The Scottish Sun reported yesterday that Newcastle would bid £5M for Celtic striker Gary Hooper in January.
Modibo Maiga – number one target for Newcastle?
In our article on the news last night, we openly wondered how much truth there was in the report, since we know that Newcastle are still keenly interested in Modibo Maiga of Sochaux.
The Newcastle Journal is reporting this morning that while Newcastle have watched the former 23 year-old Scunthorpe striker over the last 12 months, he is not said to be a top January target.
The Journal is reporting that the Tyneside club have compiled a list of striker targets for January, and that the players are all based on the continent, and they include Maiga and FC Twente 21 year-old striker Luuk de Jong.
Luuk is already a Dutch International and only turned 21 in August, and he has 21 goals in 52 games for FC Twente, and has also played at the U19 and U21 level for his country.
De Jiong looks a top player in the making from what we can tell and is still very young at 21, and would be a great buy for Newcastle.
We suppose that 26 year-old Papiss Demba Cisse of SC Freiburg could also be on the list, since Newcastle went after the Senegal striker on the very last day of the transfer window in August.
Both de Jong and Cisse would cost around £10M and Maiga seems the cheapest option at around £7M, and we think Maiga is most likely the current number one target for Newcastle.
What do you think?
Comments welcome.
22 comments so far
AMEOBI
Oct 14, 2011 at 10:18 AM
Comment #1Any is better than none…
DarloGeordie
Oct 14, 2011 at 10:29 AM
Comment #2Do we really need a new striker we have Ameobi for gods sake 🙂
BASSKING-FUSE
Oct 14, 2011 at 10:29 AM
Comment #3That scoring record at 21 is a no brainer, come on fat Ash, get your wallet out son.
Toon_Tom
Oct 14, 2011 at 10:35 AM
Comment #4I wish that we would stop disclosing our “top transfer targets” as we all know that other teams will try their best to take them off our radar. There wasn’t much mentioned about Tiote and Cabaye until a deal was agreed between the clubs which is good business. We have a great scouting team as opposed to when DWISE was on the scene so we should keep our targets hidden until a deal is pretty much done!!!
JAMSHA
Oct 14, 2011 at 10:36 AM
Comment #5Luuk de Jong Is A Better Option, Very Young ,Could Be A Star In Future
supervil
Oct 14, 2011 at 10:42 AM
Comment #6@Tom_Tom
You do realise that the Club have disclosed nothing? This is all conjecture. Typical red-top rumour-mongering. At least this time, they seem like viable targets.
Billy_15
Oct 14, 2011 at 10:56 AM
Comment #7Personally i believe Gary Hooper is more than able to do the job at Newcastle and i’ve been following him as a player for a couple of years now. We were linked when he first moved to celtic and i think we should have snapped him up then. But he has more than proved himself at Celtic, playing in the champions league and against teams like Rangers. He is a clinical finisher something different from what we have, and is only 23 and would probably cost around £5 million, which would be the most logical buy.
However, for Newcastle to progress and get to where they want to be, which is Europe another striker will have to be bought soon before they get snapped up by a rival club. So although one striker is more than enough, Luuk De Jong will be a dream signing and Newcastle would be a force with Hooper and De Jong up front. But it is all a dream and i doubt MA would go that deep into his wallet. But atleast it looks like we will be on striker 🙂
BigKirky
Oct 14, 2011 at 10:58 AM
Comment #8Yes, id prefer to have the players under the radar and revealed only when we sign them. Of course, journalists could be fed names as a smokescreen so we can get on with signing our top priority.
Plus, if we put out smokescreen names, it indicates to the club that we’re trying to buy from that we aren’t showing desperation so they can just name a price and they may be a bit more reasonable on a price.
