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Newcastle United are preparing a £20million January double swoop for Tottenham Hotspur strikers Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko.

The Magpies are flying high in the Premier League, unbeaten and currently in third, and owner Mike Ashley is ready to back manager Alan Pardew with significant investment.

The Toon Army are aiming for Europe but Pardew is worried about the lack of recognised goal scorers in his squad.

Demba Ba, Leon Best and Shola Ameobi have found the back of the net this season but all have dismal injury records.

Defoe and Pavlyuchenko have both lost their starting place in the Spurs team to the strikeforce of Emmanuel Adebayor and Rafael van der Vaart.

Manager Harry Redknapp is also on the lookout for new strikers with Leandro Damiao,

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England manager Fabio Capello will call upon Liverpool striker Andy Carroll to lead the line against Bulgaria if Darren Bent cannot shake off a groin injury.

The Aston Villa hit-man was absent again from training today, after missing the previous two, putting his starting place in serious jeopardy.

The 27-year-old was due to miss last month’s friendly with Holland due to a shoulder complaint but the game was called off due to riots.

Bent was looking to establish himself as a regular member of Fabio Capello’s attack after a spell of three goals in three matches.

But his possible absence tomorrow could open the door for Andy Carroll, who has not played for the Three Lions since scoring against Ghana last March.

Jermain Defoe will eager for the chance to impress against the same opposition when he scored a hat-trick at Wembley a year ago.

Another option for Capello would be to play the in-form Ashley Young behind Wayne Rooney – a role he has performed at club level with Manchester United.

The game in Sofia will go a long way to determining whether they gain automatic qualification to next summer’s Euro 2012 finals.

England will follow this match with a home encounter against Wales at Wembley on Tuesday.

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Tottenham Hotspur failed in their bid to sign defender Gary Cahill because Bolton Wanderers demanded Jermain Defoe plus cash in exchange.

The 25-year-old seemed destined to leave the Reebok over the summer with Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs all keen on recruiting him.

The England international will now have to wait for January to secure his move or another 12 months when he will be a free agent.

Trotters boss Owen Coyle was approached by Tottenham and offered winger David Bentley and defender Sebastien Bassong plus cash for Cahill.

But Coyle responded immediately by demanding £10million and Defoe in part exchange, according to the Daily Mirror.

Bolton are happy to keep their man, but now face the prospect of losing Cahill for as little as £5million in January or for free next summer when his contract runs out.

The centre-back will be offered a new contract but it is understood he wants a crack at playing at the top level – and that means Champions League.

Coyle ended a positive day by signing striker David Ngog from Liverpool in a £4million deal.

Like fellow new boys Nigel Reo-Coker and Tuncay Sanli, the Frenchman took less cash for the chance to play for Bolton.

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Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe will reject any move to Newcastle United if a bid were to come in for him.

The 28-year-old has been linked with a £10million switch to St James’ Park after Toon Army boss Alan Pardew grows increasingly frustrated in his search for a hit-man.

Pardew wants the England international to replace Andy Carroll, who joined Liverpool for £35million last January, according to Sky Sports.

Defoe is still keen to play a part in helping Spurs retain their Champions League status but could be convinced to move if it was for a top four team.

He played 76 minutes of Spurs’ friendly win over the MK Dons on Tuesday night and remains part of Harry Redknapp’s plans for the new season.

Defoe’s strike partner, Peter Crouch, has also been a target for the Toon but Alan Pardew wasn’t prepared to pay £9m for the 30-year-old.

The Magpies manager had hoped to sign Paris St Germain striker Mevlut Erdinc but is unable to convince him to move to the north-east.

There have been difficulties in finalising the Turkish international’s £7million move but the transfer could be completed when Newcastle return from their tour of the USA on Thursday.

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Tottenham Hotspur’s season stalled last summer because of a lack of goals from their strikers.

Manager Harry Redknapp realised his side’s shortcomings but was unable to persuade chairman Daniel Levy to part with the amount of cash needed to sign a top striker.

