Identified by Alan Pardew as the man to replace Andy Carroll, Ciss� can form a deadly partnership with compatriot Demba Ba
? In pictures: Newcastle's legendary No9s
During an enforced sabbatical between his sacking by Southampton and appointment as Newcastle United's manager, Alan Pardew toured Germany.
His mission was to visit Bundesliga clubs, watch them train and discover precisely why they often produce technically superior and more tactically astute footballers than their Premier League equivalents.
At the time two Senegal international strikers were making headlines in that country, Demba Ba scoring freely for Hoffenheim and Papiss Demba Ciss� beginning to do likewise at Freiburg. Now the pair, on Africa Cup of Nations duty in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, have been united domestically as Newcastle's new attacking partnership.
While Ba, the scorer of 15 Premier League goals this season, arrived on Tyneside as a free transfer from West Ham last summer, Ciss� joined for around �7.5m, potentially rising to �9m, on Tuesday.
Although Graham Carr, Newcastle's powerful chief scout, identifies many of the club's transfer targets and is understood to have first watched Ciss� two seasons ago, Pardew has had a big input in the pursuit of Ba and his fellow African.
Indeed Pardew now claims that, as soon as Andy Carroll departed for Liverpool in an extraordinary �35m deadline day deal last January, he identified Ciss� as the ideal replacement. After 12 months of discreet and protracted negotiations a wearer has been found for the famous black-and-white striped No9 shirt.
Sixth in the Premier League, a point ahead of Liverpool and breathing down the necks of fifth-placed Arsenal, Newcastle increasingly appear Europa League bound and Ciss�'s signing on a five-and-a-half-year contract can be interpreted as a statement of ambitious intent.
The fear among more suspicious fans is that Mike Ashley, the club's owner and a man with a pronounced eye for the bottom line, could be preparing to cash in on one of Pardew's prized assets: Cheik Tiot�, Tim Krul, Fabricio Coloccini, Yohan Cabaye or even Ba. Attempting to second-guess Ashley is a futile game and, much as he wants to keep his star collection intact, Pardew knows that a huge bid for one of his leading lights would almost inevitably prompt a sale.
Ba could prove the exception. Although the striker has a release clause ? thought to be set at �7m in his contract ? he is believed to be rather keener on renegotiating that agreement than leaving Newcastle.
In practical terms a player who has a degenerative knee condition ? Pardew describes it as "a deficiency in the knee" but, publicly at least, is deliberately vague regarding the precise details ? which caused him to fail medicals ahead of collapsed moves to Stuttgart and Stoke is extremely unlikely to command a �7m transfer fee.
Ba's knee is the reason why he arrived at Newcastle on a free transfer ? even if the deal cost the club between �2m and �4m in terms of signing on and agents fees ? and why the contract he was offered had to be redrafted after Pardew revealed that there were "issues" with the medical.
Although Ba earns a basic weekly wage ? reported to be around �35,000 ? it is topped up by about �20,000 every time he features in a game. It is this incentivised, pay-as-you-play element that Ba and his advisers seem keen to renegotiate.
With the forward training virtually every day and remaining injury free, Pardew recently said: "I don't need no surgeon to tell me about Demba's knee." Even so, with at least three leading consultants having independently highlighted his joint problem, doubts persist surrounding the potential longevity of Ba's career.
Pardew's hope is that they will prove unfounded and Ba will form an enduring club as well as international partnership with his latest sidekick. If the wonderfully gifted Ba is more of a classic No10, Ciss� offers complementary talents. Lightning quick ? and pace is a commodity Pardew is endeavouring to furnish Newcastle with ? 6ft tall and wiry, the 26-year-old is good in the air and extremely prolific.
Despite Freiburg's position at the foot of the Bundesliga , Ciss� has scored nine times in 15 domestic appearances this season. Since arriving in Germany from Metz for �1.3m in 2009, the Dakar born centre-forward has registered 37 goals in 65 games, with last year's league haul of 22 making him the Bundesliga's second top scorer behind Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez.
After a deceptively low-key beginning to a career that started in Senegal and later transported him to France's unfashionable Ligue 2, Ciss�'s name was finally up in lights.
"Welcome to Papisto," tweeted Ba on Tuesday. "I think even when he sleeps, he thinks about the back of the net." Sounds like the perfect Newcastle No9.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jan/18/newcastleunited-premierleague
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