Leon Best...

[Deano 0]

CHRIS Hughton has handed Newcastle's forgotten man Leon Best a vote of confidence - insisting the striker still has a part to play in United's Premier League campaign.

 

Best is yet to open his account for United and has slipped down the pecking order at St James’ Park in the wake of Andy Carroll and Peter Løvenkrands hitting form.

 

Shola Ameobi’s timely return to fitness has relegated the former Coventry forward to an unused substitute over the last two games, and Hughton admits it has been “difficult” for him.

 

The Newcastle boss has defended his contribution, though, arguing he has played a pivotal role in the push for promotion.

 

He is adamant his time will come – and rubbished talk of selling him in the summer.

 

 

Hughton said: “There is no doubting Leon’s ability – we see that in training – but it is a difficult time for him.

 

“When you are a striker joining a new club, first you want to play games and more importantly you want to score goals.

 

“The unfortunate thing for Leon is he has seen the form of the other strikers around him, which has resulted in his opportunities being limited.

 

“My way of looking at it is I would rather have him at the club than not have him.

 

“Of course he also applies pressure on that striking group.

 

“He is a player who has scored goals in the Championship, it is just unfortunate for him he has been among a group of strikers in good form.

 

“Since he has been here, he has been a very valuable member of the squad – but of course he wants to be playing and he wants to be scoring goals. His time will come.

 

“Leon is a player we still want for next season. We see his abilities; he had scored ten goals for Coventry before he came and has had no problems settling in to the club.

 

The area he wants to be doing well in is scoring goals, and at the moment that has not gone as well as he would have liked, but I still have a lot of faith in him.”

 

Hughton has admitted he “likes” Portsmouth’s on-loan midfielder Jamie O’Hara – but denied any contact with Spurs over a possible summer switch.

 

After a breakthrough season for Pompey O’Hara is being courted by a number of Premier League clubs and would be open to the idea of a move to St James’ Park in the summer.

 

Newcastle are keen, but wages may stand in the way of any possible deal.

 

Hughton said he was one of a number of players he admired but said nothing was imminent.

 

He said: “I know Jamie O’Hara well, but I can only think the link is because of my time at Spurs.

 

“He has had a very good season. He wants to play and he needs to play, and that is why he went to Portsmouth and has done well. But there has not been anything from us on him.”

[Park Life 71]

Lawd elp ahs.

[Deano 0]

Just when i was starting to have a little faith in Chris Hughton he somes out with bollocks like that.

 

Could he not have just come out and said...

 

"Signing Leon was a panic buy that has gone wrong, at the time we didnt know how shit he was so we will be letting him leave in the summer"

 

"Fabrice has done nothing since his goal against Watford, but im happy for him, he has picked up a nice amount of money sitting on his arse but that stops at the end of the season"

 

Come on Chris...say it how it is man!

[Dr Gloom 22176]

worrying noises coming there like. similar to that stuff about us not needing to invest much that came out recently. hopefully a smokescreen

[Holden McGroin 6785]

He is hardly going to say he is shit and an un-needed buy.

[Percy Street 0]

Just when i was starting to have a little faith in Chris Hughton he somes out with bollocks like that.

 

Could he not have just come out and said...

 

"Signing Leon was a panic buy that has gone wrong, at the time we didnt know how shit he was so we will be letting him leave in the summer"

 

"Fabrice has done nothing since his goal against Watford, but im happy for him, he has picked up a nice amount of money sitting on his arse but that stops at the end of the season"

 

Come on Chris...say it how it is man!

 

 

...................or continuing to talk up Best

 

a) Helps rather than hinders a player who is still ours whether thats a good thing or not.

 

Does something to keep a potential resale price"up". Telling the world we want rid would drive the price down.

 

My personal opinion is that you are right up to a point. Best does have the look of a panic buy. But in managing the situ now, Hughton has got it right - as he has most things this season.

[LeazesMag 0]

Don't really like having a go at Hughton because he's done a good job and seems like a really good bloke trying to do his best for the club, to the point of saying this sort of thing, the correct thing to say in fact.

 

All I can say, is when things go wrong, I won't be blaming him any more than I didn't blame people like Arthur Cox and Gordon Lee for walking away, and others who were also forced to manage the club with one hand tied behind their backs.

