Newcastle rule out January swoop for striker despite loss of hitman Ba Star of the show: Demba Ba Newcastle won't enter the market for a new striker - despite Demba Ba's imminent exit. The Senegal hitman will link up with his country at the African Cup of Nations in the second week of January. That will leave Newcastle, who have been heavily reliant on his goals this season, desperately short of options up front. Ba, who signed on a free transfer from West Ham in the summer, has hit 14 goals in the Barclays Premier League this season as Newcastle flirt with the top four. But he is soon heading off for the tournament that runs from January 21 to February 12. Boss Alan Pardew will be left with just Leon Best, Peter Lovenkrands and the Ameobi brothers Shola and Sammy. The news will disappoint Toon supporters who are keen to see the club splash some of the £35million banked from the sale of No 9 Andy Carroll in the January transfer window. Pardew revealed the club will not attempt to sign a striker after confirming the collapse of Modibo Maiga's proposed move to Tyneside. The Sochaux frontman was expected to complete a £6million transfer but the deal broke down before Christmas after a medical revealed uncertainty over one of his knees. Pardew said: 'I don't think we will be bringing a striker in in this window after the collapse of Maiga, which we had put a lot of work into. As far as we are concerned, we will go with what we have got.' No go: Modibo Maiga (right) saw his move to Newcastle collapse Maiga had been in the Magpies' sights since last summer, and the collapse of that move was a huge disappointment for all concerned. Asked if there was any chance it could be resurrected at a lower price, Pardew said: 'It was not a strategy to do that from us, it was just unfortunate, and unfortunate for the player. 'You can imagine the player is probably more disappointed than anybody else, but these things happen and we will have to do a lot of work now between now and the summer to locate another striker.' In the meantime, Newcastle will instead concentrate on trying to bring in a defender after Steven Taylor's season was ended prematurely by an achilles injury. Pardew said: 'You have to pay over the odds in this window, everybody does, and you have to accept that if you are going to invest in this window, and we won't in terms of a striker. We are looking at bringing maybe a defender in. We need to bring in a defender
ha'way, they've lost their goalscorer for a month, but we don't have a goalscorer full stop. didn't they sign ba even though he had a question mark over his knees?? i suppose on a free they felt he was worth the risk (on reflection, it seems he was...)
Newcastle have got rid of what were deemed to be the best players, Carroll, Nolan, Barton, Enrique etc and are still doing well. Unfortunately I am sure they will cope. I think even the most die hard Newcastle fan would admit they are doing better than expected. Wish we had the points they had. I do think we will close the gap but do not think ba will be as big a miss as we are hoping.
Pardew very shrewd... Wouldn't be surprised to see them sign a striker to keep up their momentum. Fair do 's they are going well. I'm sure MON has racked up a fair phone bill in preparation for January (which is just next week of course) !
Ta-da! A mackem with an ounce of sense. Sorry, but us losing Ba basically brings us down to Sunderland's level in terms of goalscoring attackers, so we are not suddenly at a disadvantage. Ben Arfa is looking great again, and believe it or not, when Best plays more as a lone forward instead of a second striker off Ba, he can score goals too. He did it enough when Ba couldn't score a goal in his first month with us. I honestly cannot see a Best and HBA combo being any less potent than Bendtner and Sessegnon, or Bendtner and Wickham, or whoever else you have up your sleeve.
Carroll, Barton and Jose yes... Nolan definately 100% not one of our best players and with the money we got for him we bought Cabaye. Awesome deal for us, Nolan is ****.
When relied upon the rest of our team can score goals, but seeing as Demba Ba is **** hot at the moment, everyone wants to give him the ball. Can't believe we're still only 4pts away from 4th place despite our **** run. We could have been in a CL spot still if we hadn't have gotten our ****ty injuries.
I cant believe we are 12 points behind you, you have scored 25 goals with Ba`s 12, we have scored 22 without a striker that can score, we have both let in 22 goals. Funny old game this football lark isnt it.
Strange one that actually. We haven't had any 4-0's this year for a start though, and we got thumped by Norwich and Chelsea. You's haven't lost by more than one goal all season.
Joking apart, Pardew has done a tremendous job up the road. I don't know many managers that could have done better under the regime he works for and there weren't many mags (none in fact) or any of us back in August, that predicted their season so far. Ba will be a massive loss for them but I get the feeling they will cope for 5 or 6 weeks, maybe not as well as with him in the team but nevertheless coping. Even if we bring in a new striker next week, its going to take 4 or 5 weeks for them to settle so we may not be any better off. I still think the gap will close by May and as Celtic have shown, big leads can be caught.
I think we can cope if the midfield/defence start chipping in with goals, but I cannot see Best, Ameobi, Lovenkrands bagging many.
I'm not worried about the striker. Of course Ba has been in ridiculous form, any team would miss a player of that quality. But I still think we have goals in us without him. Best and Benni will do for me. Best had a great ratio before Ba rocked up. Best had to change his game to play a supporting role. He's no Ba but Benni can get him scoring goals. I'd be more worried if we don't get a couple of defenders (at least one minimum) and we continue to have the threat of James Perch looming over us. That is what derailed us, and meeting the top sides 3 games in a row. Perch is worth 3 goals a game to the oppo. His marking on set plays is like nothing I've ever seen. He is the worst marker at set pieces I've ever seen at any level. As shown against Bolton we are just a good side, and certainly no one man team.
Newcastle are considering a dramatic U-turn on their plan to snub signing a striker - after offering a trial to a non-league hitman. Bognor Regis star Jason Prior has been handed the chance to earn a deal at the Barclays Premier League side. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...league-striker-Jason-Prior.html#ixzz1hvMfn5Qg
