Whick striker shall we go for then?

[Come from away]

Nugent does not seem to be in Portsmouths plans so maybe up would step down and can perform at the Championship level.

 

[Liaminho9]

sorry folks but from what ive heard, mccabe wont let us sign a new striker until we offload billy, and billy has said that he does not want to leave and he will fight for his place :/ nightmare really...

(i apologise if someone has already made this point but i am away, and on limited internet access)

 

[BladesNo9]

Reading some replies on here I get the feeling that I may not be the only Blade who feels they are waking up to a 'New Dark Dawn!!', and thinking that United may be building for another decade in The Championship!!. I honestly, truly, hope not!!??....
What do other Blades out there think???

 

[BladesNo9]

I think we had to up the wages offer for Evans, so the cash may have gone that way. Earnshaw would be decent in my view. He's one of those at this level like Kevin Phillips, and Morrison who just scores goals no matter what you do to them. It would make a change from wondering if Evans and Ward can actually score, and Hendo whilst good, has never been prolific has he..?

If we did 'up the wages' for Evans that makes a mockery of what we were told by the club as to why we had to sell Beattie. It would be more than interesting if that was proved to be true!, don,t you think!!.

 

[DuncDisorderly]

If we did 'up the wages' for Evans that makes a mockery of what we were told by the club as to why we had to sell Beattie. It would be more than interesting if that was proved to be true!, don,t you think!!.

No, I don't think its a mockery at all. We've had to spend to bring in a bright 20 year old talent from a PL club. My guess is that he was on £10-15k at Man City, so we've had to push the boat a bit to match it. On top of that we've brought in more players in France and Treacy, and so on, so the money has been spent. I think we can forget Tommy Smith now. Don't forget the offer to Lita would have made him the top earner at the Lane had he taken it. Kev McCabe does and will spend his money, but he knows when to close his wallet too!

Beattie was on £40k a week, looking for more, AND a contract extension. It's no secret that if he hadn't been injured, we'd have sold him in the summer before last season. With the parachute payment going and a player costing £2.5m a year in wages, it was a terrible risk to keep him, bearing in mind we were just off the pace.

The biggest problem with Beattie was always 'who was going to buy him?' if we didn't get up. At the time we sold him the likeliest candidates to go up were Wolves, Brum and Reading, none of who would have bought him from us. They all had better or younger. So it came down to Hull or Stoke to rescue us from his wages. Fortunately Stoke did the decent thing, and to pretty much get our money back was a bonus in my view.

Beattie was another one who I was sorry to see go, but his wages would have killed us, and I think we did the right thing...

 

[La_Blade]

I think Nugent would be a good shout, it would seem pompey want rid of him. And they do seem to be selling a lot lately. Also he is proven at this level, and we were supposedly looking at loaning him last year.

 

[DuncDisorderly]

I think we've got a squad to do well in the CCC. Its a hard, hard league, and we know well what you have to do to get up. I also think we have changed at lot behind the scenes and the finances, but it seems like we can afford to stay competitive as a top 6 CCC side for the time being.

The worry is if we have several years of being a top six CCC side without getting up. Eventually you have a bad season or two, and thats when the ST sales fall and its the top of the slippery slope to midtable. Whats for sure is that the team that will get us out of the CCC is not the team that will keep us in the PL. When we get up Kev McCabe will need to spend £20m just to have a chance.

For this year, I would like to see another proven striker arrive, but maybe Blackie has got a loan deal up his sleeve. Only hope its more successful than last years

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

I personally think that we continue the policy of getting young and hungry into the club, rather than tried and tested (Little aside). For one it seems to work if you look at Wolves, Hull (to a lesser extent) and Burnley; and for two, we can't afford to go down the other route. If Evans is costing us £12k a week, then Nugent and others in the 'not quite good enough for PL' category are currently getting £15k+ a week and we just cannot sustain salaries of that level.

Most Blades are running scared of the lower leagues because of the Billy Sharp situation, but realistically it's the only way to go (Unless we can uncover a striker called Kyle , by the way I think young Foster may come through eventually).

I hear good things of Simeon Jackson, not only from those that have seen him play, but also from those who play with him. It's always a gamble taking a player from the lower/non leagues. Some work (Kevin Phillips, Michael Kightly), some don't (Billy it appears) but you still have to take the chance. The alternative is a young, gifted loanee from a PL club, again hungry to prove himself!

 

[Sothall_Blade]

On top of that we've brought in more players in France and Treacy, and so on, so the money has been spent

Correct me if I'm wrong DD but my recollection is that we made bids for Evans, McIndoe and Smith BEFORE we accepted Everton's bid for Naughton. We then accepted an even higher bid for Naughton (£5M possibly rising to £6M) and unexpectedly Walker (£3M possibly rising to £4M).

So even if we paid more (£1M?) for Evans than was anticipated, we still should have the Walker windfall (£3M) along with most of the unspent McIndoe and Smith fund (£2.8M).

It beggars belief that we're now being told we can't sign a striker unless Sharp leaves first. If that's the case, it raises two questions. How come we were "very close" to signing Leroy Lita and why wasn't Sharp put on the transfer list much earlier?

 

[Mad Mick]

No, I don't think its a mockery at all. We've had to spend to bring in a bright 20 year old talent from a PL club. My guess is that he was on £10-15k at Man City, so we've had to push the boat a bit to match it. On top of that we've brought in more players in France and Treacy, and so on, so the money has been spent. I think we can forget Tommy Smith now. Don't forget the offer to Lita would have made him the top earner at the Lane had he taken it. Kev McCabe does and will spend his money, but he knows when to close his wallet too!

Beattie was on £40k a week, looking for more, AND a contract extension. It's no secret that if he hadn't been injured, we'd have sold him in the summer before last season. With the parachute payment going and a player costing £2.5m a year in wages, it was a terrible risk to keep him, bearing in mind we were just off the pace.

The biggest problem with Beattie was always 'who was going to buy him?' if we didn't get up. At the time we sold him the likeliest candidates to go up were Wolves, Brum and Reading, none of who would have bought him from us. They all had better or younger. So it came down to Hull or Stoke to rescue us from his wages. Fortunately Stoke did the decent thing, and to pretty much get our money back was a bonus in my view.

Beattie was another one who I was sorry to see go, but his wages would have killed us, and I think we did the right thing...

A lot of what you say makes sense DD, but I have to disagree with one thing.
BT was having a good season despite injuries and was likely to score 20+ goals. IMHO if we had held on to him until the end of the season we could have still got a good price, he would have had more goals under his belt, and we may have got auto. One of the major problems we had after he left was scoring goals. I think we did right to sell, but just a few months too early.