The Guardian is reporting that if Aleksandar Mitrovic leaves Newcastle next month then manager Rafa Benitez would be interested in signing Aston Villa’s Rudy Gestede, the 29 year-old 6ft 4ins French-born striker.
22 year-old Mitrovic has been linked with two struggling Premier League clubs for next month – Swansea and Crystal Palace – but the chances of Rafa Benitez letting him leave are slim at best.
Rudy Gestede – Aston Villa striker
The Guardian says that Newcastle are interested in signing Rudy Gestede, who signed for Aston Villa in July of 2015 on a five year deal for £6M from Blackburn Rovers.
He scored 35 goals in 73 appearances for Blackburn over two and a half seasons after signing for them from Cardiff City.
However, we would think that Steve Bruce would be very reticent to sell Gestede to Newcastle, since we are one of Villa’s promotion rivals this season, although we are now 18 points above them in the Championship with 49 points.
However, with experienced Geordie Steve Bruce now in charge at Villa Park they could still get promotion via the playoffs this season.
The 7 times capped Benin striker has been looking to leave Villa next month and he has 4 goals and one assist in 18 total appearances for Aston Villa so far this season.
Last season he scored 6 goals in 26 appearances for them in the Premier League.
Gestede wants to move since he cannot get a regular starting place at Villa and West Brom are said to be interested in signing the player next month for around £7M in January.
Gestede’s contract runs through the summer of 2020 – but we think Miro leaving Newcastle and Gestede coming in are both extremely unlikely next month.
What do you think?
Comments welcome.
Note: Reader Elliot Little will be braving the sub-zero temperatures on the Great Wall of China this Christmas to raise money for mental health charity MIND.
Elliot will camp out with his friend on Christmas Eve overnight on a challenging section of the wall before trekking around the relatively under-explored area of Jiankou on Christmas Day.
Here’s more information on the trek and his justgiving page.
7 comments so far
Average_Contents
Dec 22, 2016 at 2:51 AM
Comment #1No thanks
Average_Contents
Dec 22, 2016 at 2:51 AM
Comment #2I’d rather have kuqi back out of retirement.
Average_Contents
Dec 22, 2016 at 2:58 AM
Comment #3Better still, big Marlon.
Not that fussed on snodgrass either tbh. Or Delph.
Loftus cheek I don’t know much about apart from it seems like he’s been around forever.
Judge? No thanks. Done nothing of note really.
These players seem like squad filler to me and once we go up we’d most likely find it hard shifting them on, taking up squad places in the process in place of the quality players we’d need.
Ben-Arfa11
Dec 22, 2016 at 3:27 AM
Comment #4Benitez is a world class manager and it gave me goosebumps when we got him in but alot of his signings have baffled me and maybe should get the southampton scout to choose the players as ex southampton scouts or who worked for southampton must know talent and then let benitez do his magic transfers don’t seem to be his thing.
Gayle – 9/10
Ritchie-7/10
Sels-0/10
Hanley 2/10
Clark 8/10
Yedlin 6/10
Diame 6/10
Lazaar 3/10 (has been injured) but injury prone should not get u extra points
Murphy 2/10 (has been injured) but injury prone should not get u extra points especially 3 million for 33 year old
Hayden 8/10
Gamez 3/10 injured way to much but does not look like an ex champions league team player
atsu 7/10 could improve even more but not our permanent player.
61/120
Around 50 percent good and 50 percent bad needs to be in around 75 percent next season if we have any chance of progressing in the premier league
still love u rafa
LGFUAD21
Dec 22, 2016 at 7:10 AM
Comment #5Id take snodgrass for a good fee. Always felt that he was te type of player we missed in previous years. A no nonsense winger that can do his job.
Wouldve rather have taken him when hull last went down. He seems a safer bet than most if the other wingers we have been linked with.
Bambams
Dec 22, 2016 at 8:00 AM
Comment #6I see Brighton have some ‘winnable’ games coming up at home (QPR and Cardiff) and they don’t really play on paper any difficult teams until they face us in Feb I think.
Reading and Huddersfield will drop a few points over the next month.
Typical of Newcastle to cause our own problem with Shelvey ban unless the lad is totally cleared via the appeal.
I do think Rafa will bring someone in during the first week of January. I also think he will be a very good player.
Why risk promotion over 10-15 million that we have in the bank (35 million at least).
Whether or not Rafa goes for a loan or permanent is up to what is available.
I am quite excited to see who will be coming in.
Rafa, trust.
SouthLincsToon
Dec 22, 2016 at 8:17 AM
Comment #7Gave me a heart attach there….
I glanced at the photo and thought it was Gabby Agbonlahor