"Ameobi-Like" Goes to Stoke City On Loan

Oh no!

Dave from Newcastle from "I'm on Setanta Sports" must be about to jump off a ledge. His favorite player, Shola Ameobi, left Newcastle to join Championship side Stoke City on loan for the rest of the season. Ameobi has only appeared eight times for the Magpies this year and is behind Mark Viduka, Obafemi Martins, and Michael Owen on the depth chart at striker.

This seems like an odd move as Stoke currently leads the Championship, albeit only by one point, and have scored the second-most goals in the 24-team league. Their 50 goals conceded is the highest total out of any team in the top 10 and the third worst in the top 15, so you would think they'd be looking to bring in an extra defender if possible. With that said, I honestly have no idea about their injury situation and it could very well be that Ameobi was needed up top, I'm not sure.

"Is it Ameobi-like?" Not anymore, Dave.

Premiership Players Involved in International Friendlies

Here's a quick list of some well-known Premiership players who contributed in the international friendlies yesterday. This list doesn't include, obviously, anyone in the England team as they all play in the Premiership anyway.

By country (club):

France: Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea)
Scotland: Kenny Miller (Derby County)
Croatia: Niko Kranjčar (Portsmouth)
Northern Ireland: David Healy, Chris Baird, Aaron Hughes (Fulham)
Wales: Jason Koumas (Wigan), Simon Davies (Fulham)
Turkey: Tuncay Sanli (Middlesbrough)
Ukraine: Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea)
Finland: Jari Litmanen (Fulham)
Israel: Yossi Benayoun (Liverpool)
Norway: John Carew (Aston Villa)
Denmark: Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal)
Ghana: Michael Essien (Chelsea)
United States: Tim Howard (Everton), Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham), Eddie Lewis (Derby County)

Your Opinion on Friendly Matches

A full slate of international friendlies interrupted domestic league seasons on Tuesday and Wednesday, and despite some entertaining, high-flying matches (4-3 victory for Holland over Austria, Mexico's 2-1 win over Ghana, etc.), club managers throughout the world are becoming increasingly unhappy with these fixtures.

Arsene Wenger, in fact, said yesterday that he believes these friendlies may not have a place in the future because fans just aren't that interested and they come at an inconvenient time of the year. Many managers say that the risk of injury far outweighs the reward for the players involved to wear their country's colors and that it's not fair to the clubs when players have to travel and miss training.

This is certainly understandable and managers have a right to voice their opinions concerning these games. However, if you polled the players, it seems like many of them are in favor of representing their nations. Many of them truly enjoy playing against another country and stepping out of that club atmosphere for a little bit.

I'm interested in your opinion as a fan. Do you like seeing your favorite players play in these friendlies, or would you rather them skip the games and stay with their respective clubs? This brings up the old club vs. country debate and it's one I want to have.

In England, fans of the Three Lions are generally also fans of lower-league teams and don't get to travel abroad with their team or get a chance to watch their team play big-name, Premiership opposition on a weekly basis. Fans of Premiership sides, especially those of the "Big Four", seem like they really couldn't give a toss about the national team and only care when the European Championship or the World Cup rolls around.

Because I'm not a fan of any one particular club side, I enjoy watching friendlies and any other international matches during the course of the year. They're not played too often and it's a nice break from watching the same teams in the same leagues go at it every week, and it's a chance to see the best players in the world compete for their homelands, something many of them are clearly honored to do.

As I said, I want to hear your thoughts about these games. Do you like them, do you hate them, do you want fewer of them, what? Leave a comment or send me an E-mail; my contact info is on the left side of the homepage.