Alan Pardew must be loving life at the moment, firstly he is back in Premier League management at a time when his future in top flight football seemed questionable, secondly he has £35million in his pocket from the sale of a drunk, and thirdly they are still winning games despite losing their main goal threat (the previously mentioned drunk).
With all that money in his pocket Alan is like Big Sam in McDonalds, he is looking to spend. Reports today are linking him with Argentinian winger Diego Perotti who currently plays for Sevilla in La Liga, the offer coming from the Toon would initially be around £6million it is believed.
Perotti who was at one time in the Boca Juniors youth team, eventually played for the hilariously named Deportivo Moron (I promise that is not a joke). He spent just one season with the Argentine side before moving to Spain to continue his career with Sevilla, firstly in their B team and during the 2008/2009 the ex ‘moron’ broke into the Sevilla first team and from there he has never looked back.
Things have moved quickly for the 22 year old who has only played 33 games for his current club in both league and Champions League and there is already interest in the players services from various clubs should Sevilla decide to sell.
Perotti is a left winger and is adept with both feet, he can also play behind a striker centrally when required. He is a pacey and tricky player who is excellent with the ball at his feet, he also has a good range of passing. He is however a little short by Premiership standards so he may struggle to retain possession against some more physical teams, but as David Silva has proved at City this may not necessarily be the case.
Last Summer the player was linked to numerous clubs, including Manchester City, Arsenal and Real Madrid, at the time the Sevilla President said that the player would not be moving as he had just signed a new contract. Now that 12 months have passed, could things be different?
The reported fee of around £6million seems incredibly low, there is a buyout clause in the players contract of £40million and it was figures closer to that which were thrown about in reports linking the player with a move away from Sevilla last summer.
If a deal were done to bring Perotti to the North East I think it would be for a lot more than the quoted £6million. It could require a fair chunk of the Carroll money to secure this signing, and another problem for Alan Pardew could be interest from other clubs, the player is highly sought after and therefore it is unlikely Newcastle would be the only side showing interest.
On a more personal level how attractive would the proposition of Newcastle be to the player? This season Sevilla have played in the Champions League and Perotti has a taste for the competition, although Sevilla are not having a great season (they are currently lying 8th in La Liga), it may take an offer of Champions League football to persuade him to move.
The winger would be a good asset to Newcastle and with the permanent signing of Hatem Ben Arfa, all they really need is a striker to possess quite a potent attacking threat, whether they can pull this one off though remains to be seen.
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