Why All The Interest In Terrible Strikers

Every year, managers in the Premier League chase after European strikers who had one good season (usually a couple of years before) and are, in fact, not up to the job.

The latest in a long line of these hopeless cases? Step forward Obafemi Martins. Martins - who is either 21 or 28 depending on which set of possibly dodgy documents you believe - currently plays for Inter Milan. However, it is now looking almost certain he will move to Newcastle United, a club that used to know a goalscorer when it saw one.

The fee? Somewhere around £10 million. Ten million quid for a guy with this domestic record ?!?

02-03: Inter Milan - 1 Goals, 4 Games
03-04: Inter Milan - 7 Goals, 25 Games
04-05: Inter Milan - 11 Goals, 31 Games
05-06: Inter Milan - 9 Goals, 28 Games

So he gets about a goal every three and a bit games. Um, is this really ten million pounds worth of player. Remember he is totally untried and untested in English football. You would expect a solid 1 in 2 record for that kind of money, wouldn't you?

Surely, these Premiership managers will someday realise that for 10 million quid you can buy 2 or 3 proven English players who have played English football in, um, England.

Here's some examples: Darren Bent cost just over £2 million pounds. Andy Johnson went from Birmingham to Crystal Palace for nothing as part of the Clinton Morrison deal. Kevin Phillips cost Sunderland virtually nothing. Get the idea?