Newcastle defenders for the Chop.
Posted on September 8th, 2009 | 27 Comments |
Chops was breaking down the barriers back in 2006, when he became the first player of Indian parentage to grace the Premiership with both appearances and accompanying goals. Back in the day, he looked like the rightful heir to Shearer’s throne as being a local lad, not only did he attend the same school as Big Al but he also knew where the goal was.
However, with a pile of high profile strikers in front of him, Chopra struggled to make a starting place his own. While he will remain a Geordie legend forever for both his (quickest Premiership) goal in the 4-1 mauling of the Mackems at their dump and his inability / unwillingness to put the goal in the Leazes End net, sadly it was inevitable his future lay elsewhere.
However, it was also almost inevitable that he would find his feet and set off on a scoring streak to raise questions about whether the relatively low sum of £500k was actually daylight robbery when Cardiff paid that sum to take him later in that summer of 2006. Since then, not unlike Micky Bridges, a local lad with firm Newcastle roots appeared to be tricked into signing for them down the road for the tidy sum of £5m all-in.
But for the reasons given above, I’m sure he can be forgiven and as with Clarkie the water will pass under the bridge when we considere he did little to harm us in reality. All of that red and white nonsense aside, while he actually proved he could score goals at the top level, The Championship has proved his favourite hunting ground to-date and he has pretty much scored everywhere he’s gone, save for a barren spell at Nottingham Forest.
Cardiff have quite brilliant stuffed it up the Mackems by getting him first on loan and then taking him permanently away from them for just over a third of the fee they received. And since his return, Chops hasn’t really looked back and is sitting pretty as the leading scorer at this level with seven goals, just above his old mate Shola.
I’d prefer that, even if he has a decent game, he isn’t able to add to that tally on Sunday but that if he continues in this vein of form then hats off to the kid. Until he’s proved it over a couple of seasons, it’s hard to argue that he’s a top flight striker but with just about a goal every other game at this level, he’s still one to watch in The Championship. Our rearguard will need to be extra vigilant as this weekend could be the moment he proves a point to us.
NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag
bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.
this is defo our biggest test in the championship away to cardiff.for all the lads going dont forget your hardhats.lol