Incoming? Folarin Balogun

[Mojo]

This kid is worth getting in, even if it's just to play a bit part role and build him up. I know we need a striker right now but if this lad keeps developing he could be real star

 

[LondonBlade89]

Remove the “ahhh we need a starting striker ASAP” context and this is a good potential signing and exactly the kind we should be making based on his age and talent for the club moving forward. Not just for this season but beyond. It’s probably not overly expensive considering the market either if we pay the best part of £10 million.

Fact is with the way things are I’m not sure we can remove that context. If you sign Balogun, do you leave the striker position alone? Or do you try and get someone in on loan in addition?

If you go down the Balogun alone route, it’s quite a lot of expectations on young shoulders when really you’d want to bring him a lot slower.

If you go down the Balogun + 1 route, who do you get alongside him? I think this is my preference but not sure where you go. It’s probably a loan.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Talking to a Man Utd supporting mate of mine who pointed out this kid’s numbers at youth level are reminiscent of those of Mason Greenwood. Now obviously not every player makes the step up to first team level as well as others but if we could get him and get half the season out of him that Greenwood had last season, on top of what we already have, I’d think that would see us comfortably safe in the prem

Very few star junior players ever make it to the first team....the odds are against Balogun being PL standard.
He’ll be a big risk and an investment for the future...so it doesn’t make sense to pay too much for him....especially as he’s close to being out of contract.

 

[brownblade]

Generally we're all on the same page about this kid.

I just don't understand those of you saying "we need a striker to avoid relegation"...!

We finished 9th with no regular goalscorer. This might regress, but no reason to think we'll be bottom 3! We haven't lost any players.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Generally we're all on the same page about this kid.

I just don't understand those of you saying "we need a striker to avoid relegation"...!

We finished 9th with no regular goalscorer. This might regress, but no reason to think we'll be bottom 3! We haven't lost any players.

Dean Henderson & Lys Mousset to injury.

 

[brownblade]

Dean Henderson & Lys Mousset to injury.

We're not getting relegated because we downgraded our keeper from a 9 to a 7 (potentially harsh on Rambo).

 

[CaptainMorgans]

We're not getting relegated because we downgraded our keeper from a 9 to a 7 (potentially harsh on Rambo).

We look significantly weaker without those 2. We've also not been the same since the restart. I'm sure if someone was to put together a PL table of how everyone has done post lockdown we would be in the bottom 5 at least.

I do think we're in for a relegation battle this season. Not being able to score goals is one thing, but it's not as if we're missing a glut of opportunties either. So many of our players are under performing & we don't have any match winners to bail us out when this happens.

I don't blame anyone for this, we're just financially handicapped and I think it's starting to catch up with us. But I think there are some ominous signs.

 

[brownblade]

We look significantly weaker without those 2. We've also not been the same since the restart. I'm sure if someone was to put together a PL table of how everyone has done post lockdown we would be in the bottom 5 at least.

I do think we're in for a relegation battle this season. Not being able to score goals is one thing, but it's not as if we're missing a glut of opportunties either. So many of our players are under performing & we don't have any match winners to bail us out when this happens.

I don't blame anyone for this, we're just financially handicapped and I think it's starting to catch up with us. But I think there are some ominous signs.

Completely agree we're not at our best yet. And we were atrocious for some of those restart games. We also had 3 superb games v Chelsea, Spurs and Wolves.

I also feel slight concern, because it's natural, but we really don't need to worry. We haven't gone from being a top 10 team to a bottom 3 team over the course of a 38 game season.

 

[bertieblade]

We create chances when our wing backs and centre backs get forward to create an overload down the side of teams. Our opposition seem to have worked out that they have to push up on these players which not only reduces the space for them but also means that they cannot commit to be as far forward otherwise they get hit on the break.
We subsequently have to rely on our left and right sided central midfield players ie Fleck and lundstram to carry the ball forward and create, neither of them have been doing this and we are subsequently left with no one creating.
Desperately need a creative right side midfield player and someone with pace to play on the shoulder and stretch teams.
We know this and I am very sure not only does CW know this but our owners as well, they are looking at not only players but how to fund it.
I am confident that they will do the very best for the club.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Completely agree we're not at our best yet. And we were atrocious for some of those restart games. We also had 3 superb games v Chelsea, Spurs and Wolves.

I also feel slight concern, because it's natural, but we really don't need to worry. We haven't gone from being a top 10 team to a bottom 3 team over the course of a 38 game season.

We have 11 points from 12 post-lockdown games.
In those 12 games we've managed 8 goals. That's relegation material.

To be clear, I'm not writing us off. But I do think a lot of fans are justified in thinking things look tough for us.

