Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is being looked at by Chelsea as a possible replacement for Demba Ba. The 25-year-old scored 15 goals in his first season at the Bundesliga club having joined from St Etienne last summer. Chelsea want to buy at least one more forward to add to the acquisition of Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid and are also keen on Mario Mandzukic and Ezequiel Lavezzi. Ba could move to Queens Park Rangers for £8m.
Please correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it Ba who was banging them in for Newcastle not so long ago? If it's the guy I'm thinking of, he would be a good option with Charlie.
Hmm, caution. http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/dec/31/newcastle-demba-ba-knee "The precise nature of the problem is a closely guarded secret. Pardew has described it as "a deficiency", revealed there "is a photograph [MRI scan] of Demba's knee looking very poorly" and indicated it will almost certainly cause him problems in the future." That was from 2012. It will only be worse 2 years on.
29 and shot knees that are never going to be fixed, a a perfect signing for us! Ex scum too, what could go wrong!
But remember that it was written the day before the transfer window opened and Pardew was still hoping to keep Ba at Newcastle. You don't come out with that stuff just before the transfer window if you are going to sell. Whilst I do not doubt that Ba's knee isn't in the best possible shape I would think that Pardew was trying to put Chelsea off. Hopefully we have a better doctor/team of physios performing medicals than the ones who signed off Johnson and Zamora. (Mind you, I think that in their case it had more to do with Hughes taking a chance on a couple of players he knew.)
It's hogwash We won't be looking at spending £8 million on a 29 year old I believe Fernandes has learnt his painful and ultimately expensive lessons
Another one who'd be off for the African Cup of Nations in January and February should we sign him. Why would you want to sign a player who won't be around for three weeks of the season? Especially at this potentially critical stage of the campaign.
Why would we sign any africans? They could ALL swan off to their own tournament..... Just saying - I don't really get this 'could be off in January' viewpoint.
I think it's a fair point though. If you had a choice between two reasonably similar players, and one was definitely off for a few weeks of the year, you'd go for the one who will be around for the whole season. I'd only sign an African player this year if they will be significantly better than a non-African option. ACON really is a pain - especially for teams that can't afford a large squad.
The size of the squad is 25 plus kids for everybody. Its the number of potential ACON players in the 25 that needs to be managed. I'd take a punt on YaYa Toure.
2+2=5 Wouldn't want him. Hasn't stepped up at Scum - and he would be exactly the wrong kind we've signed before. End of career and last big contract. No thanks - better value out there at £8m
