best leave. He is a big strong lad and unless he has permanently crocked his ankle I’d rate him over Shola and he can only be on $20 grand a week

  10. The fat man keeps on doing it and some supporters will never wake up and smell the coffee. He is taking the P-ss and has done so since he came here. A successful businessman does`nt run a club like this. An asset stripper does! Buy on the cheap and get rid of any quality is a recipe for disaster. How many players are we going to have going into the new season? not enough to cope with suspensions and injuries. Why because of the fat man`s cost cutting exercise, nothing to do with players turning down contracts their are been forced out.

  11. Our New formation next season: The 1-1?

    KRUL

    CABAYE

    BA
    (POSSIBLY BUT HE’S BOUND TO GET INJURED WITHIN 10 SECONDS OF THE 1ST GAME)

    There’ll be nebody else left here at this rate!

  12. if ashley allows Pardew to spend money and bring in affective players its a good bit of business. the problem i have is the sale of Nolan is most likely to finance the buy of Cabaye when their should be £35m sitting there from the sale of Carroll. its a game of wait and see but i have a feeling come the end of August we will be disapointed

  13. So what would everyone prefer we give nolan and barton five year contracts on 60,000 a week. Four years down the line when there both crocked we can’t sell and can’t sign anyone else cos our wage bill is to high. The bottom line is the move for nolan was both right for the club and player and will be likewise when barton leaves. Enrique is unfortunate because out I’d the 3 of them he would be the one the club should really try and keep, having said that if he doesn’t want to stay he doesn’t want to stay. One more point on nolan, yes he scored 12 goals last season but that was mostly from the support striker role, and mostly were from inside the six yard box. Move him back into central midfield and his return is a lot less and he isn’t mobile enough to get round the pitch. I’ve lost count I’d the times we have been over run in midfield due to a lack of pace. Now tell me if hatem Ben arfa plays the support striker role where would nolan be played??? Because he certainly isn’t good enough for the center of the field.

  14. Yes he scored 12 goals, so who else is going to weigh in with that amount of goals. If you have played football youself you will know that pace is not everything. As you get older experience of reading the game, been in the right place at the right time and commanding respect from you colleagues are very important. You don`t need to have everybody in team sprinting around like greyhound!

  15. Thing with ashley is hes made a profit from every window since he came, surely before carroll left he was planning to spend 10 mill at least. Put that with 35 carroll 4 nolan 8 enrique 2 routledge thats nearly 60 mill
    So 9 Zogbia
    10 mill defoe (proven)
    Bridge 2mill
    Ireland 4 mill
    Long 5 mill
    Barnetta 6 mill
    Also try for sturridge on a loan and use the rest of the mony to fund etoo who has said he wud take a pay cut also adding a few frees to the squad like ba hargreaves on payp deal and maybe upson (cover) and we would have a squad to push for europe also shaqiri?

  16. If he was continuing playing a support striker role no agreed he wouldn’t need the pace, but hba will be there. Why do you think no other prem teams came in for nolan?? Easy none of them are stupid enough to sign up a player who will be over the hill in 2 years time.

  17. toondave @13
    Probably the most common sence Iv’e read on this blog for a long time. I really wish there were more fans who could see the big picture the way we can.
    No point in whinging on about percieved problems untill the window is shut and the big picture is plain for all to see. Then if needs be, we can have a good old moan. Again.!!!Keep the Faith . HWTL.

  18. Tullin @15
    Sounds like an impressive collection of players till one considers that it would take another million a week to pay them all. This is where Ashley’s realism kicks in and it does’nt take a brain surgein to work it out.

  19. I’m glad we still have some optimistic fans, could be exciting times with the new arrivals next season.

  20. We need better players than those leaving, current squad finished 12th and its not because our current fringe players are bad its the so called stars at the club that not delivers. If we are to improve we need better players than Nolan, Best and even José.

