Earlier this month, Newcastle were reported to be watching Metz striker Habib Diallo.
The original report was that Newcastle and Leicester City had scouts attend Metz’s October 19th match against Nantes. During that match, the Senegalese striker scored his 7th goal of the season.
The Sun are now reporting that both Chelsea and Tottenham have joined the fray for the 24-year-old.
The latest report says that in addition to Newcastle and Leicester City, both Spurs and Chelsea have had scouts watching Diallo this season.
Habib Diallo– Newcastle face competition for Ligue 1 hitman
Diallo has scored 8 goals in his 13 League 1 appearances this term and is reportedly rated at £10m. He scored 26 goals in 37 games in Ligue 2 last season as Metz jumped straight back up after getting relegated the season before.
Newcastle have been linked with a few strikers heading into the January window. RB Leipzig’s Yussuf Poulsen and Lille’s Victor Osimhen are two of the more prominent links. However, both would command fees well beyond Newcastle’s reported £20m kitty for the winter window.
While Diallo is a more reasonable prospect, we are not too sure of the winter window will bring. Steve Bruce has, for the most part, downplayed any talk of incomings at the moment.
Newcastle have found some attacking form of late with 5 goals in the last 2 matches after scoring just 6 in the first 10. However, most of those goals have come from the defense.
The front three are getting more of the chances which were sorely lacking earlier this campaign. A lot is going to depend on how they perform over the next nine games until the window opens on January 1st.
129 comments so far
IrishRob
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:13 PM
Comment #41Lol Munster what does Hadaway mean? Or was it a misspelling.
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:14 PM
Comment #42A Newcastle City councillor in the planning dept’ said “the development would not stop any feasible development of St James Park at Strawberry place “.
I would like him to go into further detail on the “feasible development ..what is it ? A kiosk or two at the Gallowgate end ? Hamburger anybody ?
As long as Newcastle United don’t block light to our new student flats and hotel bedrooms that will be in situ for transient people , and not taking into consideration people who actually live their lives here and a Football club that drives the economy of a vast area and when doing well uplifts a whole nation of people?
Feasible development ..the planner who voted for it uttered those words ..he now needs to explain that in depth. Anyone know his name ?
IrishRob
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:14 PM
Comment #43Munster I always thought betty was a dude, it’s just a name I think. No was that yolk is a female.
IrishRob
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:15 PM
Comment #44Way*
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:15 PM
Comment #45Genjikia
You about ?
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:21 PM
Comment #46IrishRob going for a hat-trick if you get the first post on the next page that will be a big achievement. good luck!
bettyswallocks
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:22 PM
Comment #47Jesper was infuriating at times and instigated a lot of the spats he got himself into. I do miss him though.
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:24 PM
Comment #48we have a settled team, formation, and style of play now that is getting results and playing attractive football.
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:27 PM
Comment #49i’m not suggesting we will do a Leicester by any means but that is what happened when they won the league.
Jail for Ashley
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:28 PM
Comment #50Myself and jesper fell out over them funny joined up AE thingy’ the Danes and probably those other Viking types use, I said they were uncivilised and he took me seriously, we were never the same since.
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:29 PM
Comment #51they played the same players the same way and got results.
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:30 PM
Comment #52Jesper was a good characther for the blog. Some utterly outlandish ideas, and we disagreed on a number of things, but he was a valuable member that kept the blog going. He was also always happy to discuss football, which is a plus on a football blog, and a much underrated discussion topic on here nowadays.
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:30 PM
Comment #53Jesper
Come back , all is forgiven . Lol.
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:31 PM
Comment #54Catchy ?
Jail for Ashley
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:31 PM
Comment #55jane,
I think although they played a low possession game they had more than 31% and didn’t have the lowest shots on goal in the division.
Jail for Ashley
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:33 PM
Comment #56The rotating captain was his death knell.
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:35 PM
Comment #57Catchy will be back, as soon as OGS starts doing well, and Rafa is sacked in China…..
So I would not recommend holding your breath….
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:35 PM
Comment #58“Leicester won the title with just 44.8 per cent of possession – only West Brom and Sunderland saw less of the ball.”
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/30385/10283289/leicester-city-201516-premier-league-season-review
Hail Wor Ashley
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:36 PM
Comment #59I think the source of Tsunki’s militant opposition to Bruce is this, he once was putty in Pardew’s hands, founding a blog settlement called Optimism Valley in his honour – the way that played out has left him embittered and the chagrin he felt is too much for his ego to bear. He could never chance that happening again. He’s lost his courage. Much safer and easier to snipe, because 99% of managerial posts at all clubs end in failure, so eventually it’s highly likely you will be right if you’re chronically negative.
