Should we buy Gayle aged 30 from Newcastle

[toshes mate]

I watched Gayle play as a late sub for Newcastle quite recently and I cannot recall being anything other than thinking 'well that substitution didn't go too well did it Mr Bruce?'. 

What problem are we tring to solve?  As far as I can tell we are needing to convert a smaller number of attacks into larger numbers of chances to score with players who are still trying to link together cohesively.  There are positive signs that the team is slowly binding together better and although I still question Parker's selections at every opportunity I am also aware that the players whose selection I would question clearly show progress with each game.  What is most often missing IMO is better decision making prior to taking a shot, trying to beat a defender, seeing a clever pass and then clinically executing that decision.  That is about composure and the additional micro-seconds that quality provides.  Find strikers with that quality and the problem resolves itself.  Bring in the wrong strikers and you exacerbate the problem at the same time a setting back the gain already made.   

The team we have is more than capable of taking us well up the table and we should be looking to make it better and not making it worse.

[Tempest]

18 month deal, need someone like him now, good back up for next season.  Depends on fee of course

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[blingo]

It's a NO from Blin go.   Too old, not good enough and another dodgy knee purchase, would be bad business.

[Bassey the warrior]

No from me, need. To unearth someone from abroad or invest in Dembele from Peterborough, one for now and the future.

He looks exciting and I'd like to see him here. Not sure we should be pinning our hopes on a League 1 striker though.

[We Are Premier League]

The best thing for him is probably to see out the contract, he can then negotiate with everyone and sign a final large contract as a free transfer this summer. It also doesnt make much sense for them to sell him to a relegation rival mid season for a few million; risking that we stay up and they go down...

I would take him if the price was right, but i dont think it will happen.

[Arthur]

No matter how good someone might be in seasons to come, we can't be doing with buying a player who will need a dozen matches to get up to speed. Because, by the time he is, it'll probably be too late.

But Dwight isn't up to speed.   He's not a good EPL striker.   His work rate isn't up to par...  so why would we buy him if, as I think we both agree, the idea is to get a player to help us stay up?

Gayle may not be a good P.L. striker. But we're not going to be signing a good P.L. striker in this window. Even if a club were prepared to let one of its 'good' strikers leave (e.g. Giroud at Ch***ea), he'll have plenty of better places he can go than to a relegation-threatened outfit such as us.

What we're going to get is one of the following: an 'ordinary' striker with P.L. experience; a striker from a lower league with the potential to do well; or a striker from a European league. A striker with P.L. experience is 'up to speed' in that he knows what to expect from P.L. football; he won't - in the weeks ahead - be using up important game time adapting to its pace and intensity. Maybe a better 'ordinary' striker than Gayle is there to be had. If so, I hope we get him.

The greatest risk we would be taking with Gayle, it seems, is his ability to stay fit. What chance he can make it through to the end of the season? Because - in terms of his fitness - that's all we need. And would he, then, score enough goals? Difficult to say when we don't actually know how many 'enough' is. But we can be fairly certain he'll score more frequently than Mitrovic or Cavaleiro have done, and this is as much as we can expect of whomever we bring in.

What we shouldn't prioritise in this window is any player who will be great in the P.L. from next season onwards.

[AnOldBrownie]

No matter how good someone might be in seasons to come, we can't be doing with buying a player who will need a dozen matches to get up to speed. Because, by the time he is, it'll probably be too late.

But Dwight isn't up to speed.   He's not a good EPL striker.   His work rate isn't up to par...  so why would we buy him if, as I think we both agree, the idea is to get a player to help us stay up?

Gayle may not be a good P.L. striker. But we're not going to be signing a good P.L. striker in this window. Even if a club were prepared to let one of its 'good' strikers leave (e.g. Giroud at Ch***ea), he'll have plenty of better places he can go than to a relegation-threatened outfit such as us.

What we're going to get is one of the following: an 'ordinary' striker with P.L. experience; a striker from a lower league with the potential to do well; or a striker from a European league. A striker with P.L. experience is 'up to speed' in that he knows what to expect from P.L. football; he won't - in the weeks ahead - be using up important game time adapting to its pace and intensity. Maybe a better 'ordinary' striker than Gayle is there to be had. If so, I hope we get him.

The greatest risk we would be taking with Gayle, it seems, is his ability to stay fit. What chance he can make it through to the end of the season? Because - in terms of his fitness - that's all we need. And would he, then, score enough goals? Difficult to say when we don't actually know how many 'enough' is. But we can be fairly certain he'll score more frequently than Mitrovic or Cavaleiro have done, and this is as much as we can expect of whomever we bring in.

What we shouldn't prioritise in this window is any player who will be great in the P.L. from next season onwards.

If Gayle wasn't recently injured, and if we didn't expect the incoming player to play heavy minutes (22 games...80 minutes per game) I'd say Gayle would be an enticing option.

He's a health risk in our current system.   He would be expected to do what we're trying to get RLC and Cav to do.  What we were trying to have Bobby do before we moved him to the RWB spot.

I doubt our ownership group can't see the risk is greater than the reward with Gayle.   If that article I linked is any indication Newcastle don't want to sell him anyway.  And in what world would Newcastle move him to us with any indication he would strengthen our staying up?