Sammy Ameobi has been offered a new contract to stay at St. James' Park, Newcastle United have announced. The 23-year-old's current deal was due to expire at the end of June but The Magpies have offered terms on a renewal. No more deals are yet available so it's currently unknown as to whether Ameobi has agreed to sign the deal, or how many years the offered contract runs for - though it has to be said that the club must feel confident he is staying to have issued a press release. The announcement of Ameobi's new deal came less than an hour after the club publicly announced that veterans Jonas Gutierrez and Ryan Taylor were to be released this summer and in the same press release that revealed Jak Alnwick, Adam Campbell and Remie Streete were all being let-go and that unsurprisingly phantom forward Facundo Ferreyra's loan deal ends without any interest in bringing him back to Tyneside. It had been touch and go all season as to whether Ameobi was to be offered a new contract and whilst poor form, erratic displays, bad decision-making and huge question marks hanging over his temperament and laziness (sound familiar for an Ameobi?), what has likely won over the United decision makers is his age and potential. There's clearly more that could come from Sammy and there's definitely talent there. His pace, quick feet, laggy legs and unpredictability factor can terrorise defences; he is a perfect wildcard in your squad stack of deck... to be utilised when all else fails in order to get that desperate gung-ho goal. Though it has to be said for his career to go anywhere he will need to make sure he is in full control of his erracticness to confuse defenders, sooner rather than later. His season petered out because of the above issues, finding himself behind both Remy Cabella and Jonas Gutierrez for that left wing birth at the end of this campaign. Will Ameobi live up to his potential at Newcastle during his new deal or will he be cursed by the same flattering to deceive mediocrity that plagued his older brother, for whom he scarily shares many of the same pros and cons? Only time will tell but one thing's for sure, if he's to eclipse his 25 appearances from this campaign next season he will need to play a helluva lot better than he did this.
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
