Newcastle Unlikely To Go After Top Brazilian Striker

Newcastle Unlikely To Go After Top Brazilian Striker

News that Brazilian striker Adriano will be released by AS Roma.

Former Brazilian striker Adriano - in action last season

And the news is that both Spurs and Newcastle may be interested in the striker, who will now of course cost nothing in the transfer market, and indeed could be signed right now and play for the remainder of the Premier League season. That is – if he’s fit enough – which is doubtful.
But the first thing to realize is why have Roma released the player – who has only played 8 times for the first team this season, and the Italian club aren’t exactly setting Italy on fire this season, with manager Claudio Ranieri sacked only last week.
Roma are in 6th place in the league, a full 15 points behind leaders AC Milan.
Adriano (full name Adriano Leite Ribeiro) has just turned 29 this month, and has had a good career, but he is also probably way past his best.
Adriano has had a lot of personal problems recently which obviously has affected his form on the field, and he’s had to handle both depression and alcoholism (and illicit drugs too allegedly), so he’s been in a bit of a personal crisis of late.
Last summer the striker was interviewed by police in Brazil  in connection with alleged links to a drug-dealing gang, that had been accused of murdering police officers.
And indeed, earlier this month in Rio de Janeiro he refused the take a Breathalyzer test, when stopped by police, and therefore his license was automatically suspended for five days and he will also have to pay a fine of $574.
Adriano would be a huge risk for any club signing him, and if he is signed it will to a contract not more than two years, in case he’s a bust.
But Adriano reminds us too much of Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert, who was a big name signing as a free transfer for Newcastle back in 2004 from Barcelona,when he was 28 years old, but he was way past his best.
And he proved it in the one season he was at Newcastle, when Patrick played 25 times for Newcastle with just 6 goals on Tyneside. And Patrick has no personal problems when he was signed by Newcastle, he just seemed to have almost given up on his career, and he was once a world class player.
We have to believe that Newcastle will not go down that path again, and will think the Brazilian striker is just too much of a risk at Newcastle.
Adriano has played for Flamengo, Inter Milan, Fiorentina (loan), Parma, Sao Paulo (loan) and Roma and in 354 first class club games, he has scored 165 goals.
The Rio de Janeiro born striker, who stands 6’3″ tall, has played 48 times for Brazil with 27 goals.
What do you think?