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WANTED: Goalscorer

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It’s January 7th – three days to go until Birmingham City roll into Blackpool, with their possible forward line picked from Phillips, O’Connor, McFadden, Jerome and Bent, not to mention new loan signing Sinclair and maybe even Kris Boyd. Compare that to Blackpool’s rich pickings: Ben Burgess, an unfit Daniel Nardiello and…erm…yes, it’s a total mismatch, isn’t it?

It really is a sorry state of affairs at Bloomfield Road at the moment. There is set to be more news on the Stephen McPhee injury situation in the local paper tomorrow, and ‘Pool obviously need to learn to live without Alan Gow and Liam Dickinson.

Personally, I wouldn’t doubt that we’ll get a striker in before the game on Saturday, but will he be a goalscorer? Burgess hasn’t scored since November 1st, and Nardiello is yet to open his account in tangerine. Add the fact that we haven’t actually won since December 6th, and have scored just four goals since then (half of which came from Alan Gow!), we could be in deep trouble.

But who could Tony Parkes go and sign before the game at the weekend? An educated guess would be at a youngster from a Premiership club on loan. For example, Julio Santa Cruz (Roque’s younger brother) is playing reserve team football at Blackburn Rovers – would a loan move be benefically for the 18 year old?

One player who has been linked with The Seasiders today is Burnley front man Ade Akinbiyi. The former Leicester City striker has been linked with ‘Pool and QPR, and it was hinted today that he could join the club on the Gazette webchat.

The more ambitious supporters would like the club to go out and spend big money on a goalscorer, and there are plenty of them about at present. In League One, Ricky Lambert has notched 18 goals so far this campaign (2 pens) and is handy from set pieces as well. Simon Cox at Swindon and Gary Hooper at Scunthorpe are both sought-after by Championship clubs, but would require upwards of what we’re probably willing to pay.

So then you look lower down the leagues in search of a gem. Jamie Ward at Chesterfield has been suggested recently, and seems to score every goal at Saltergate, but is lagging behind Grant Holt in the League Two scoring charts, and he couldn’t get into our team last season. Simeon Jackson at Gillingham is just 21 and has scored 11 league goals this season, and a cracking goal against Aston Villa at the weekend. All would require a fee, but could we tempt them to Bloomfield Road?

For the meantime though, we’ll have to wait and see who runs out in tangerine on Saturday – bets on a Premiership youngster seem to be safe at the moment.

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