Fenerbahce must up the ante in order to land Newcastle striker

Fenerbahce are in the market for striking reinforcements before their own transfer window comes to a close on Monday afternoon, with Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse their number one target.

Cisse’s stature at St James’ Park is diminishing fast and the Senegal front man has started just one match for Alan Pardew in the last 16, scoring only one goal in the league this season.

A failure in front of goal, combined with a recent back injury, has seen Cisse fall behind Loic Remy and Shola Ameobi in the Newcastle pecking order. The arrival of Luuk de Jong from Borussia Monchengladbach will only further decrease the 28-year-old’s involvement.

Having had such little impact on the Magpies’ season, Cisse was an obvious target for clubs around the continent during January, with two bids thought to be made for the player on Friday’s English deadline day.

Those bids, from Fenerbahce’s rivals Trabzonspor and a mystery Middle East side, were both of £8m and rejected.

That hasn’t deterred Fener from entering the fray, although they must up their valuation of £6m for the striker to around the £10m mark that Newcastle believe he’s worth if they want to safely negotiate the first hurdle.

Known as the Yellow Canaries, Fenerbahce lead the Turkish Super Lig by seven points from Galatasaray and are looking to add to their current striking trio of Emmanuel Emenike, Moussa Sow and Pierre Webo.

All three are having decent seasons, contributing seven league goals or more to the Fenerbahce cause and with former Liverpool favourite Dirk Kuyt also adding eight from midfield, Cisse will have to rediscover his form quickly in order to make an impact in Turkey.

Newcastle have won just once in the last six league games and are now 7/1 shots to finish in the bottom half following their 3-0 defeat to local rivals Sunderland.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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