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http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20120203/demba-ba-it-feels-like-im-at-home_2281670_2599695

 

Demba Ba walked back through the doors of Newcastle United's training ground and declared: "It feels like I'm at home."

 

Magpies talisman Ba, who has scored 15 top flight goals this season, had been away with the Senegal national team for almost a month as they competed in the African Cup of Nations, but came back to Tyneside this week following their group stage exit.

 

It was a disappointing showing from the Lions of Teranga, who had gone into the tournament with high hopes but lost all three of their matches in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

 

But, as he gave his first interview since his return exclusively to nufc.co.uk, Ba revealed how he plans to make up for that heartache by carrying on where he left off with Alan Pardew's side.

 

"It's great to be back with the team," said the 26-year-old, who signed off with a goal in his last appearance - the 3-0 win over Manchester United.

 

"It's been a while, and I'm very happy to be here. Now that I'm back I just have to forget about the African Cup of Nations and concentrate on the league with Newcastle.

 

"I got a very nice welcome from everybody at the training ground, all the players and staff. They were happy to see me, and I was happy to see them as well.

 

"It feels like I'm at home.

 

"It's nice to be welcomed like that by the lads, and it was good to see them again. We had a great training session on Friday and I'd love to play a part against Aston Villa on Sunday."

 

Despite the absence of their leading goalscorer, United have continued to pick up points and climbed up to fifth in the Barclays Premier League following their midweek victory at Blackburn Rovers.

 

Ba knows that might mean he has to wait patiently to get back into the team, but he is delighted that his team-mates have been able to manage so adequately without him for the last five matches.

 

"I wasn't surprised," he said. "They've done well since I've been away, and I knew they would.

 

"Just being without one or two players doesn't make a good team bad. I'm just happy that the results have been good, and now I'm hoping that continues."

 

Not only have Newcastle been boosted by the return of Ba this week, but they're also finally able to welcome his international colleague Papiss Cisse.

 

The January signing from Freiburg was also in African Cup of Nations action with Senegal last month, but is now available and could make his debut against Villa this weekend.

 

Cisse ended last season as the second top goalscorer in the Bundesliga and Ba believes he will prove to be a big hit with the Toon Army.

 

He said: "I was very pleased when we signed him - I think he's going to be a very good player for Newcastle.

 

"He knows how to score goals, and he's proved that throughout his career.

 

"I would love the chance to play with him here. I've played with him for country and I like playing with Papiss - he's a magnificent striker. I hope we're going to have a good player."

 

First things first, however, and Ba is just looking forward to once again running out at the Sports Direct Arena in front of his adoring public.

 

"I can't wait to do that," he smiled. "I've missed everything about the place; the atmosphere, the fans all shouting - I love that.

 

"And I hope it's going to continue like that on Sunday."

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That photog evidently has serious hearing problems.

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Demba Ba says he is not looking to leave Newcastle United

 

 

 

Demba Ba says he is happy at Newcastle United and had no desire to depart during the January transfer window. The Senegal striker's contract contains a release clause enabling him to leave Tyneside for £7m but Ba has not angled for its activation.

"I never talked to anyone to say I wanted to leave," said Alan Pardew's No19 who returned from the Africa Cup of Nations to score his 16th goal in as many Premier League games during the 2-1 home win against Aston Villa on Sunday. "I was just listening to people saying 'He's going there, he's going there, he's going there' and I had a big smile on my face. It was funny to me. The most important thing is being happy with your football and I am happy here."

Ba's bright smile seems a little more radiant now that he has been joined by his compatriot, Papiss Demba Cissé, the new owner of Newcastle's No9 shirt, worn by Alan Shearer, Malcolm Macdonald and Jackie Milburn.

Cissé, a £9m purchase from Freiburg, scored the winner against Villa and Ba could not have been more delighted. "I am really, really happy for Papiss," he said. "It's really important to score for a new club early on; when you come in and score right away you feel much better. It helps a lot and his was a goal of real class on the perfect return to Newcastle for me. It was such a good day; there wasn't even too much snow."