All I ask of him is – what points difference does Rafa make to a given team over the course of a PL season relative to Bruce? We can then at the end of the season deduce, by his own measure, if Rafa was correct and entirely truthful in his reasoning for walking away. If Bruce manages us to 45pts and he thinks Rafa makes enough difference to get 10-15 more as Jail does, it would blow his core arguments apart that Rafa was forced out due to a lack of willingness to progress because 55pts would surely have us top 8 – a definitive step forward and into a position which many clubs then struggle to get beyond even when spending £100m+ every year.
There’s the rub.
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:38 PM
Comment #60Jail,
That is definitely his legacy! The rotating captain… Inspired, why nobody has really tried it I will never know.
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:39 PM
Comment #61I’d forgotten about Optimism Valley….
What happened to Ibiza?
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:40 PM
Comment #62i don’t think you can compare Rafa and Bruce based on last season and this season. Bruce is building on Rafa.
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:41 PM
Comment #63Hail for Ashley
I think your wrong .
Nicky the ball tosser
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:41 PM
Comment #64Bruce is looking a decent fit but the test will be how much he gets from Ashley for the football side. He can’t allow Ashley to give him the short blanket without a fight, a public fight if necessary, otherwise he WILL be seen as Ashley’s bagman, not just suspected to be it by many fans. Must stand up for the side and the fans, but so far he’s doing well, albeit after needing to be convinced to stick with Rafa’s 343, and critically the players are running around for each other and the shirt.
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:41 PM
Comment #65i agree Tsunki is miserable though 🙂
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:45 PM
Comment #66it shouldn’t be Bruce v Ashley but everyone at the club working together. a team.
Hail Wor Ashley
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:47 PM
Comment #67Online
……my wrong what?
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:49 PM
Comment #68Hail Wor Ashley
Wazzint talking to you it was for
Hail for Ashley
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:50 PM
Comment #69easy mistake
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:52 PM
Comment #70Jane,
If everyone at the club is working together as a team, then we are in trouble as we all know Ashley is not interested in us being anything other than also rans.
I doubt many managers and chairmen/owners/ceo’s work completely together at ambitious clubs. A truly ambitious manager will always push for more.
Conflict is part and parcel, totally opposed, as it appears Rafa became, is never going to work.
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:54 PM
Comment #71Is nee body bothered aboot stra berry place leyk?
Jail for Ashley
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:57 PM
Comment #72Lilongwe,
After days of searching, jesper came back to us with Darius Gradi, an Anglo Italian manager who had used rotating captaincy with mixed success with Crewe back in the eighties.
Ibiza and jesper done a Thelma and Louise and disappeared in to the sunset unfortunately.
jane
Nov 11, 2019 at 9:59 PM
Comment #73they will have to find a way of being successful without spending a lot of money in that case 🙂
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:00 PM
Comment #74Hail Wor Ashley
There’s a new poster with a name similar to yours
Hail for Ashley. Did you miss his post ?
Easy done as we now have
Hail for
Jail for
Hail wor
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:02 PM
Comment #75Jail,
Dario Gradi. I didn’t know about the rotating captains, but a fantastic example of a coach who ensured player development, and made such a small club like Crewe punch above their weight in youth development for years.
Under Ashley Gradi would have been a great appointment to oversee a youth rebuild.
Everyone gets it wrong at least once, that might have been Gradi’s one.
Hail Wor Ashley
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:03 PM
Comment #76Aye, Welsh, regarding all other managers being called a puppet under Ashley – Rafa is granted the special case fallacy when he operated under the exact same conditions, until big money came from elsewhere. He indirectly griped about it a bit more – that appears to be the basis for his special case status.
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:04 PM
Comment #77OLG,
I think most are not happy with the Strawberry place ruling. I think a lot are waiting to see a response from the Trust on its members behalf, or from Chi on her constituencies behalf.
Nicky the ball tosser
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:12 PM
Comment #78I think the vast majority of fans believe that if Ashley had simply given Rafa what he was asking for for the football side, which was not outlandish, then we’d have a bright future ahead of us, instead of this most uncertain one.
Bruce can’t fall in line behind this owner and have any hope of succeeding here.
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:16 PM
Comment #79Thanks Lilongwe
I thought I was on my own for a moment !
An appeal to the big house should be forthcoming.
Online Guy
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:22 PM
Comment #80The question remains
The fans loved Rafa, Rafa loved the fans, the cloob , Rafa was doing very well .
What was the main reason that Rafa parted company with something he loved ?