OPINION
This Newcastle United team is lacking a spark, and the number ten position behind Salomon Rondon is where the fire is most absent.
Ayoze Perez has produced a feeble season, and it’s clear that he is not good enough to operate as a second striker in the Premier League on a weekly basis.
It’s encouraging, then, to see the Magpies linked with Marseille attacker Clinton N’Jie on Friday. The Daily Mail reported that Newcastle are one of four Premier League sides interested in signing the Frenchman on loan with a view to a permanent deal.
Cynics will point to N’Jie’s time at Tottenham Hotspur which was almost spectacular in the way it flew under the radar. He played for Spurs for two years but somehow it felt like he was never really there.
However, we have seen many times before that being a failure in England early in your career does not mean that you’ll never be able to find success in the Premier League.
Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne are the two biggest examples of a a team (Chelsea) cutting them loose because they didn’t make the grade early on, only for them to come back to the top flight and enjoy tremendous success.
It’s unlikely that N’Jie will ever produce anything close to the form that Salah and De Bruyne have for Liverpool and Manchester City respectively, but he doesn’t have to.
He doesn’t need to be a world class player playing for Newcastle, just a high level Premier League operator, and he has the potential to be that for the Magpies.
He enjoyed success in Ligue 1 both before and after his misstep at Tottenham, and he has the talent to make an impact for Rafael Benitez’s side. Furthermore, he plays in a position of desperate need for the club.
A loan switch to St James’ Park is surely worth the risk for everyone involved. However, everything we’ve seen from N’Jie sans Spurs would suggest that he is good enough to excel for a side like Newcastle.
If Benitez can find the answer at the number ten position – which N’Jie potentially could be – then it’s perfectly reasonable to expect Newcastle to make a serious surge up the table in the second half of the season.