Now it seems even more important to make a big signing to keep stars Luka Modric and Gareth Bale happy at the club.

But no Champions League football next season will hamper their efforts to sign the best strikers, meaning Redknapp will have to do his homework.

Money should become available once the squad is trimmed down, with the likes of Jermaine Jenas, Niko Kranjcar and Sebastien Bassong looking to be heading for the exit.

So we have given the Spurs boss a hand in identifying 10 possible replacements for Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Robbie Keane and Roman Pavlyuchenko.

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Arsenal are considering a sensational bid to bag Jermain Defoe from arch-rivals Tottenham.

The England forward is looking at his options after being frozen out at White Hart Lane last season.

The striker, signed for £15.75million from Portsmouth two years ago, could now become the fox in the box the Gunners have long been crying out for.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis have both insisted the club will be far busier this summer than they have been in recent transfer windows.

With Nicklas Bendtner having declared his intention to quit the Emirates, Wenger is hunting a top-class marksman to give some cutting edge to his team’s play.

While the signing of Defoe, 27, would require the player to cross the bitter north London divide, the stark reality is he was a fringe player at White Hart Lane last season but would have much to offer at the Emirates.

SOURCE: Daily Mirror

Arsenal may well need an additional striker to help boost their attacking options but would Jermain Defoe be the man to fill that hole? We are talking about a player who netted just four Premier League goals last term, all of whom came against struggling sides, and if so would Arsene Wenger look to bring in a player from their arch-rivals and on top of that would Harry Redknapp sell a star player to a rival for their top four hopes?

That isn’t to say that the former West Ham and Portsmouth man hasn’t proven in the past to be a quality natural finisher but last season was the worst he has had in his career and for him then to be linked with a move up the table seems a tad unlikely to say the least.

At present Arsenal depend far too much on Dutchman Robin Van Persie who when clear of injuries, is one of the best in the business. The Gunners back up options are not however quite so consistent. Marouane Chamakh started last term with a bang but ended with a whimper, so much so that there is talk of a return to Ligue 1 this summer.

Nicklas Bendtner is not half as good as he believes he is and Carlos Vela is a quality player who consistently fails to make an impact and does his best work coming from the bench.

Tottenham however do need new striking options. All four of Redknapp’s international strikers failed to impress last term, although Roman Pavlyuchenko was head and shoulders above his team-mates but is for some reason not a player that the White Hart Lane boss seems to have faith in.

On the subject of whether Defoe would be willing to make such a contentious move one just has to recollect the way in which he left both Charlton and West Ham in search of a ‘bigger’ club from the Capital.

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ARSENE WENGER has targeted Jermain Defoe as the man to fire a title challenge next season.

Arsene Wenger is desperate to add a top-class Premier League goalscorer to his squad after another year of failure at the Emirates.

And he believes Tottenham’s unsettled striker Jermain Defoe is the man who can fi nally add a cutting edge to Arsenal’s pretty build-up play.

Spurs are willing to listento offers of around £10m for the England striker, who endured a frustrating campaign at White Hart Lane blighted by injury, loss of form and long spells on the bench.

And boss Harry Redknapp has already started planning for life after Defoe by stepping up his efforts to sign Didier Drogba.

SOURCE: Daily Star

Really? Whilst there is no doubting that Arsene Wenger could do with adding another effective attacking option to his Gunners squad, would a move for Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe be the answer? Would Harry Redknapp allow such a move anyway?

For some time now Arsenal have depended too heavily on Robin Van Persie for goals, albeit Emmanuel Adebayor did have one stand out season before he left for Eastlands, the Dutchman also suffers with recurring injury problems that seem to rule him out for huge chunks of every season.

Wenger has the likes of Marouane Chamakh, Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela as back up but none of these options has really clicked and therefore a move for a new striker makes a great deal of sense but does a move for Defoe solve the problem, probably not.

