Neil Warnock hopes Oumar Niasse can mark his Cardiff City debut with a goal today, while the striker he tried to sign fires a blank.
Niasse, a loan signing from Everton, is poised to make his debut at Newcastle United in arguably the Bluebirds’ biggest game of the season so far.
But Warnock has admitted Newcastle’s Salomon Rondon was a player he wanted last summer when he first began searching for the extra firepower he recognised he required to keep the club in the Premier League.
The Venezuelan eventually moved from West Brom to Newcastle on loan and although Rafa Benitez’s team are in the relegation zone, Rondon has scored five of their meagre total of 16 league goals.
“Yeah, I would have liked him,” said Warnock of the striker who could help send Cardiff back into the relegation zone – and Newcastle clear of it – at St. James’ Park.
“But it was not to be. They are a wonderful club and their number nines are a great tradition, all the way back to Jackie Milburn and Malcolm Macdonald.
“Football is the life and soul up there. It’s what they live for, the fans. They get frustrated but they also get behind you and then it’s wonderful. But we hope to cause them a few problems.”
Central to that intention is likely to be Niasse, who Warnock has loaned from Everton with the option to make the deal a permanent one if he can keep Cardiff above the cut-off zone come May.
Just in case Niasse flounders – and eight goals in three years at Goodison Park after a £13.5m move suggests he might – then Warnock’s Plan B is to complete a £15m deal for Nantes’ Argentinian striker Emiliano Sala.
Like Newcastle, Cardiff have struggled for goals this season. They have only managed 19 themselves, with the biggest disappointment being the inability of Kenneth Zohore to make the adjustment from the Championship. The Dane has failed to score this season and managed just seven appearances.
Those problems, and injuries to the likes of Danny Ward, forced Warnock to convert Callum Paterson, a right-back, into a willing and occasionally successful centre-forward – a throwback to yesteryear and the kind of decision few other managers in the Premier League would have contemplated.
But Warnock admitted the Paterson experiment went on a week too long as the Scot should have been rested before the 0-0 draw at home to Huddersfield.
“I probably shouldn’t have played him last week. But we were so short of height I thought we needed him at set-pieces as they had so many big lads.
“From my point of view, even though I’m the one spending money on these strikers, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to be in the team.
“We just need more numbers and options because we can’t be left with poor old Patter again. We had to get strikers in and if I had the choice of a midfield player or a striker, I would go for the striker.”
Warnock believes his team are capable of winning what appears to be their most critical game of the season so far, even though a recent win at Leicester City remains their only away victory.
But he is equally insistent that Newcastle – without a home win since November – should fancy their chances.
“They will expect to beat us, but I think we can give anyone outside that top four a really good game. But if we are not on our game, then we will get steam-rollered as we have been in certain games.
“I look at some of the squads around us with envy – including Newcastle’s and Southampton’s. They have got really good players. But then so have we. You tend to forget about your own players.
“I have some good memories of battles up there. One of my favourites was when I was at Notts County and we won. Kevin Bartlett scored and I was listening to it on the radio because I was at home with the flu. It was lovely – no pressure.
“There was another time when I was at Palace and we played really well up there and drew, but should have won the game. I remember telling Alan Pardew after the game, ‘you’ll end up getting my job.’ And he did.
“I will have a chat with Rafa afterwards. What’s gone on in the past is dead and buried.
Cardiff have a doubt over their captain Sean Morrison who went into hospital in midweek for a procedure, while Newcastle will be without midfielder Jonjo Shelvey and Wales defender Paul Dummett.