With The Magpies’ metronome unavailable for three fixtures, Mo Diame has been handed the opportunity he’s been waiting for.
When Mo Diame swapped guaranteed Premier League football with Hull City to remain in the second tier with Newcastle United, he probably expected to be leading the promotion charge from midfield, thumping home trademark piledrivers to the sound of his very own name reverberating around St James’ Park in an unmistakeable Geordie twang.
Instead, the reality has been quite different. He’s started just 10 of Newcastle’s 19 Championship fixtures under Rafael Benitez. So far, Diame has cruised through games rather than grabbing them by the scruff of the neck. Moments of magic akin to his curling, play-off final wondergoal (below) have been frustratingly few and far between so far.
However, with Jonjo Shelvey now unavailable for the next three games following a petulant kick out at Nottingham Forest’s Henri Lansbury, the former Wigan and West Ham dynamo has been handed an ideal opportunity to stake his claim for a regular starting place at St James’.
Shelvey, Newcastle’s midfield maestro and arguably the division’s player of the season so far, will be absent against promotion rivals Birmingham City at the weekend as well as eminently winnable fixtures against Burton Albion and Wigan Athletic.
Therefore, the script is written for Diame to inspire The Magpies to their first win in four games in all compeitions, before sweeping aside the two Championship strugglers to ensure Newcastle remain at the top of the table and his place in the midfield is secured by the time Shelvey makes his return.
Diame may have dropped down from the Premier League but, now, he needs to prove he belongs at that level.
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