  21. Agreed Porciestreet, a long time to go yet, let’s hope we sign most of these players we’re being linked with. HWTL.

  22. HBA has suffered a horrendous injury I know i had the same injury when I played football. don`t expect HBA to come back and achieve miracles straight away. Mentally and physically he will have to adjust likewise with gosling. I wish HBA all the best and hope it goes well for him, but I don`t think your confidence in him filling this role straight away will happen Toondave

  23. Hi, I am a West Ham fan, and Newcastle were always a team I enjoyed watching from the time of the Keegan era first time around.

    I hope it doesn’t happen to you, but Pardews second season at West Ham was awful. His signings were less than impressive (apart from Tevez and Mascherano and we all know what happened there) but he brought in the likes of Spector and Tyrone Mears.

    I see what most are saying about Nolan and lack of pace, but he has been a consistent performer in the Premier League for a number of seasons, with you and at Bolton. I think you will miss him badly.

    As for Ba, a good striker, but as loyal as Alex McCleish has been at Birmingham. A soon as a sniff of something better comes along, he will be stamping his feet, slapping in transfer requests and going on strike.

    Good luck for next season!

  24. You may be right Freddie, still doesn’t detract from the point that signing nolan up on a five year deal would have been a bad move

  25. I don’t think we should worry about Ba’s degenerative condition as Shola has had something similar for some time when trying to score goals.

  26. Sorry guys Ba in , and Nolan oot , doesn’t add up ! A west ham player who wasn’t really performing , for a guy who I believe was our best player last year , voted for him above barton ! , and he goes , sorry it just does not seem like classy premier league business..

    PREDICTION – 12 months time , Ba will have played 10 full matches , 10 matches as sub , and been injured for about 15 matches !! Scored 8 goals in total two in the cup !! , verdict not good enuff for EPL !@!!

  27. Porciestreet see the big picture you a funny fella mate how many other big teams cull there team like we are lmao

  28. I’m actually surprisingly optimistic for this transfer window. We aren’t going for the big names, but that doesn’t bother me (well not much anyway) as we can’t afford the fees or the wages. The only issue I have at the moment with the club is that they need to tie enrique down, but if the lad won’t entertain another contract with us, then there isn’t much the club can do. Like with AC, let him go and we’ll take £20m for him from the scousers. They seem to have money to burn at the moment, must have finally found a buyer for all of those nicked car stereos.

  29. OMG.

    This free is potentially a good deal. Sign him on a contract that is 3-4 years. With clausing about his knee (i.e half pay if his knee gets crocked).

    When he signs, HE WILL HAVE A VALUE. £3mill+

    He will score 12-17 goals this season. Valve will go up, this guy is entering his peak.

    Sell him on for £6mill plus.

    THAT IS WHAT ASHLEY HAS IN MIND.

    It a great piece of business…

  30. Look, no one forced Nolan out of the door, so why not just put any hatred you have for our owner to one side for a moment and ACTUALLY COMMENT ON WHAT REALLY HAPPENED INSTEAD OF JUST SPOUTING ANTI ASHLEY CRAP JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT.

    Nolan wanted to leave, end of.
    Also I can see where this asset stripping and culling of the team is coming from. Two people have left since this time last year, Carroll and Nolan. That’s it!
    We’ve brought in two new players and have Gosling and HBA coming into the team. That’s a net gain of two players.
    Someone please explain where the culling and asset stripping is happening, because all I can see is a stronger squad being built and sensible contracts being offered to existing players.

  31. That should say I can’t see where this asset stripping is coming from. In my caffine fuled radge I forgot to check my post. :)

  33. ginkoh @ 1

    ‘….I can’t understand why Ashley try to sell all of important squad member like Nolan Barton enrique Best Jonas….’

    I don’t know where you get the ‘Ashley trying to sell’ nonsense from.

    Newcastle offered Nolan a new contract which in the eyes of most fans appeared sensible given his age, 29 next week. We rejected West Ham’s first approach but I suspect West Hame directors had to cave in to their new manager when Sam said he wanted his old team captain.

    We also offered Barton a new contract but he rejected it. The club have since closed shop on him not surprisingly given his constant public comments and whinging. You can’t expect sympathy and cooperation from your employers if you keep slagging them off.

    Enrique was offered a new contract which may have made him one of the highest paid left backs in the league.

