Can a free agent such as Aliadiere plug the striking gap?
Posted on February 4th, 2011 | 55 Comments |
There are those who would suggest that Ashley demonstrated his inexperience by letting Andy Carroll go without having a replacement lined up.
After all, Liverpool didn’t let Torres go until they were sure they had Suarez and Carroll to replace him.
There may be something in such accusations but there’s also no accounting for dumb luck. What are the odds that, 15 minutes of football after letting your number one striker go, your number two striker will pick up an injury that will sideline him for 4-6 weeks?
The rumour-mill has already started churning out options as to how the money we got for Carroll will be spent with the Brazilian Hulk leading the way. I’m pretty sure there’ll be plenty more rumours to join that one before the summer’s over.
In the interim, however, Pardew can look at free agents to plug the holes left by Carroll and Ameobi, which is no doubt where rumours of Newcastle’s interest in Jeremie Aliadiere have come from. The 27 year old ex-Arsenal and ex-Middlesbrough striker is not exactly a prolific scorer, having put away just 14 goals in 130+ appearances, but beggars can’t be choosers at this stage in affairs.
Having said that, there’s typically little substance to back up the rumour of Newcastle’s interest in Aliadiere and it seems to me that it’s based on nothing more than the fact that he’s a free agent. It will cause me a problem if we do take up the services of Aliadiere as I seem to struggle to spell his name, having variously called him Aldaire, Aladiere and ‘that Frenchman’ in the drafts of this article (and that’s before I even get to the accents).
The alternative is that we have faith in Best, Lovenkrands and Ranger. I don’t know if those three are capable of stepping up and taking the responsibility but I certainly don’t think we can write any of them off based on what we’ve seen from them so far this season. I just think it’s unfair to judge a footballer until they’ve had regular starts for a good many weeks in a row.
On the other hand, can’t Shola man-up and wear one of those masks to protect his cheekbone? Or possibly a knight’s helmet?
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
no faith at all in what we have available at the minute!
if we score 10 goals in our remaining games id be amazed!
Xisco and Routledge should never have been allowed to go!
Asset stripping & saving wages is all this is!!
Corrupt, Liars are the 3 wise men!