OBAFEMI Martins goes in against Bolton at St James’s Park on Saturday under strict instruction from Kevin Keegan – to keep flipping over and over.
When the striker grabbed his 28th goal for Newcastle United and their first of the season in Sunday’s superb draw at Old Trafford he made a bee-line for the visiting dug-out and performed a couple of his traditional somersaults.
And no-one was more delighted than Keegan.
The United boss is fully aware that some of his Premier League counterparts have banned their players from doing somersaults after former Newcastle striker Lomana LuaLua hurt himself badly in his time at Portsmouth.
However, when I asked Keegan if he would put a ban on his 23-year-old striker the United boss quickly made it clear that nothing was further from his mind.
And he said he also wants to see his first summer signing Jonas Gutierrez don his “Spiderman” mask on a regular basis as he did with Real Mallorca when he scored against Osasuna last season.
Keegan told me today: “As far as Oba and his somersaults is concerned, I would love to see more of them, and I’d like to see Spiderman putting his mask on every week!”
Keegan is pessimistic about Michael Owen’s chances of making his first appearance of the season against Bolton and, with Mark Viduka already ruled out, it looks as though Keegan will again have to rely on Martins as his sole striker on Saturday.
But KK is confident that this is well within Martins’ capabilities, adding: “Oba on his own up front is a handful for anybody with his pace.
“His leap for the goal at Old Trafford was nothing short of outstanding.
“The opposition have got to put big guys on him, because if they put someone of a similar size, he’ll beat them.
“I’ve never seen anybody leap like him.”
Keegan’s first job today was to check on his five senior players who were on international duty last night to make sure they came through unscathed.
Both Gutierrez and Fabricio Coloccini played the full 90 minutes in Argentina’s goalless draw with Belarus in Minsk and are not due back into Newcastle until tonight.
Shay Given played in the first half and Damien Duff got a full game as the Republic of Ireland drew 1-1 with Norway in Oslo. The United duo were among a group of eight northern-based players who came home by private jet today instead of returning with the rest of their squad to Dublin.
But United were still waiting for any news from Habib Beye after their attacking right-back was with the Senegal squad for their goalless draw with Libya in Tripoli.
And one person waiting for United to talk to him is Real Madrid’s striker Javier Saviola. The Argentinian was quoted in top Spanish newspaper Marca yesterday saying he was aware of United’s interest but that he had heard nothing officially from St James’s Park.
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