Owen would be ideal for St James’: Souness

NEWCASTLE boss Graeme Souness has admitted Real Madrid outcast Michael Owen would be the ideal solution to his St James’ Park striking problems.

Souness is desperate to land a new front man ahead of the new Premiership campaign with moves for Nicolas Anelka and Luis Boa Morte still at deadlock.

The Magpies have also been linked with Middlesbrough’s Mark Viduka this week and Souness stressed his club must continue to aim high in order to ensure a more successful season on Tyneside.

Souness, speaking ahead of tonight’s Intertoto Cup semi-final second leg against Deportivo La Coruna, said: “Mark Viduka, Nicolas Anelka and Michael Owen are all top strikers and the facts speak for themselves. They are all 20 goals a season strikers and they are the types of players we need to be attracting to this club.

“We are obviously in need of firepower and if we were to get that type of player in we would have a very good squad.

“We need four more new players and ideally we would have had them in by now, but certainly we need to do it sooner rather than later.”

Going further towards securing a UEFA Cup slot by overturning a 2-1 first leg deficit against the Spaniards would probably help Souness entice the kind of star names he wants.

But any deal for Owen remains a long shot, with the player apparently cool on the idea and his current club this week dismissing the possibility of a long-term loan deal which Newcastle might prefer.

Meanwhile Boro have reportedly reacted quickly to rumours of Viduka’s departure, insisting he is not going anywhere and that they are not interested in a projected swap deal involving Nicky Butt.

Instead Souness will pursue his interest in Anelka and Boa Morte with improved offers in the pipeline despite chairman Freddie Shepherd’s insistence last week that he would not meet either Fenerbahce or Fulham’s valuations of their respective players.