Look, whilst this may all be true, Im sure if we can all be arsed to go to page 1 of this thread - didnt the same person/mag state Danny was about to sign a new contract? Right now I couldnt give a **** if he does or doesnt. If he does, great. If he doesnt, great - we have someone else to look forward to playing for us for a few years.
Like I said, we desperately need luck now as we are not bringing through great youngsters like the London clubs seem to be and we re not finding the rare talents either. We have no depth and our pool of u21s is uninspiring now. I am sure Ings leaving is all part of the plan. It is just not an inspiring plan. It is the plan of the slowly sinking ship. Diminishing returns.
I was thinking over the weekend whether would it be so bad if we sold Ings and signed someone like Ivan Toney of Brentford? Ings is unreal on his day, and I'd rather keep him, but all the signs at the moment point to him leaving.
Toney would cost a fortune if he has length on his contract. Didnt Watkins go north of £30m? EDIT - according to Transfermarket - runs to 2025.
Watkins I think was about £25m, so yeah Brentford tend to get good money for their players. But we'd likely get about £30m for Ings. Put all of it on Toney? I don't know if we could afford him, but he's got 22 goals in 27 games and looks a real player. The other thing to think about is will City actually go for Ings (I've not got the Athletic so can't read the article)? Unless we get £30m I doubt we'd sell, and I can't see them spending that on an aging, backup striker with a bad injury history. Especially when they are heavily linked with Haaland who I think has a release clause of about £60m and is 20 years old.
So late £20ms going over with add ons. Think City would pay £25-30, so my view is I think he will go. Aston Villa have completed the signature of Ollie Watkins from Brentford for a club-record £28 million, plus £5 million in potential add-ons, report David Ornstein and Gregg Evan
Think a lot more that kind of decision would depend on if Brentford come up this season. We're more likely to go for a Kasper Dolberg type (or that guy that was being hyped by someone else on here). I don't think Dolberg would be the answer, but would probably be what we went for.
Yep, i do think we will be looking at opportunities. This it was @SaintInKuwait who was after Paston Daka.
We all know the issue, without selling players we can’t sign anyone. We aren’t going to get much for the players we actually want to move on so it is a question of is keeping one of our top performers a better option than getting in a couple of players who may be good or may not be. If Ings doesn’t sign a contract then our hands are tied a bit as we really can’t afford to lose him for nothing at the end of his deal. The only argument for keeping him then is if if you think that without him we are very likely to go down so you let him keep you up and get the PL money for another season.
That's the chap. I've nothing against Dolberg by the way - think he's a cracking young player, and would love him here. Just feels like most people have the potential to be a bit meh post-Ings. EDIT - checking up on it now, and Dolberg doesn't seem to be having the most stellar of seasons, so I'm moving him to the 'maybe' pile.
I’d imagine Daka would cost too much and have better suitors. Alexander Isak would be a great signing if we are chucking out some names, probably not attainable either.
I don't know re Daka - he seems a belter of a player, granted, but he's playing in the Austrian league, so it feels a bit 'early Mane' - I think we'd definitely have a chance.
Yeah maybe, just depends if media stuff is actually true. Read something in Jan about West Ham wanting him, as well as being watched by Spurs, City and Arsenal. I’d assume he’d see all of those as better options. Salzburg aren’t poor either so wouldn’t surprise me if he would cost north of £20m
The problem with replacing Ings is that other clubs know that is what we are doing...and how much of a pot we have to do it.
The unfortunate thing (as someone else mentioned), is that we sell to buy. So if we sell Ings for £30m, that does not equal £30m to spend on a replacement. It likely means £15-20m or so on a replacement and the rest towards our debt or maybe a cheap squad player. So unless our owner/financial situation changes dramatically, we have to find a real gem or downgrade - which would be an argument to keeping Ings and running his contract down which I know is also not ideal.
Agreed, but if we get say £30m and we want to buy a £15m replacement, then the selling club knows we have the £30m and will sell them for £20m.
Yeah true, unless we moved for a replacement before we sold? I was thinking the other day that a few seasons ago we were signing key players for about £12-15m (VVD, Mane and Wanyama). The problem now is that our budget is still around the same price per player, so the scouting has to be spot on like with Diallo. Hopefully the recent changes in the boardroom will start producing more signings like that.
If City are in then he's gone. Just hope we plan ahead better, which seems more likely with Semmens at the helm. I'm getting used to the idea, and I'm a sentimental twat.