The 28 year old England international just had the worst season of his career in terms of his goal return, managing just four Premier League goals from 22 appearances, a stat made all the more worse when you consider the goals came in matches against Blackpool, Wolves and West Brom.

Harry Redknapp appears to be looking to freshen things up in the attacking department though and has been linked with a plethora of strikers in recent weeks. Defoe, Robbie Keane, Peter Crouch, and to a lesser extent, Roman Pavlyuchenko all failed to get going last term and as a result probably cost the North London club a top four spot.

That said, it would be mighty strange that Defoe would be an Arsenal target, especially as Wenger clearly likes to bring in cheaper foreign talent, especially of the youthful variety, therefore making a move for the Tottenham front man very unlikely indeed.

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Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew is planning an ambitious double striker swoop this summer as he looks to lure two London based England internationals into making a move to St James’ Park. The Magpies manager has had to cope with a decidedly average attack following the deadline day sale of Andy Carroll to Liverpool and now hopes that owner Mike Ashley will provide the funds to bring in some much needed fire-power.

Pardew will look to reunite with West Ham striker Carlton Cole according to the Evening Chronicle and the chances of signing the 27 year old would clearly increase should the East London side fail to beat the drop.

Cole has been in and out of the West Ham side this season having fallen out with manager Avram Grant. The former Chelsea man has however netted 11 goals from 25 starts in all competitions and was the club’s top scorer last season. West Ham co-owner David Gold has admitted that his side would struggle to keep the club’s top performers should they be relegated to the Championship.

Newcastle United may find it harder to snap up their other reported striker target as Pardew is also being linked with a move for another of his former West Ham charges, Tottenham’s Jermain Defoe. The White Hart Lane striker has struggled for form this term and Harry Redknapp is apparently considering selling the 28 year old this summer.

The Daily Express states that Pardew will fight Sunderland boss Steve Bruce to sign the England man who has scored just three Premier League goals this season but is clearly a player that is on the whole a prolific marksman.

Newcastle United have had to depend on the likes of Leon Best, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi and Shefki Kuqi for the second half of the season and given that their collective total of 16 goals from a combined 60 plus appearances, it seems fairly clear that Pardew would be looking to bring in reinforcements when the transfer window re-opens.

Carlton Cole and Jermain Defoe are thought to have a combined valuation of around £20-22m which would still see the North-East club having a large chunk of change from the £35m they received from Liverpool for youngster Andy Carroll.

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Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is set to make a fresh move for Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan.
Forlan was strongly linked with a move to White Hart Lane in the January transfer window but the move never materialised.
Redknapp is desperate to sign another big name forward at the end of the season as he looks set to lose both Roman Pavlyuchenko and Robbie Keane during the summer.
Forlan has been earning rave reviews in La Liga and was one of the star performers for Uruguay at the World Cup in South Africa.

SOURCE: talkSPORT

Reported financial problems at the Vicente Calderon and the likely missing out of Champions League activity may cause Atletico Madrid to sell one of their star turns and they may feel that Diego Forlan, at 31 years of age, is a player they can afford to cash in on.

The likes of Sergio Aguero and highly rated keeper David De Gea are also strongly linked with moves away from the Los Rojiblancos and one imagines that supporters may be more angered at losing either of those young stars than the loss of goal machine Diego Forlan.

The Uruguayan is of course well known in the Premier League for failing spectacularly at Man United however his success in La Liga has proven that the Montevideo born striker is a class act. The former Villarreal man has netted an incredible 155 goals in seven seasons in Spain but is this season having his worst run of form in years.

Harry Redknapp is keen to bring in new attacking options and as this source suggests, may offload Roman Pavlyuchenko and Robbie Keane. Although Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe have been very poor this season as well and neither England international is 100% safe from the chop.

