According to reports from Mirror Football yesterday afternoon, Newcastle manager Steve McClaren wants West Bromwich Albion striker Saido Berahino to help kick-start his revolution on Tyneside.
The former Middlesbrough and England boss was officially appointed Magpies manager earlier this week – as reported by BBC Sport – and according to Mirror Football has been handed a £40million transfer kitty by owner Mike Ashley, who has stepped down from the club’s board.
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McClaren is keen to address the deficiencies of Newcastle’s strike-force, following a campaign in which the Tyneside club scored the fifth-fewest goals of any Premier League side, and he views Berahino as the perfect remedy.
The 21 year-old netted 20 goals in all competitions during the 2014/15 campaign, including 14 in the Premier League, and looks ready to test himself at a bigger club.
McClaren stands a daunting challenge in acquiring the £20million-rated striker’s signature, however. As This Is Futbol revealed last month, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham are all reportedly targeting the Burundi-born assassin, whilst Baggies boss Tony Pulis hopes to keep him at the Hawthorns by offering a £50k per-week contract.
Alongside Berahino, Mirror Football claim McClaren is also targeting QPR’s Charlie Austin.
I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing a Berahino-Perez partnership, that would be horrible for lumpy defences to deal with.
If they managed to get hold of Austin as well, they could have a pretty lethal front four (presumably with Anita and Tioté sitting in midfield). They could copy the Sunderland approach of just sticking three centre forwards on and seeing what happens:
———–Krul
Janmaat—-others
——-Anita—-Tioté
———-De Jong
Berahino———Perez
———–Austin
Apparently Vukcic was really good on loan at Rangers as well, although we probably shouldn’t get too excited about someone in the Scottish lower leagues.