Signing Confirmed: HENRI SAIVET
Henri Saivet (only to be attempted if using McClaren's French accent), has joined Newcastle United from Bordeaux for £4.5m on a five and a half year deal.
So who is this next Frenchman on the NUFC conveyor-belt.
Born in Senegal on 26 October 1990, many of our readers may remember him from Championship Manager (sorry, couldn’t help myself) as a future star. Sad I know.
Truth is the player has never really hit the heights that many had expected of him from those early days.
Undoubtedly the 5ft 9in now full Senegal International is a decent enough player as his stats would back up. But perhaps the biggest clue to his untapped early promise was his switch from French International junior football (52 games and 17 goals) to his native Senegal at full international level.
His career has also been blighted by a couple of significant injuries. In 14/15 his season Henri’s appearances were curtailed for first a knee injury missing 14 games over three months and then a hamstring injury for another month (3 games). In total he only played 16 times that season failing to score or provide an assist. Let’s hope that is a one off.
Also of interest has been his shift in position from his junior days as a striker, to the last few seasons out wide and then at the end of last season and the beginning of this to centre midfield. He has also been deployed as a defensive centre midfield players which raises a question mark about some of our other players in that position (see rumours about Tiote).
Saivet is known to be strong in holding the ball and can use his head in both senses of the word too, whilst his tackle success rates is not too shabby either.
As recently as this season you may have seen Saivet score on UK TV with a strike against
Liverpool in a 2-1 reverse for Bordeaux. You may be interested to watch the highlights we’ve found for you.
Other than picking our way through his passing, goals and assist stats (see the infographic) we're about as clued up on this lad as you are. Some business is better than none but now we need to see that Striker we've been looking for please!
OUR VERDICT: Not a bad acquisition, although we will be hoping for more of a Cabaye impact that a Gouf, although no-one here will be holding our breath until we’ve seen him play a bit. Welcome to the Toon fella, and let’s hope you do us proud!