D’oh!
That’s probably what Niall Quinn and Roy Keane are currently thinking when they look at Michael Chopra’s goal scoring record. After a year in the Premiership with Sunderland, he has only managed to knock in five goals in league action and another during a cup game. Six goals isn’t the ideal rate for a young striker at a club who want to slowly get away from their yoyo relegation and promotion tag.
With their biggest striker Kenwyne Jones out for a large chunk of this coming season, it looks difficult for the black cats to rely on a player who will score at least twenty goals a season for them.
Sadly, Michael Chopra hasn’t quite lived up to Premiership standard. After struggling at Newcastle, he was allowed to move to Cardiff for £500,000. This was a deal that suited both parties – Chopra got regular first team football and Newcastle saved on a wage bill. During his spell at Cardiff, he managed to notch up 44 appearances and score 22 goals. A goal every two games is impressive to say the least and would please a lot of managers. It pleased happy clappy Irish man Roy Keane so much that he spent £5 million on bringing Chopra back to the North-East.
Cardiff saw this as good business with a £4.5 million profit in the bank. Other clubs had a laugh to at the stupid business that Sunderland conducted. Not because they payed too much for him, but because the only goal he had scored in the Premiership was for Newcastle, against Sunderland. So this probably wouldn’t please the fans down at the Stadium of Light straight away. £5 million for an unproven Premiership player is a lot of cash to part with, and annoyingly for Sunderland, Chopra just hasn’t stepped up to this level.
Due to his poor record at Sunderland, it explains why Championship side clubs such as Wolves are interested in the player. As its been pointed out, he can do the business in that league, but not the Premiership. Maybe one more year will give him some experience and make him a better player.
But with Roy Keane being Roy Keane, I doubt he’ll let the player go. The stubborn git still probably believes he can improve, even though competition in the Premiership is tighter then ever.
