The Ba Dilemma – Should He Stay or Should He Go?

With the Premier League and Europa League campaigns not starting as well as we would have hoped, news of Demba Ba’s recent theatrics come as a real nuisance at a time when the team need to kick into gear in the next few games.

Talks have ensued to replace Ba’s current three year deal, but the striker is demanding almost double his current £50,000-a-week wages. The situation soon escalated when the Senegal international was on the bench for the Everton game and left out of the squad to play Maritimo, sparking criticisms from his agent and his brother.

There’s no doubt that Demba Ba is a fantastic player who will go down as one of the greatest Newcastle signings of recent years. However, to meet his inflated demands, depending on whether he pursues them, would be a fundamental error. When an egotistical and demanding modern footballer sees that their team-mate is earning two or three times their salary, it’s inevitable that they’ll go running to the manager with questions. In the 21^st century, all top tier footballers need to be treated with a certain equality or fairness, or else the club must face the wrath of their growing power.

If Ba’s wages were to be met, others will start enquiring about improved contracts, and the sense of harmony within the ranks would be terribly disturbed.

What must also be maintained is the club’s current philosophy. Signing quality players with low transfer fees and wages through extensive scouting is something we’ve been heavily praised for over the last few years. Caving in to our best players’ astronomical wage demands would simply make Graham Carr and the scouting team’s work redundant.

“No man is bigger than the club” may be an excessively used cliché, but it perfectly depicts the current situation involving Demba Ba. If he does insist on nearly £100,000-a-week, then he clearly feels he has the right to ignore our transfer policy and downgrade the rest of the squad. Such behaviour should be enough for him to leave, especially as I have the utmost confidence in the scouting team to pluck out more underrated gems.

Nevertheless, we mustn’t give up on Demba. Once he gets playing again, he may have a change in attitude. What’s also possible is that the money-grabbing vultures of football, more commonly known as agents, could be using one of our best players to their own advantage.

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