Dirk Kuyt’s arrival at Anfield may well be another transfer blow for Newcastle United fans but it has to be said the Dutchman never really showed enough desire to be worthy of wearing the legendary number 9 shirt.
All along the 26-year-old - who had a pretty average World Cup to put it at its most charitable - longed for a move to his boyhood heroes Liverpool and for £11million of the Anfield coffers, he’s got his wish.
Good.
Will he be worth it? We’ll have to wait and see. United don’t want somebody who would rather be at Liverpool.
My opinion is that whoever arrives to succeed Alan Shearer has to be desperate to do the job.
They don’t have to bleed black and white like Shearer did.
Andy Cole and Les Ferdinand are evidence of that after arriving as out of Tooners but still writing their names into Geordie folklore after their goalscoring exploits in a United shirt.
The great thing about people like Cole and Ferdinand, and David Kelly and Mick Quinn before them, is that they wanted to succeed so much and that resulted in a glut of goals.
That’s what United are after.
Goals and pace are now paramount to United’s chances this season but it doesn’t seem as simple as that, they seemingly don’t grow on trees.
Glenn Roeder to his credit has scoured Europe and beyond so far for a striker but is determined to make sure he gets the right man.
Time isn’t on his side and had Michael Owen been fit, the pressure wouldn’t have been so great.
But as Wigan begin preparing the journey to Tyneside it’s fair to say a new striker seems most unlikely with the new season about to kick-off.
Roeder is in a tricky situation.
United are quite rightly reluctant to see more money wasted on another flop in the transfer market and Roeder knows that any player he expresses an interest in will see the price bumped up just because he is manager of Newcastle.
Yet none of this is of any consolation to the Toon Army at the moment.
The reality of the situation is Shola Ameobi goes into the game against Wigan with a responsibility to get the goals.
And those around him are now under pressure to support him, probably the likes of Scott Parker, Nobby Solano, Emre and Damien Duff to start with and if it isn’t going to plan a certain Albert Luque may have to emerge as the hero.
Will it be enough though?
Or will a goalless start to the season result in a knee-jerk reaction to get in any striker and not necessarily the new number 9?
*On the subject of number 9s, two of United's former strikers, Supermac and Joe Allon will be giving their opinion on who should succeed Shearer at IDOLS before the Wigan game in a talk-in.
Be there. Both are never afraid to let their opinions in the open air.
The talk-in kicks off at 1pm and is FREE
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