According to Football Insider, we have made a bid of £2m for Hugill. https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-bid-tabled-for-west-ham-star-another-3m-will-seal-deal/ I've seen £3m elsewhere, while West Ham apparently want £5m.
I suppose it’s football business. Liverpool made a derisory offer for Lewis which was turned down and we have made a derisory offer for Hugill which, inevitably was turned down. Have any other clubs come in for Hugill?
According to the Daily Fail we are: "understood to have offered £3million with a further £2m in add-ons for Hugill" but West Ham want £5m. If wages can be agreed, it could end up a compromise deal around £4m plus add ons.
This morning in bed I was wondering why pay £5m when we could sign Jordan Rhodes on a free transfer. He's only 2 years older, is even more experienced in the Championship and we would have more money for a quality CB. We also know that Rhodes is a positive force in the dressing room, which is exactly what we need after last season. Considering that we have Sinari and Idah available as well, is Hugill really that important?
Different types of players? Following the re-start, we saw Drmic employed as a target man, which isn't his game, and isn't Rhodes's game either. I definitely don't want it to become our game, but it is Hugill's and that might be why we are interested in signing him. P.S. It's "Sinani"
£5m reportedly rejected and he's on enormous wages , it's a no for me . Like Rick I would rather sign Rhodes on a 1 or 2 year deal , plus Sinari looks like a striker too so maybe we don't need anyone Just get 2 centre backs and a back up keeper. Pretty sure I have been hoping for 2 new centre backs since Bassong . Klose was our only serious signing in this area
Is Hugill really that effective a 'target man' at 6'0" (Rhodes is 6'1" and Idah is 6'3")? It could be that DF wants that option now that we've signed Placheta and Sinani (pardon the earlier typo) who perhaps can provide decent crosses into the box, but is Hugill really going to dislodge Pukki so that we play a different style? I can see that he could come on when we're chasing games, but couldn't Rhodes, Sinani or Idah do that as well? I'm just not convinced that Hugill is the striker we need.
I cannot see any reason to spend this amount of money on a striker whose career record is something like 1 goal in 4 games. I believe he is now 28, so if he is so good he should have far better stats than those I have seen to make him a half way decent proposition. Stat wise he ain't Grant Holt. Not even close.
Plus at 28 , we give him a 4 year contract there would be no resale value. I seem to remember someone claiming we buy players to turn a profit as part of our business model.
Are there alternatives to Hugill? In the past few weeks both Rhodes and Martin have been mentioned, but there appears to be no further interest in either player on the part of fans
I'd rather the club persevered with Idah and maybe signed a young striker on loan from a PL club. (Any more Tammy Abrahams from his Villa days out there? ) And concentrate their spending on an experienced DM as Tettey will no way manage 9 games in December and those we've signed are untried at this level. Plus an experienced CB, (or maybe two) as our goals conceded in both of the last two seasons cannot be allowed to continue if we harbour designs of improving.
Don't we already have the 'young striker' in Idah, Cromer? As for the DM we now have Tettey, Sørensen, Sitti and Mumba, with Louis Thompson out on loan - surely that's enough. The experienced CB I totally agree with though.
I'm assuming Drmic will leave / won't feature. So we need a third option to Pukki and Idah. As I said above " an experienced DM as Tettey will no way manage 9 games in December and those we've signed are untried at this level."
Whilst I largely agree with the sentiment, we do have the benefit of nearly two months of the season to "wait and see" how our new signings bed in, before the window shuts. Whilst Tettey is our only established out-and-out DM, Sorensen has physicality and Skipp has been sold to us as being capable of playing as the most defensive midfielder - albeit perhaps in a more Reed/Trybull fashion than Tettey. Trybull of course has not left yet, and even if it's been suggested he's earmarked for an exit, there's been no reported bids/interest yet. We played plenty of games in 18/19 with Trybull+Mclean/Vrancic in midfield, and even Vrancic+McLean when desperate. I'm not worried if we look to play games without a Tettey-style "destroyer" in midfield. Looking at that fixture pileup from late November, we have Coventry (H), Luton (A), Wednesday (H), Forest (H), Blackburn (A), Reading (A), Cardiff (H), Watford (A), QPR (H), Barnsley (H). The teams in bold are the only ones to finish above 12th in the Championship last season, so arguably that's a relatively kind run of fixtures. There's plenty of games there where I wouldn't be worried if we line up with Sorensen+Skipp, or one of them+McLean as our midfield pairing. In terms of strikers, height isn't the only thing in determining a playing style! Holt was "only" 6ft1, Hugill is widely described as a target man style striker. Whoscored describe him as an indirect set piece threat, and he scored 3 of his 13 goals last season with his head, with 28 headed attempts (37 right foot, 20 left foot). Compared to Pukki with 0 headed goals last season, from only 6 headed attempts. If Hugill costs £3-5m and £25k p/w wages, I'm ok with it if Drmic is definitely off. He's supposedly our highest earner at the moment. I don't think that's a lot of money for a proven Championship striker who should be in their prime, and I doubt we'll find anyone else who has multiple seasons scoring 10+ goals in the Championship at the same age/price (I looked at options in that bracket a few weeks ago, and fundamentally there are no strikers who scored 15+ goals in the last two seasons who would be viable targets). I don't think Hugill is being looked at for his resale value, I think it's more that he's available for less than his true market value (based on the Championship striker market), and because he offers Championship experience. Even if he has a mediocre season, and scores 5 goals for us whilst playing second fiddle to Pukki, he'll still command a fee for a couple of seasons yet. I'd be amazed if we turn a profit, but it's also unlikely that we see none of the fee back.
Aren't we supposed to be strengthening this season, not just to try and get back up, but also to improve our chances of staying up if we get there? If so, isn't a specialist defensive midfielder an absolute priority? Skipp is our only signing so far who seems to have the necessary qualifications, and he's on loan. I'm with Cromer on this.
