Would you have had any of these deadline day strikers?

I'd have rather had his missus
So after days of speculation, deliberation and frankly a whole lot of lies,we come to the end of another transfer window. It was one where there were a lot of highs and a lot of lows to go with it as expected. It was a typical Newcastle United rollercoaster ride. One of the biggest lows for me was the failure to sign a striker. Granted that we added Demba Ba to the squad but we were promised time and again that the club would find a proven striker who would find the back of the net on a regular basis for us.

That promise never materialised though and we find ourselves again being taken for a ride by the club’s hierarchy. Now, where I am going with this article is not to support the board or to slate them but let us take a step back and asses the strikers who moved on deadline day. I realise that it is not just the deadline day strikers that we should have been after but the clueless pack of jokers that run our club were always gonna leave it as late as possible.

So,the following is a list of strikers that moved on deadline day and whether I would have had them in at our club.

Peter Crouch

Well, where do I start with this? He has an amazing goal scoring record for England and has shown that he will score if given a prolonged run in a team. But is he somebody whom we need right now? I don’t think so. We already have big strikers and targetmen at the club and having Crouch will only add to a trait we already have. Plus the fact that he is 30 and has had a pretty dismal scoring record at Spurs makes it a no-go for me. Anyway, I have always felt that putting a 6 foot 7 inch pole on the pitch would have the same effect as him.

Cameron Jerome

Another Stoke signing and another signing I wouldn’t have wanted at the club.He can run the channels and can be a busy player but he is definitely not the quality that we wanted. He just does not have the ability or spark to stand out from the rest of our strikers and for that reason a No for him too.

Nicklas Bendtner

And now we come to the self proclaimed “one of the best players in the world”. Now, this is a player that I would quite frankly have liked at the club. He has the talent and is so confident that some tests revealed it to be abnormal. He is I feel a striker who needs his managers backing and continuous time on the pitch to get better. With our lack of quality strikers and the job Alan Pardew has done with the likes of both Taylor’s and even Guttierrez to a certain extent, I feel he would have gotten on well here. He also would have had countryman Peter Lovenkrands to settle him in. His ego is a huge issue though and makes him a bit of risk. And now that he has joined the unwashed, I will loath him with a passion.

Jermaine Beckford

Another striker whom I feel wouldn’t have increased the quality of our strike force. We were after him last year when on a free from Leeds but it didn’t work out and am glad that it didn’t work out this time either. He frankly is a championship striker who has found his level.

Craig Bellamy

Bellamy was one of my favourite strikers when he used to play for us. His pace and guile was so very complimentary to Shearer’s play that he struck an immediate cord with all of us. But I guess that is where all the affection ends. Bellamy caused that huge stir with Souness, had a falling out with Shearer and was quite a horrible human being with an ego bigger than his house. He has also not replicated his Newcastle form at any of his latter clubs and at 32 is not getting any younger. So, it’s a No for him too.

Yakubu Aiyegbeni

Well, he would have been a hit or a miss signing. He has the ability to score goals but just does not have the quality to lead the line on his own or create goals out of nothing. I don’t think that he would have added more quality to our frontline and therefore I must go with a No for him too.

Orlando Sa and Denis Stracqualursi

Now, I just put in these two players as they are technically strikers. But, their goalscoring records are not at all impressive and are not proven strikers, so am saying a No to them is pretty easy.

Shaun Maloney

Another striker who I don’t think would have made our strikeforce any more fearsome. We need quality and he definitely is not it.

Bryan Ruiz

And finally we reach the player who was our last resort in the striker hunt. Now this is a player I definitely would have liked us to sign. He is the sort of player who plays as a second striker or an attacking midfielder but despite that his goalscoring record is phenomenal. We went in very late for him and the player had already suggested that he had been in talks with Fulham for many days. He might not have led the line for us on his own but would have been great playing off or behind players like Ba or Best. Perhaps we have Ben Arfa to take over that role once he regains fitness.

I am sad that we didn’t sign him but scoring goals in the Dutch Eredivise is different from scoring in the Premier League. Just ask Afonso Alves, Ryan Babel and others. Hope he doesn’t haunt us and make us think – “Just what if he’d signed”.

Of course, these are the players who only moved into or out of the Premier League.The strikers who did in other leagues include players like Diego Forlan, Helder Postiga, Mauro Zarate, Ikechukwu Uche and the likes, players whom we didn’t have a chance in hell of signing or would have been completely useless in improving the team. 🙂

So, there you go. Would any of you have had the above mentioned strikers at our club now?

Thanks to Deepak for sending in this article.

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

101 thoughts on “Would you have had any of these deadline day strikers?

  1. We will be the richest club in England shortly playing in front of 30k fans and blogs like this won’t exist.

    Dusty pug nose will be blogging on the Sunderland blogs talking about financials then.