I said before the season that I thought Demba was the main key to it all, in that I’m sure the rest of the players can play to a good standard, but we need to put the ball in the back of the net. Not only has he been doing that, I’ve been really impressed by his all round gameplay strength and work-rate, post Ramadan 😉
Toon_Tom
Oct 14, 2011 at 11:21 AM
Comment #9@Kirky > totally agree there. Mr Ba i think will continue to shine for us this season. If he bangs in 20+ this year I would even go as far as considering the number9 shirt for him to wear in Europa next year 😉
toonytime
Oct 14, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Comment #10Supervil – This is true, heard from the “horses mouth” last night at famous local boys club dinner. There is a list, there is a lot of work going on and by all accounts the manager and coaching staff are very happy with how the club is being run. Special praise for Graham Carr who is scouting like a mad man in readiness for January. Just passing on what I heard….take it or leave it. I’m tending to think very positive about things now, it’s the only way!
Elb11
Oct 14, 2011 at 11:37 AM
Comment #11How many players have come over from the Eredivisie league with glowing reputations only to absolutely flop in the Premier League? I can think of a few off the top of my head.
Then again he could be the next Bergkamp 🙂
StuW
Oct 14, 2011 at 11:53 AM
Comment #12Elb11 – Bergkamp came to EPL via Serie A remember, played for Inter.
lordy_geordie
Oct 14, 2011 at 12:07 PM
Comment #13yeah and we were lining up a 7m bid b4 gunners went for him. Imagine how different it could of been
GeordieToon89
Oct 14, 2011 at 12:33 PM
Comment #14Gary Hooper could easily do a job for us like and tbh he could get into the england team if he moves away from celtic and to the prem.. he’s very quick, powerful, good in the air and is a very clinical finisher he scores all types of goals.. ad rather pay £5million for him than £7million for Maiga who well isnt even that good.. Hooper could easily come in and do a job as out number 9 he really is a very good player
MT
Oct 14, 2011 at 1:59 PM
Comment #15i think De Jiong is a good buy.young,talent & good goals record.
cartoonie
Oct 14, 2011 at 2:12 PM
Comment #16I was speaking to Llambias the other day and he told me of the supposed French Striker we very nearly signed in the summer. He wouldnt tell me who it was but did say that the player and clubs had agreed terms etc and they flew to France to sign the contracts and the selling club changed their minds at the last minute with regards to the deal. So….nufc are now suing the club for £1mill as compensation for private jets etc. He then went on to say that the deal will still definiately go through but we will get £1mill knocked off the price of the player instead of taking the suing thru courts etc.
dazza
Oct 14, 2011 at 4:55 PM
Comment #17cartonnie having a laugh? are talking about Maiga or just spouting bolloxs?
funkness
Oct 14, 2011 at 5:37 PM
Comment #18I think you should start saying “I” insteead of “we” all the time. It’s your opinion, Ed, based on pieces of information from the papers, which are speculative at best but are more likely to be pure fabricaion. There’s really no sense in saying “We expect to…” and so on – it’s just you, mate. Stand by it ..
shabunkin
Oct 14, 2011 at 7:18 PM
Comment #19i think hooper is exactly the kind of forward we are missing , we need a fox in the box , a six yard hero , he knows where the goal is ….you cant coach that
HKTP
Oct 15, 2011 at 3:00 AM
Comment #20I’d love Hooper to join the club. Seen him a few times, and he is the typical old school British striker.
NEWEXPATMAGPIE
Oct 15, 2011 at 8:29 AM
Comment #21Cartoonie @16:
“i was speaking to Llambias the other day and he told me………”!
Sorry but which planet are you on? Are you for Real?
I had a phone call from Pardew last night and he told me that we were considering swapping Cabaye and Tiote for Lionel Messi ! The deal was said to be worth mor than 60 Mil !
If you want to post on here then stick to facts and don,t make stupid posts like you just have! Are you a Mackem?
Solaidback
Oct 15, 2011 at 9:51 AM
Comment #22It doesn’t matter who we go for because their transfer price will be way over the players value due to it being mid-season… so I wouldn’t be surprised if we do go for someone like Hooper as a stand in until the summer…
In any case, no matter who we bring in if anyone, some fans will moan agains as usual because thats how they get their kicks & imo it bores the crap out of me,….
After what the board did in the summer, the 7 players that were brought in have shown we should actually stop moaning & let them get on with it because they obviously know what they’re doing or we’d not be fourth & sat at the bottom of the table like the scum up the road & their 11 transfers… lol lol lol