With only five goals in our last eight league games there has been much talk amongst the Jack Army about the need for us to sign another striker when the transfer window opens. Our January buys haven’t always been successful in the past, especially our loan recruits from abroad (barring Gylfi Sigurdsson) so I’m going to look at strikers currently plying their trade in England who might be available when the transfer window opens.
Charlie Austin
It was a surprise that the former Poole Town striker didn’t move during the summer after scoring 18 league goals for relegated QPR last term, especially as he only had one year left on his contract. In the end no one met the Hoops £15 million asking price so he remained at the club but looks odds on to move on a free during the summer. However could the west Londoners be tempted to cash in sooner rather than lose him for nothing? It’s possible if they look out of contention for the Play-Offs so we should definitely keep an eye on this. He’d be an upgrade on current options for sure and would probably jump at the chance to sign for us.
Loic Remy
Michael Laudrup was interested in the French striker during his spell at the Liberty but he was unfortunately out of our price range. Since then he has excelled at QPR briefly and at Newcastle for a season before Chelsea made the most of his £8.5 million release clause in August 2014. Since then though he has struggled for game time at Stamford Bridge and is firmly behind Diego Costa and Radamel Falcao in the pecking order. Remy seems likely to leave the current Champions by next summer and with the European Championships being hosted in his own country next June he may need to move in January to secure a place in the squad. A loan or permanent transfer could be in the offing here.
Emmanuel Adebayor
No doubt a lot of fans probably wouldn’t be too keen to see the Togo international arrive in south Wales but he hasn’t got a club at the moment and the fact he has scored 96 Premier League goals in 225 appearances isn’t something you can ignore. He’s had his problems in the past but on a short term deal what we would have to lose? I think long term he is likely to move somewhere for a big fat pay cheque like Qatar or the MLS but he is likely to want to complete his century of goals in this country so a deal until the end of the season could suit all parties. If we are to do this deal though it’d be better to do it sooner rather than later so he can train for a few weeks to get his fitness up to speed.
Peter Crouch
The English striker has been a regular at Stoke since he joined just over half a decade ago but has found himself on the periphery this term meaning the Potters might be prepared to let him leave. He’s always been a thorn in our side and has scored against us four times since we’ve been at this level although it must be said he’s been far more prolific on the international stage than at club level. His major strength is in the air – he has more Premier League headed goals than anyone else at 47. Given the fact that we don’t score many headers he may not suit our style of play but he’s not someone we should rule out. A loan on small fee might be enough to tempt Mark Hughes to part with him.
Papiss Cisse
The Senegal striker has scored a brace on two of his visits to the Liberty; in fact he’s the only Newcastle player to score a Premier League goal at our home ground. We were linked with a move for him in January of this year but now the Geordies are under new management as well as Ayoze Perez and Aleksander Mitrovic being the preferred choice of Steve McClaren it’s likely they will allow him to leave if they get a reasonable offer. The major downside to this deal though is that Cisse appears to be injury prone and is often not able to complete 90 minutes but considering he scored 11 from 22 games last term when he was a sub for quite a few of those shows he could be a gamble worth taking.
Jordan Rhodes
Finally we go to a player who can be considered very unlucky not to have been given a chance at this level already. A 25 year old with 181 career goals can only be described as prolific and that tally includes 81 in the Championship over the past three and a bit years. His current club Blackburn Rovers aren’t keen to sell but they are under a transfer embargo for breaching financial fair play so may decide to cash in to lift said embargo. However they turned down £12 million from Middlesbrough in the summer and we would be reluctant to pay more than that. We would have to hope that now a new manager is in charge that he decided to sell to strengthen other areas of the team.