    But boys, I’m sure some of you will just tell me to support the team and accept it .

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  2. The question is, is NUFC a tainted brand at the minute with all the negativity and hatred of the owner. Sure he’ll get the SD brand out there worldwide but does he really want his potential customers to hear the supporters in the ground singing “Sports direct, fcking ****”. That won’t do him any favours surely?

    Although I thought it was a showpiece for other potential sponsors? He obviously cannot find anyone wanting to get involved as he’s been at it for about 18 months.

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  3. Yeah to be honest I can’t say I’m shocked by it and it’s kind of what I expected in truth. Ie not a lot and a “we tried”blah blah blah

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  4. Troy – Au contraire. if attendances drop it doesn’t mean that people will stop supporting he team, which will have a positive effect on blogs like this 😉

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  5. Stuart we had this out at the time when SJP was renamed to SD@SJP and at that time you said you thought it was a good idea because it would bring us in money to invest in players, I said that it was just bull because MA has no intentions of selling the naming rights, because he wants to advertise his own SD brand worldwide and that SJH even said that that was one of the reasons that MA wanted the club.
    Do you still think it was a good Idea ?

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  6. Stuart > Sure he’ll get the SD brand out there worldwide but does he really want his potential customers to hear the supporters in the ground singing “Sports direct, fcking ****”. That won’t do him any favours surely?

    Has he not already taken steps to cut out the abuse ?? level 7 ? and im sure will continue to stamp it out

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  7. @toonsy

    Are you going to accept Steve Wraith was right about the name coming down from the east stand?

    I will pass it on to him if you wish. He was polite and responded to you.

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  8. No, Dave I didn’t say SD having signs up all over was a good idea and I didn’t say SD sponsoring it was a good idea (for free). I said sponsoring the stadium was a good idea and I stand by that if it brings money into the club.

    But lets be honest, Dave if that money isn’t going to be reinvested in the club and looking at what has happened over the last 8 months I have no reason to believe that it would get reinvested – so under them circumstances it probably isn’t a good idea.

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  9. Troy – As I said the other day…. Yes, when I see it with my own eyes 🙂

    No need to pass it on. I’m man enough to apologise myself thank-you very much 🙂

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  10. I really hope that the picture of the sign coming down is just an excellent use of Photoshop…has anyone actually seen it?

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  11. Stuart I never said that you said it was good to have SD branded around the place, just that you said you were in favour of the naming rights being sold off as it would bring in money.

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  12. FJ I disagree a c@nt can be a useful thing 🙂
    Dimpleboy I have photoshopped many things and I have seen plenty done well but I would bet that the pic that was posted was NOT photoshopped

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  13. Dave – I am in favour of the naming rights if it brings money into the club. Having only seen circa £2m invested back into the club (on the field where it matters) I doubt very much that the money it generates would go into the club so on that basis I would be against it.

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  14. Big Dave

    You work in marketing you will know ANY exposure is good exposure. Thats why we see so many **** ads on television, because people actually remember the brand then… So by his poor relationship Ashley actually gets better exposure that he probably ever thought possible.

    The fact thats its negative won’t matter one jot…

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  15. Stuart I said at the time and I still maintain that the naming rights were only ever for the use of SD as I said even SJH said that MA wanted to use the club to promote SD

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  16. Bellamy, or Long for the little he went for, and Ruiz obviously. Wouldn’t have taken Crouch at any cost….would probably have taken Bendtner just to keep him away from the scum, bet he peaks playing against us and scores a hatrick lol

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  17. Just seen on the club site that they have an inital allocation of 1,200 tickets for Wolves away. That seems on the low side to me. Anyone got any thoughts on that number.
    Nufc really can annoy you. They shut supporters out. Other clubs would be glad of the support. Just can’t understand Nufc

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  18. @Big Dave

    I absolutely agree about the advertising.

    The next trick will be to call the 4 stands, sports direct stand mike, Derek, Alan and stardust.

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  19. The Dimple Boy- Check out this pic of Santon from the official site.The sign behind Santon seems to have been taken away.I first thought that it was just blurred due to the sunlight falling on it.But when you zoom in,you can see that the beginning is virtually invisible.

    http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20110830/santon-my-dream-move_2281670_2436823

    But the sign is mysteriously still there in this pic of Elliot who was signed on the same day.

    http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20110830/elliot-becomes-a-magpie_2281670_2436768

    And also present on this pic of Santon from another angle.Weird I tell you…

    http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20110830/newcastle-sign-davide-santon_2281670_2436667

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  20. Read headline of article didn’t need to read rest, our strikers are ****, almost laughable but some fans are blind to this and try to paint positive pictures – Mike Ashley etc are laughing at us all, especially those who think Best, Ba etc are at the same quality as other players disregarded by us

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  21. Sorry I’ve posted negative comments all week but I’m sick to death of the **** that surrounds our club, seriously had enough

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