1st July June 2005
By Wullie
At the beginning of the summer, taking into account that Bellamy,
Kluivert and Robert were highly unlikely to play again, I was of the
opinion that we needed 7 players; a left back, two central midfielders,
a left winger and three strikers.
Babayaro is a waste of space, our midfield is very weak and we just
never seem to boss games in that area, particularly away from home,
Robert's absence leaves a huge hole on the left, particularly since
I see N'Zogbia as more of a central player from what I've seen so
far, and we don't have any strikers who are capable in the Premiership
any more.
At the time of writing, it appears that the two central midfield positions
have been strengthened, with Parker here and Emre on the way bar any
major, last minute U-turn. I don't know too much about Emre other
than the few times I've seen him, so apart from the fact that he's
one hell of a cheat, it's difficult to comment! I've heard both good
and not-so-good reports about him so we shall see on that front, but
I'm delighted with the signing of Parker.
He's tenacious, hard-working, strong in the tackle and composed on
the ball and I've seen him totally dominate games on his own. A game
watched in a pub in Leicester on Boxing Day 2003 springs to mind most
of all, where Charlton totally destroyed Raneiri's all-star Chelsea
with Parker running the show. He reminds me very much of Rob Lee in
his style, and if he can become anywhere near the quality of that
ex-Addick, we'll be onto a winner.
Onto more signings then and the first position I would be looking
to strengthen would be left back. I would be delighted to see Olivier
Bernard back here, as has been suggested in a recent newspaper
report. He would be available on a free and we all know how good he
is. Yes, he may appear greedy because none of us can imagine the sort
of money he is on or the sort he wants but in relative footballing
terms he's not at all.
He was a major first team member and £30,000 was not a ridiculous
wage to ask when you bear this in mind. Offer any of our other first
teamers that wage and the majority will tell you where to stick your
offer – and very few will ever improve as much as he did in his time
here, nor will they put in as much effort and commitment. The fact
that he actually turns up for games puts him ahead of Babayaro straight
away. Getting him back for nothing would be a fantastic decision and
there is absolutely no reason why it can't be done.
The next position needing strengthening is the left wing spot vacated
by Laurent Robert. For this position, my preference would be the man
who we inquired about in January, Fulham's Luis Boa Morte.
He's creative, scores a very good amount of goals from midfield and
can also play up front if needed. He's also tough tackling and will
get back more than Robert did, a criteria which seems to need meeting
for a left winger in the eyes of many fans and certainly the manager.
Reports suggest that he is very interested in coming here and also
that the new contract he signed in January has a buy-out clause of
around £3.5m. How true that is is anyone's guess, but he won't cost
a lot more than that and his comments about us in January indicate
that he would be more than up for a move. Hopefully the manager will
sustain his interest and get Boa Morte in, because I believe he'd
be a very useful acquisition.
Onto our main problem: strikers. For me, neither Ameobi or Shearer
are good enough to be starting at all next season. The closest either
of them should get is the bench, apart from in a major injury crisis.
I would love to see Craig Bellamy back here but that's not going to
happen under this manager so I think we need three strikers.
First on the list would be Mateja Kezman who looks to be on his way
out of Chelsea. Or at least it would have been were he not now a medical
away from joining Athletico Madrid. Opportunity missed I think (Ed:
Kezman signed for Athletico Madrid). So then I've had to swiftly come
up with another goal machine of a striker to attempt to take over
the mantle of Alan Shearer. For this, I like what I've heard of the
man who has taken over Kezman's position of top scorer in the Dutch
Eredivisie, Dirk Kuyt. Now I'll be honest here: I
can't remember ever seeing Kuyt play, but I've heard very good reports
about him from a number of Dutch supporters.
Since his move from FC Utrecht to everyone's favourite opponents,
Feyenoord, Kuyt has taken the league by storm. Last season he was
top scorer by ten clear goals and has bagged 49 in his two seasons
in Rotterdam. He has also taken well to international football, scoring
goals, pushing himself alongside Van Nistelrooy in the pecking order
and having his praises sung by Johan Cruyff, among others.
From everything I've heard about him, he sounds like just the type
of player we need to try and take over the legendary status by the
aging Shearer. Liverpool are said to be leading the chase for his
signature, a good sign in itself, but for £8m I would be delighted
to see him here and would pull out all the stops to make sure it happens.
When you consider the relative prices of strikers in this country
(£7.5m for Yakubu!), £8m for one of Holland's first choice strikers
would be an absolute snip.
Next would be Benni McCarthy from Porto. A formidable
force under Mourinho, he has not been as successful this season as
Porto have struggled for goals under a new coach, preferring to rely
on defensive stability to guide them to their second place finish,
having suffered from the loss of many players such as the creative
Deco to Barcelona and now looks to be on the way out himself. McCarthy
has scored goals wherever he's been throughout Europe and has also
performed admirably in the Champions League, particularly in the season
Porto won it.
At the moment, Blackburn appear to be at the head of the queue but
are hindered by the £6m asking price. I would not be prepared to pay
£6m for him, but the reason I would go for him is because we may be
able to negotiate a swap deal using Hugo Viana. Viana is still coveted
in Portugal and an offer of him plus a million or two may be enough
for Porto to let us have McCarthy.
For the third striker, I'd go for a cheap option: Robert Earnshaw
at West Brom. Now Earnshaw is not a particularly good player, I know
this. His first touch and control are not great but what nobody can
deny is that he is a fantastic taker of chances. He has a brilliant
record for Cardiff in every league and at international level while
for West Brom, he got 11 goals in 18 starts in a very poor side, despite
them staying up, and I think he'd get a lot more here.
He knows where the goal is and always knows where to be when the ball
comes in. His pace will also give us something up front that we've
not had since Bellamy was forced out and even if he's not a good enough
player just yet to play week in, week out, he's a brilliant player
to have on the bench, as WBA have found out – without his goals from
the bench, they'd have been down weeks before the final day. He's
only 24 and can get much better as a player with the right advice
– if ever there was a striker to tell you how to use your first touch,
it's Alan Shearer. A great potential signing and available for around
£3m – an absolute bargain compared to other majorly overpriced British
strikers.
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