Football: Dalglish must search for a pounds 3m striker

The Newcastle manager, Kenny Dalglish, has just pounds 3m to spend on a new striker because of the restrictions imposed on him by the club's plc board. An additional restriction is that the player must be signed by tomorrow to be eligible for Newcastle's crucial Champions' League qualifying games.

Dalglish's need is acute because he lost the services of Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand over the course of last weekend. Shearer, who joined Newcastle for pounds 15m a year ago, is out for most if not all of the coming season with a serious ankle injury, while Ferdinand was sold to Spurs for pounds 6m - a sale that the money men insisted went ahead.

Much of the fee for Ferdinand was already accounted for, covering the signing of the Italian international left-back Alessandro Pistone from Internazionale for pounds 4.3m. That transfer left Dalglish's transfer reserve at just pounds 3m.

Unfortunately for Dalglish 31 July marks the end of a financial period in the plc's calendar and the company is thought to be unwilling to sanction a move into the red. Newcastle floated in the spring, but the club's transition to a public company has not been without its hiccups. Earlier this month Mark Corbridge, the joint chief executive brought in to mastermind the flotation, resigned after just eight months with the company. The shares, which were badly hit by news of Shearer's injury, closed yesterday at 120.5p, well down on the original offer price of 135p.

Dalglish was keen on the Karlheinz Riedle, but Liverpool beat him to the Borussia Dortmund striker, and completed the move yesterday after the German international striker had talks and a medical in Merseyside.

An inquiry for Norwich's Keith O'Neill ended when Dalglish was quoted over pounds 6m, while Southampton have talked in terms of a pounds 10m price for their Norwegian striker Egil Ostenstad. Newcastle have virtually exhausted all possibilities after a worldwide search for strikers in the pounds 3m bracket - but have also found that some of the game's marquee names, like Milan's George Weah and Fiorentina's Gabriel Batistuta, are not available even if the fee could be raised. Fabrizio Ravanelli is simply a non-starter in the current financial climate at Newcastle.

The plc has indicated that should Newcastle qualify for the Champions' League it will allow him to spend the profits from the next money-spinning stage, estimated at pounds 6m, before a ball is kicked in anger.

Due to Newcastle's lack of firepower their odds for the Premiership were yesterday pushed out by Ladbrokes from 7-2 to 9-2. In comparison Liverpool's signing of Riedle has seen the Anfield side brought into 7-2 second favourites, from 4-1, behind the 5-4 favourites, Manchester United.

Liverpool were keeping their cards close to their chest earlier this week when news of their interest in Riedle broke, but yesterday they confirmed the signing, believed to be for pounds 1.8m, and will unveil their new striker at a media conference Saturday.

German media reports claim that Riedle will be paid pounds 20,000 a week over a three year deal - only new signing Paul Ince is on more at the club - and that his wife has already looked at houses in nearby Southport close to where his former Dortmund team-mate Patrik Berger lives. His arrival at Anfield has pushed Evans' summer spending spree toward the pounds 12m mark.

Arsene Wenger yesterday ridiculed Blackburn's pounds 7m price tag on the England defender Graeme Le Saux and ruled out an Arsenal bid. The Arsenal manager saw the Highbury bank balance swelled by one of the biggest kit sponsorships in the game yesterday, when Nike tied up a seven-year deal estimated at pounds 12m with Arsenal, who tonight play a friendly against the Dutch champions, PSV Eindhoven.

But Wenger refuses to spend it on Le Saux, saying: "I think he is over- priced. If Blackburn sell Graeme Le Saux for pounds 7m they could buy a whole team on the Continent for that. That would mean theoretically that there would be 11 English players not playing in the Blackburn team and that would punish English football."

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