****, didn't think it could get better! Takes away my concern that the Sunderland player would just be carrying his bag across the corridor and expected to bang goals in for us in front of his former fans.
Is Stewart and one other new striker really enough? With AArma as a backup striker (who so far has looked anonymous in that position). Stewart is currently injured, and realistically we can’t rely on him to be a consistent starter for us this season given his injury record. Which would seemingly leave us with this ‘other striker’ yet to brought in + AArma who doesn’t suit the role, initially at the very least. That in my books would leave us going into ANOTHER season light up front. Think we need to bring in Stewart + 2 other strikers if Che, Mara, Ballard and Tall Paul are all out, especially given Stewart’s injury situation.
Harwood-Bellis, Roberts, Stewart would be good ins, but if the suspected outs are accurate there must be another striker coming in or the club have made a bit of a mess of things.
I think this can/will happen. Stewart and another come in on a permanent and then our fifth loan spot is used on a striker. Leaves us with (for argument’s sake) A Armstrong Stewart Miovski Younger striker on loan
https://x.com/saintsextra/status/1697371006711496729?s=46&t=cls6EyIRczFeWTYA1MIkbQ £25 million pound deal for ABK
You can’t ‘just bloody sell someone’ without: a) A willing and suitable buyer (Bournemouth made a bid below the valuation months back and never returned, Everton made one bid with a large amount of instalments and did not try again) b) A willing player (he did not really want to go to Everton, per Blackmore)
It does seem very odd until you realise that he isn't in much demand. Nobody seems interested in buying him because his record in the EPL is not very good. There are any number of other strikers out there that can get you a handful of goals a season. I just don't get the extension. If he isn't happy to play for us now I sure as **** don't want him next year, promoted or not. And I'm not expecting him to suddenly become a great finisher in the EPL. Its not like we struggled to create chances in the early season, he struggled to put them away. i guess they just think that after another average or worse season in the EPL someone will be willing to pay for him next summer when they weren't willing this summer. Whatever, its the timing that is really stink. This will set us back weeks realistically.
Doesn't appear that a buyer materialized that actually has money, and where Che would want to be for more than one year. At current odds, the implied probability of Wolves getting relegated are 25-29%, and our chances of getting promoted sit at 35-43%. Put those together and the odds that we will be in the same/a higher division than Wolves next season are greater than 50%. For Everton it's even higher. So if you're Che, signing a longer-term team with someone else is not a great option...if they get relegated, you're back in the same position, only with even less leverage. Getting loaned to a PL team is the better option now (being a free agent would be the best as is a great way to earn a bit of extra coin), but we weren't going to loan him out for the final year of his deal. So the compromise seems to be that we'll loan him out to the PL this season, but he has to extend his contract such that he doesn't get to walk at year's end.
Guess I should rephrase. Why are we loaning out Adams & Ballard. Adams because he can score goals and is very much proven at this level. It's a big risk. Him signing a new contract and then going out on loan is just utter bollocks. Ballard because he too, can score goals and deserves a chance with us. If we can't give him chances this season, when can we? Particualry if we're letting the other 3 go. Mara & Paul I really couldn't give two hoots about.
The alternative is Che being upset that he isn't in the PL, and then walking on a free at the end of the season. He wasn't going to re-sign to play with us in the Championship, we had an offer on the table for months and he refused to sign.
The logical next step for Ballard is a loan to League One. Same for Doyle and Dibling. That much to me makes sense.
On the face of it yes, if we werent getting rid of the others. But, at the same time we're letting 3 strikers go, theoretically freeing up a pathway (yes, I know we'd sign at least one replacement), we also let Ballard go.
