Let the bidding war begin - Saints or Bournemouth (if they have the funds?) likely destinations. EXCLUSIVE: Southampton plot £10m swoop for Newcastle and West Brom target Charlie Austin Austin has scored 17 goals for QPR this season but been unable to prevent them being relegated to the Championship. Newcastle and West Bromwich are also keen on Austin, 25, but the striker, who has one year of his £28,000-a-week contract at Loftus Road, is keen on staying in the south. http://bcove.me/4bld2x63 http://www.express.co.uk/sport/foot...d-Liverpool-Chelsea-Man-United-Charlie-Austin
and perhaps bring back Stéphane Mbia from Sevilla, Djibril Cissé from Bastia (2 goals in 21 appearances), plus we still have Samba Diakité on our books. Now that would be some quartet?
With only 17 goals, 4 of which were against top half teams, + 1 pen leaves 12 against the rest, 1 of which was a penalty, which leaves 11 from open play. It doesn't look brilliant does it? He missed 2 pens as well.
Don't know why people are questioning Austin record when was the last time striker scored 15 plus goals for relegated team. The only one I can think of is Ravaneli for Middlesbrough. If you think £10m is a lot for proven goalscorer. What about Saldado, Steve Marlet, Rebrov, Carroll the list goes on. Lets not sell the best players we have had in years for peanuts or magic beans
I have a mental image of QPR as a wounded animal out in the bush. The hyenas and vultures are gathering to pick the carcass clean. It won't be a very nourishing meal but it's easy meat. Players will go for small fees as we are desperate to get the wages off the books. Good we need a clear out. Time to cull this herd.
I think you would do very well to get more than 8m for him. If you ask for too much most clubs will probably just wait until Jan by which point you will most likely take anything over 4-5m with only 6 months left on his contract. You would probably just be better off keeping him and hoping for an instant return to the PL.
When he's scored more this season than Suarez, Lewandowski and Benzema £14 million minimum should not be difficult.
what if no one bids for him in the summer, and supposing - just supposing we are at the top of the championship in next season. If QPR have really rebuilt and rid ourselves of the bad eggs, then maybe Mr Austin will see a future with us. However if a team comes in that is playing European football then maybe he will pack his bags........I just don't want him to run his contract down and leave for free.
Queens Park Rangers’ director of football Les Ferdinand has slapped a £20million price tag on striker Charlie Austin.
Why would he go to the Saints? They have Pelle, Rodriguez and Shane Long, he wouldn't be guaranteed every game like he is with us.
Won't get £20m maybe £12-14m as in last year of contract though is a chance of a bidding war. Personally I'd be tempted to keep to see if can score the goals to give ourselves another shot at coming straight back up. We'd always be able to sell in Jan for £5-7m as will be some desperate teams at that stage prepared to spend to try & maintain status.
Why would you rule out goals against top half teams to make him look worse? If you want to blame his record against the top half then don't forget that for over half the season, we had a mentality of trying to cling on for nil-nils (and doing that very badly) under Redknapp. If you do exclude those fixtures though, he'd be left with 11 from 18 games max (one of which we haven't played and I'd guess he's missed one or two through injury or suspension). Why discount penalties and then count missed penalties against him? He's got a good record no matter how you look at it.