Legal battle dishes dirt on footballer’s ridiculous spending habits…
A court battle between ex-Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins and his former management company has revealed he was regularly skint … despite earning £75,000 a week.
NVA Management, who are suing for £300,000, have accused the “25-year-old” of regularly drawing out £40k on the weekends then taking another £25k on Monday mornings — leaving himself continually overdrawn.
According to the Daily Mail, a lawyer representing NVA claims Martins was also too lazy to bother chasing up sponsorship deals, meaning his name and image were being used without him receiving any coin:
Golden Eaglets skipper allegedly turned 18 about seven years ago
The U-17 World Cup, currently taking place in Nigeria, has been rocked by allegations the host nation’s captain, Fortune Chukwudi, is actually somewhere closer to 25.
Before the tournament, FIFA had made attempts to stamp out ‘age cheating’ by using MRI scans to determine a players age through bone density, but on Sunday a former Nigerian international revealed he’d seen Chukwudi playing youth team football as far back as 02/03:
“In the 2002/2003 season, I was chairman of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt. I decided to have a feeder team of fresh school leavers not older than 20 years.
One of my key players then is the current captain of our so-called Under 17 Golden Eaglets. By his own admission at that time, that is seven years ago, he was 18 years old.
The latest transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies
David Villa to Manchester United The Daily Mirror are reporting that Sir Alex Ferguson wants Valencia striker David Villa “above all other options” to replace Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez and claim that he is willing to match whatever Barcelona offer for the Spanish international.
The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Villa is reluctant to test himself abroad and said recently: ”Next season I will play in Spain because it is the league that is best for me. I will not go abroad.” If he leaves the Mestalla this summer, it will almost certainly be for either Barcelona or Real Madrid.
Samuel Eto’o to Manchester City
Barcelona’s attempts to sign Villa are good news for Manchester City, with the Telegraph claiming that Pep Guardiola will let Samuel Eto’o go if the Spain
Toon delighted to beat a team slightly worse than them
Newcastle 3/ Middlesbrough 1
“A tactical masterstroke”. That’s what The Sun are calling Alan Shearer’s decision to bring on Obafemi Martins and Peter Lovenkrands, a move that finally gifted the New Messiah his first managerial win. But if it was such a “masterstroke” to bring on Martins, why wasn’t he in the starting lineup instead of the continually ineffectual Michael Owen? The mind truly boggles.
Anyway, it was an exciting tie at St James’ Park last night, which allowed Newcastle to climb out of the relegation zone. If Hull continue their woeful decline, it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more of Mr Shearer’s tactical masterstrokes on Match of the Day next season.
Middlesbrough fans, meanwhile, can look forward to some glamorous away days at Selhurst Park and Bloomfield Road…
Last night Portsmouth gained a vital away point at the expense of Newcastle, and the fans who were forced to sit through a dire 90 minutes. Despite being presented with a myriad of chances, Michael Owen, Mark Viduka and Oba Martins all failed to convert.
Not only did this luckless performance deny Alan Shearer his first three points as a manager, but it also epitomised a team who have only managed four home victories in this campaign. After losing another of their “must win” games, the Magpies will be relying on six points from their final home matches against Middlesbrough and Fulham, and they’ll also be willing Hull to maintain their crappy second-half-of-the-season form.
As nerves and frustration reach stratospheric levels on Tyneside, we pose the following question: will you be tingling with schadenfreude if the Toon Army fail to beat the drop, or will you be sad to see such a huge footballing institution leave the top flight? Be honest below…
Newcastle star mistakenly believed his pigsty home was burgled
Fearing he had become the latest Premier League burglary victim, Shola Ameobi recently phoned the police to report a break in. The concerned Newcastle striker told Northumbria Police that several items including his chequebook had been purloined from his £500,000 mansion. However, shortly after making the call, he realised that he hadn’t been burgled at all - his house was just really messy:
Police called the incident a ‘genuine misunderstanding’ and a source told the Daily Mirror: ‘We were told thieves had taken a number of things, the most important one being the chequebook.
‘Given what soccer stars earn, that was obviously a matter of great concern. Then we got a call back saying nothing was missing after all.
‘Perhaps he had had a party and the place just looked as if it had been burgled.’
It must have been an incredible party if Ameobi has absolutely no recollection of staging it…
Newcastle bonus: Ameobi isn’t the only Magpie to brush with the law. Oba Martins has been in court after being caught doing 106mph. Amazingly, he kept his licence. Actually, he’s a famous footballer, so it’s not that amazing.
Premier League referee prone to the occasional error
After Newcastle became the latest team to be denied important points as a result of a mistake by referee Rob Styles, The Spoiler decided to look at who else have fallen victim to his calamitous decision making in recent years.
In goal is Shay Given, who made what deserved to be a match-winning save from Stephen Ireland last night but wasn’t because Manchester City were afforded another opportunity to break down Newcastle’s ten men and scored.
Our left-back is Jlloyd Samuel, whose great tackle on Cristiano Ronaldo last month was punished when Styles pointed to the spot. Accompanying Habib Beye, who is a makeshift centre-back due to Styles’ habit of making costly errors against right-backs, is Stoke’s Ibrahima Sonko, who was adjudged to have fouled Obafemi Martins in Reading’s 3-2 loss at St James’ Park in December 2006, a decision his boss Steve Coppell labelled “a guess-timate”. Steve Finnan completes the defence after Rob Styles famously pointed to the spot last season when Florent Malouda ran into the Irishman with Liverpool beating Chelsea 1-0.
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