Discussions to renew AJ's contract, which terminates in the summer, started last month but broke down yesterday - the new terms apparently not to the player's liking. Jol has admitted, if an offer came along in January. he would let him go. Jol also revealed that he sees AJ as a second striker in a 4-4-2 formation which "you have to play from time to time". PS signed for around £10.6m in 2008 AJ has scored 10 goals in 70 games.
Well he's earned a new contract on his performances this season, IMO. He's definitely a handy player to have around to give us a different option up top. However, I only think he's worth something like a year-long rolling contract, which probably isn't far from what he's been offered.
Not convinced he's ever justified the wages he allegedly earns, though that said has any professional footballer ever done that? He has been good in europe this season and makes a good squad player in a busy calendar, I wouldn't mind holding onto him this season and losing him on a free rather than getting £2-3m for him in January and not re-investing it, thus simply increasing the burden on our first choice forwards.
Take away the 6 goals that he has scored in Europa games,and that leaves a record,which for a 10mil pound acquisition on 42k per week is disgraceful. As I have said before worse than S Marlet,ship him out in Jan for what 2mil.
Why take away the 6 goals he scored in the Europa? Take away every goal Wayne Rooney has scored this season and he looks a waste of space too.
hes saying take away the 6 euorpa league goals and it makes it that hes only score 10 goals in 70 EPL games, in europe he has 6 in 12 games, in toatal he has 19 goals in 91 games for us. sorry but i have to agree with Valjing that is not a good return for a 10mil player,
I understand your point, Valjing, and AJ has certainly not met his price tag. But do you not remember Steve Marlet? AJ's injuries are a large part of why he has underperformed (and granted, we should have known this would happen with his existing injury record when we bought him), whereas Steve Marlet was... well, he was just a terrible player.
AJ is our only pacy striker at this point. Our offense is too one-dimensional as it is. If we unload him without finding a replacement in the same vein, we're going to hurt ourselves. In AJ's defense, he doesn't get the service he needs to rack up a bunch of goals. AJ needs a play maker to thread the ball to him on the break so he can get behind defenders and take a run at goal. That's not what Fulham does. If we swapped AJ for Jermain Defoe or Gabby Adabayor, I don't think you'd see much of a difference in goal production, and nobody considers Defoe or Adebayor a waste of space. We need pace up front, and while I'm not saying we should give AJ another long-term contract, we need to consider what will be lacking without him as an option. Against Twente, AJ was good for us. When he came off, our chances to score again dried up considerably.
Of course it's not a good return for a £10m player, but if his record's that bad then it doesn't need altering to give a different reflection. What DR says is right. I'm not trying to say we'd be lost without him, but if you take away the £10m we paid all those years ago and the injuries and, you know, judged him on how he's been this season, he's worth keeping on. Unless, of course, we can sign a player who would be an improvement.
Think a lot depends on how Ruiz does. If he starts to prove his worth then do we really need AJ as well? I agree AJ has done well in Europe but the fact is that he mainly looks good against weaker opposition. Hope both Ruiz and Sa play tonight so we can see what they can do
I wouldn't have called Twente 'weaker opposition'. [sigh] I had resolved not to join in on this thread. I think all of us - including me - have said all that there is to be said about our respective views on AJ. I'm a bit bored of it all now. I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I wish we'd just talk about something else. And yes, I know that I could ignore any subsequent AJ threads. I was going to, but big mouth that I am I couldn't resist chipping in. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I had the very same thought, Captain, and changed "only" to "mainly" just before I posted! I agree we've debated this topic to death but it will be v interesting to see what actually happens with AJ.
As long as people make comments that I disagree with, no topic is safe from my ramblings! I blame C58 and this thread, myself...
To corrupt one of Wellington's better sayings, "report and be damned". What surprises me more is that nobody has chosen to express a view as to why Jol decided to go public on the topic. Reading between the lines, is he putting pressure on Johnson so that FFc have a longer contract to trade on? If so, that actually would be a sound business strategy.
