Newcastle may be flying high in the Premier League and Demba Ba might be firing in the goals, but there’s still plenty of strengthening to be done at St James’ Park, no more than up front.
Reports are suggesting that Newcastle United could be ready to up the ante in their hunt of Bayer Leverkusen attacker, Eren Derdiyok.
The Swiss international was already being linked with a move to the Magpies earlier in the year, and it seems that the Premier League side’s interest hasn’t faded away.
Derdiyok scored the vital equaliser in Leverkusen’s 2-1 Champions League group match against Chelsea earlier this month, which will have done nothing but good in his chances of earning a move to the heights of the Premier League.
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Despite not having an entirely prolific scoring record, the 6ft 3 inch forward has proven to be a valuable asset during his time at the BayArena, scoring 19 goals in 75 appearances for the club.
The Tynesiders will also have done well to have watched Bayer Leverkusen last weekend as they came from 2-0 down to draw 3-3 against Hertha Berlin thanks to a superb Derdiyok hat-trick.
Derdiyok made his debut for the Swiss national side in 2008 at the age of 20, and has since gone on to play 36 times for the team, scoring on four occasions. Although this scoring record may not be as attractive as Newcastle would hope for, a player with his kind of international experience can prove valuable.
The 23 year-old has 18 months left to run on his current contract and Newcastle could be ready to bolster their attacking line in January, with funds still available from the January sale of Andy Carroll.
It’s unknown at the moment how much Leverkusen will charge for their goalscorer, however given his sell-on value and now Champions League status, the German side would be expected to hold out for at least £10m for their asset.
Written by Thomas Sunderland
Just the type of player we need since our strikforce is currently weak. Bring in two forwards, a left-back and a centre-back (or two) and we should be fine.
No more than up front. We now have 1 fit cb
David Watson, I take your point, but who is our fit CB – Williamson is still out, Colo went off with a niggle, before Saylor went down for the looooong count. Anyone else on the books would have to be a rookie or make-shift.
At the level NUFC want to get to, they will need two quality players for every position, and then a third as a squad-filler to provide back-up, …and then a fourth for each position to accommodate a junior-developing player in order to safe-guard for the future. NUFC could buy up the contracts of another dozen players before they get close to what a top-of-the-table / champion’s-league-regular squad looks like (or should), and that would make for a fairly large price tag – probably close to $100M.
SOunds like we might need a keeper too!