I don't think we have a choice. As I understand it, it was a loan with an obligation to buy, not an option. I think we did not have the funds at the time so basically the loan was a way to pay next summer. I like Ings so I was still happy we signed him and plus at that point we were screwed. But yeah, I always figured it was not going to be a good deal on paper. Although if we stay up this season, it will have been worth it. And you could make a decent argument that without Ings we would already be finished this season.
If Ings scores 2 more this season, that’ll be 10, I think. That’s not bad, so if we sign another striker for next season who can challenge/rotate with him and he scores 10, then I’ll be delighted.
The concern is less this year than the next four, for me. The sheer accumulation of injuries to his legs will take their toll; our sports scientists will be a real job on their hands.
We just need to survive this year. That’s all we need to do. The Ralph effect will come into play next year.
Yeah, a potentially good striker with a bad injury record is what £20m gets anyway. We need him, young Michael, then two others (not Long and Austin).
Every time I listen to him, I just think, well if he see's the positives and some progress from each game, we are going to be ok. He has a plan and he is right, we are hard to beat now, I was not too happy with the way we sat back today but a lot more confident after listen to our manager, the train is still moving forward. Great point that he made about that we have four new signing, 4 of our academy players and they are our future. When they here that from the manager it must lift their game with the knowledge that someone believes in them. We do need Beartie back asap.
BBC Match of the Day THE ORDER: MATCH 1 – CHELSEA v HUDDERSFIELD TOWN MATCH 2 – TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR v NEWCASTLE UNITED MATCH 3 – EVERTON v WOLVES MATCH 4 – CRYSTAL PALACE v FULHAM MATCH 5 – CARDIFF CITY v AFC BOURNEMOUTH MATCH 6 – BURNLEY v SOUTHAMPTON MATCH 7 – BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION v WATFORD
Bah. We were overrun and poor when it counted today which is disappointing. Not sure why as we had the measure of burnley for 70 mins. It’s th old habit of going one up and then retreating into our box. Bad luck ings going off, very good luck to not concede the first pen so on balance the draw was fair. You just knew Crouch would make the difference but Stephens shouldn’t have had his arm up like that and can blame nobody but himself, contact is part of the game and you can’t rely on the ref to penalise everything in your favour. Especially if you are Shane Long who seemed to avoid the ball like the plague and surrender it to burnley under first pressure. It’s a problem that he is our second choice striker but hopefully our injuries clear up before too long.
