Papiss Cisse – The £10 Million Bargain

Newcastle United have been one of the more influential teams in the Barclays Premier League when it has come to the January Transfer Window in the last couple of years. We can all recall last year’s transfer of home-grown Andy Carroll to Liverpool for £35 million – a record fee for an English player – but what we know now, despite the bad press that came with the transfer, is that we absolutely got the best out of that deal.

To this day, Newcastle have benefited from every penny of that transfer fee, making stout moves in the summer and in that January window to bring in Yohan Cabaye, Davide Santon and Hatem Ben Arfa on a full transfer to name but a few.

But it was in the January of 2012 that the biggest and most influential move was made.

In a rather shocking move it was announced in mid-January that Newcastle had made a bid for SC Freiburg striker Papiss Cisse and, within a matter of days, a £10 million deal was confirmed. Newcastlehad found their man; a partner for Demba Ba and a genuine threat up front. But there were still questions that had to be answered. Would Cisse’s play translate to the most competitive league in world football? Was Alan Pardew even right to stray away from his transfer policy of cheap signings around £5 million to bring in Cisse?

It’s only taken a few games, but those questions have well and truly been answered.

Despite missing out on a couple of opportunities to make his debut n January, due to his commitments with the Senegalese national team alongside Demba Ba, Cisse came into the team and made an immediate impact.

Having been awarded the famous number 9 shirt in anticipation of some strong performances, Cisse, once he made his debut, showed us within a matter of minutes that he was well worth the money and a perfect fit for the shirt worn by so many Geordie legends.

A goal on his debut against Aston Villa (as a substitute, no less), set off a 6-game hot streak, which continues even to this day, and likely into tomorrow as Newcastle host Liverpool. Cisse’s 5 goals in these first 6 games have become something of a routine for him, as he’s been banging them in with ease, at a rate even better than that of his impressive strike partner Demba Ba.

Cisse has, to this point, done everything he did in Freiburg, and more, scoring 0.83 goals per game as opposed to his 0.57 record for Freiburg and his 0.37 record for various clubs inFrance. Of course, it’s unlikely that his goal rate will stay quite so high in the coming seasons, but anything above 0.50 goals per game is fantastic and all we really need to pair with Demba Ba.

You can’t put a price tag on a genuine number 9-quality striker and, if you must, £10 million is as good a price as you’ll get, considering that Alan Shearer himself cost £15 million which, at the time, was a British transfer record.by a clear £6.5 million. Similarly, the addition of a piece that could eventually put Newcastle back where they belong in the top four of the Barclays Premier League is invaluable and, for that, Papiss Cisse is looking like the bargain buy of the January transfer window.

How often can you say that about a £10 million man?

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