Is Cisse Worth a Punt?

Djibril Cisse is certainly one of the more interesting names we've been linked with... to be sure this prospective transfer has its upsides and downsides.

For example, he's a proven 10-12 goal-a-season-in-the-Prem guy, which doesn't sound that great until you realize our leading scorer two years ago only notched 7.

On the other hand, he doesn't exactly have a lot of potential - much of his goalscoring ability is based on speed, but he's getting older (doubtfully faster) and it's been postulated that he lost some of his pace when he broke his leg a couple years back.

Then again, since he's 27 years old, gets about 12 a season and is already at the top of his ability, we really don't have to worry about someone poaching him from us.

Getting the young, potential-filled guys we usually do is great until two years in when a bigger team decides to throw a couple extra million at us and take him off our hands. But even if two years down the line, Cisse has a nice 15-goal season and looks a tempting buy, the Evertons and Villas of the world would still probably rather look for a young, prolific foreign guy than a guy who's a year or two from the decline.

With Rodallega almost guaranteed a starting spot, you'd prefer to bring in a foil for him rather than a very similar striker, yet Hugo is the exact same size and not altogether different in playing style.

Still, playing Roberto Martinez style football may call for two quicker, smaller guys playing side-by-side up front; he did, after all, sometimes use line-ups last year of 5'5' Nathan Dyer partnering 5'8' Jason Scotland up front.

Doubtless, then, he'd be a decent guy to target; likely, his transfer will come down to the traditional matter of fee and wages. Worth closer to £10m this time last year, the number being advertised right now is £4m, great value for a proven goal scorer. Still, it's a sizeable chunk of a Dave Whelan transfer budget, and wages are another thing altogether - especially for a guy whose bill of health has been recently clean but who's had a bad leg break in the past (the name Marlon King comes to mind... *shudder*).

For £4m, though, I'd go for him. Interesting to see how the other two striker spots would fill up, but he seems value-for-money enough to make a worthwhile bid.

By fly eagles fly


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