It is safe to assume the north-east weather did not loom overly large during Ba's attempts to sell the idea of joining Alan Pardew's side, now placed fifth, to his friend. "Papiss was a great signing for us," he said. "I was really happy when he signed because I talked to him a little bit beforehand. I just said, 'Go on. Sign.' He asked everything about Newcastle, about the supporters and the club but I've not told him everything because I wanted him to see for himself what it's like here. I think he loved the reception he got but he hasn't seen anything yet."

Ba, despite his prolific form in front of goal, never craved the No9 shirt. "I always said that I wanted to keep my number [19]," he said. "I always said that, if someone comes in and you want to give him No9, don't even ask me – just give it to him if he wants it. The manager asked me if I didn't mind it going to Papiss. I said just give it to him if it helps to sign him."

Ba's presence possibly clinched the deal. "We're from the same country, we live the same way as well," said Pardew's leading scorer. "Both of our parents are from Senegal and, even though I grew up in France, I always lived like I was in Senegal."

He seems amused at the idea of being one of two devout Muslims from West Africa who find themselves on Tyneside. "I think the Senegalese are happy about it," he said. "I guess there are a lot of Senegalese Newcastle fans now. But Papiss is a very quiet guy, all the fuss and hype will not affect him. I've told him everything about the No9 shirt here but I've always said it is just a number."

On Saturday Pardew's new strike force travels to Tottenham Hotspur – coincidentally a club reputed to be extremely keen on acquiring Ba this summer. "We go there and believe we can win," said the former West Ham United forward. "I look at the table and think 'Fifth, woah.' Now we just need to continue our road, continue what we are doing. We need to keep our focus but, as long as we do that, we'll be dangerous."

Newcastle travel to Spurs without the injured Leon Best and Ryan Taylor. Best will be sidelined for several weeks with knee ligament damage while Taylor is expected to make a swifter recovery from soft tissue damage to his right shin sustained when he was caught by Stephen Warnock's studs. Although eyebrows were raised that what seemed a wild lunge as the Villa left-back endeavoured to block Taylor's shot went unpunished, the FA will not review the incident retrospectively as it it says it was an "on the ball" challenge.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/feb/06/demba-ba-newcastle-united-papiss-cisse?CMP=twt_gu

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Monroe Transfer

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Legend.

 

 

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11678/7501223/Ba-s-Premier-dream

 

Ba sees little problem with working as hard as possible and fulfilling fans' expectations.

 

"When I lose I hang my head. I want to go back home because we didn't give fans what they expected," Ba commented.

 

"There are a lot of players who not give a damn. Even if I would not do it for the club, I do it for me. I cannot not care!

 

"What the fans are asking for? Giving your very best. That's the thing the easiest to do. Run, rush, tackle, fight... I can't see anything difficult in that."

 

Ba had a trial with Watford as a teenager and the former Rouen, Mouscron and Hoffenheim man was always keen to secure a return to England on a full-time basis.

Objective

 

Not only because of the atmosphere inside English venues, but compared to training in Germany he is afforded more time to work on customised regimes.

 

"Since the start of my career my objective was the Premier League. I did everything to reach it. I had so much fun when I had a trail at Watford as an 18-year-old," he continued.

 

"It was the English atmosphere, the way they experience Football. Of course the training sessions are important, but what really matters is that you give everything on Saturday and then people are happy.

 

"If possible I'd have a little less rigour and discipline in the Bundesliga, and a little more in Premier League! But I prefer it here. Discipline, you put it on yourself and you learn your own limits.

 

"I'd like to have just one training session a day as in England. Not because I am lazy, but because it lets you some time for individual work, on physical level or in front of goal. What I've found in England is total football, where you let go and give your best to win."

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The Fish

The Fish 10856

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Interesting interview with David Sullivan, lifted from here

 

In Conversation With David Sullivan (Part 1): Demba Ba – “One of the Biggest Mistake of My Life”

 

This is the first part of the interview I conducted with David Sullivan yesterday. There will be around 8 parts in all.

 

ID: David, you’ve had two years at the club now. If you knew then, what you know now, would you still have done it?

