The Magpies could reportedly sign the Brentford striker for the same price as they paid for Alan Shearer.
How much is too much? For the majority, £15 million is a bit steep for a player who has only ever played below the Premier League, who only recovered from a cruciate ligament injury earlier in the year.
Yet, according to The Guardian, that’s how much Newcastle United will have to stump up in order to convince Brentford to part with Scott Hogan, potentially making him the joint second most expensive player in Newcastle United’s history.
In fact, only Michael Owen cost more while Newcastle picked up a certain Alan Shearer for the same fee twenty years ago, a world record deal in its day. Football has evolved of course due to the influx of money within the game, however, meaning £15 million is now standard fare for young, homegrown talents, especially one with 13 goals in half a season.
But would Scott Hogan represent value for money on Tyneside, at a club where Serbian international Aleksandar Mitrovic can’t get a game?
Hogan may be ten ahead of the former Anderlecht bruiser in the goalscoring charts but, according to the stats, the difference between their performances is not so dramatic.
Mitrovic may not have been given too many minutes in which to stake his claim in the Championship, but he has scored at a more prolific rate than prospective transfer target Hogan, while his vastly superior aerial ability offers a viable Plan B when the going gets tough and defences tighten.
There’s little doubt Hogan is one of the most feared strikers in the second tier at the moment but would he really enhance Benitez’s options long-term?
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