It’s likely that a number of players will leave Newcastle United before the transfer window slams shut on Tuesday, with Papiss Cisse at the top of that list if his agent’s quotes in the Sunday Sun are to be believed, but are Newcastle undervaluing their number nine?
It’s often said that the hardest job in football is to score goals, but that’s something that Cisse has done on and off during three-and-a-half years in the north-east.
The Senegal international has a strike rate of 42 goals in 110 games for Newcastle, including a one in two record in the Premier League last season.
But the arrival of Aleksandar Mitrovic has seen the 30-year-old have to make do with a place on the bench, although the Serbian’s impending three-game ban could see Cisse thrust back into Steve McClaren’s starting 11.
Cisse’s agent Madou Diene has told the Sunday Sun: “If the right offer comes I will ask Papiss to consider it. Nobody wants to be at a club where you don’t feel wanted.”
The price-tag that Newcastle have reportedly put on Cisse is just £5.5 million, around half of what they paid German side Freiburg to bring him to the club in the first place.
That seems like a bargain for a proven goalscorer and if Newcastle are unable to bring in QPR striker Charlie Austin this summer, then it could turn out to be a bad bit of business.
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