St James’ Park outfit line up move for pretty average striker for some reason.

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Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan is jumping with joy at the return of several of his key players from African Cup of Nations duty and is confident that positive results will now flow for the Magpies. The likes of Abdoulaye Faye, Habib Beye, Geremi and Obafemi Martins have returned to St. James’ Park and Keegan can now reassemble the jigsaw.

Kevin Keegan says:

I am delighted to have Abdoulaye back. I have been very impressed with both him and Habib Beye.

They both played a part in Senegal’s tournament and now have a role to play here.

As far as Abdoulaye is concerned, he is a very good professional and he has done a very good job here.

He is a big lad and we certainly need some height in the team at the moment, but it is not only his height, he has great experience as well.

Can these returning African players stop the rot and improve Newcastle’s season? Keegan certainly thinks so and maybe they can.

Pace and power are just two qualities that Michael Owen doesn’t have, so Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan will be delighted to welcome back Obafemi Martins into the squad after the Nigerian’s African Nations Cup adventure. King Kev doesn’t seem that keen on Mark Viduka (how else can you explain not playing him against Villa?), so it must be a relief for Magpies fans that he might field somebody half-decent at holding the ball up rather than hanging around the six-yard box for a tap-in. The official United website carries the quotes:

“Oba will be fine, he just turned his ankle before he came back and he’s had to have a couple of days’ rest,” explained the black and white boss.

“We’re confident he will be back in training with the rest of the group by the end of the week.

“I’m looking forward to him joining us because I’ve seen quite a lot of him previously and I know what he can do. It’s just a case of having a close look at him on our training pitch now.

“He’s got great pace and he’s still our top goalscorer, even though he has been at the African Cup of Nations for the best part of a month.”

What he really means is surely “I’m looking forward to him joining us because it’s been relegation form since I joined, the natives are starting to get restless and the exciting matches I promised upon arriving at the club have failed to even look like materialising.”

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