Rumours from across The Channel: Toon pursue two more French strikers

Posted on August 25th, 2011 | 24 Comments |

Nolan Roux is allegedly a Newcastle United target.
Nolan Roux
Reports from across The Channel suggest that Newcastle United is ‘cooling’ on Modibo Maiga and is instead looking at a couple of other French strikers.

The rumour-mill in the French press is alleging that our interest in Modibo Maiga is cooling but that we’re chasing other players in France’s Ligue 1.

Two names have been suggested by French hacks and they’re Nolan Roux and Guillaume Hoarau.

Nolan Roux (no relation to Nolan Kevin) is a 23 year old striker who currently plays for Stade Brest where he’s been since 2009. In that time he’s played 62 league games and scored 21 goals, and he has made 1 appearance for France’s U21s, scoring 2 goals in that game.

Back in June, Liverpool were allegedly chasing the player with a €6.5m (£5.7m) bid. The same bid was apparently make by Shalke and Roux was reported to be upset that his club turned down the bid, thus depriving him of Champions League football. Apparently Brest were holding out for €8m (£7m) but no bid that high materialised.

Whether we’re actually preparing a saucy bid for Roux or not remains to be seen and at the moment this is nothing more than speculation.

Guillaume Hoarau is a 27 year-old striker currently playing for Paris Saint-Germain, where he has knocked in 32 goals in 88 league games since 2008. Before moving to PSG, Hoarau played for Le Harvre where he bagged 31 goals in 88 league games (and scored 8 in 21 during a loan period at Gueugnon).

Hoarau is supposedly a ‘late-bloomer’ in terms of his striking prowess and allegedly Gérard Houllier was preparing a £14m Aston Villa bid for Hoarau back in October 2010, although that rumour died a swift death. There was a confirmed bid of €10m (£8.8m) from Lyon in 2009, although PSG resisted then and their recent injection of capital from Arab sources probably means they have no particular need to sell the player now either.

Of the two rumours, I think Nolan Roux looks more like the sort of player we’d go for, although of course both rumours could simply be pure invention.

Personally, I think Maiga is still a more likely transfer target than either Roux or Horau.

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.

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Comment on this post

24 Responses

  1. I havnt seen them play tbh, but i have heard allot of people raving about Nolan Roux, so thats usually a good sign.

  3. If a champions league side are after him he must be good. Class on football manager as well :)

  4. I would quess that leaves about 6 strikers in europe we have not been linked to – or one a day until the end of the window. Still at least I now know a lot about some players I had never heard of – I wonder if we will qualify for europe and play against them next season?

    HWTL

  5. team vs fulham:

    ____________Krul

    Simpson_Saylor_Colo_Raylor

    ___Gosling_Cabaye_Tiote

    Jonas_____________Mervueax
    ___________Ba

  6. Look like a *slightly* less ugly Dirk Kuyt. Let’s have him – price seems more to Cashley’s liking too, provided he doesn’t actually want paying.

  8. @ Roscoe….Obertan? Ameobi? Both players were excellent against sunderland. Neither of them will lose their place. Why would we want to go at home to fulham with only one upfront? They are awful without zamora and are there for the taking. look what wolves did to them. Ba for Barton will be the only change. you can put money on that

  9. Its 4-3-3 not one upfront… I’m not saying that will be the team, I’m saying that’s what I would like to see…

    Obertan is an impact sub, he does not have the same effect when he starts…

    Marveaux for barton will be the change

  10. Nolan Roux looks pretty good:

    http://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=nolan+roux+youtube

    but would we be willing to pay 7m, or his 8m in release clause?? Same sort of money would get Maiga – and u’d assume there’s more history of contact there (albiet the sort of contact that gets u in trouble).

    Apparently Danny Situ the 20 yr old french defender (capped many times at U-17/18/19 level for france, and played as captain) is close to signing after a good trial, that saw him score against gateshead in the 5-0.

  11. @ 1.

    Nolan Roux has people ‘raving about him’ because, maybe I think, he is very good on Football Manager 2011.

    :o)

  13. So is it possible we will soon have an all French team ?
    Erm.. yeah i realise they come cheap !
    Look got nowt against the cheese eating surrender monkeys in general, (dont jump on me it’ a joke some of my best friends are…)
    But we missed out on one of the best young strikers available , with a tremendous work rate, who also gets his goals.
    Talking about Long, who was bought for somewhere around £6.5m., a better deal than most of the French players we have shown interest in.
    Look i got nothing against getting a deal, but this guy (Ashley)appears to believe he can pick up players for nowt.
    Obviously the guy’s taking a gamble with this brinksmanship stuff and could end up with no-one and though in good shape as far as midfielders, to lose Joey will be like ripping the heart outta the side.
    Not to mention we really need help across the back four.
    For those who advocated Williamson in place of Taylor, still think so? both he and Colo. are playing as good as any two CB’s in the league.
    But we need backup someone who can play across the back four (Bassong anyone) and a wingback who can bring the ball up.
    Whats the verdict on Ba, probably too early to tell and how about giving Marvelouse and Best a game, after all he was doing good before he got injured (Best) and how bout playing Marvelouse on the left with Jonas on the right.
    Like to see
    ********Krul********
    Simpson*******Ryan T. ?
    ****Taylor** Colo****
    *********Tiote********
    Jonas***Cabeye***Marvelouse
    ********Best**************
    ***********Ba**************

  15. Chuck, I think Long was only £4.5 million. I’m surprised we didn’t get him in. Well, I’m not surprised actually…

  17. chuck says:
    August 25, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    “So is it possible we will soon have an all French team ?”

    When we had the Wiseguys, it was usually Spain and South America, now it’s nearly all France seemingly.

  18. Alan Pardew must be wondering why he didn’t look for a real job last year instead of becoming MiKe and Derek’s bag man.
    Where is the money going from the transfers Mike ?

  19. Jordy Canuck says:
    August 25, 2011 at 2:07 pm

    “Where is the money going from the transfers Mike ?”

    They’re paying back his loan Jordy, which he said he wouldn’t be taking back.

  21. Aye he’s a character alright. I’m all for the club being financially stable, but theres surely a happy medium between Shepherd era largess and Ashley era austerity, and this ain’t it.

  22. John T, I’m with you, we need to be financialy stable and there is no doubt Freddie S did the club no favours. However another relegation is not an option either. I hope we have replaced the team that brought us back up with a competent squad that will move us on, and not diluted the team for the sake of a cheap deal to a future owners. I guess time will tell.

  23. I’m quietly confident Jordy. There are some people on .org who would still bang on about “Pardwho” and the missing £35M etc if he steered us to Champions League football this season, but like I said on a different thread a while ago if we end this window without a left back and another striker I’ll gladly join the “Ashley Oot!” lot.