DS: Just. Just, I think. It’s been a harder time than we imagined. Both from a financial point of view and a football point of view. We shouldn’t have got relegated last year with the team we had. That was a major setback from a financial and a football point of view. We never came in thinking we would be relegated, but there was a lot of dissent in the camp, a lot of infighting, and we picked a bad manager [Avram Grant]. Simple as that. On paper you could make a very strong case for him, but I don’t want to say any more because I think it’s wrong to keep hitting somebody over the head. We are as much to blame as the manager.

 

ID: How near was he to going in the January 2010 transfer window?

DS: It’s very hard to talk about third parties, but we were very close to having another manager come, who I can’t name for obvious reasons. We had 25 hours of meetings with that manager. Twenty-five hours! At every meeting, that manager said to us: “I will be the next manager of West Ham United”. And we kept saying: “When?” Had he come, we would have changed manager. The problem came when he finally said he wasn’t going to come until the summer, and only if we stayed up. At that point, we thought, probably wrongly, it was too late to bring somebody else in. The obvious alternative was Sam at the point, but I think that would have been unacceptable to the supporters last January. Whilst it was acceptable in May, Sam wasn’t the first choice in January. He was the backup choice. David [Gold] would have changed for the first choice manager, but he was unhappy to change for the second choice manager, and I didn’t feel strong enough to have a row about it. It was a very marginal decision. Whether Sam would have kept us up, who knows? To me there were enough good players to keep us up. Just with Demba Ba and Scott Parker – those two alone should have kept us up.

 

ID: But Avram didn’t even play Demba Ba all the time, did he? A lot of us couldn’t understand that.

DS: He wasn’t fit when he arrived. He came on against Birmingham and hit the post in his first 20 minutes. But then Scott got injured at a vital time. With 8 games to go, I think we had 32 points off 30 games. We got 1 point from the last 8 games. And that’s when Scott got injured.

 

ID: When did it dawn on you that it wasn’t going to work and that we would be relegated?

DS: Before the Wigan game. And then at half time, I thought, wow, maybe I’m wrong. Because I thought we could beat Sunderland the next week and that could be enough. But we couldn’t defend, you see. Under Avram, we couldn’t defend, and that was our problem. It wasn’t a problem scoring any, we just couldn’t defend. But I suppose in all honesty I thought we were going down over the last 5 or 6 games. In January we had a little run, and that made us think perhaps we should hang on to the summer. Whatever happened we would have changed manager in the summer. We got lucky at Fulham. We got annihilated and went in 2-0 up at half time. It was like a real fluke performance. We won that game and picked up points here and there.

 

ID: You talked about dissent. Was that between the players and the manager or within the squad.

DS: I’m on the outside looking in, so I really don’t know, but I think there was a foreign group and an English group. I think the English group were plotting against the manager. Everything was wrong at the club last year and by way of contrast, everything is right this year. Everyone’s together.

 

ID: Is that Sam Allardyce’s influence pure and simple, or are there other factors?

DS: Several disruptive players have left and I think Sam is a different breed of manager. He wouldn’t have stood for it. Had he come in last January I’m not saying we would have stayed up, but I think there’s a greater likelihood we would have stayed up. But as I say, I don’t think it would have been acceptable to the supporters then. It’s been very costly from a football and a financial point of view being relegated and we have lost key players. Scott Parker just didn’t want to stay. Demba Ba had a get out if we were relegated.

 

ID: How did that work? Did we pay money to Hoffenheim?

DS: I’ll tell you exactly what happened. We wanted to loan him, but Hoffenheim said they wouldn’t loan him as they could get 6 million euros for him from Stoke. He then failed the medical at Stoke. I went back and asked to loan him again. Again they said no, but they would sell him to us. So we paid 500,000 euros down, which was almost like a loan fee, and then we’d pay 5 ½ million euros starting the next season depending on how many games he played – one level of payment in the Championship, one level of payment on the Premier League. I’ll have to make the figures up because I can’t remember, but something like 25,000 euros a game in the Premier League and 10,000 euros in the Championship. Demba Ba signed a three and a half year contract with us. We had a deal where his salary would be halved if we were relegated. He said, “Well on that basis, I have got to be allowed to walk if we get relegated”. What we should have said in retrospect – but none of us thought he would score so many goals – is that we’d be happy to give him £40 grand a week in the Championship. In the end I offered him £45 grand a week to stay but he wouldn’t take it. What we should have said was that if we don’t halve your salary, you haven’t got a get-out. The failure to put that one line in the contract cost us very, very dearly. As I say, he was on £35 grand a week and I offered him £45 grand a week to stay, but he went to Newcastle. His agent got £2 million to take him to Newcastle.