 

You need an ambitious board that backs their manager. End of.

Edited April 13, 2010 by LeazesMag

[Deano 0]

He is hardly going to say he is shit and an un-needed buy.

 

I know i was being sarcastic man.

 

Just when i was starting to have a little faith in Chris Hughton he somes out with bollocks like that.

 

Could he not have just come out and said...

 

"Signing Leon was a panic buy that has gone wrong, at the time we didnt know how shit he was so we will be letting him leave in the summer"

 

"Fabrice has done nothing since his goal against Watford, but im happy for him, he has picked up a nice amount of money sitting on his arse but that stops at the end of the season"

 

Come on Chris...say it how it is man!

 

 

...................or continuing to talk up Best

 

a) Helps rather than hinders a player who is still ours whether thats a good thing or not.

 

Does something to keep a potential resale price"up". Telling the world we want rid would drive the price down.

 

My personal opinion is that you are right up to a point. Best does have the look of a panic buy. But in managing the situ now, Hughton has got it right - as he has most things this season.

 

You are right in that sense, biggin him up will help him and us like you say a/b.

 

But i honestly think CH believes what he is saying...he beleives Best is good enough.....which if true then we can kiss goodbye to the hope of a new striker next season.

 

Worrying.

[Ayatollah Hermione 14058]

Didn't KK praise David Kelly then flog him right after? A manager has to publically back his players, even if they, and us, know they're not up to it.

[OTF 7492]

To do anything other than give him praise would be stupid on every level. I don't think it was necessarily a panic buy, more-so it was a bit of an insurance policy in case we suffered a string of injuries to players up front.

[LeazesMag 0]

To do anything other than give him praise would be stupid on every level. I don't think it was necessarily a panic buy, more-so it was a bit of an insurance policy in case we suffered a string of injuries to players up front.

 

As I have said already in this thread. Hughton is saying the right thing and standing by his signing. But he knows deep down that he is being forced to sign players and run the club in a sub standard fashion because his boss has zero ambition and therefore he is having to adopt lower standards that he ought to be doing, and these lower standards are light years behind what we have been used to seeing since 1992.

[OTF 7492]

To do anything other than give him praise would be stupid on every level. I don't think it was necessarily a panic buy, more-so it was a bit of an insurance policy in case we suffered a string of injuries to players up front.

 

As I have said already in this thread. Hughton is saying the right thing and standing by his signing. But he knows deep down that he is being forced to sign players and run the club in a sub standard fashion because his boss has zero ambition and therefore he is having to adopt lower standards that he ought to be doing

 

I have no doubt that to some extent that is correct.

 

On the whole though you'd be hard pressed to find many managers who don't have constraints on them that they would love to break. The thing with Hughton though, is that he may be at his best when under tight constraints. Some managers don't have the ability to spend large amounts of money wisely. At this stage of his managerial career I have little doubt that Hughton would not be the right man to make the most of a large transfer budget.

 

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the right thing to do this season is spend a relatively modest amount of money (say 25 million in the off-season) to complement and strengthen the existing squad. In January look to strengthen in the areas where we are looking most weak. The real movement should come in the following window, where we'll better be able to gauge the standard of players required to push up the table. What we need now is a balance of stability and evolution so that we can take the small amount of momentum gathered from winning the Championship and use it to our advantage next season.

Edited April 13, 2010 by OzToonFan

[LeazesMag 0]

To do anything other than give him praise would be stupid on every level. I don't think it was necessarily a panic buy, more-so it was a bit of an insurance policy in case we suffered a string of injuries to players up front.

 

As I have said already in this thread. Hughton is saying the right thing and standing by his signing. But he knows deep down that he is being forced to sign players and run the club in a sub standard fashion because his boss has zero ambition and therefore he is having to adopt lower standards that he ought to be doing

 

I have no doubt that to some extent that is correct.

 

 

in fact it is completely and totally correct, and I'm sorry to piss on your chips at the moment, but I'm afraid that as in other occasions in the past when we have been promoted, I fear that all the optimism will be short lived and it will all become fairly obvious that the limit of ambition for one of the biggest clubs in the country is to compete at the levels of clubs such as Bolton and Wigan. Which is of course what a lot of people wanted when we were throwing away money and qualifying for the Champions League and had the 14th biggest turnover in world football.

