Newcastle United F.C.
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Last Season: Flying High
Alan Pardew is building himself a fascinating resume as he led Newcastle to finish the season in such a marvelous fashion. Fifth place was simply wonderfully overperforming for a club that have such limited financial resources. The Senegalese duo, Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse, deserve to take a huge share of credits for the Magpies' success for their superb goal rate.
This Summer: Some Changes
Romain Almafitano becomes the fifth French player in the current Newcastle line-up alongside Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sylvain Marveaux and Gabriel Obertan as he joins from Reims on a free transfer. Joining him at Sports Direct Arena (or St. James' Park?) is 18-year-old Gael Bigirimana from Coventry City and 19-year-old Curtis Good from Melbourne Heart.
The departure of Danny Guthrie is the more shocking news for me, as he played so well for the Magpies last season. Also left the club are Leon Best, Fraser Forster, Peter Lovenkrands and Alan Smith.
Upcoming Season: Flying Lower?
As of now Newcastle still offer a very competitive squad, but surely Ba and Cisse may leave anytime with their owner being very willing to let go of his players at good prices. They should still play in the upcoming season nonetheless, though I doubt the likelihood of reaching the height set during last season.
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| Cisse's goal rate. |
It is hard to believe that he was a stranger for English football fans six months ago. Papiss Cisse (£9.5m) started his fantasy career at £7.0m, but it turned out to be such a big arbitrage opportunity - he just couldn't stop scoring goals. 13 Premier League goals in just 14 games (watch here) has made him one of the most incredible fantasy player ever, especially when he came with such a low price.
His price has shot high this season to £9.5m, but if Cisse can continue to score like nobody's business it is still a very profitable fantasy business.
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| Ba: Before and after. |
Demba Ba (£7.5m) had a wonderful season with the Magpies earlier last season, but that changed with the arrival of his compatriot Cisse. He had to played as a side player rather than his favourite central forward position, making his performance for the second half of the season deteriorated drastically.
With no major changes ongoing at Sports Direct Arena, it is hard to hope that Ba will revive this season, unless either other Premier League clubs can take advantage of his release clause or Cisse leaves Newcastle after just one half of fantastic season.
Anticipated: Ben Arfa (FI: 0.549)
Hatem Ben Arfa (£7.5m) always does very well when he is on the pitch - however he wasn't playing much last season.
He scored 100 points last season in just 1556 minutes (P90: 5.78, ranked second in Newcastle) - which indicates that he has got the potential to achieve a 200 point fantasy season if he can start regularly. Definitely one of the lad that you need to watch in this coming season, especially when he started regularly at the end of last season.
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