By Reynald de Chatillon
August 23 2005

Newcastle United and their search for a striker is fast becoming a joke, this morning sees us once again fall short in a bid, this time for Albert Luque. We offered Deportivo La Coruna our ‘final and best bid’, but as with the usual pattern of the close season we fall short.

Now I am not advocating we just pay anything a club asks, but surely we could have reached agreement somewhere between the 1.4 million euro, that was the reported distance, between the two sides.

But I am beginning to suspect another reason behind it all quite honestly, I feel Fat Fred is deliberately offering just lower than the selling club will except, so come the end of the transfer window, he can turn around and say, ‘but look at all the names we went for?’

Well pardon me, but I travelled to Arsenal, I was at the West Ham game, and tomorrow I am travelling to Bolton, and we need someone. That is more than obvious, seeing Shearer plod away up front game after game is demeaning not just to us but to the great man himself, I am betting that he regrets that decision to retire now.

Michael Owen and Nicolas Anelka, are both still reportedly on our wish list, but how likely are either of them.

Owen has more or less stated he doesn’t want to come, we sod the little wanna be Welsh dwarf, (unless he comes of course, then good on that man, fine striker and a good man to boot). Anelka is still a possibility, I suppose, but we seem reliant on a player making life difficult at his club to come to us, well that smacks me as a lack of forward planning.

But should we have landed Luque, I would still have though that we needed one of the above as well.

Come on Fred, to a lot of us this is not about the bottom line, a share dividend or dressing up in suits for a game, we live, we breathe Newcastle United, and to see us as toothless as this hurts.

It’s no good nearly signing players, each week, I nearly win the lottery, but I won’t be giving up work just yet.

Get Your Finger Out Fred, its getting silly now.