[OTF 7492]

To do anything other than give him praise would be stupid on every level. I don't think it was necessarily a panic buy, more-so it was a bit of an insurance policy in case we suffered a string of injuries to players up front.

 

As I have said already in this thread. Hughton is saying the right thing and standing by his signing. But he knows deep down that he is being forced to sign players and run the club in a sub standard fashion because his boss has zero ambition and therefore he is having to adopt lower standards that he ought to be doing

 

I have no doubt that to some extent that is correct.

 

 

in fact it is completely and totally correct, and I'm sorry to piss on your chips at the moment, but I'm afraid that as in other occasions in the past when we have been promoted, I fear that all the optimism will be short lived and it will all become fairly obvious that the limit of ambition for one of the biggest clubs in the country is to compete at the levels of clubs such as Bolton and Wigan. Which is of course what a lot of people wanted when we were throwing away money and qualifying for the Champions League and had the 14th biggest turnover in world football.

 

It's not pissing on my chips, I get where you're coming from but unlike you I'm trying to be as realistic as possible about potential outcomes for the next couple of seasons. I think you will admit that if we want to immediately challenge for Europe it would need a massive investment of funds into the club. We're talking easily in excess of 100 million pounds. The whole squad would need to be gutted, and the majority of our current first team players would be required as backups to cover for injuries and suspensions. It would be a equally large gamble to go and do something like that, because even if we bought in players that were capable of doing it, there's absolutely no guarantee that they would complement each other and immediately gel on the field. That sort of buy-in would only have us competing with the likes of Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham. To take it to the next level we'd need to double our spend and on top of that we would honestly have to pay gargantuan wages as it would require a snow-ball effect of players signing for the really decent players to stand up and take notice and even consider signing for us.

 

I want what you want, but turnover is one thing, having to build a European quality team more or less from scratch is another altogether. It absolutely has to be done over a period of years unless you have owners who don't care about writing off a couple of hundred million pounds.

[peasepud 59]

It's not pissing on my chips, I get where you're coming from but unlike you I'm trying to be as realistic as possible about potential outcomes for the next couple of seasons. I think you will admit that if we want to immediately challenge for Europe it would need a massive investment of funds into the club. We're talking easily in excess of 100 million pounds. The whole squad would need to be gutted, and the majority of our current first team players would be required as backups to cover for injuries and suspensions. It would be a equally large gamble to go and do something like that, because even if we bought in players that were capable of doing it, there's absolutely no guarantee that they would complement each other and immediately gel on the field. That sort of buy-in would only have us competing with the likes of Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham. To take it to the next level we'd need to double our spend and on top of that we would honestly have to pay gargantuan wages as it would require a snow-ball effect of players signing for the really decent players to stand up and take notice and even consider signing for us.

 

I want what you want, but turnover is one thing, having to build a European quality team more or less from scratch is another altogether. It absolutely has to be done over a period of years unless you have owners who don't care about writing off a couple of hundred million pounds.

 

Yes, but you have to show a plan, an ability and more importantly a desire to get to those places in time otherwise no player with any kind of ambition will touch us with a barge pole. We're not therefore we'll never attract the required talent be it now or in 5 years.

[OTF 7492]

Yes, but you have to show a plan, an ability and more importantly a desire to get to those places in time otherwise no player with any kind of ambition will touch us with a barge pole. We're not therefore we'll never attract the required talent be it now or in 5 years.

 

I'd agree with that. So far the ambition has not been shown. Certainly not prior to the relegation. Whether any is shown in this off-season remains to be seen. I think we'll see a moderate amount in the interest of Ashley protecting his financial interests in the club. Further than that is impossible to predict but based on what we've seen it's unlikely that we'll ever see true ambition from Ashley.

[peasepud 59]

Yes, but you have to show a plan, an ability and more importantly a desire to get to those places in time otherwise no player with any kind of ambition will touch us with a barge pole. We're not therefore we'll never attract the required talent be it now or in 5 years.

 

I'd agree with that. So far the ambition has not been shown. Certainly not prior to the relegation. Whether any is shown in this off-season remains to be seen. I think we'll see a moderate amount in the interest of Ashley protecting his financial interests in the club. Further than that is impossible to predict but based on what we've seen it's unlikely that we'll ever see true ambition from Ashley.

