Not Another Striker, Pards!

Some people are never satisfied. Mrs Nelson, fed up with the heat over here, can't wait to get to the UK for a bit of rain and a cool 18 degrees while our Pards is "reported" to be on the lookout for another striker. Not content with Varney, Todorov, Iwelumo, Dickson and M. Bent he's after another.

He's obviously noticed that in our recent Promotion years there was always one striker head and shoulders above anybody else. In 1998 it was Mendonca getting 23 League goals from 40 games. Second best that season was Robbo with just 8.

Two years later, in 2000, Andy Hunt went one better and hit 24 goals in his 43 games and once again far behind was Mendonca with 9.

So with Promotion once again a certainty........who's it going to be hitting the goals this year? Looking at their records, Luke Varney's scored 27 from 95 games at Crewe, .28 per game. Chris Iwelumo's a bit older at 28 but has scored 35 in 92 games in the last three years at Colchester, .38 per game. Svetoslav Todorov, another 28 year-old has notched 71 in 177 games over the last 10 years, .40 per game and all in tier one football. So our new Bulgarian Todorov seems a dead cert to start up front except that there's another 22 year-old Chris Dickson, with figures of 37 from 41 at non-league Dulwich, kicking at the old mans heels.

In contrast, Super Clive was also 28 when he arrived at the Valley and had scored 92 times in 275 games mainly with Grimsby and Rotherham, .33 per game and to add to the symmetry Andy Hunt was also 28 when he was signed by Curbishley and had scored 99 times in his 275 games at WBA and Newcastle, .36 per game.

And if its goals per game that gets the vote, Pards need look no further than Milton Keynes. Izale McLeod, the MK Dons striker, who is 22 and is rumoured to be heading this way has 54 goals in 116 games, .46 per game, over the last three years in Tier 3, being voted Division player of the year 2007. And you'll be pleased to learn that according to MK News yesterday "Charges of grievous bodily harm against MK Dons striker Izale McLeod have been dropped". So come on Pards, sign the boy, he looks a handfull. And another striker would give us the serious chance of a five-man strike force, sorry Marcus. Lone striker, 5-man midfield, I don't think so.

Meanwhile, and nevertheless, the search continues for another midfielder. Despite having unearthed, consciously or not, an apparent gem in the defensive midfielder role of Jose Semedo - the Portuguese that we got for nothing from Sporting Lisbon ( when you've got 25.5 M from manure for Nani, you can affort to be generous ) - and the recruitment of the energetic Dean Sinclair from Barnet, we do need another body. And curiously on CAFCPicks there's a story that the Chinaman could return. Yes, it seems that Pards has been having words with Zheng Zhi.