Thursday 21 August 2008

Santa Cruz pursuit over

There seems to have been a Garry Cook press briefing yesterday; The Times, Telegraph and Guardian all carry quotes from him about the attempt to sign Santa Cruz being over, the failure to sign Silvestre and the detail that Thaksin met Hughes in London last night.

Cook is quoted as saying:

"We made an offer for Santa Cruz last week and we were told to forget it in the bluntest possible terms. We've been told to give up on him. Mark is adamant that we don't but it's fair to say the window is closing – and that Blackburn have closed it on us.

He [Hughes] wants the best and he wants to bring in players he already knows. He doesn't really like taking on the unknown. Unfortunately, he can't have Santa Cruz and will have to bring in someone new and develop them.''

A shame to hear that we've accepted defeat on our first choice target (particularly given that Villa and Spurs continue to be linked with RSC). But it is good to hear that we are actively pursuing a striker, and that we are confident of landing someone else. The Guardian mentions Diego Milito by name, who'd probably be my preferred signing. We've also been linked with David Suazo, who I don't really know much about. I am not distraught to have missed out on Djibril Cisse.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

right, first of all, thank god we're not getting cisse or santa cruz; we have enough target men in the squad (injured or not) and i think bianchi should be given a chance. cisse is about as reliable physically as bojinov, nuff said. milito might be okay, but ive heard spurs fans saying that they don't want him, and they buy everyone! as for david suazo - GET HIM AT ALL COSTS. he has bags of pace, check him at youtube, hes ten times as good as vassell, and would be the perfect player alongside jo (when he comes back). hes can play down the wings too, i would liken him to a walcott style player who can dribble better that he can cross, but his versatility is key, hes got valuable serie A experience playing alongside milans best. yeah, he might turn out to be a dodgy south american who doesnt adapt to the prem, but ive seen enough vuoso s in my time to know he'd be alright. bring him in. of course, this speculation is merely heresay nd papertalk, and hughes is spending like a scotsman on a budget, so i guess we might have to wait for another 7 injuries before we sign anyone else. but, mr hughes,TIME IS RUNNING OUT!