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Cheick Tiote’s plight at Newcastle United

By on January 19, 2016

Wikipedia is an interesting entity. It’s one of the biggest websites on the internet both in terms of traffic and size, yet has maintained its independence as a non-profit organization.  It’s often criticized within scholarly communities because the scope of the site is so large that small, factual errors can hide within it, in large part due to the nature of its open-source editing.

Yet it’s undoubtedly on the of the best resources on the web and is very useful for giving the general picture of any topic imaginable.

Recently, Cheick Tiote’s name resurfaced in the news as a proposed move to China from Newcastle United broke down over contract negotiations.  I hadn’t heard his name thrown around for a while, so naturally, I did a quick Google search to pull up his Wikipedia page.  As always, it’s useful, but for my purposes, it’s somewhat puzzling.  It has been seldom updated since 2013 and there’s a big blank where Tiote’s recent history should be.

But the more I searched, the more I found that perhaps this lack of information says just as much as any amount of interesting facts could.

Tiote’s story begins in Yamossoukro, a small town in Ivory Coast.  He was a late bloomer as a footballer, right the way through to his professional career.  He only began to seriously play street soccer when he was ten, and purchased his first pair of football boots at the age of fifteen.

In 2005, at the age of nineteen, he was scouted by Belgian side Anderlecht when playing for his local FC Bibo.  He missed a penalty on his debut in the cup, and was loaned out to Roda JC, a club in the lower leagues of the Netherlands.  He impressed enough to earn a move to FC Twente, where his professional career took off.  It was Steve McClaren, Newcastle’s current coach, who lead that bright team to the Eredivisie title in the 2009/2010 season, with Tiote running the engine in the midfield.  The Ivorian featured in the Champions League and made his first strides with the Ivory Coast national team during this period, establishing himself as an old-fashioned, touch-tackling, box-to-box sort of midfielder.  On his best days, he was compared to Ghana’s legendary Michael Essien.

He moved to Newcastle in the summer of 2010, for £3.5 million.  His career there has been a curious one with many twists and turns; if only he could have consistently performed as he did on his debut.  He completed every single one of his sixty-four attempted passes that day and his only shot of the game was on target.

The midfielder quickly warmed to the crowd at St James’ Park, scoring a brilliant volley in their memorable 4-4 comeback draw against Arsenal at the death.  Although he picked up an average yellow card exactly every other match in his first fifty games in the Premier League, he was only sent off once and rarely lashed out.  He was rewarded with a long-term contract through 2017 in 2011.

His stellar form quickly caught the attention of some big clubs, including Manchester United.  In The Guardian, he was dubbed the next Roy Keane that year.
Yet he stayed on Tyneside and established himself as a starter for the next three seasons under Alan Pardew.  Although he faded out of the limelight in 2012 and 2013, he resurged in 2014 and Arsenal were rumored to be knocking at the door for a while.

With Ivory Coast, Tiote won the 2015 African Cup of Nations, perhaps the biggest achievement of his career, but suffered a knee injury in the process.  He has never quite recovered the same form prior to that tournament.  Tiote was due to return over the summer, but picked up a few more niggling injuries here and there over the fall.
McClaren, his old gaffer at Twente, took over from Pardew, but upon return from injury in November, Tiote hasn’t quite fit into his old manager’s team.  He’s made just eleven appearances under McClaren and already appears on his way out.

Some claim it to be a personality issue, which Tiote vehemently denies, or perhaps his tailing form has something to do with issues in his personal life.  During his time in Newcastle, he has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, caught driving with a bottle of champagne in his hand and divorced after marrying more than a single wife.

Last week, Tiote flew out to China for talks with Shanghai Shenhua, in an attempt to resurrect his career outside of England and make a buck or two while at it.  But negotiations have broken down after Toite reportedly asked for a raise on his £60,000-a-week salary, although he needs to make a decisive next move to keep his reputation intact. For now, he appears to be stranded at Newcastle, a club he no longer wants to play for (he attempted to force a move to Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014) and one that doesn’t wholly want him on the books either, although nothing outwardly appears to have created this rift between the two parties. His next Wikipedia chapter certainly will be an interesting one.

Photo credit: Ailura [CC BY-SA 3.0 at (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/at/deed.en) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.