Going Deutsch
Today's sad farewell to Sir Bobby has understandably rather overshadowed the departure of Obafemi Martins, a player who SBR would no doubt have described in the same terms as Lomano Lua Lua - "gymnastic fantastic" - and who, as anticipated, has joined Wolfsburg to bolster what was already a sufficiently prolific strikeforce to fire them to last season's Bundesliga title.
In prosaic terms, the sale means the best part of £9m in the coffers and another big earner off a wage bill which is still unsustainably high for the Championship, but I for one am sorry to see the Nigerian go. Infuriatingly inconsistent he may have been, and we could have expected a little more from him sometimes - but there's no doubt we had a very talented footballer on our books and when he sparkled, he really shone.
Of the 35 goals he scored during his three years on Tyneside, the one that lives longest in the memory - as I suspected it would - is the screamer at White Hart Lane in January 2007 that was instrumental in our overturning a deficit to win against the odds. His last goal for the club, that scuffed strike against the Smogs in May just two minutes after entering the fray as a substitute, could potentially have been viewed in hindsight with the same misty-eyed fondness as David Kelly's against Portsmouth in 1992 - but it wasn't to be, relegation robbing him of hero status.
Still, we wish him the best and move on.
In prosaic terms, the sale means the best part of £9m in the coffers and another big earner off a wage bill which is still unsustainably high for the Championship, but I for one am sorry to see the Nigerian go. Infuriatingly inconsistent he may have been, and we could have expected a little more from him sometimes - but there's no doubt we had a very talented footballer on our books and when he sparkled, he really shone.
Of the 35 goals he scored during his three years on Tyneside, the one that lives longest in the memory - as I suspected it would - is the screamer at White Hart Lane in January 2007 that was instrumental in our overturning a deficit to win against the odds. His last goal for the club, that scuffed strike against the Smogs in May just two minutes after entering the fray as a substitute, could potentially have been viewed in hindsight with the same misty-eyed fondness as David Kelly's against Portsmouth in 1992 - but it wasn't to be, relegation robbing him of hero status.
Still, we wish him the best and move on.
posted by Ben at 7:55 pm
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