Deila has said that if we don’t get a deal done for Cole, he wants the board to back him in getting a quality 3rd striker in January
Deila has said that if we don’t get a deal done for Cole, he wants the board to back him in getting a quality 3rd striker in January.
| “Then there is my top choice, I’ve gone on about him plenty of times before” |
I’m not against us signing Cole, but considering how long it’s taking to get a deal done with him (partly because he picked up a small injury in training early last week) would we be better off leaving a potential deal for him if we want to sign a quality striker in January and think we could get one?
As usual for me, I’ve compiled a little list of potential targets:
Leke James – 22 year old Nigerian striker, he’s about 6ft tall so he’s not the biggest but he’s decent in the air and he’s fairly quick; well rounded might be a good description. We’ve recently been linked with him as he told African Football that we’ve had scouts sent to watch him play in Norway for Aalesunds FK. He has scored 12 goals in 27 games, which isn’t bad but he would suit our setup and his overall play seems to be quite good. He has a year let on his contract and his value is around £700k, we’d probably have to pay a bit more but less than £1m. The big issue with James is that he’s not an international player, he hasn’t represented Nigeria at any age level so from a work permit point of view we could have problems. We would have to ask for special permission.
Robin Simovic – 23 year old, 6ft 3 or 4 striker from Sweden (Croatian parentage) and plays for Henrik Larsson’s Helsingborgs. If you want a big target man, this guy is a good option! He’s a monster! But he’s also no slouch! He has 11 goals in 24 games plus 2 assists. He has things to work on, but you can see that Henrik has worked hard with him because before he took over as manager, he was only scoring a handful of goal a season. Definite improvement but that also comes with experience and he’s been playing and learning a lot over the last few years.
Plenty of alternatives as the Carlton Cole deal drags on
Hyun-Jun Suk – 24 year old South Korean international playing in Portugal with Vitoria Setubul, second top scorer in the league with 5 goals in 7 games. This is the ballsy young lad who at just 18/19 years old, traveled to Ajax and asked Martin Jol (manager at the time) to give him a trial……where he impressed so much they handed him a deal, he mainly played in the B team but did feature for the full team as a sub. He can play as a striker or a winger. He’s quick and skillful but as he’s got older, he’s got stronger as well. After Martin Jol left Ajax, Suk’s future was in doubt and he ended up leaving and going to Groningen, 18 months later he moved to Maritimo in Portugal but things didn’t work out too well with that and he left after 6 months in a big move to Saudi Arabia where he spent a season before returning to Portugal with Nacional where he was for 6 months before now seemingly finding his feet at Vitoria. He’s still young and learning but he has all the ability required to be a top striker! Contracted util summer 2018 and valued around £1.2m.
Then there is my top choice, I’ve gone on about him plenty of times before. If we are talking about a quality striker and going out and actually spending a fair amount of money, I think the best striker we could go for is Munas Dabbur. Israeli international striker playing for Grasshopper Club Zurich in Switzerland, still only 23 but he’s a big strong lad and is 4th top scorer in Switzerland with 6 league goals. In total he has 9 goals and 10 assists in 12 games this season! Value is around £3.5m and is contracted until summer 2017 plus the option of a further year. So he won’t come cheap! From a wages perspective and in terms of who we can get….he’s probably our best option, if we’re willing to fork out a bit of money!
Author: wee_od_88 – Vital Celtic Head of Scouting!
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