Striking options, who is available?

Happy Friday Eve to you all, I do like Thursday’s, it’s almost like it’s you can see the finishing line for the week.

Would just quickly like to touch on yesterday’s horrific incident at Woolwich. I don’t want to go into too much detail over it as you could find that over any news site in the country right now, however I would like to say that the racial abuse towards Muslim’s is completely unacceptable and ignorant. To blame an entire religion for the actions of one or two people is naive and if you are doing so you do need to reconsider your views and opinions. Muslims aren’t to blame for these incidents and if you think so, and are anti-Muslim because of it, do remember that Henry, Zidane, Dzeko, Ozil, Ribery, both Yaya and Kolo Toure, Sagna, Demba Ba, Cisse and Benzema are just some of the Muslim players to

Moving on, as mentioned in my previous blogs I don’t feel that neither Jovetic or Higuian are our primary targets, we’re looking for somebody bigger than them. So I’d like to assess all the strikers that could be on the move this summer. The club currently have a golden window of opportunity, a lot of other clubs are changing managers, selling players before buying, assessing their financials, but not us, so we need to use this to our advantage to try and get the big players before the other clubs do.

Comparison

Name	Apps	Goals	Assists	Shots per Game	Key Passes	Dribbles
Lewandowski	40(3)	34	7	3.4	1.2	1.6
Cavani	37(4)	36	4	4.5	0.9	1
Falcao	37(0)	31	1	3.7	1	1
Rooney	27(6)	13	13	3.1	1.8	0.4
Villa	20(16)	10	5	1.7	0.6	0.2
Kießling	38(2)	26	7	3.3	1.9	1.4

Lewandowski
Definitely moving due to the fact he has one year left on his contract, rumours are strongly linking him with a move to Bayern, apparently he doesn’t want to go anywhere else, Klopp however has said he will sell him to anybody but Bayern. I have had confirmation that Lewandowski is our primary target this year, Wenger feels he’d be perfect for our system, however there’s only so much the club can do. If he does’t want to come then he doesn’t want to come. The club have pulled off big signing’s in the past such as Bergkamp, could we do it again? He is definitely the most deadly striker on the list, with him being involved in 41 goals collectively, an incredible return.

Cavani
I think he’s gone as far as he can with Napoli and so does he, however he has a ridiculous asking price, somewhere in the 60m € region, potentially more. An incredible striker with the highest shots per game out of all the players above and second to Lewandowski for his collective goals, amassing a total of 40. I don’t feel we have a chance here, firstly he’s out of our price range and secondly I think he’s Man City or Chelsea bound, both the clubs have been long term admirers and both of them can afford to buy him too.

Falcao
I’m not too sure what Falcao will do this season, Arsenal can’t afford his wages, Athletico won’t sell to Real Madrid, Bayern are getting Neymar, City will probably get Cavani, all the Italian clubs are going for different targets too. Man Utd could go for him if they sell Rooney, but I get the feeling they want someone else. Could he stay at Athletico? Doubtful, but will be interesting to see what happens there.

Rooney
I don’t understand the situation here, I’m hearing that he is unhappy for whatever reason and has asked to leave but at the same time hearing that it’s a cover up and Man Utd are actually trying to ship him out the door. He’s been a bit off this season for goals in comparison to previous ones, however that’s probably due to that Dutch traitor starting up top. It would also explain why Rooney’s assists are the highest on the list, because he’s been more of a team player than a prolific goalscorer. Definite interest from our side, we couldn’t afford his current wages but would he be willing to take a pay cut? I doubt this one will happen, not because of financial reasons but because Man Utd won’t want to sell to a rival, funny that ay?

Villa
We attempted to buy him in January but unfortunately didn’t get him, he is apparently going for 12m € this summer which I think is pretty good value for money when you consider that’s how much we paid for Gervinho. He’s definitely got goals left in him, he’s experienced, he’s got every trophy medal in his cabinet and he’s a natural goalscorer. Would you take him though? He’s 31 if I remember correctly, could he adapt to the Premier League, will he ever be the same player or are his best days behind him? One thought is that you could move him to the wing and put Podolski in the middle.

Kießling
Now I haven’t heard he’s even on the move, however I have heard we’re looking at the German league for our striker, and it is impossible to ignore such a talent. Looking at the stats, 26 goals and 7 assists in 40 games is a great return for any player, he also has the highest key passes out of anybody on the list so he’d definitely create a lot for other people too. He’s at Leverkusen, who aren’t exactly the biggest club going, could he be tempted to move if we came in? I reckon he’d go for around 30m € too. My only doubts are that he’s 29, he may need a season to adapt, by which he’s then 30 years old, is that too old? We’ll see.

Out of all the players, I must say I’d obviously like to go for Lewandowski, however I get the feeling he’ll eventually go to Bayern. I’d obviously take any of them but our realistic options would be Villa or Kießling, but would I take either of them over Higuain or Jovetic? I’m not too sure.

Anyway that’s all for today, I was going to touch on Djourou but I will leave that to tomorrow due to the blog being longer than I thought.

Have a good day folks, Friday is almost here.