What will Newcastle do with Titus Bramble?
Titus Bramble returned for Newcastle on Sunday against Chelsea - having been rested since the disastrous second leg against AZ Alkmaar on 15th March - when the team went down 2-0 and out of the UEFA Cup. Bramble had a solid game against Chelsea at the center of the Newcastle defense alongside the ever improving Steven Taylor - very unlike his last display against Alkmaar - which brought lightly-veiled criticism from Roeder.
Bramble’s contract runs out at the end of the season and it is still apparently an open question as to whether Glenn Roeder will offer him another contract.
Most Newcastle fans must have thought they had seen the last of Titus Bramble after the Alkmaar game - but Bramble is an enigma - who for 99% of the time plays like an accomplished footballer and for the other 1% is out in gaga-land on his own planet.
I’m sure many managers will want to give Titus Bramble another chance in the Premiership - Harry Redknapp among them - if Roeder lets him go - because if they can get Titus to rid himself of his lapses in concentration - he can be an outstanding player - no doubt about that.
The question is will Newcastle hang on to Bramble?
Maybe a safe bet for Newcastle would be to offer him a two year extension - while in the summer bringing in two additional young central defenders (Curtis Davis and Anton Ferdinand would be good) and then let him fight it out for his place alongside Steven Taylor - who next season should become an automatic choice for the Magpies.
The assumption is that both Craig Moore and Oguchi Onyewu will be allowed to leave in the summer - so we would need to bring in two central defenders as well as full backs.
If it doesn’t work out for Bramble then Newcastle can sell him to the highest bidder. At least this way Newcastle would recuperate some of the $5M they paid Ipswich for him five years ago.
Let me know what you think - and for other Newcastle stories see our new blog dedicated completely to Newcastle United Football Club news.
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Discussion - 13 Responses
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Spot on mate. Taylor for me should be number one choice and I think roeder has seen that. Difference between him and bramble is that taylor looks like he wants to learn and tries to rid himself of mistakes and by all accounts looks to be growing more and more into a quality footballer
If Gooch stays that solves a lot of problems, doesn’t it?
Ed,
you think Gooch will not be kept by Newcastle? Why is that? I have missed last few games, but in the beginning he looked like quite solid defender…
I personally hope we sign him - maybe all is not lost - but Roeder is keeping a lot close to his vest these days.
Gooch has great potential and doesn’t make many mistakes and he’s also 6′5″ and very good in the air.
gooch shouldn’t be allowed to stay.. I don’t think hes shown enough quality to play for the toon, we might as well keep bramble & let Gooch go. I’d prefer to let them both go and start again at the back. 2 quality full-backs & a quality centre-half(woodgate). We do have Ramage, Huntington & edgar comming thru. I just know TBramble will have a blinder if he joins another club..sods law
Taylor could be great if he can just knock off the boxing. Hardly a game goes by when he doesn’t deliberately smack someone in the face. He needs to cut it out - it will cost us eventually.
Bramble has to go - he’s had his chance and is just not worth the risk anymore. Even in the Chelsea game after about 4 minutes he had a brainfart and we were just plain lucky to get away with it.
I think Gooch is worth keeping and will improve.
Have you noticed how one player can make a team?
Look at Arsenal without Henry, Chelsea without Terry and Spurs without King. Arsenal also had a problem a couple of years ago when Campbell was out for a while.
Who is our Ledley King?
Who keeps our team together?
We had a good patch for a while where we started to look pretty solid, knocked the ball around and looked like we could play.
Our recent dip in form has coincided with the loss through injury of one particular player.
Who is it that seems to make our team gel?
Its not Owen or Ameobi, or even Parker - our good luck charm is actually Peter Ramage
Not since the golden days of Peter Beardsley have we had a player who puts that much effort into playing for us.
Ref the comment on Gooch not making the team - I dont think its his performances causing the problem, I think it’s Roeders team selection. Why else did we see so little of Rossi when we had him? Why is N’Zogbie living on the bench?
Why is Luque in the doghouse? Lets not forget - Luque is not a forward - he’s a midfielder who just hasn’t been used properly. He’s not a Martins - he’s a Beckham. And at the moment, while we do have a marvellous array of midfield talent - nobody is making things happen
We dont lack the skill - we just lack the organisation.
I like Ramage and when he played together with Taylor looked good….hope he can come through big time next season.
Not sure what we will do with Gooch - but I’d like to keep him.
Quite honestly not sure why we didn’t go for why we didn’t go for Sol Campbell last year - Roeder is right when he says he wants to bring in young talent - but there are times when you have to buy players for tactical reasons - who will do a job over two years or so.
Young Ramage and Taylor would have benefited from the experience of Campbell.
Ed, that happens alot, I would have loved to have had Jon Dahl Tomasson back after we sold him and he found his way to AC Milan. It’s just our luck.
Ed - agreed on Bramble becoming a better player somewhere else. Sometimes people don’t fit in their surroundings. For example, Richardson at United gets a lot of stick but give him a full year at a smaller club (Sunderland?) and he’ll do better than what Pennant is doing for Liverpool.