Strikers/Attackers

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LondonBlade89 said:
After a recent spate of fresh rumours linking us to a wide range of ex-PL strikers, I wondered if it might be easier to keep track of our attempts on this area on a single thread.

Any update Rifleman, Rocket Man or T-Blade?

I never like to think I’m part of the bedwetter crew but the more I see us with so few options up top the more impatient I get. Man City isn’t quite the winnable game that Forest was but surely we must make some progress this week?
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Perhaps this is will help for the Bosman types https://www.footballtransfers.com/e...ntract-2023-best-free-agents-available-bosman
 

steve26272 said:
100% this

Its a poker face from both sides in the deal

Villa are nervous that should Watkins gets injured in the 1st few games, and they have let Archer go, theyre fucked - so they put a 'price they cant refuse' on him
We know hes not worth that, so go fishing for other strikers

Akpom is sounded out also, but he waits, and ends up with an offer from Ajax (who wouldnt take that over us)

Meanwhile we throw Piroe and Origi out there, Watkins doesnt get injured, Archer does get itchy feet, lets Villa know his feelings, they accept they cant hold onto someone whos doesnt want to be there (ala Ndaiye) and the 2 clubs compromise on a middle ground fee.

Same may well happen with Doyle, seems like he wants to come back, but wants to keep his Man City salary - we hold off as been there before, window nears closure, Doyle nowhere near 1st team, reduces his demands/accepts relegation clause and hes ours

Hecky is holding our 2 EPL loans out for someone, best way as if he goes early and gets anyone in to appease the fans, end of window McAtee comes available, goes to Burnley and our fans kick off

So far Hecky and team have brought in
Anel, Doyle & McAtee - all good
Hamer & Souza - 1 game in but look very good
Traore & Larouchi - work in progress, but will come good on first viewing
Slimani - unknown
Trusty - everyone speaks highly

Trust the process
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Fully agree with this, and we should thank our lucky stars that Hecky is on the page of seeking to get in who he wants, and not just caving in to short term pressure and getting in who he can. He’s in the process of a major rebuild of the squad for the next 4 years, so we all have to live with the consequences for a long time. Financial circumstances force us down a route of careful and selective choices, but I actually prefer it to, for example, Forest’s approach of last season, when they went at recruitment like kids in a sweet shop, and are probably still in the process of trying to work out what to do with it even now. We lost the game to them last week, but we weren’t a mile off, and we’re still a work in progress. I think we will be better than them before long. I don’t for one moment believe that Hecky underestimates the importance of staying up this season, and he clearly understands the negative drag of missing out on potential points in the first two matches, but I think that he also believes that the value in waiting for the right players, in the right combination, will pay dividends across the course of the season that outweigh any early losses. Let’s hope so, anyway 😂
 
BettingBlade said:
Maybe you can, maybe you can't. The point is, that still relies on us having a squad that's good enough to stay up in the first place. There's also no guarantee that it's 2 games, say we get players in deadline day, are they going to be ready to go by the Everton game on the 2nd September? If they are, that's not a great deal of time to get to know how we play. Then we're getting towards the end of September before we're near full strength. Our last season in the Prem should have been an indicator as to how quickly the chances of survival can get away if you lose a few on the bounce. It's all woulda coulda shoulda at this moment in time but the fact is, we haven't given ourselves the best chance to get as many points as we can in a season where that should be absolutely imperative.

There is also a scenario where we started the season with a squad the manager was happy with and still ended up with 0 points. However, judging by the Forest game, it's clear as day that we were massively disadvantaged by only being able to bring on youth players. It got to a point on Friday where we looked as though we were actively settling for a point as we didn't have the experience or the firepower to go and try and win the game. Forest were able to make these changes and ultimately that ended up costing us a point. So that's at least 1 point we are down, possibly even 3 if we'd have had the personnel to go and win the game.
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All fair points and no disagreement, I myself would have preferred to have everything ready for Aug 12th

I just find the we should have had by now and if we go down it’s down to this argument strange, but it is what it is
 
Trigger said:
I don’t get this preoccupation about strikers. Haaland/Messi/whoever you wish to name couldn’t score for us at the moment because they don’t get the service. It’s the engine room that needs the money spent on. We’re still playing Norwood who’s been promoted to the Premier League on four occasions, the other two times he was promoted his team at the time with binned him straight away. We’re still hanging in to him as our lynchpin. He can’t tackle, can’t hit a deadball and is worse at shooting from outside the box than my Gran.
We have no penetration, we need someone who can split a defence. Osula had the pace and power to become a great striker. Just needs some help from behind him.
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IMG_0469.jpeg
 
Slim Man said:
Again, I'm not sure how anyone can be so thick to see we've essentially thrown 2 games as the season starts in August. Not September 1st.

You can call us illogical or naive all you want, but plenty of players improve the sides we've put out in the past week and half. Last week we put out the worst PL side anyone's ever seen. They didn't need waiting for.
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Let’s use some logic.

You’d rather us start the season with a half decent squad, so we would have probably got 1 point against Forest.

I’d rather us….be under strength for 3 matches, meaning we start poorly with 0 points if it means we face 35 games with a good/ very competitive team that is far stronger than last seasons team.

Couldn’t care less how we start, surely the bigger picture is staying up.

We might lose a battle, but it’s worth it if we end up winning the war.

Respect that people have different opinions. There’s the factor of a poor start effects confidence, so any quality players coming in might find it tough.

Also there’s the factor that we stay patient until the day before the window and STILL can’t get our main targets, so have to settle for our 3rd choice makeshift targets. Think that’s what done of our fans are worried about.
 
Sheffsteel said:
Let’s use some logic.

You’d rather us start the season with a half decent squad, so we would have probably got 1 point against Forest.

