Would you have had any of these deadline day strikers?

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.