Leon Best - Is he good enough? Vote now!

It's fair to say that Newcastle aren't blessed with having a natural successor to the number nine shirt.

In fact the way that I am feeling now I reckon that we might as well retire it as it clearly only really means anything to us fans - a particularly raw point after the departure of Andy Carroll to Liverpool, especially after we repeatedly heard how he was living the dream in our number nine shirt amongst other stuff.

However, we are having to struggle on after the departure of Andy Carroll, although to be fair we would have had to struggle on anyway as the Judas has been out for ten weeks with a thigh injury. It has presented an opportunity to other players though, and I'm looking squarely in the direction of Leon Best when I say that.

Best has had his critics since he arrived at Newcastle from Coventry City for a fee of anywhere between £500,000-£2 million depending on what you read. He struggled to fit into the side mainly because Carroll and Peter Lovenkrands were doing so well last season, which meant that the lad had to watch from the sidelines. Never upset a winning team and all that claptrap.

He was arguably our best player in pre-season and scored against Carlisle and PSV Eindhoven before suffering an ankle injury that kept him sidelined for the first four months of the season. He was, harshly in my opinion, branded a failure as he hadn't done anything at Newcastle, but then again he had never been given the chance to do anything really. Judging a player on only a handful of substitute appearances is the wrong thing to do in my opinion.

Fast forward a few months and Leon is getting his chance, and boy is he taking it. Six goals in ten appearances is probably more than any of us had hoped for, but it's his all round play that has impressed me more than anything. He can run, head, shoot, finish, hold up play and spot a pass, and he has improved since he was first given the nod for the first team by Alan Pardew.

But is he good enough?

I don't want to sound critical of Best, but I just don't think that he is the man to take us forward. Now I know that he has done brilliantly and has proved to be a more than able deputy in the last few games, but would you be happy to rely on Best for next season as well?

Where would you put Leon Best in the grand scheme of things? Would you be looking for someone to play next to him so he could retain his place in the team next year? Would you view him as a backup option? Or do you think that he is just not good enough?

As I said, it's hard to be critical of Best given the goals that he is scoring and how he is playing at the minute, but if you were to ask me if Best was the man to fire us towards Europe either next year or the year after or whenever, then I would have to say no.

That's my opinion, now let us hear yours!

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