OPINION
Newcastle United must send their supporters into raptures by hijacking Southampton’s pursuit of Barcelona forward Paco Alcacer.
The Magpies are desperately in need of boosting their striking options and need a player capable of regularly scoring the goals needed to fire them up the Premier League.
Rafa Benitez in his hunt for a new centre-forward must be ambitious and that should lead him to try to sign Alcacer who apparently is ready to move on from the Spanish giants.
The Daily Mirror reported on Thursday that Mark Hughes was looking to sign the 24-year-old forward as he was ready to leave Barcelona after struggling to feature for the first-team.
Even though he cost Barca £30million to sign as recently as 2016, the centre-forward only featured 23 times for his club across all competitions last season.
Despite not appearing as much as he would have liked Alcacer still managed to rack up seven goals and four assists to help his prestigious side’s cause.
Now while it’s not known how much he will cost there’s a good chance given his age and the fact he’s contracted to Barca until 2021 that the Spanish giants could be willing to be flexible in negotiations.
As there’s no word on Barca being desperate to get rid, as the forward has shown glimpses of his talent, they may opt to loan him out to make him happier and in order to see if he is worth keeping around.
This scenario could easily see the Magpies successfully hijack the Saints’ interest in the forward and welcome a player who will no doubt send fans home happy every week.
The allure of working with fellow Spaniard Benitez could see him prefer a switch to St James Park ahead of the Saints and after previously scoring 29 times for Valencia in the two seasons before his big-money move to Barca, he will deliver the goods for the Magpies.
Therefore Benitez must make fans beyond happy by successfully welcoming the very talented forward Alcacer to the club in this window and ruin the Magpies’ Premier League rivals Southampton’s efforts to get the player.
