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Opinion: Newcastle must act quickly in pursuit of £13.5m-rated striker or risk bad news

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With the transfer window closing before the start of the Premier League season once again, it’s made it a necessity for clubs to get their business done early.

Signing your transfer targets as quickly as possible makes it so much easier for them to adapt, potentially head out on the pre-season tour with the rest of the first-team squad, and start gelling with the rest of the group. In our case, if we think we can’t get a deal done for Salomon Rondon within the next month or so, then we really need to start thinking about pursuing alternative options as early as we can.

Valued at £13.5million by Transfermarkt, the Venezuelan striker has seemingly been our primary focus since the end of the season, after enjoying an excellent campaign at St James’ Park whilst on loan from West Brom. The 29-year-old scored 11 times in the Premier League and laid off another seven assists, and really came into his own towards the closing stages of the campaign when playing alongside Miguel Almiron and Ayoze Perez.

But recent reports have suggested that Rondon’s form has alerted other sides like Fenerbahce, Wolves and West Ham to his availability, and that a move for the centre forward isn’t necessarily as straight forward anymore as it once was.

It’s all good and well having a main target, and attempting to focus on that one negotiation, but if it all goes pear-shaped, have we got a Plan B lined up? Are there precautions in place where, come the end of the window, we haven’t made a fool of ourselves and only have Yoshinori Muto as our first-choice striker?

We only have to look at Everton a couple of seasons ago and their disastrous attempts to replace Romelu Lukaku to see how a lack of forward-thinking can lead to disastrous results both off the pitch as well as on it. The Toffees have been paying for their lack of structure and organisation ever since the Belgian moved to Old Trafford.

It’s why we ultimately need to be realistic with how we pursue a deal for Rondon. The more clubs that get involved in the bidding for him, the more difficult it will become for us to strike a deal with the Baggies. And so we’d be far better off folding, and cashing our chips elsewhere.

Rondon’s the main target. But he simply can’t be the only one.

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