After much pointless speculation, it seems that Chelsea winger Damien Duff has chosen Newcastle as his final resting place.
The only question we have is: Why?
It may have simply come down to financials, with Freddy Shepard more willing to shatter his wage structure, but assuming that Liverpool and Tottenham were able to match Duff’s demands as well – why would he have ended up at Newcastle? Not that there’s anything particularly wrong with the club, but given that Martin Jol and Rafa Benitez have had their clubs in a strong upswing for the past two seasons – while Newcastle are still recovering from the Souness fiasco – it could be argued that the barcodes represented the less attractive footballing destination.
At the same time, they have that rabid fan base and certainly plenty of quality players in midfield and attack with plenty of potential – as they showed at the end of last season with a fine run of form. That being said, given that the club wasn’t really lacking in left sided midfield options – N’Zogbia and Emre capable performers when needed – does Duff represent good business considering he’s taking up a sizable chunk of this season’s transfer budget.
With the defense still an abomination in stretch of the imagination, could the funds have been allocated better? And if they were to sign another attacker, should it have been another established striker given Owen’s injury and inconsistency of Amoebi and Luque?
But at least that’s another transfer circus out of the way, Newcastle supporters are likely happy to have another exciting player amongst their ranks while Tottenham and Liverpool may wonder why yet another sorely-needed quality left sided player has slipped through their grasp.