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Newcastle must play the role of Ghostbusters when it comes to Michael Chopra

By Lee Ryder on Sep 10, 09 08:41 AM

We've endured it all down the years when it comes to being haunted by former players haven't we?

And now we head to Cardiff City with the ghost of Newcastle past in Michael Chopra just waiting to haunt us again and cause havoc.

Where do you start?

Les Ferdinand, Titus Bramble, Abdoulaye Faye, Craig Bellamy, Andy Cole...the list goes on.

In fact it's not just former players, it's Geordies or basically any quirkiness in football seems to come back to slap Newcastle United in the face.

Then there are Tyneside natives like Graham Fenton or pre-Newcastle Alan Shearer who always seemed to find some of their best performances for the Toon.

Hopefully we go into Wales as Coca-Cola Championship leaders at the weekend and come back out at the other end still lording it at the top of summit.

But the ghost of Michael Chopra seems like an accident that is waiting to happen for Newcastle United.

The striker never really achieved his dream at Newcastle but there can't be a Toon fan that wouldn't love to do what he did to Sunderland when he scored his only Premier League goal in a black and white shirt.

Soon after that Chopra was thrown the chance to stay at United by former boss Glenn Roeder who spent hours trying to stop him moving to Cardiff in 2006.

Surely then his chance was in front of him with Alan Shearer retired and the chance to grab the bull by the horns at St James's?

However, Chopra snubbed a new contract with the Magpies back then and the opportunity to stay on for another year to join the Bluebirds, then ahem Sunderland.

Earlier this year Chopra appeared to shirk the chance to sink the Magpies in a Sunderland shirt when he squirted a hopeless pass across the six-yard area in the Tyne-Wear derby in a clear-cut opportunity at the Leazes End.

Will his charity extend to Sunday's game in Cardiff?


1 Comments

JJK said:

Lee, you forgot Dennis Tueart (1976 League Cup Final, the only Geordie on the pitch scores the winning goal in a Cup Final...). Chris Houghton winning the Manager of the month may also be the kiss of death; let's hope not.

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Lee Ryder

Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.

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