 

ID: So do Newcastle now have to pay to Hoffenheim the money you would have had to pay?

DS: No. That’s why Newcastle could always outbid us. It was our deal with Hoffenheim.

 

ID: So Hoffenheim got stuffed, then.

DS: Yup, they got half a million for him. This didn’t work for anyone except Demba Ba… and Newcastle. I’m told he’s got a £7 million get-out at Newcastle and he gets half the money over that. They keep denying it but I think you’ll see in the summer he will leave Newcastle or he’ll get a monstrous rise to stay there. If they get about four million, half will go to him, so if they sell him for £7 million they’ll only net about three because they paid his agent £2 million to get him out of here. Getting £3 million is not bad, but for a player of his quality it’s not fantastic. It’s one of those mistakes that happen, but it’s probably one of the worst mistakes I have ever made in my life. It just didn’t enter our heads. it didn’t enter anybody’s head that he’d score enough goals that we’d want to give him £40k a week and his old club £15/20k an appearance and we’d still be relegated. In reality that’s exactly what happened. The agent just threw it in at the last minute. He said “Obviously if his salary is cut by 50% you’ve got to let him walk”. We thought, OK, if we get relegated, do we really want a £40k a week striker in the Championship? Well, we would have because he was devastating. If he was with us now and his knee had held up, because remember, he did have a very very bad knee, I think we’d be 15 points clear, I really do. He’d be cutting through those defences. You live and you learn.

 

ID: You can say that again.

 

In part two… How we came to saign Ravel Morrison, and how Matthew Upson let us down.

 

NOTE TO NEWSPAPER JOURNALISTS: If you quote from this interview, please have the courtesy to quote the source.

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McFaul

McFaul 35

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Aye well the £70k came from one ITK that I dont know as he posts on a different forum but apparently has got a good track record as far as incoming transfers to Everton.

 

This Sheedy guy says that Ba asked us to meet the Toons demands and would join if we did... I trust him. I'm not surprised no-one on here does as its not what you'd want to hear about a new signing... especially when there is such a low opinion of the club he apparently would rather have joined (allegedly)

 

I could still see Ashley looking at a free transfer and £70k a week being better than £10m and £50k a week for an alternative player, just my opinion tho. He was on £50k at West Ham and it would be extremely rare for a player to leave on a free and move to another club for less money... would be surprised by that massively, especially if there's more than one team bidding for his signiture.

 

Maybe the £70k a week is BS? Who knows... could be less, but even if it is i'd expect it to be somewhere in between 50-70k.

 

Haha nah I think me and you should stick to the photography chat and leave football politics alone :)

 

why would you everton ITK know about the waged we offer though? i'm not doubting he's well connected with all things everton. it's just common knowledge now because of things the club have said and the fact that senior pros aren't getting improved contracts that we don't offer those wages anymore. so in the case of ba, that's not why you lot lost out to him. sorry

 

 

Because apparently Ba came back to us and said you'd offered it, and would join us if we offered the same.

 

Maybe he was trying to pull a fast one and play the two teams off against each other if that's not the wage you offered?

£70,000 a week pmsl

 

"Newcastle to offer Ba a four year deal increasing his £35,000 per week salary to £50,000 a week while removing the clause from his contract."

 

70k :lol: I don't know why you and all Everton fans didn't just accept his reasons for joining us over you. Unless you're an Everton fan there's not one logical reason as to why you would choose them over us. 70k :lol:

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jonasjuice

jonasjuice 0

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'As stated I am glad we didnt get him as think we dodged a bullet'

 

:lol: I know it's not really fair as no one could have anticipated how well he's done, still makes me chuckle. In fact if he'd gone there I'd imagine they'd probably be above us right now.

Edited by jonasjuice
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