Striker hunt goes on as Moses walks away

Despite claims from sources close to the 19-year-old that the Crystal Palace striker was keen to move to Tyneside, Newcastle were trumped by two Premier League clubs over the weekend.

Moses put the finishing touches to a three-and-a-half year deal with Wigan after Palace’s administrators accepted two offers from topflight clubs of around £2.5m – £500,000 more than the Magpies’ second offer.

Hughton, who has a longstanding interest in Arsenal striker Carlos Vela and Hull’s Daniel Cousin, held talks with Newcastle’s managing director Derek Llambias yesterday to discuss his next move.

Everton striker James Vaughan remains a candidate to move to St James’ Park, even if it is on loan, with David Moyes reluctant to offload him.

But Llambias will be looking at working quickly on a number of fronts before time runs out, although Newcastle’s unwillingness to match the £2.5m valuation of Moses suggests they will not pay over the odds before the transfer window shuts at 5pm today.

“I would like to bring in another player before the deadline,”

said Hughton.

“We have expressed an interest in Moses. He is a player we would like here.

“There will be so many things said before the deadline.

I don’t know if it was the administrators or Palace that made the decision, but surely the lad will have had to have had the final say. We will find out.

“I am certainly still looking to bring in a player before 5pm Monday, regardless of what happens with Moses.

“I don’t envisage it being too busy a day, but hopefully busy enough.”

While intent on adding a striker to his squad, Hughton will not rush into a deal for the sake of it.

Newcastle will be able to make emergency loans in a week and it could be then that Vaughan arrives from Everton if there has been a failure to deliver before 5pm today.

If that is the case Hughton insists he still has the players capable of keeping the Magpies at the top of the Championship, where they are three points clear of second-placed Nottingham Forest.

“People forget we are a side sitting at the top, so we must be doing enough things right to be there without needing a new player.

“Up until now we have had more good days than bad.

“We want good players and the system we have chosen to play up to now has tended to be Kevin Nolan and Alan Smith in the middle, or Nicky Butt. For a large majority it has served us very well.”

While he hopes to have a new striker to call on for Friday’s visit of Cardiff City, Hughton also hopes to be able to call on Danny Simpson and Shola Ameobi who have recovered from foot and shoulder injuries respectively.

Both players missed the draw at Leicester and Jonas Gutierrez spent the entire match on the bench nursing a slight strain.

But Hughton claims the disappointment of failing to see off a Leicester team reduced to ten men for an hour will not cause him sleepless nights.

“What being reduced to ten men does is generate more from each player, it lifts the crowd and the crowd feels aggrieved and you get more from everyone,” said Hughton.

“They got the luck but it was up to us to open up their system.

“I have felt more frustrated.

You go through so many emotions.

“We have had games where we have felt like we have played very, very well and got nothing, like Scunthorpe, when we lost but had enough chances to win.

“There are games we have not played as well as that and won.

“Was Saturday our best display?

“No, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t go and win the game.”

Hughton was, though, impressed with his loan recruit from Chelsea, left-back Patrick van Aanholt.

He said: “Patrick got better as the game went on and he will grow with experience. He is also a lad who has not had much training time with us. He has been thrown in at the deep end and he got better as the game went on.”