Bolton completed the transfer of Sweden international Johan Elmander from Toulouse yesterday.
Johan Elmander – signed for Bolton Wanderers
Elmander signed a three-year contract and it’s a deal that Bolton manager Gary Megson had been looking to finalize since January.
While no official fee has been announced, it is estimated to be around the £10M mark, and just beats the club record fee Bolton paid Fenerbahce for Nicolas Anelka, in August of 2006, which was around £8M.
In mid-January Newcastle were linked with Elmander, and at that time Bolton were also interested, and the estimated fee was said to be £10M for the Swedish International.
Johan Elmander is a 6’2†striker for French club Toulouse FC and the 26 year old was born in Alingsås, Sweden and joined Toulouse from Brøndby in 2006. Brøndby is a Danish club.
Johan has played 62 times for Toulouse and scored 22 goals, and he played 58 times for Brøndby from 2004 – 2006 and scored 22 goals.
He played through the Swedish Youth and Under-21 teams, and has so far represented Sweden 38 times scoring 11 goals. He previously played 28 times for the Sweden Under -21 side and scored 12 goals.
Johan did start for Sweden on the right hand side during Euro 2008, but he looked fairly ineffective, and has never looked like a £10M player to us.
We think there are other strikers available, who would both be better for Newcastle and also cheaper than Elmander.
Bafe Gomis is apparently available for £10M, and we were even reported to have made an official bid for the 22 year-old, earlier this month, but no more news on that has come through.
The striker we like the most is FC Basel’s 6’3″ Eren Derdiyok, who turned just 20 years old this month, and is said to be available for £6M. He’s looked a very good player in the making, and has already said he would love to join Newcastle United.
Even Mario Gomez, who has been disappointing for Germany at Euro 2008, is just 22 years old and could be brought to Newcastle for around the £10M figure.
Since Mario is not in such high demand at the moment, maybe now is the time to try to get him to Tyneside.
But the bottom line is that we think there are better options out there for Newcastle as far as strikers go, , and although Elmander is a good player, he isn’t worth £10M, at least in our opinion.
Comments welcome.
47 comments so far
Ed Harrison
Jun 28, 2008 at 2:19 PM
Comment #41Burnden Bob – I take your point – we’ve overpaid for so many mediocre players it’s ridiculous .
riquelminho
Jun 28, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Comment #42Elmander would be a great player for us but.. he is worth every penny and all of you that think he is not good enough will change your mind very soon..
Ross G
Jun 28, 2008 at 2:53 PM
Comment #43looks like i was rite about Derdiyok chronicle
Spyro
Jun 28, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Comment #44oh my god, this guy is nothing special and i wouldnt want him,i aint even too fond of crouch, but he is a better player than elmander when he has the ball at his feet.
Hadrian
Jun 28, 2008 at 3:04 PM
Comment #45riquelminho .
elmanders 27 , you think he’s gonna start comming good now ? cos your defo not talking about his performances to date .
riquelminho
Jun 28, 2008 at 5:08 PM
Comment #46HADRIAN
I dont understand why you think his performances werent good enough. Everywhere he played he was a real leader because he is complet player who can score, hold the ball, good tackling.. i know why you think he is not good enough, because you dont know much about him . You can check him next season in PL and you will be surprised..
Max
Jun 28, 2008 at 10:31 PM
Comment #47Why is everyone always raving about Gomis? He’s utter Cr*ap!!! look how well he played during the euros!! and the french championship is poor…hope we go for aaron lennon though and dean ashton…