There’s no doubting that Newcastle have done incredibly well out of Demba Ba. Signed on a free from West Ham in the summer and previously rejected by Stoke City due to concerns over his medical, the Senegalse striker has been simply brilliant for Newcastle United.
Ba is Newcastle’s leading scorer this season by a country mile and again much of the onus will fall on him to score this afternoon against Wolves in the Premier League, although now he does have his compatriot Papiss Cisse to share some of the burden.
Whatever happens between now and the end of the season I think it’s safe to say that Ba has well and proved the doubters wrong. Any concerns about his fitness haven’t materialised, as Newcastle’s number 19 has started 19 league games this season and featured in 23 matches in all competitions.
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That’s pretty impressive considering he wasn’t a starter at the beginning of the season and of course went off to the African Cup of Nations last month. However, that’s not half as impressive as the 16 goals he’s netted for Newcastle in this campaign.
There are still a couple of concerns over Ba. One is that someone takes advantage of the terms of his contract and nabs him in the summer on the cheap. The other, despite the amount of games he’s played this season, is that his knee will fail him at some point.
Here is Demba Ba at training earlier in the week with Cheik Tiote coming face-to-face with his potential nemesis: the stretcher! The 26-year-old is looking at the stretcher very suspiciously and let’s hope that Ba doesn’t need one any time soon…
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Click on the image below to see if Ba makes it into Newcastle’s Team of the Century!