    That intellectual stalwart The Star has a story on Best. Say no more.

    Barton (tongue in check and foot in mouth) tweeted about Jonas. I’m sure Jonas was thrilled.

    I believe the only player the club has said is available is Ranger. This is probably because they have (like Southampton before them) got completely fed up with his antics and ill discipline. We gave him a lifeline and he threw it away.

  34. Micky Toon 2 first team gone in space of 5 or so months with rumours of of at least 3 more to follow i would call that a cullin meself

  35. @ 34….. just read 35.

    It appears its just me and few others that are actually EXCITED about the new season.

    Oh, just remembered the fixtures are released today. Admittedly they get changed by Sky etc…

  37. Toonarmyelite@34. Rumours, conjecture and speculation, that’s all they are. Paper talk. It’s exactly the same as getting all excited over a rumour that Messi or C. Ronaldo will be joining us. Until it happens it isn’t happening.
    A cull, by the very definition of the word is to reduce numbers. Like I said we are actually up on potential 1st team players, so it’s hardly a cull when we have more players coming into the 1st team than leaving. For it to be a cull it also would have to be against the will of the individuals. I don’t remember AC or Nolan sticking around once they had offers from other clubs on the table. Again not a cull.
    I don’t know if you are just trying to wind people up or are just being negative for the sake of it, but the logic just doesn’t stack up.
    We have strenghtened the team and no matter how much it pains you to say it, you can’t argue against the facts.

  38. We sell these players to improve with more quality player and with lower wage for example Cabye can surely play better than Barton with lower wage and Ba can produce the same standard as kevin nolan

  39. Ah I see the anti ashley axe grinders are in force again… Mickey toons post @37 has hit the nail squarely on the head here, the evidence clearly shows that there is no “cull” in place of any sort. Nor is there any asset stripping. The club has sold nolan, a player rapidly on the decline, who all too often was letting games pass him by. Sure he might have 1 mire good season, maybe even 2! But those are 2 years he still had left on his deal here. Depending on which account you believe he wanted either a 5 year deal or a 5 year extension. For a player so rapidly going downhill, either of those options would’ve been lunacy. I think the reason he was so determined he wanted 5 years is because he knows fine well that hell have no chance of getting another deal by then and hell most likely be a long way from the first team. But you have to ask, could the club be sure he’s going to be good enough in 5 years time? Of course they couldn’t, and neither could nolan, hence his vehemence and the clubs refusal.

    Selling a player long past his best when you’ve just brought in a player 4-5 years younger and in the France squad is NOT asset stripping either! It’s the complete opposite!
    @nztoonman @26

    Now I admit I hadn’t seen too much of ba before he appeared at ultima park, but I don’t see how you can say a player just isn’t performing when he has a record of 7 goals in his FIRST 13 games. Every top striker in the world would kill for a record of better than 1 in every other game! If that’s not performing then I’m not really sure what your expectations are…

    I know what some of you will say, you’ll say that’s only short term, lots of players start well then it averages out. That’s true, and he most probably won’t maintain that record over a longer period. But look at his hoffenheim numbers! That’s still 1 in about 2.5 over 100 games and that’s still a very very good record!

    One things that’s really annoying me at the minute is that every post about a bit of good news like this one is full of people moaning about how were selling all these players and want to see players coming in. Well here it is! A player coming in! Now stop moaning and enjoy it! It’s what you say you want!

    Just don’t know how a post about us buying a new centre forward can generate so much bitching about selling players. We’ve only sold 1 in this window, and all these constant complaints of lists of players that are gone, ie barton, Enrique, gutierrez, coloccini. These people are listed as being gone every day on here, and guess what chaps, none of those players has been sold, no matter how many times you say it. Every one of em is still a Newcastle player! Maybe we will sell them, maybe we won’t. I don’t know what the future holds, and neither do any of you! But one thing is for sure, to sell any of those players, someone has to be buying them, and as far as I can see, nobody has actually come in and made an offer for any of them.

  40. Adam says:
    June 17, 2011 at 8:25 am

    “I hope it doesn’t happen to you, but Pardews second season at West Ham was awful.”

