Top 2 Strikers Newcastle United Could Target In January
Newcastle United are a very well organised and efficient unit under Rafael Benitez, with their 3-1 defeat at Chelsea and 4-1 at Manchester United being purely down to the vast difference in quality between themselves and the opposition.
Rafa went very public with his anger at the club’s lack of transfer activity in the summer and, make no mistake, this is largely a Championship squad he is working with.
My own thoughts, which I have written about before, are that Newcastle did not have the best squad in the Championship last season and them winning the league was mostly about the world-class qualities of Rafa as a coach.
Taking the coaches and the facilities out of it, Newcastle would fall quite a way behind someone like Wolves at the moment on squads alone and this simply must change soon for Benitez to remain interested.
Despite organising the defence very well and making one of the centre-backs as captain, Rafa knows that nabbing a couple of top goal scorers makes more of a practical difference to the results than anything else and so he will insist that they are bought in January. Here are two he may go for:
Cenk Tosun (Besiktas)
When you consider that around £13million was spent on Aleksandar Mitrovic two years ago and around £10million on Dwight Gayle for a Championship season to cover this position, a fee of £20m+ does not look out of place for Tosun and a bid may yet go in.
There is the potential for Tosun to come to England and hit 20+ goals and if he does that, he would immediately fall into the £50million+ category in today’s market. So if anything, the fee could simply be an investment. The bottom line though is; Newcastle need him.
Fernando Torres (Atletico Madrid)
Benitez has worked with Torres not only at Liverpool but also briefly at Chelsea and knows the player inside and out. However, a lot has changed since the Liverpool days when Torres was running the front all on his own with Gerrard backing up from midfield.
Whatever happens, this looks likely to only be a short-term deal and it’s precisely why it could work for Newcastle. Torres wants to spend next season, the last on his contract, with his boyhood club Atletico Madrid and will be dreaming of making a Champions League final which will be played at their stadium.
Between now and next season though, he wants to play regular football and sees a loan move in January to England as the best way to achieve this. Diego Costa will soon be available to play for Atletico and so in the short-term, chances will be limited, something Torres is very aware of.