Duff joins the Toon Army

Newcastle has completed the signing of Damien Duff from Chelsea on Saturday.

Duff signed a five-year contract at St James' Park, with a deal believed to be worth £10million. As the fees and personal terms have already been agreed upon, the last hurdle was the medical which he cleared while the first team were on their way back from Norway after beating Lillestrom in a UEFA Cup qualifying round tie.

You can almost feel the joy from Roeder as he waxed lyrical about Duff. "I can't tell you how pleased I am about getting a player of that quality. I would think it will excite our fans as well. I played for Newcastle - admittedly a long time ago - but we had the likes of Chrissy Waddle playing in that team that I played in and (the fans) love ball-players who can go past players and get crosses in and Damien is that type of player."

This is not the only signing though as they want to get more players in. Says Roeder: "You can only do one (transfer) at a time, let's get Damien into the club first and hopefully that will be done by Monday afternoon for sure, then we can start talking about the next player. But we've got a list of players now that we want to start working our way through."

Now, the question is why didn't Tottenham pursue this transfer right to the end? Duff has the right skills and is a natural winger who can complement Tottenham on the left while Aaron Lennon struts his stuff on the right. Martin Jol is also an excellent coach who has transformed Tottenham from a non-performer to serious title contender (Soccer Pundit still remember their last match with Arsenal where they outplayed the Gunners until that goal by Henry and Edgar Davids got send off deprived them of a victory).

Jol should take the credit for instilling the stability and consistency in the team as well as unleashing the potential of uncut diamonds like Carrick and Lennon. In terms of development as a player, the right career choice for Duff should be Tottenham at this point of time (no disrespect to Newcastle).

But let's take a look at the career history of Duff. Here is a player who is plagued by serious injuries throughout his career and may not last the full season without spending time in the treatment room and missing crucial matches. That will not fit in with the kind of stability Tottenham is looking for. So Jol and Co. should be applauded for accessing the situation, sticking to a tight fiscal policy and not rushing into hasty decisions. Duff may be a good player but not as good a buy to justify £10million.

Newcastle is a bit desperate right now as Alan Shearer has retired and Owen has wasted no time in reporting back at the treatment room (that injury could take up half a season and the next half limping his way back to form). At least he will now have a buddy in Duff while he recuperates.

What Newcastle really needs to target are top-notch strikers since they lost Shearer, Owen and Bellamy. Who is going to get to the end of all the quality crosses, Roeder?? The next important thing is to fix the leaky defence if they want people to take them seriously. You can put Buffon in goal for you and he will still appear like a fool with no decent defenders in front of him.

So Duff, despite what your good friends (Scott Parker, Shay Given and Steven Carr) may have advised you on Newcastle's future or your agents on better financial terms, Soccer Pundit feels that this is not a wise move and where Champions League is concerned, it is almost a foregone conclusion that Newcastle will not be taking part unless the top 4 teams falter....