Paper Talk - Friday July 1

By Jebediah
July 1 2005

Jebediahs weekday roundup of all the stories and rumours from the days tabloids involving Newcastle United.

Another fairly quiet day in the papers, with only one significant story being carried by both the The Star and The Mirror. The rumour mill has it that we are set to make a £7m bid for Manchester United frontman Alan Smith. Newcastle have reportedly been interested in Smith before under the reign of Sir Bobby Robson, and the story has risen from the dead this summer with Newcastle in desperate need of a striker before the start of the new campaign. The only two available strikers at the moment are Alan Shearer and youngster Michael Chopra; Ameobi is expected to return by September. Dyer can also play up front, but his preferred position is an advanced midfield role.

Smith has not had the dream start to his Man Utd career, playing second fiddle to Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney for the majority of the season. He has however impressed when given the chance. Whether he would be interested in a move to Newcastle is debatable, but with the current striker situation we could definately offer him first team football.

Whether there is substance in this story isn't clear, however two papers both picked up the same story on the same day with the same fee being mentioned, and it would not surprise me if it were to be true. Smith would be seen as a "Souness type player" who does not bottle out of a tackle, works hard and is determined to win.

Although I don't think he would be the ideal partner for Shearer, I would like us to sign him as he is the right type of player with a good attitude, and the current squad status in terms of frontmen is worrying.

Another striker who we were surprisingly linked with over the past few days was Tore Andre Flo, the former Chelsea man. However Souness was quick to quash these links saying "I don't know where that story came from, but there is no truth in it whatsoever."

Finally, from The Star, Toon officials are set to open talks with young Steven Taylor over a new 5 year contract. The England U21 defender vastly impressed during a first team stint in the season just ended, and Souness is keen to tie him down to the club. I think it is essential that we do this, as he has shown he is a quality defender, is still very young, and is also versatile, having played in each position across the back 4 last season.