Gooch deal complete: onto Newcastle

Remember what I said about Aubrey Huff and the Orioles? That the quality of team that ultimately signs him sometimes says more about that player's future than the quality of the player himself?

Yeah.

It happened with Huff and now it has happened with Gooch. Ugh. The USA's centerback of the present and the future, 24-year-old Oguchi Onyewu signed a loan deal yesterday with the Magpies, who retained a club option that could make the move permanent this summer.

That's awful news. Newcastle is the MLS on 'roids. Newcastle is where promising youngsters stall their careers and established stars go to die. I'm exceedingly disappointed. North England bodes very badly for Gooch's professional development.

I'm not sure I would prefer Belgium, but then we could have at least dreamed of What-Could-Be. What-Might-Have-Been is so much more depressing.