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The mystery? Can anybody solve it?

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Hi guys, The names Ben. It’s nice to meet some fellow Roverites!

What I want to discuss is our ‘mystery striker’ bid.

It has been well documented recently, that we have made an ‘improved’ offer for our main strike target. Sources range from internet and newspaper articles, to what I consider a more trustworthy source, Sky Sports News.

Every source seems to tell a different story, one article will claim the mystery man is John Utaka, then a few hours later Sky Sports News will refute those claims.

Other names mentioned have been the likes of James Vaughan from Everton, Mame Buram Diouf from Manchester United, Nikica Jelavic from Rapid Vienna, and Tom Eaves from Oldham. None of which overly excite me. I think John Utaka is a good player, but we don’t just need another good player, we need a good goalscorer. With his Premier League record for Portsmouth standing at a rather lacklustre 7 goals in 65 games.

Realistically I think we would be looking at a maximum 10 goal return for our investment, not a worthwhile risk in my opinion Nikica Jelavic has a far more impressive goalscoring record for Rapid Vienna, 25 goals in 70 games, but I consider him to be very similar to Kalinic, can we really afford to have another relatively unproven striker, who will take a season to adapt to the English playing style?

I think at the most, he would score 13 goals for us. I have always been impressed with James Vaughan on the very rare occasion I have seen him play. But 7 goals in 46 Premier League games for Everton doesn’t suggest to me that he will bring us the 15-20 goals we desperately need. I appreciate that the above stats may not be 100% accurate (don’t worry, we can’t really pull you up on that – ed) and the games played aren’t all starts, but regardless none of the above have outstanding goal scoring records.

Perhaps the most promising prospect out of the 5 players named above, is Mame Diouf from Man United, with a total of 29 goals in 63 games for Molde when he was based their permanently, and 4 goals in 12 games for them when United loaned him back to them last season. But, personally I would rather not rely on a loanee to bring us the goals we need.

Yes, it helps us in the short term, but if he scores 15+ goals, once the season is over United will undoubtedly want him back, and we will gain no long term benefit from such a deal. I don’t know enough about Tom Eaves to form a valid opinion, but he has yet to make a first team start for Oldham, and more importantly, he has yet to score.

Do we really want to pin our hopes on a striker who has not yet even proven himself in the lower divisions? However, I don’t believe the mystery man to be any of the aforementioned players.

Call it wishful think or blind optimism, but I just have a gut feeling that we will surprise a few people with an unexpected signing, that could be considered a coup for a club of our stature. As to whom the player could be, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with a guess, there are so many quality strikers out there, it could be any one of them.

I would like to think it’s someone like Asamoah Gyan, but that is definitely wishful thinking, especially considering we are cash strapped, at least until one of the proposed parties completes their takeover. N.B. I know Gyan does not have an amazing goal scoring record, but I think he is a quality player, and I believe he would adapt to the English playing style very well What do you guys think, are we going to sign the goal scorer we have desperately been missing since Roque left? Or will we end up with another 10 goal a season striker?

*Welcome to the VB nation Ben, this is an article I received from the man himself yesterday.

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