Martins - The goal that nearly kept us up

It’s well and truly the end of an era when you see Obafemi Martins departing from St.James’. Although he had mixed receptions from supporters it was pretty clear he was loved upon Tyneside and will be sorely missed in our front line. Martins scored an abundance of goals in his first season after arriving for £10m and earned Alan Shearer’s much coveted #9 shirt for Newcastle. His ability to spot a chance from an astounding distance and doing that loved somersault celebration when he scored. Injuries did get in the way of Oba this season but he tried his best, holding off a groin injury. He even scored what we thought could be the goal to keep us up v Middlesbrough after just coming on as sub, but it wasn’t to be.

We’ll never forget that goal v Tottenham Hotspurs when he scored one of the most powerful goals football has seen. Indeed he had a habit of scoring against Spurs, completing a rout when Kevin Keegan was in charge. The reported fee is £9m to VfL Wolfsburg which seems pretty decent business but there’s more to this than Obafemi Martins’ leaving. Apparently we have a transfer embargo in place but this bid for Oba Martins seems to have been accepted, but, by who? does this mean Ashley is staying on and is liquidizing the clubs assets, does this mean the first signs of administration? Or maybe, as well hope, does this mean we might have just found ourselves new owners?

We won’t get too ahead of ourselves just yet as we’ll probably end up being disappointed (again) but thankfully we’re beginning to lower the wage bill, with £70,000 Martins, now, reportedly about ply his trade in Germany with the Bundesliga champions. We can see a mass exodus as feared/hoped with the likes of Bassong and co. following the little Nigerian out the door. I really hope a sale is near and that new owners can be put in place soon but I doubt this will happen. This is about the first bit of real action that’s happened at Newcastle since Owen, Viduka and Edgar all left. One things for sure, I’ll personally miss the little Nigerian and his somersaults. He did say he would’ve played for us in the Championship but you can’t blame him departing a stranded ship. Good luck Oba.

Comments welcome 🙂

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