Papiss Cisse earning some Wonga in the casino

Already one of the more colourful figures to grace the English Premier League, Papiss Cisse may have taken a gamble with his Newcastle United career, following the latest incident in his chequered period at the club. A picture has appeared of him apparently enjoying a few hands of poker at a casino, just days after his refusal to don this season’s Newcastle shirt.

The Senegalese striker claimed the Wonga loan company sponsorship clashed with his religious convictions. Consequently he dropped out of the Magpies pre-season tour in Portugal on these grounds, to the annoyance of a club more used to dealing with the results of players’ criminal convictions. He had offered to don a jersey sponsored by a charity instead of the offending one. Now the grainy photograph, which definitely seems to be of Cisse, despite the player’s cunning attempts to conceal his identity by keeping his hat on, is another headache for Newcastle boss Alan Pardew.

The manager was already under some pressure ahead of the new season, after Newcastle’s struggles last time out, and Pardew has been dogged by pre-season rumours of his sacking. There have also been suggestions that he is struggling to communicate with the foreign players in the Newcastle squad, which this incident won’t have done much to help. This is probably not as unhelpful as the recent return of Joe “Insomnia” Kinnear as the Director of Football.

Cisse is one of the stars that Pardew is pinning his hopes on for the new season, and he urgently needs to recapture the stunning form he showed in his first season with the Geordies. Now the speculation instead is that he wants to move to a big money club before the transfer window closes, with reports linking him to the Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala. It seems likely that the Senegal star would have to repair his tarnished image before getting a move.

Metro Play online casino think perhaps Cisse should have taken a leaf out of the book of another, even more divisive striker, Mario Balotelli. Back in 2011 the then-Manchester City player allegedly gifted £1000 to a homeless man following a similar bout of successful gambling at a casino – securing some of the few good headlines of his career with the club in the process. Of course it’s not too late for Cisse to pull off a similar act of generosity. Newcastle fans would probably be happy if he just promised to donate a few more goals to their cause this season.