    Unforturtunately Adam, you’re right, I remember and Charlton was much worse still. Fortuneately, you got someone decent in just in time. My commiserations for last season BTW. Nolan should be a good addition to your squad.

  41. ginkoh says:
    June 17, 2011 at 5:46 am

    “Maybe because Ashley manage our club like his branch company, players as his employee, nothing more nothing less.”

    I fear that you’re right Ginkoh to a certain extent. He doesn’t seem to understand the concept of teambuilding and the importance of preserving some kind of continuity amidst all the changes.

  42. PARNOCCHIO has just been on the radio,talking about demba ba’s knee problems,and his contacts at west ham.
    “please dad let me be a real manager someday”.

  43. TROJAN 69 says:
    June 17, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    “PARNOCCHIO has just been on the radio,talking about demba ba’s knee problems,and his contacts at west ham.”

    Trojan, what station was it? Is it online anywhere?

  44. Do people really care if best leaves? Yes he had a good spell and banged in a few goals but it was hardly a sustained period of good form. I seem to remember him being fairly useless and very unpopular with the fans (due to his uselessness) before his 3 month period of good form….

  45. worky,it was on radio newcastle,he was just talking about how his knee problems could be managed,and he’s been in touch with his contacts at west ham.they have told him his knees are fine etc….

  46. TROJAN 69 says:
    June 17, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    “worky,it was on radio newcastle”

    Thanks Trojan. Thought it might be but now I’m sure.

  47. tbh it is a posibility that ashley is looking at the biggert picture to try and build a succesful club. the current set of players have done their job by getting us back in the big time and keeping us up but they’re not gonna do much more than that.

    the only worry is the effect on the squad as a whole but we all know ashley made his fortune through making risks.
    and so far this has paid off so lets hope it does again

    on the subject of best im not going to lose sleep over him packing his bags but he is a useful utility player and im pretty sure he would easily fit into ahleys wage bill.

    is anyone bothered about loosing jonas? the amount of times i have sat there getting so frustrated with his lack of cutting edge and end product. with his sale it would make room to bring in a left winger like charlie who will contribute to the goal and assist tally and willl link up well will Ben Arfa

  48. Sounds like an awesome player ;-)
    Players like this are a fookin insult to NUFC.
    Fat Twat is sitting on £40 million from the sale of Carroll and Nolan alone and we are chasing players in wheelchairs…..wake up fellas!

  49. Scott – 39 nolan rapidly on the decline?

    Proper muppet you and certainly no respect for a player that fought tooth and nail to get us promoted and chipped in with plenty goals last season from midfield to prolong our stay in the top flight.

    Idiot.

  50. sirjasontoon I’ve got a lot of respect for what Nolan did in his time here and for you to say I don’t is just plain wrong. I’m talking about his future, not his past. However it’s obvious to all that he is on the decline, as shown by his total lack of mobility around the pitch and the increasing number of games that were passing him by in the second half of last season.

    I think you make yourself look like a total moron by calling me an idiot when I say he’s on the decline and you’re banging on about his past! I say Shearer is past his best too, doesn’t mean I’m showing a lack of respect for what he did.

    Its clear Nolan’s best days are behind him now and I agree with the others on this site who think that now is the best time to let him go. I agree with the people on this site who say that he’d probably struggle to cement a first team place next season. As I DO respect what he did in his time here, I wish him all the best at West Ham, and I think that his moving was the best for all parties, something that doesn’t come along too often in football.

    If he’s still so brilliant sirjasontoon, then why exactly is the only club that wanted him a championship club?

    Engage brain before you throw your toys out of the pram next time.

  52. Demba Ba should be a good addition and a reason to be optimistic. We can still get good mileage out of him if we play him properly. I would think his knee problems are closer to Ricardo Fuller than say Ledley King.

    Yes he resale value might be nil but we signed him for next to nothing, and I am sure his wages would have some relation to his appearances. It is all well ang good to have a youth/resale oriented policy, but if you don’t win games and stay in the league it’s hard to attract young prospects. Demba Ba will hopefully help us fill some of the void left by Carrol and Nolan.