Dragovic targeted to help shore up defence

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Newcastle are in pole position to land Austrian defender Aleksandar Dragovic and are ready to spend £5 million on the Basel defender in the January transfer market. With little known about the defender, is £5 million good value? And if he is of Premier League standard?

With the highly rated defender attracting interest from teams such as Fiorentina and Stuggart, Newcastle are keen to bolster their squad with the 21 year-old defender. With 14 caps for his native Austria and measuring 6 ft 1 in, Dragovic seems on paper an ideal player for the Premiership.

However, when ever buying from abroad and especially from leagues that do not measure up to the quality and intensity of the Premiership, it is hard to gauge whether a player would be well suited to the Premier League. Much like the forgettable signing of Stefan Maierhofer from Rapid Vienna to Wolves, players you seem good on paper can sometimes struggle. Measuring at 6 ft 7 in and scoring 31 goals in 49, Maierhofer on paper seemed a good signing, only for him to be a appointing signing and leave 2 years after signing following loan spells.

Similar to Maierhofer, I question whether Dragovic could measure up to the standard of the Premier League. At the age of 21, he has a lot to learn as a player and moving could benefit his development. But then again, it could be detrimental to his progression as a player, as has been seen with many foreign players moving to England, such as Bruno Cheyrou and Alfonson Alves.

I would approach this signing with caution. Possibly not a player for the present but maybe for the future. As said, it is hard to gauge how good the player is until he is chucked into a fast flowing, high intensity Premier League match.

 

Oh no! the transfer rumours are starting and we all know we wont sign anyone unless we sell someone.

 

Unlike the summer, where we signed Bigi, Amal, Anita and Good, and didn't sell anyone (barring Forster, who was never going to play anyway)...

 

I'll take anyone at the moment, get Willo and Perch out of defence forever.

 

I personally think Willo and Perch are good defensive players, but they can't play together.

We need another CB and another fullback. Simple as.

 

Williamson is not a good defensive premier league player. His positional play is non existent and he has zero pace to accommodate this, for a big bloke he also fouls unnecessarily when challenging for headers in both boxes (when defending a corner/set piece he constantly has two arms around the opposition player). His distribution is not far off Sunday league standard and he has a terrible hair cut just to top it off.

 

Willo is a not a good long term plan for a 2nd choice big defender, mainly because our 1st choice (Saylor), is Injured often.

We need to get another biggun in, and we SHOULD have bought two new defenders in the summer.

 

We should have got at least one defender in, but I'm using the fact that we didn't as a positive (bear with me on this). I just think that if our league form suffers due to lack of defensive cover (as it has done) then MA, DL, GC & AP won't make the same mistake again in the future. If for example not paying an extra million for a player results in you finishing 3 places lower then you actually lose 500k instead of having an extra 500k revenue.

Well this is what I've been repeatedly telling myself in order to remain positive anyway!

 

They are both very poor, Perch hasn't had a good moment in defence all season, he is a defensive midfielder, not a defender.

Couple of CB, a RB and a young LB would be nice.

It has been 3 transfer windows that we have have needed more bodies in defence.

 

you know... I'm convinced we will end up signing Pieters.. I think Santon will end up gonig back to Italy and with Debuchy and Pieters on the flanks we will be rocking... heard it here first!

 

Best and Gutherie and that allowed us to spend some money - what is your point?

 

I'd rather keep Snaton given he's been one of best players since Christmas and he's young.

 

I'd prefer we keep Santon too. I think he's better than Debuchy and Pieters. I'd prefer we move Santon over, and sign a left back (Jose for me - he'd jump at it). I think we need a centre back as unfortunately Willo is not of the required standard for the league (not his fault because he tries 100%), and Saylor has to now be classed as injury prone. Rather than some inexperienced 21 yr old, I'd prefer we went and got a guy ready to step straight in.

What happened to Simon Kjaer and his situation at Wolfsburg? I thought the coach Felix Magath told him to **** off? He is a good solid centre back and only 23/24ish.

 

Kjaer is a class act TBH and I wouldn't turn my nose up.
I'm still convinced Santon will want away in the summer as he will be wanting a regular first team berth with Italy and playing for a 'home based' side will naturally aid those ambitions no end.

 

Possibly and I think his Geordie lass will be more than happy to take in the sights of Rome or Milan before anyone throws that titbit in the mix! I hope not he looks top class so far this season and ready to deliver a big season for us.

 

his attitude does seem first class which is a far cry from his predecessor... mr Pistone.

 

A fragile man on the pitch. A real eye for the ladies and the nightlife off it supposedly. Him and Solano were in the thick of it! I surprised at Nobby, just never seemed the sort.

 

went to a talk in where Nobby was on recently and he is a legendary swordsman... even admitted it.
He was hooked up with a stripper a while back apparently too... kinda a smaller version of Tino then...
Guess he just wanted someone to blow his trumpet (I'll get my coat and leave after that crap attempt........).