On paper, Moussa Marega is your run-of-the-mill mid-table Premier League club signing.
Twenty-five years of age, on loan from Porto to a smaller Portuguese club and with an ability to find the back of the net.
However, when you’re currently on ten goals in your first eight league games, bigger clubs start getting interested, like Liverpool and Tottenham.
That’s great for him, obviously, but if the interest becomes serious, will he really be a starter at either of those clubs? Probably not.
Hence the following from clubs that can actually guarantee him some game time, like Stoke, Watford, Sunderland and Crystal Palace.
This is what L’Equipe are confirming on Friday in their newspaper edition, backing up the info gathered from FootMercato at the beginning of the week, that Mark Hughes, Walter Mazzarri, David Moyes and Alan Pardew are all keen on the 6’2” ‘Terminator’, as he’s been nicknamed.
Trying to whittle down those who actually need him from that group is the next step.
For example, Watford already have Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo up front with Stefano Okaka as backup, while Crystal Palace spent a huge amount of money on Christian Benteke, backed up by Connor Wickham.
Now, for Sunderland, the 25-year-old becomes a real target, considering Jermaine Defoe is already 34 and the club’s second top scorer is left-back Patrick Van Aanholt.
As for Stoke, they’ve got Wilfried Bony for now, but will he want to stay there beyond this season? That remains to be seen, which means a move for Moussa Marega, next summer, could certainly be on the cards.
Those, for us, are the two most likely to make a move for the Mali international, if there is a move to be made when the loan comes to an end.
After all, Porto might like what they’ve seen from him on loan so much that they simply decide to keep him for the 2016-17 season.
Unless someone pays the €40m release clause in his contract, of course.
