Welcome to St James's!Welcome to the fourth in my small series of ‘blogs looking at Newcastle United’s new signings in the latest transfer window. In this episode, I will be looking at former West Ham and 1899 Hoffenheim player, Demba Ba.
I was going to write that this is the final of my little series, but like many other Newcastle United fans, I live in hope that the club will be bringing more players in before this transfer window ends!
Of course, much there has been much discussion on the subject of Ba’s knee, which has caused him to fail medicals at both VfB Stuttgart and Stoke City before he was signed by the Magpies. However, I have already probed Ba’s knee problem, which stemmed originally from complications arising from an operation on a broken tibia (the larger of the two bones connecting the knee and ankle) in this post. Here, I will concentrate on other aspects of his career so far. (more…)
Pardew: Can he bring the entertainment back to SJP?Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew, has been speaking in a rare interview of his plans for the new season, saying that he wants to set up the team to be more “exciting”. The usually reticent supremo also added that new signings such as Demba Ba, Sylvain Marveaux and Yohan Cabaye will give his side a “renewed hunger for the forth-coming campaign”.
On bringing a little excitement back to Newcastle United’s style of play Pardew said:
“I am hoping to deliver a side that looks a little bit different, and our style will change a little bit too.
“I am hoping we have a really exciting season – and that is how the team will be set up, to be exciting.
“I can’t wait to start and be around the city and the club again.”
He then expressed delight on how well his new squad is taking shape and gushed about his five new players (including Ben Arfa and Gosling) adding: (more…)
How will that £35m be spent?The transfer market is a strange and sometimes scary place, with confusion abound by exactly how much money we apparently have, others have the knowledge only provided by Football Manager and FIFA and you’d be surprised how correct that actually is. The long and short is, we have never had £35m to spend – never.
There’s a lot of confusion around exactly what we have to spend since the sale of local lad and full time thug Andy Carroll to Liverpool for £35m with £30 of that being handed over in cold, hard cash – just how we like it. Alan Pardew himself stated that the money was to be reinvested in the squad and even went as far as to say that he wanted it solely for players but unfortunately, that isn’t how it works.
At the start of the season, the manager and the chairman sits down and discusses season targets, contracts, incoming players, outgoing players and everything else you’d come to associate with a professional football club. (more…)
Steve Stone: Youth is the key for new signings.Newcastle United first team coach, Steve Stone, has been on the qualities required in Newcastle United’s transfer targets, emphasising that the club is looking for young players who can inject a bit of pace into the side. This is has been a quality which has been seen by some as lacking in the United squad in recent days until the transfer of recent signings such as Hatem Ben Arfa and Sylvain Marveaux.
Speaking to the club’s official website at the annual NUFC Heroes Golf Day at Ponteland Golf Club, Stone began by saying he thought that it was great that Newcastle United had hit the ground running as the club’s transfer season got underway with the signing of players such as Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba and Sylavain Marveaux, as well as youngster, Mehdi Abeid. Getting in with some early signings is, once again, something that some have criticised the club as failing to do in recent windows. On this, Stone said:
“I think it’s great that we’ve made some moves in the transfer market, I think it’s important that you do it quite early and that’s what we’ve done.(more…)
Ba: Degenerative knee condition.In all the euphoria of Mike Ashley recently signing three players of seemingly high calibre, all for under £5 million, it can be forgotten that two of these player have had injury question marks hanging over them, so I have decided to investigate the problem and look to see if Mike Ashley has taken something of a gamble with his recent brace of cut price stars.
Part Two – Demba Ba
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Like his predecessor in this little two part series, Sylvain Marveaux, Ba was signed in a free / nominal fee transfer. He was released from West Ham on their relegation from the Premier League. Supposedly this was a condition of Ba’s contract when he signed for his previous club, though the terms of the deal were undisclosed at the time, it was thought to be highly dependent on appearances due to a degenerative knee problem which saw him fail two medicals at Stuttgart and Stoke City respectively. (more…)
