People keep asking this but surely the obvious answer is, because we had a need and it was all we could get. We know that we went into January not targeting a striker aside from Sharp (whether was right or wrong is a separate issue) and that that changed with Delap's injury. We also know that most of our January targets were lined up and worked on well in advance of January. Furthermore we know that we are operating on the very limit of our FFP allowance. Bearing all of that in mind, I think it's pretty likely that suddenly needing an extra striker during the window, with little budget to use on it and little time to do it in, meant that we had very few good options available to us. Ohio clearly was one, and we probably knew he was a gamble, but a cheap gamble which might have come off (and still might do) was more appealing than doing nothing. I would think that kind of transfer happens fairly frequently. Obviously you don't want to be doing it, and certainly not making a habit of it, but I'm sure it does happen and think it's pretty likely that's what happened here.
If Ohio was all we could get then we need better scouts and recruitment team. Plus if was all we could get then we should have saved the money and used a current youth player or better still ( not to re open the debate ) used oscar
Our recruitment team are doing pretty well on the whole. Maybe you could argue we should be ready for any player to get injured during the window and act quickly to replace them, but that's probably not realistic, especially on a limited budget. It's easy to say we should have saved the money but we want the best chance of getting results; the club may have felt that taking a cheap gamble on what was available to us was the best option. Seems fairly logical to me. If a realistically useful youth team player was available we'd be using them. Oscar, as has been pointed out several times, is too expensive even if there weren't other issues with using him. We can't go breaching FFP. I think you're trying too hard to not see any explanation for it.
Tufan will also be gone if you don’t go up, wet spam are in the running and he has gone on record how much he love Laaandan…
No, I see the explanation for it. I just think it's piss poor and we should be doing better. Delap was injured jan 1st and if Ohio is the best we can come up with in a month then I'm sorry it's just not good enough.... We had money as shown by who else we signed in the window. LR/the club Just didn't think a forward was a priority it's as simple as that. If it was purely down to money for example, don't sign the keeper ( or agree a deal for the summer) and use that money to keep oscar with us or sign a better option then Ohio.
Again, another coming into his last year who you either sell or he goes for nowt if he's not willing to re-sign in the championship. If we can get back what we paid it's probably good business.
I suspect they didn't forsee Connolly getting clattered and thought sharp would have been more effective in cameos than he's been.
The flip side of that MAY be HP... is that this season Coventry had to sell Hamer and Gyorkares... invested wisely they look a much more complete outfit this season,... they even have two strikers...
You're saying so much but none of it seems considered. No, a forward wasn't a priority, at first. But then it became one late on because of Delap's injury. Yes the injury occurred early in the window, but that is late in the day when it comes to transfers. Much like we'd been working on Carvalho and others for months, other clubs will have been working on the good strikers and it may have been too late for us to come in and get them by the time we needed one. I think if you look around the football world you'll see countless examples of clubs, even very top ones, having to settle for low-end, stop-gap signings at times when circumstances conspire. Liverpool, whose recruitment over recent years has largely been brilliant, signing Artur Melo last year is one high-profile example off the top of my head. It has long been known that January is a hard time to buy, and I think it's a good rule that needing a player in that window at the last minute is never a good position to be in. We've not made many good January signings at all over the years when you look back. We don't know the finances involved in buying Pandur but I think it's safe to assume that his signing didn't cost us anything like what a proven striker, or keeping Oscar, would've cost.
Didn't we pay a few million? Absolutely no way we're getting that. I think he'll probably stay next year because he's not going to get a bigger move or a better contract than with us.
Whichever way people try to justify it, when it comes to recruitment in that area we have tried to do it cheap and it's shown with the people we have got. There is a reason nobody else wanted Connolly, there's a reason nobody else wanted sharp etc. LR has packed the team with #10s and wide players ( which don't get me wrong are all good players ) but has chosen not to actually have a focal point the put the ball in the net.....it's just stupid and looks like it'll be the reason we don't ( if we don't ) reach through playoffs. It's been a obvious issue now for almost 18months and we don't look like sorting it still.
Yep, I think it's the model we're aspiring to. Brighton and Brentford did similar. Sell at the right time, reinvest wisely and continuously improve. Easier said than done of course, but it seems to be the way to go for non-parachute clubs to get out of this league.
Transfermarkt have us signing him for 3m euros. They estimate his current market value to be 2.8m euros. If we get close to that than it's good business if he's going to let his contract run down.
Never going to happen. He isn't that level of asset at all. I actually think if his contract was up this summer there's a good chance we'd let him go, with the wage he's rumoured to be on. Same with Seri even though he's a key player. I think Traore will leave this summer for the same reason. I don't think the contracts we dished out in Summer 2022 fit LR's model for the club.
