Newcastle close in on striker deal

Newcastle are closing in on Sochaux striker Modibo Maiga, if reports is the Sunday press are to be believed.

The People claims that Derek Llambias has been out in France since Thursday trying to tie up a deal having watched Maiga play in a 4-0 home Europe League defeat by Ukrainian outfit Metalist Kharkiv.

Maiga had been on strike in the hope of getting his move to Newcastle in a move which annoyed the French club enough to report Newcastle to UEFA. It seems though that Maiga played in that game to earn his move away from the French club according to his agent Karim Aklil.

“He played on condition that the club allowed him to leave this month, providing they find a replacement,” said Aklil.

I'm assuming that, should we sign him, the complaint to UEFA will be dropped? I mean we would have met Sochaux's demands so they won't have anything essentially to be unhappy about. They'll have an unhappy player of their books and will have a replacement in according to Maiga's agent so hopefully the complaint will just subside.

As for the player, well it's fair to say that he still has his mind set on Newcastle.

Maiga said: “I want it to be done with Newcastle. England is a dream. I want to go.”

That has been the rhetoric of Maiga since day one. In fact it was his words that set the rabbit away on the first place when he spoke about how he'd met people from Newcastle. Most definitely an own goal from the striker but I guess you can't knock his desire to play for us.

Nolan Roux and Papiss Demba Cisse remain linked with us although it seems as though Maiga is the preferred choice. Who we'll get is up for debate but we only have a maximum of four days to wait and find out. It's quite conceivable that we could end up with nobody though, which is worrying.

So four days to bring in at least a left-back and a striker. Can it be done? Will it be done done? Are you nervous about it?

I know my nerves are starting to jangle...