Toon target Auxerre midfielder Alain Traoré (+ video)

Posted on November 15th, 2011 | 9 Comments |

Newcastle United allegedly after Alain Traore.
Fits the bill?
Strong rumours are circulating suggesting Newcastle United have an interest in Auxerre midfielder Alain Traoré.

To add to the transfer rumours I posted yesterday, there are additional rumours that we’re in hot pursuit of Auxerre midfielder Alain Traoré.

The Daily Mail claims that the 22 year-old has 6 goals in 12 games this season and, as far as I can gather, 13 goals in 47 senior matches for his career. He also has 7 goals in 15 games for Burkina Faso, which is where he is from.

I wasn’t sure where Burkina Faso was in Africa, so I looked it up: it’s on the Western sticky-out bit of Northern Africa but is away from the coast and land-locked by six countries (Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana and the Ivory Coast). Ouagadougou is the capital.

The Mail suggests that he might struggle to get a work permit though. Apparently this was a problem Manchester United had with the player when they were considering signing him 5 years ago. They wanted him to go to Royal Antwerp, their nursery club, but he was offered a contract by Auxerre and went there instead.

He seems to be billed as a left-sided winger by a lot of the press but was playing as a central attacking midfielder in Auxerre’s 4-2-3-1 formation last season and I think that’s the role we’d be looking to use him in, if of course this is any more than a rumour in the first place.

I have no idea what sort of price we’d be talking but I can’t imagine it would be too high as it’s only recently that he’s really started to attract attention (as far as I can gather anyway). The ‘Transfermarkt’ site has him valued at €2m, although I reckon that might be on the low side. He fits the profile for the sort of player we go after anyway: young, French-speaking and probably not too expensive.

Anyway, I found a video of him in action (which was tricky as there isn’t much). He scores the second and third goals from this clip:

Again though, it’s only press speculation that says we have any interest in him. Having said that, he does seem like the sort of player we’d go after.

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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9 Responses

  1. Looks a bang on cert to me especially as we all know and agree that what we actually need is at least one quick striker and cover in defence.

  2. Wikipedia refer to the home of NUFC as St James Park/Sports direct arena.

    Take THAT Mike Ashley! he he he

  3. “young, French-speaking and probably not too expensive.”

    Sounds like a new buying policy.

    Which beats cheap ladyboys from Thailand.

    Which is what matters.

  4. Kilgore_D_Sprout says:
    November 15, 2011 at 7:10 pm

    “Sounds like a new buying policy.

    Which beats cheap ladyboys from Thailand.”

    When was Graham Carr scouting cheap ladyboys in Thailand Kilgore?

    I think I need to write a blog on that one!

  5. Of course, and pardon the postage twicely, but one has to wonder thusly:-

    “Toon target Auxerre midfielder Alain Traoré (+ video)”

    Targeting someone would be acceptable (especially as some herein posters regard The Management as nowt short of The Mafia), but why one has to ask, would they want a + video?

    Is Traoré like all black men, apparently.

    Which is what matters.