Saints have reportably been linked with ex Pompey & Man City striker Benjani and the question has to be Why ?

Whilst the headlines of "Saints to sign Premier League Striker " will excite every St Mary's supporter, after the initial enthusiasm has died down and the player in question is Ex Pompey striker Benjani, you have to start wondering just why we would need to buy such a striker and pay the wages that he will ultimately demand.

The player himself will be 32 in a few weeks, although his age itself is open to debate and it is thought he could be older, at Pompey his success was limited, in his two seasons he played nearly 77 games and hit 19 goals, a modest strike rate of less than a goal every four games.

At Man City Benjani has barely played in the last year and a loan spell at Sunderland saw no goals in 8 appearances although in fairness, only one of those games was a start.

His record at Man City of 23 league games and only 4 goals does not suggest he could bring much to the St Mary's table and whilst managers work in mysterious ways sometimes, its hard to see what the point would be.

Indeed with the three strikers Saints have, the fourth man up front, if he is signed should be the junior partner, he should be the player hungry for success, the man who wants to force his way into the side, not a player who quite frankly has barely played in two years and would be content to merely earn a wage.

Signing a striker like Benjani seems to suggest a scattergun approach and doing so just because we can, strikers like to play games and score goals, Lee Barnard was under used by Alan Pardew last season, he scored 24 league goals only 6 less than Rickie Lambert and without the help of penalties & free kicks, Saints problems last season often came from the manager having too much cjhoice and not using it wisely, ie the number of times Antonio started games and was taken off far earlier than was respectable ie after 35 minutes at Wycombe, we need to build the basis of a good starting line up where players know that playing well keeps them in and withing limits they will be given the chance to play through bad spells, adding Benjani will only add to the scattegun approach and that is not a good thing.

Alan Pardew is a good manager, but like every coach he has his faults and judging by coments from supporters of previous clubs, having too many players in his squad is one of them.      

Photo: Action Images

st_bangkok added 10:34 - Jul 23 Got to say, his strike rate of 19 goals in 77 games for Pompey is pretty good when you consider the junk he was playing with. On top of that matey, remember we are now two leagues down from that, so 19/77, maybe becomes 38/77, not so bad eh. Defo not keen on his wages demands though as sure they will be outlandish and that can lead to dressing room unrest, something we can well do without.

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Slacker added 17:30 - Jul 23 This development is interesting if only for drawing attenttion to Benjani's comments on Wikipedia upon leaving Pompey. I could not believe what he has written. Check it out for yourself!
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SaintNick added 22:40 - Jul 23 When he was playing for them they were doing well so sure he had plenty of opportunities
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