Yaya Sanogo Potential Signing

22/02/2021

At the age of 28, having scored only 32 senior career goals in 141 career games, you would be right to question whether Sanogo is even good enough to play for Huddersfield Town. Granted, he has played for top teams like Arsenal and Ajax, but he has only once hit double figures for goals in a season while playing for AJ Auxerre.
Maybe I am being slightly harsh on Yaya, he has scored in the Champions League for Arsenal, nominated for the 2013 Golden Boy award and was a lethal finisher in the French youth setup. 5 goals in 8 games for the U-21 and won the U-20 world cup with France. He clearly showed talent as a youngster and that was why Arsene Wenger signed him in the summer of 2013 and you could probably argue that the move to Arsenal was done at the wrong time for the then 21-year-old.

What profile of striker are we getting?

Something that all Town fans can agree on is the lack of height in the squad in general, not least in the forward line. Sanogo is 6 foot 3 and will certainly add some much-needed height in the forward line. Last season he won 3.7 headers per game, which for comparison with Town: Mounie won 5.7 headers per game last season, with Campbell won only 1 header. So the data shows that he will not be as big an aerial presence as Mounie, but it is a big jump up on Campbell aerial ability. He will be a plan B striker and one which Town are desperately in need of. Town is getting an athletic striker, although he may be quite lightweight defensively and he may struggle to last through a full match. So in some respects, he would work well with Campbell as Fraizer at the age of 33 is swept off his feet after 70 minutes.

Injury Record

Fraizer Campbell has been left with little support upfront with Danny Ward spending the majority of the season out injured, so naturally, fans would be right to be wary about potentially signing another injury prone striker. Sanogo's injury record is slightly worrying, he has had four separate injuries lasting more than 100 days, with the last 'long term' injury being picked up while on loan at Charlton in 2016, where he was out for 311 days. To be fair to Yaya, he hasn't only suffered one injury since then and you would think if he didn't suffer so many injuries as a youngster, he would probably be playing in the Premier League at the moment.

What do I think of his potential arrival?

In all honesty, I am not too excited by Sanogo's arrival. He may have not suffered any injuries recently, but he has been riddled with injuries in the past. Town can't afford to have another Danny Ward situation with Yaya. I think there was once definitely a player in Sanogo, but I am not sure I can definitely say that anymore. I doubt that when he comes in he will be a gamechanger, nor can I see him being here past the summer. I feel that Sanogo has got the majority of his moves in his post Arsenal career due to having played for Arsenal and not how he achieved moved to Arsenal, which was due to his goal-scoring form and ability.
As I said with the potential arrival of Ravel Morrison, it is at least another player through the door, but he has not trained while being contracted to a club since the 7th Match last year, so it will be unlikely that he is match fit.
Having said this I turned my nose up at the Alex Vallejo signing, I thought that we had just signed a Herbert Bockhorn v2, but after a few shaky first-team appearances, he has blossomed into an integral part of the Town side. Ultimately time will tell, but at this point all we can do is hope that Sanogo has a big impact on the side, to keep the club up!

Be sure to keep up to date with all the other incoming and outgoing deals at Town on the Transfer Page.