Desperate times call for desperate measures... After Newcastle lost yet another aerial battle in their own box yesterday which cost them defeat against Arsenal, The Telegraph link The Magpies with a move for 6 foot 2 inch Hull City defender Michael Dawson. Initially the link seems strange given that Newcastle don't sign players over 30 (Dawson is 32) and usually look abroad to sign their new recruits... but when you see how poor the club continually are with good-old fashioned defending of balls that come into the box, maybe going for a competent centre-half isn't a bad call. We should also take note that Newcastle are looking to offload Mike Williamson to Wolves in this January transfer window and Dawson could be seen as an easy upgrade for the slow centre-half they already have. Born in Northallerton, Dawson was once a target of Sir Bobby Robson when he was a youngster at Nottingham Forest but instead went to Tottenham Hotspur in 2005 and for the best part of ten years was a solid Premier League defender and probably deserved more than his poultry 4 caps for England. This is a defender that only three seasons ago, Queens Park Rangers were willing to pay £9 million for his services, before talks broke down over personal terms. He would eventually move to Hull in 2004 for £3.5 million. Pace would definitely be an issue with Dawson as he was never the quickest in the first place and I wouldn't be confident he could beat Mike Williamson in a race but for a defender who can win headers in the box and should come relatively cheap, Newcastle may be stronger with him than without him.
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