I’d rather us….be under strength for 3 matches, meaning we start poorly with 0 points if it means we face 35 games with a good/ very competitive team that is far stronger than last seasons team.

Couldn’t care less how we start, surely the bigger picture is staying up.

We might lose a battle, but it’s worth it if we end up winning the war.

Respect that people have different opinions. There’s the factor of a poor start effects confidence, so any quality players coming in might find it tough.

Also there’s the factor that we stay patient until the day before the window and STILL can’t get our main targets, so have to settle for our 3rd choice makeshift targets. Think that’s what done of our fans are worried about.
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This is the problem with making the debate binary again though.

We could have improved the squad early and still gone down, we can improve the squad late and still stay up or go down. There are other variables in between.

My preference would have been to have started the season with the strongest possible squad to maximise the chance of getting results early on. Your preference is to wait and hope we get some good players in late in the window and kick on from there.

None is right or wrong, it doesn’t have to be the same argument rehashed a thousand times over like it is at present.
 
Sheffsteel said:
Let’s use some logic.

You’d rather us start the season with a half decent squad, so we would have probably got 1 point against Forest.

I’d rather us….be under strength for 3 matches, meaning we start poorly with 0 points if it means we face 35 games with a good/ very competitive team that is far stronger than last seasons team.

Couldn’t care less how we start, surely the bigger picture is staying up.

We might lose a battle, but it’s worth it if we end up winning the war.

Respect that people have different opinions. There’s the factor of a poor start effects confidence, so any quality players coming in might find it tough.

Also there’s the factor that we stay patient until the day before the window and STILL can’t get our main targets, so have to settle for our 3rd choice makeshift targets. Think that’s what done of our fans are worried about.
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understand your post but the fact is there are games in the prem that we have hardly any chance of getting owt from them .BUT there are games that we should target and hopefully get our points from .Unfortunately we have had two of those games in a week and ended up with nothing having to play boys in the team . I am not getting at them they did try hard but it needed more than graft to get those points it needed experience
 
Sheffsteel said:
Let’s use some logic.

You’d rather us start the season with a half decent squad, so we would have probably got 1 point against Forest.

I’d rather us….be under strength for 3 matches, meaning we start poorly with 0 points if it means we face 35 games with a good/ very competitive team that is far stronger than last seasons team.

Couldn’t care less how we start, surely the bigger picture is staying up.

We might lose a battle, but it’s worth it if we end up winning the war.

Respect that people have different opinions. There’s the factor of a poor start effects confidence, so any quality players coming in might find it tough.

Also there’s the factor that we stay patient until the day before the window and STILL can’t get our main targets, so have to settle for our 3rd choice makeshift targets. Think that’s what done of our fans are worried about.
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It's a marathon, not a sprint.

It's not how you start, it's how you finish.

Two of the oldest cliches in football and still going strong for a reason.
 
derekacorah said:
This is the problem with making the debate binary again though.

We could have improved the squad early and still gone down, we can improve the squad late and still stay up or go down. There are other variables in between.

My preference would have been to have started the season with the strongest possible squad to maximise the chance of getting results early on. Your preference is to wait and hope we get some good players in late in the window and kick on from there.

None is right or wrong, it doesn’t have to be the same argument rehashed a thousand times over like it is at present.
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The only thing that is blatantly wrong is the transfer window still being open after the season has started.
 
Sheffsteel said:
I’d rather us….be under strength for 3 matches, meaning we start poorly with 0 points if it means we face 35 games with a good/ very competitive team that is far stronger than last seasons team.
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A lot of what you said I agree with and I also agree with derekacorah that there is no right or wrong answer. The only bit I do disagree with is that if we get the vital signings in at the last minute we will only be understrength for 3 games. They will have to get match fit, they will have to get tactically aware on how we play on and off the ball. Chances are we wont be up to full speed until 6 or 7 games into the season.
 

Trigger said:
I don’t get this preoccupation about strikers. Haaland/Messi/whoever you wish to name couldn’t score for us at the moment because they don’t get the service. It’s the engine room that needs the money spent on. We’re still playing Norwood who’s been promoted to the Premier League on four occasions, the other two times he was promoted his team at the time with binned him straight away. We’re still hanging in to him as our lynchpin. He can’t tackle, can’t hit a deadball and is worse at shooting from outside the box than my Gran.
We have no penetration, we need someone who can split a defence. Osula had the pace and power to become a great striker. Just needs some help from behind him.
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I tend to agree with your thought process.

For me if you want to become a really good team, you strengthen your midfield. It allows you more of the ball and it allows you to create more. You can have the best strikers in the world but if they’re feeding off scraps then they’ll be ineffective.

The atypical shout from the crowd would be “throw another striker on Warnock!” But the more cerebral approach would be to take off a defender, narrow their coverage and flood the midfield, therefore dominating the ball more so you have a chance to create more of a quality chance. The lobbing it in the box hoping an additional forward gets on the end of a pinball is a bit Neanderthal to be honest.

Don’t mean to sound a football snob, but if you can keep the ball longer, you defend less. Simple maths.

So I think we come to some eventual formula of one up top, which means we don’t need a mass of strikers, we just need a few to stay fit. But it’s your McAtee that improves you. In fact if we got Doyle perm and McAtee loan to play off a striker I’d argue that would be a successful strategy.

Should we settle on one up, why the heck would we need about 7 strikers?
 
Railway Blade said:
Mama Balde. (Not a made up name, honest )
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Part of the City Group again.
Wonder if they'd help us out with a loan deal, we've still got loads of foreign slots left to use.

Even if he's not a guaranteed starter, he would get loads of minutes here when you look at our options. Might help us get Jebbison / Osula out on loan (presuming they sign deals and we sign a CF or two).
 
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