The money wasn't there for Wilder to upgrade our XI and it needed freshening up, particularly at the top of the field. It almost feels negligent to be asking him to keep us up with Sharp, McGoldrick, McBurnie & Burke as our strikeforce. Especially given the lack of creativity behind them. You've got poor strikers (relative to the division) feeding off scraps.

We have Leeds, Arsenal & Fulham coming up. If we haven't registered 4 or 5 points from those games we will be sucked into a relegation battle. We have Man City & Liverpool back-to-back afterwards.

 

[Nah den]

Completely agree we're not at our best yet. And we were atrocious for some of those restart games. We also had 3 superb games v Chelsea, Spurs and Wolves.

I also feel slight concern, because it's natural, but we really don't need to worry. We haven't gone from being a top 10 team to a bottom 3 team over the course of a 38 game season.

We were a top 10 team based on an outstanding defensive record, aligned to not having as many injuries as might have been expected for an average season. We have already seen signs that we are not going to be as defensively sound this season.

 

[Balham]

We look significantly weaker without those 2. We've also not been the same since the restart. I'm sure if someone was to put together a PL table of how everyone has done post lockdown we would be in the bottom 5 at least.

I do think we're in for a relegation battle this season. Not being able to score goals is one thing, but it's not as if we're missing a glut of opportunties either. So many of our players are under performing & we don't have any match winners to bail us out when this happens.

I don't blame anyone for this, we're just financially handicapped and I think it's starting to catch up with us. But I think there are some ominous signs.

You'd have to exclude Leeds, West Brom, Fulham, Bournemouth, Watford & Norwich from the post-lockdown table owing to relegations so we would be bottom 5. Our post-lockdown performance put us 14th last season; impacted by us completely running out of steam at the end. We should have had a win against Villa too which would have put us 12th.

On a PPG basis, we're 6th worst which doesn't actually change if the Villa result is corrected (0-1) as we'd move to 1.08PPG and Villa would drop to 1.09.



PS: LOL at Norwich. Farke is a genius.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

You'd have to exclude Leeds, West Brom, Fulham, Bournemouth, Watford & Norwich from the post-lockdown table owing to relegations so we would be bottom 5. Our post-lockdown performance put us 14th last season; impacted by us completely running out of steam at the end. We should have had a win against Villa too which would have put us 12th.

On a PPG basis, we're 6th worst which doesn't actually change if the Villa result is corrected (0-1) as we'd move to 1.08PPG and Villa would drop to 1.09.

View attachment 92753

PS: LOL at Norwich. Farke is a genius.

If I'm reading that right (and I may not be), only Palace who were in the PL this season & last did worse than us post lockdown in 19/20 season.

They have won their opening 2 matches this season.

Leeds, who have just joined the decision, have won 1 of their 2 opening matches.

So now you're left with only Fulham & WBA.

Like I say, it's early days. Maybe things are going to change. But our recent form is really bad now & showing no signs of improving.

 

[brownblade]

We have 11 points from 12 post-lockdown games.
In those 12 games we've managed 8 goals. That's relegation material.

To be clear, I'm not writing us off. But I do think a lot of fans are justified in thinking things look tough for us.

The money wasn't there for Wilder to upgrade our XI and it needed freshening up, particularly at the top of the field. It almost feels negligent to be asking him to keep us up with Sharp, McGoldrick, McBurnie & Burke as our strikeforce. Especially given the lack of creativity behind them. You've got poor strikers (relative to the division) feeding off scraps.

We have Leeds, Arsenal & Fulham coming up. If we haven't registered 4 or 5 points from those games we will be sucked into a relegation battle. We have Man City & Liverpool back-to-back afterwards.

I know what you mean. It's fine to be concerned. But we won't be "in a relegation battle" after 5 or 7 games of the season, just because we're near the bottom of the table - because there will be 30+ games left.

Teams can look doomed at Christmas yet stay up, as we pioneered in the Bassett days!

 

[brownblade]

If I'm reading that right (and I may not be), only Palace who were in the PL this season & last did worse than us post lockdown in 19/20 season.

They have won their opening 2 matches this season.

Leeds, who have just joined the decision, have won 1 of their 2 opening matches.

So now you're left with only Fulham & WBA.

Like I say, it's early days. Maybe things are going to change. But our recent form is really bad now & showing no signs of improving.

You're just picking a bad timeframe. Extend it and you'll be more comfortable about things! If we say our recent form includes all of last season... Our recent form is amazing.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

You're just picking a bad timeframe. Extend it and you'll be more comfortable about things! If we say our recent form includes all of last season... Our recent form is amazing.

Circumstances have changed significantly post lockdown though & those games were within the last few months. You're going back almost 7 months to get to our decent form.

 

[S6 Blade]

We were decent against Spurs, Chelsea and Wolves post lockdown

 

[saw516]

Very few star junior players ever make it to the first team....the odds are against Balogun being PL standard.
He’ll be a big risk and an investment for the future...so it doesn’t make sense to pay too much for him....especially as he’s close to being out of contract.