 

I think the words coming directly out of Hughtons mouth show that, he knows hes got little to no money to spend, either that or he actually is deluded in believing this squad is capable of standing its own in the big boys league. For all our sakes I hope its the latter because its a lot easier to replace a deluded manager than a clueless board.

[LeazesMag 0]

Yes, but you have to show a plan, an ability and more importantly a desire to get to those places in time otherwise no player with any kind of ambition will touch us with a barge pole. We're not therefore we'll never attract the required talent be it now or in 5 years.

 

I'd agree with that. So far the ambition has not been shown. Certainly not prior to the relegation. Whether any is shown in this off-season remains to be seen. I think we'll see a moderate amount in the interest of Ashley protecting his financial interests in the club. Further than that is impossible to predict but based on what we've seen it's unlikely that we'll ever see true ambition from Ashley.

 

I think the words coming directly out of Hughtons mouth show that, he knows hes got little to no money to spend, either that or he actually is deluded in believing this squad is capable of standing its own in the big boys league. For all our sakes I hope its the latter because its a lot easier to replace a deluded manager than a clueless board.

 

Again. The ambition of the board is everything. It's a lot easier to replace a shit manager than a shit owner too. Another point is that a good manager employed by a shit board will always fuck off and go to a club with a good owner ie like when Arthur Cox went to Derby and Gordon Lee went to Everton. If Hughton actually does a good job for the club and they don't support him he will be off just like Keegan and I for one wouldn't blame him in the slightest.

[Happy Face 29]

If Hughton actually does a good job for the club and they don't support him he will be off just like Keegan and I for one wouldn't blame him in the slightest.

 

 

For a moment I thought you were talking about '97 Keegan then I realised you must have meant '08 Keegan cos the previous board always backed the manager

[LeazesMag 0]

If Hughton actually does a good job for the club and they don't support him he will be off just like Keegan and I for one wouldn't blame him in the slightest.

 

 

For a moment I thought you were talking about '97 Keegan then I realised you must have meant '08 Keegan cos the previous board always backed the manager

 

you are right. They did. The PLC and other factors contributed the first time. Don't dispute this, because they continued to back their managers ie all of Keegans successors, for the next 10 years.

 

If Ashley had backed him too, we were a couple of players away from another european qualification IMO. That is all it would have taken. Quite amazing the people who keep insisting that he will somehow do a u-turn when and buy a couple of good players when he oversaw the selling of 6 or 7 players that formed the backbone of a team good enough to go for the top 6.

[Guest alex]

Dredging up the past again like but fuck it, but I can't believe the fat cunt sided with Wise only for Wise to then leave anyway.

[sniffer 0]

Wise may still be on the payroll as well. That really bites.

[Guest alex]

Wise may still be on the payroll as well. That really bites.

Rankles almost as much as having Leon Best on the payroll

[Monroe Transfer 0]

Talk here of Best being shifted, along with Hall and Pancrate as mentioned elsewhere.

 

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastl...61634-26378258/

 

Hall is another who would like to stay at Newcastle, but Hughton knows he has to be ruthless and it remains to be seen whether Leon Best has done enough to keep his place in the squad.

 

Best has not scored in 13 appearances since signing from Coventry in January. His form has not been good enough to persuade anyone he is capable of making the step up to the Premier League.

 

The Republic of Ireland international cost £1.5m at the start of the year, but Newcastle will accept less than that if a Championship club is willing to take the striker off their hands before the start of next season.

 

I'll respect Hughton even more if he gets rid, nice guy and all from the looks of things but he clearly isn't good enough for the PL.

[LeazesMag 0]

I've just been chatting to a real fuckwit in the pub tonight. Who isn't really a football supporter, he's one of those people who sit on the outdside of everything and have an opiniion but not a close view of a club to deliver a knowledgeable one. A bit like all those who are based in places like Canada, Singapore and Timbuctoo etc..........

 

He insisted that all the money spent on the likes of Alan Shearer was "wasted" because we "did nothing"

 

Coming straight after watching Spurs won 1-0 tonight which he kept saying how well Redknapp had done, I said "do you realise we spent 10 years out of 15 where we were competing where those 2 teams were tonight and higher ?

 

His answer ? Keegan quit thought didn't he ?

 

Words fail me. I actually told him to fuck off because he was talking complete shite.