Newcastle Sign Papiss Cisse

Newcastle United have scored another coup in the transfer market with the acquisition of Papiss Cisse from struggling Bundesliga outfit SC Freiberg. Cisse, 26, has been one of the better strikers in Germany for the past two seasons, netting 37 goals in 65 games for his club since joining from Metz in 2009. With a fee reported to be around £10M, this appears to be another real coup for the Magpies, who've been making a habit out of raiding foreign leagues to sign top players.

Cisse will not be available to his new club until his return from duty with Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations, where he'll be linking up with new teammate Demba Ba in what looks on paper to be one of the more fearsome attacks at the tournament. The Ba-Cisse partnership certainly should terrify Premier League defenders - with Ba having already netted fifteen goals last year and Cisse an addition of sublime quality, Newcastle could well have the most potent strike forced in England.

While this is a great buy for Newcastle, it's a difficult move for Freiberg to have made. According to the player, the Magpies had attempted to sign the striker over the summer only to be rebuffed by his club, and that's for good reason - Freiberg were essentially a Bundesliga.2 team with a phenomenal striker. Cisse's efforts alone weren't able to keep them off the bottom of the table this year, but without him the team are basically conceding relegation.