Foot Mercato are reporting that Newcastle are interested in signing 26 year-old Montpellier playmaker Ryad Boudebouz during the January transfer window.
The report is that we have already enquired about the player who has also been interesting Premier League clubs such as Everton, Tottenham, West Brom and West Ham and top European clubs like AC Milan, Sevilla and Marseille.
Ryad has 26 caps for Algeria since picking up his first cap as a 20 year-old back in 2010.
26 year-old Montpellier playmaker Ryad Boudebouz
Newcastle’s fortunes have taken a negative turn over the last three games without playmaker Jonjo Shelvey in the side and we have dropped six points in those three games so manager Rafa Benitez is keen to bring in a playmaker this month.
There is money available to bring in a player on a straight transfer but Newcastle are also looking to bring in Premier League players on loan.
We have so far been linked with Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Everton’s Tom Cleverley, Manchester City’s Fabian Delph and Brentford’s Alan Judge.
They could be better targets than the skilled Ryad Boudebouz because they are used to English football whereas Ryad would need some time to get accustomed to the very quick pace and physical nature of the English game.
This is the first time we have been linked with this player, so we suppose he could be a real target for Newcastle this month – you never know the report may even be accurate.
Ryad moved from Bastia to Montpellier in the summer of 2015 and has played in the French League all his career – beginning his career with Sochaux in 2008.
He has played 51 times for Montpellier with 8 goals and in his career he has made 304 total appearances with 46 goals.
What do you think?
Comments welcome.
8 comments so far
JamesToon
Jan 3, 2017 at 1:48 PM
Comment #1JamesToon // Jan 3, 2017 at 1:46 PM
Lindisfarne
I very much trust rafa will change and adapt, we saw a different kind of nufc against bristol, derby, second half v wigan and v burton, however that was when the opposition was attacking us more, so there was more space for us, however i still trust rafa will find a formula where we will create more chances against teams who park the bus at SJP and when we dont have shelvey.
15JamesToon // Jan 3, 2017 at 1:47 PM
Lets just think about the fans reaction though if we did win that game 2-1 and the goals disallowed were allowed. People would just be saying, we dominated so much we should have had more anyway etc.
clinath@ed
Jan 3, 2017 at 1:48 PM
Comment #2I too thought Rafa would “TWEAK” his formation to accommodate Shelvey’s absence. Unless you count another holding midfielder coming in, bit negative for me…
Lilongwe put forward the notion that Rafa wont move away from 4231 and that it is “forcing” the players to adapt and prepare for next season.
LGFUAD21
Jan 3, 2017 at 1:51 PM
Comment #3Weren’t we linked with this guy the year we signed Cabaye et al?
hibbit
Jan 3, 2017 at 1:56 PM
Comment #4i still think it will be loan signings
Rotonda heights
Jan 3, 2017 at 1:56 PM
Comment #5toonfan 8
do you really think it hasn’t occurred to rafa that we lack creativity without shelvey. I’m sure he wasn’t planning on him having a 5 game ban and will try and adress it asap in the window. give the guy a little credit.
Toonfan8
Jan 3, 2017 at 2:05 PM
Comment #6Rotonda
if you have seen my comments before, I gave him credit for bringing stability here. Which is probably, why we are second now. But I am afraid we now stagnate a little bit, so I am waiting for this window…
JamesToon
Jan 3, 2017 at 2:16 PM
Comment #7So just looking at our team stats this season compared to brighton and it really is an interesting reading.
General:
Higher average possession – Newcastle with 53.9 (brighton: 51.4)
Shots per game – Newcastle with 14.7 (brighton: 13.4)
Pass success – Newcastle with 78.7% (brighton: 77.2%)
Aerial duels won – Newcastle with 23.2 (brighton: 21.3)
Offensive:
Shots on target per game – Newcastle with 5.2 (brighton: 4.4)
Dribbles per game – Brighton with 9.5 (newcastle: 5.9)
Defensive:
Shots faced per game – Newcastle 10.2 (brighton: 11.5)
Tackles per game – Brighton 17.3 (newcastle: 15.8)
Interceptions per game – Brighton 14.6 (newcastle: 10.9)
See its weird because by those stats, surely the probability of which team would be more likely to win more games, would be higher for us then surely?
Then i looked at the home stats which is where of course its gone wrong for us most of the time.
Brighton have 0.1 more shots per game than us. However we still have more shots on target per game than brighton by 0.6, and brighton have far more dribbles per game than us. Overall brighton’s who scored overall “rating” is better than ours.
kimbo
Jan 3, 2017 at 2:23 PM
Comment #8Replacements for Anita, Dummett ,Colback ,Gouffran required now, Ritchie is no longer magic and Hayden looks lost without Shelvey. Dark days ahead unless Rafa comes up with plan”b”. Sell Mitro and bring a striker with pace and more than 6ft2. No more light way dwarfs please.