Erding, Sow, Gomez? Just who is the mystery striker?
Posted on June 13th, 2011 | 15 Comments |
That idea of ‘mega-bids’ and ‘mystery strikers’ does sound like The Sun is spicing up the story a bit. Having said that though, it’s probably true within reason. We certainly need a striker and there’s no denying that it’s currently a mystery as to who that might be, and ‘mega-bid’ is a woolly term that could mean anything. One man’s mega-bid is another man’s cheese sandwich as they say (although not often).
I would therefore suggest that The Sun’s story is completely true for once.
It’s up to us to try and guess who this mystery striker might be though.
About 10 days ago I picked up some rumblings in the foreign press about our potential interest in Melvut Erding (or Mevlüt Erdinç if you like) and I still think he’s a likely candidate.
The 24 year-old Turkish striker plays for Paris Saint-Germain and has 22 goals in 51 games for them. He has also played 10 games for Turkey, getting the ball in the net once.
Given that Kevin Gameiro has now been transferred to PSG, Erding could find himself pushed to the sidelines a bit, which might encourage him to think about a transfer. Erding has previously expressed an interest in playing in the Premier League and there were even whispers that Newcastle might be interested in him 12-18 months ago.
It’s thought he would be on the market for about €8m-€9m (£7m-£8m) which is not really what I’d call a ‘mega-bid’ in today’s football market but I suppose it’s all relative. Apparently Galatasary are ‘willing to pay’ €9m for Erding, although I’m not sure if they’ve actually put in a formal bid yet (although I think they have).
Other, more ambitious, targets doing the rounds of the forums and Twitty include Mario Gomez and Moussa Sow.
Gomez scored an astonishing 39 goals in 45 games for Bayern Munich last season, so you’d have to think that Bayern would be reluctant to let such a player go for anything less than about £15m (possibly more), which might just be in the range of what Newcastle would call a ‘mega-bid’ (indeed, it would be Ashley’s record transfer).
Newcastle have previously been linked with Moussa Sow by the press but since he was the top scorer in Ligue 1 last season I would imagine he’d command a fee of about £15m too, although I could be overestimating things I guess.
I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see although I’d guess at Erding if someone forced me to make a guess under the threat of water-boarding or whatever.
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.
if thy was 1 striker out of thos who i would get it would b Gomez hes players lyk drogba solo upfront and if we are going to play 4411 thts great becos tht it how bayern line up , bt we we do hav the money to burn atm and i hope this deal can be done