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In goal I don’t think you have to look further than one of Fabianski or Almunia, both of whom have been poor at best. Fabianksi in particular must have Arsenal fans nervous wrecks every time he plays with his poor decision making. Almunia hasn’t played as much as Fabianski but when he has you know there’s always a glaring error just around the corner as proved when they played Westbrom only a few weeks ago where he came racing out of his goal when there was no danger and in the end that ended up costing Arsenal two points which could be huge come the end of the season. Fabianki edges it for me though just for the simple fact he’s played more games than Almunia.

Now the defense. For right back I’m going with Steve Gohouri of Wigan. He has very poor positional play, some may say he’s a centre back by trade but that still doesn’t get away from how bad he has been and I can think of more than one occasion where he’s been at fault for goals they’ve conceded, when teams play Wigan, managers must tell there teams to attack Wigans right side and that down to Gohouri. My centre halves are Sol Campbell and Sebastien Squillaci. Campbell may not have played much this season but when he has done he looks every much of 36 year old defender who’s past it and who’s legs have gone, now I don’t want to be too critical because he has had such a fantastic career but am afraid this season has just been one too many for him. Squillaci also was meant to be the experienced defender Arsenal were craving but instead he looks like a shaky teenager making his debut every time I see him. Sorry Arsenal fans but am going to pick on your team again and because I don’t think there’s been a bad left back am going to stick Laurent Koscielny there, to be fair to him he’s had his good games i.e. vs Barcelona at home but then other times you see him he makes goal costing error’s like vs Birmingham in the League cup final, he reminds me of how Titus Bramble used to be, one extreme to the other.

Midfield now, first off is Stephen Ireland, being a Newcastle fan myself I hope we can get the best out of him between now and the summer but that doesn’t get away from being pretty abysmal so far. Part of the deal that took Milner to Man City, Aston Villa thought they’d got a great deal in bringing Ireland in but with managerial changes and injuries taking their tole he just hasn’t look the player he was two years ago. My next pick is Gareth ‘England captain for the day’ Barry, I always hear people say how good Barry is and how crucial he is to England and Man city but I think Liverpool will be counting them selves lucky they didn’t get him! Barry can a pass a but he slows everything down, he’s the odd one out at City, they play with three holding midfielders but if they took Barry out for say Adan Johnson you’d have a well balanced team. Also for me he should be nowhere near the England set up and he probably won’t be 6 months down the line with emergence of Scott Parker and the young talents Tom Huddlestone and Jack Rodwell. The last midfield position speaks for it’s. Joe Cole was the star signing Liverpool needed, they beat Arsenal and Manchester United to his signature, gave him a reported 100 grand a week and what has he done? Got sent off on his league debut and missed a penalty in the Europa League, I think that’s all I have to say on Cole’s impact this season.

I am going for a front three in the form of Jermaine Defoe, Fernando Torres and Gabriel Agbonlahor. I know some Spurs fans will argue that Defoe was injured at the start of the season but to only have two Premier League goals to your name by April for a striker like Defoe you know he’s had a poor season, another reason why he hasn’t had as many goals as he would of like is the partnership formed by Peter Crouch and Rafael Van der vaart. Fernando Torres, 50 million pounds Chelsea spent on him, Liverpool must be laughing once again, he looks nothing like he did just a few year back and Chelsea will be hoping he will eventually come good but for this season overall for Liverpool and Chelsea he looks weak, off the pace and most importantly shot of any confidence, personally I expect him to come good, but not this season. Gabriel Agbonlahor might seem a harsh one because he gets shoved out on the left wing a lot but at the start of the season he was playing upfront and has just offered nothing, now at 24 he has time to improve but it wouldn’t surprise me, stay up or go down, if Villa try and offload him and despite his poor season, they’d be a host of clubs after his signature.

Fabianski
Gohouri Campbell Squillaci Koscielny
Ireland Barry J.Cole
Defoe Torres Agbonlahor

So there you have it, my worst XI of the season, what’s yours?

Follow me on Twitter; http://twitter.com/DanielArnold7

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