‘Gooch’ is exactly what Newcastle need
I was very pleased that Newcastle United have finally signed Oguchi Onyewu from Standard Leige on loan until the end of the season - with a view to making this a permanenet move in the summer.
Being over here in the USA I have followed Gooch’s progress in the USA national team since his debut two years ago and he has become a much better player - as witnessed in last year’s world cup where he was the best of the USA players.
Against the top players and teams (like Italy last summer as an example) he played superbly - which is always the sign of a really good player - playing at your very best when it really matters (England players take note).
Oguchi Onyewu is exactly the type of defender Newcastle needs, a tough tackling, dominant center back who rarely makes mistakes.
While the deal is just a loan deal Gooch has already told the local NUFC TV that he has every intention of staying for the long term and helping Newcastle finally win something (we’ll see on that one).
At 6ft 4 inches Gooch is an imposing player and can only be good for the Newcastle team who must now start a winning run in the league if they have any chance of qualifying for Europe next season.
It’s also interesting to see how protective Roeder is of ensuring he buys only the right players for Newcastle - given some of the terrible buys we have made in the recent past.
Roeder is being very cautious in signing Gooch first on loan to ensure he is of the right caliber for the club.
Contrast this to Grahame Souness who bought Jean Alain Boumsong for 8 million pounds from Rangers two years ago - after Rangers had signed him on a free transfer six months before the deal. As everyone knows Boumsong became a liability at the club with some shocking blunders.
Souness then bought Albert Luque for 9.5M pounds eighteen months ago - and this player neither has the will nor the physical presence to ever be a success in the Premiership.
Roeder’s buys of Martins ($10M), Duff ($5M) and now Gooch have been good - certainly Martins is starting to show his potential - and I think Gooch will turn out to be another shrewd acquisition by Roeder - certainly all Geordie fans will hope so.
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Discussion - 3 Responses
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At last that’s what we needed a solid 6ft rock at the centre of our defence. Now we have someone with great presence in our back four. I believe Onyewu and Taylor will be a great partnership, and we have seen the quality we have in our youth team also. This coupled with players coming back from injury, the signs are looking good for Newcastle. I am starting to get excited at the prospect of seeing Owen and Martins in our frontline scoring goals for us. Our backline is much stronger now with this lad, and we always had a great midfield in Parker, Emre, N’Zogbia, Duff, Dyer, Solano, Milner and Sibierski who has impressed me and who i believe is a massive help to Newcastle’s efforts. The future is bright…the future is Black and White!!! COME ON NEWCASTLE!!!
Well it’s a start, let’s keep our youngters fit until our senior players recover. We do however need someone to plug the gap in the frontline left by Rossi, probably a cheap temporary replacement is in order, just until we have Owen and Martins tearing up defences. UP THE TOON!!!
gooch didn’t seem that great at the world cup, most notably on his mistake in the opening game that led to rosicky’s goal- onyewu is obviously a great presence at the back, but is a presence who makes stupid mistakes worth it?