... that triker "Leon Best is the first casualty of Alan Pardew’s Newcastle reign.
"Pardew has decided to offload the 24-year-old in January with Middlesbrough among a clutch of Championship clubs interested."
Best made it known earlier in the season that he would "refuse to go out on loan" because he was going to "see out my contract at Newcastle."
This maybe just paper talk (as there was no source or quotation in the article) and perhaps we shouldn't look too much into it ... but Best was NOT even Championship quality last season, never mind Permiership quality ... and his chances in the first team look further away than ever.