I was at Selhurst Park last season when we were unlucky to be a goal down at half time. Che missed two absolute sitters in the second half. We lost a game we would have won, with a striker who was up to it at PL level, and Ralph and the players were loudly booed by a small section of the crowd. That felt like the beginning of the end for Ralph, who imo would have kept us up with a decent striker. So I’m probably biased against Adams because of that; but I’d love him to stay for another season because this is his level and it would be a shame if he couldn’t have one great season for us.
Duje caleta car, mislav orsic, Mohammed elyounoussi, Mohammed salisu, Ibrahima diallo... Less effective to go: Alex McCarthy, lyanco, tall Paul, Joe aribo, djenepo? Never going to shift all the dead wood in one window, but not bad by my reckoning and even fees for them.
The game against Wolves where we lost 1-0 (shock) and Adams punched it into an open goal after deciding he had to jump, completely unmarked, and mistiming it so it hit his hand from a yard out sticks in my mind I do think he is PL quality but if he alone had been better last season we would’ve stayed up
We've made an extra 30-40m by not selling certain players earlier. And we could afford to do this because we already have a decent squad in place, with or without incomings. Don't forget, we can count Stephens, Smallbone and Tella among the 'incomings' too. So we've got about five new additions to the first team. The only starters from the end of last season to have left, are Lavia and JWP. We have a better first eleven now than we did at the end of last season.
As long as Che can still either play or be on the bench tomorrow. We are too short in that area and this interest doesn’t seem advanced enough to pull him out of the squad completely. Could change quickly I guess
I'm curious why so many people are happy for Mara to go out on loan. Is it just so he gets consistent game time for his development? If we were still in the prem I'd agree as he only turned 21 last month and struggled, but I'd still expect him to do better as a backup at this level and then reassess in January.
On a side note, I do think it's misguided to be trying to build a team/buy players that can compete in the PL. Our priority is to win the Championship. Apart from anything else, we know it's really hard to attract players of PL quality to a Championship team. If we can find people that will grow into successful PL players that's great, but the reality is that gaining promotion will almost always require a significant rebuild, so let's not be too concerned about bringing in players right now that can do a Championship job but may not thrive in the PL...
Losing Adams will be a big gamble for the club right now, as it means we absolutely must bring in a striker that will definitely score minimum 20 goals in the Champ by the end of the window. I understand for Adams he will want the security of a longer deal with a team in the PL, but for us I'm not sure it is worth the £12m to gamble unless we are absolutely certain we have an adequate replacement lined up.
This would be great, my Leeds mates all love him and don’t understand why he hasn’t featured much for them yet. I watched him play in the playoffs for Luton and he looked pretty **** to me but if it pisses them off then I’m all for it
