Sutton still after three strikers

By Nathan Jackson
June 7 2010

Chris Sutton has admitted that he is still after two or three new strikers ahead of the new season. Drewe Broughton is the only new striker at the club, joining Chris Fagan, Andy Hutchinson and Nathan Adams on the City books, but that's not enough for Sutton who is desperate for goals.

City have been linked with several names this summer in terms of strikers. Davide Somma has been heavily linked with a return to Sincil Bank, especially now that Leeds have brought in Billy Paynter to replace Jermaine Beckford. However, it is looking relatively unlikely that we'll see Somma in a City shirt again given that Leeds would apparantly want close on the £200,000 mark, double what City have supposedly already offered.

If a deal could be reached for Somma, it would almost certainly be the new club record signing, beating the previous record of £75,000 for Tony Battersby from Bury and Dean Walling from Carlisle. The one thing that really keeps City still in with a slight chance would be the red card that Somma gained at the end of last season. It means he will miss the first three games of Leeds' season, by then the strike partnership could be well established and scoring for fun

Only one other striker has been linked with City and that is Tadgh Purcell, a striker who single handedly kept Darlington in the League longer than they really should have been. However, he has barely been mentioned since the initial report in the Echo a few weeks ago.

Speaking to the BBC, Sutton revealed that he is still looking at signing at least two more strikers, and even hinted that we would could have a new signing within the next few weeks.

"I think we need two or three more. Striking is an area we would like to target, like every other club in the league, and bring in a goal scorer."

City were very goal-shy last season. Davide Somma joined in February just a few days after a 4-0 thumping at Port Vale, we were 32 games into the season at that point and had only scored 26 goals. Even with Somma's goals, the Imps would still end the season having only scored 40 goals in their 46 games, lower than 2002/3's 46 in 46.

Despite the news stories about new strikers going cold over recent weeks, Sutton hinted that we could see movement soon, ""Hopefully we have some news on that in the not too distant future."