I agree the step up is difficult and it’s a big risk, and I don’t think for a minute we should be over paying for him. All I’m thinking is if we can get a decent price and he can make the step up even to half the standard greenwood has he’d comfortably keep us up along side what we already have In my opinion

 

[Flatcap]

Appears he isn't being given an outing today in their cup match. He's not even on the bench. Would be best for him to go somewhere, even if it isn't to us. Waste of talent to be honest.

 

[JackSUFC]

We were decent against Spurs, Chelsea and Wolves post lockdown

We were. We also played fairly well vs Arsenal in the FA Cup. However other than that we’ve been pretty dreadful post-lockdown.

Pre-lockdown, even when we were poor, we found ways to grind out results. Need to get back into that habit.

 

[Harrisblade]

I know what you mean. It's fine to be concerned. But we won't be "in a relegation battle" after 5 or 7 games of the season, just because we're near the bottom of the table - because there will be 30+ games left.

Teams can look doomed at Christmas yet stay up, as we pioneered in the Bassett days!

Hadn't everyone written Southampton off early on last season?

 

[Blade58]

We were a top 10 team based on an outstanding defensive record, aligned to not having as many injuries as might have been expected for an average season. We have already seen signs that we are not going to be as defensively sound this season.

I think the other reason we’ve been relatively poor since returning from lockdown is because we are missing our home fans.

At home we were particularly strong with 30k supporters cheering us on. Empty stadiums are doing us no favours imo

 

[Balham]

If I'm reading that right (and I may not be), only Palace who were in the PL this season & last did worse than us post lockdown in 19/20 season.

They have won their opening 2 matches this season.

Leeds, who have just joined the decision, have won 1 of their 2 opening matches.

So now you're left with only Fulham & WBA.

Like I say, it's early days. Maybe things are going to change. But our recent form is really bad now & showing no signs of improving.

No. It's sorted by overall points per game. Villa (10 points from 10 games), Leicester (9/9) Newcastle (9/9) and Palace (4/9) all did worse than us (11/10) after the restart. Interesting (?) that three of those four took points off us after the season resumed...and we didn't play Palace.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Thread drifting a tad

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Thread drifting a tad

It's the push it needed. Some speculators have money on this being a 100 pager.

 

[Davalon]

We have 11 points from 12 post-lockdown games.
In those 12 games we've managed 8 goals. That's relegation material.

To be clear, I'm not writing us off. But I do think a lot of fans are justified in thinking things look tough for us.

The money wasn't there for Wilder to upgrade our XI and it needed freshening up, particularly at the top of the field. It almost feels negligent to be asking him to keep us up with Sharp, McGoldrick, McBurnie & Burke as our strikeforce. Especially given the lack of creativity behind them. You've got poor strikers (relative to the division) feeding off scraps.

We have Leeds, Arsenal & Fulham coming up. If we haven't registered 4 or 5 points from those games we will be sucked into a relegation battle. We have Man City & Liverpool back-to-back afterwards.

Football is often about momentum and can go both ways.

We carried it through from the beginning of last season and in a lesser way we've carried the end of last season through to this.

Whilst some fans go too far, anyone showing even reasonable concern will still get called out by those who like to portray themselves in a certain way shall we say.

I was quietly confident last summer. I've been quietly concerned this. It was always going to be tough to get near last season's defensive record this time, even if keeping Henderson. We needed to address the lack of goals which Wilder has always acknowledged.

So far Burke and two reserve wing backs aren't going to make most fans feel any different.

I haven't got a crystal ball but by the end of October we could be right up against it without a striker who can make a difference and a decent return from Leeds and Fulham.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Football is often about momentum and can go both ways.

We carried it through from the beginning of last season and in a lesser way we've carried the end of last season through to this.

Whilst some fans go too far, anyone showing even reasonable concern will still get called out by those who like to portray themselves in a certain way shall we say.

I was quietly confident last summer. I've been quietly concerned this. It was always going to be tough to get near last season's defensive record this time, even if keeping Henderson. We needed to address the lack of goals which Wilder has always acknowledged.

So far Burke and two reserve wing backs aren't going to make most fans feel any different.

I haven't got a crystal ball but by the end of October we could be right up against it without a striker who can make a difference and a decent return from Leeds and Fulham.

We have to win both home games against Leeds/Fulham otherwise we will be cut adrift end of October

 

[brownblade]

We have to win both home games against Leeds/Fulham otherwise we will be cut adrift end of October

That might happen. But nobody has ever been relegated in October or November.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

That might happen. But nobody has ever been relegated in October or November.

True but if you get bogged down going into November it's a long road.

 

[brownblade]

True but if you get bogged down going into November it's a long road.

Season only started in September as well