Rumours Mariappa Is On Toon Radar
Newcastle Interested In Watford Stopper
As Newcastle look to bolster their central defensive ranks following the serious injury to Steven Taylor before Christmas it is rumoured that their attentions have turned to Watford's 25 year old centre half Adrian Mariappa.
I have to say this rumour doesn't particularly get me excited. I watch a decent amount of Championship football and he isn't someone I would say has ever really caught my eye although in fairness I haven't taken in a lot of Watford games.
I have no problems with looking to the lower leagues for players that isn't the issue here in fact it is something I would like to see us maybe do more often if you look at some examples of where clubs have taken a slight gamble and it has paid off. Two main examples which stand out are at Everton where Tim Cahill and Phil Jagielka were both bought from lower league clubs for a modest fee.
The 2 slight issues I have with this rumour are firstly his age. At 25 he isn't old and a lot of people would say he is maybe in his prime but if we are to gamble on players from the Championship I would maybe be wanting them to be younger with the greater potential for getting better - it's much easier to coach and improve players the younger they are.
The second and main thing that worries me is his size. Now I am sure people will be able to give me countless examples of world class centre halves that discount my theory but for me ideally I think a centre half needs to be at least 6ft with Mariappa coming in at 5ft 11".
We have seen with James Perch who is a similar height that when you come up against some of the top strikers in the Premier League in the air, if you haven't got the build or at least the height to give you an advantage then you are maybe going to struggle.
Don't get me wrong I'm not ruling this guy out simply because he is 25 and not over 6ft. There are plenty of smallish players who have a great leap and are fantastic in the air and I am sure if we are looking at him then he must be performing consistently well for Watford but I am just not convinced there are maybe not better alternatives out there.
I'm not sure if it maybe comes down to money with maybe a lot of our January budget being blown on bringing in Cisse but certainly on the face of it I have found other names mentioned like Tomkins and Ridewell to name a couple more appealing than this guy.
That said if our scouts rate him then their recommendations recently have been pretty spot on so who am I to argue with them. Maybe I am being too harsh and automatically thinking he could turn out to be another Perch rather than a Jagielka or even our own Mike Williamson who was bought for a modest fee with no previous Premier League experience.
Only time will tell if there turns out to be any truth in this one, with the end of January fast approaching I am sure there will be plenty more rumours for us to mull over!
