The sporting fans reactions have been really notable. They are devastated and/or fuming. It’s interesting how quick people can be to grasp on to derisive comments from former fans - such as with Archer. Or Lyanco (those were right though). And take them as gospel. Absolute iron clad word of law. But when it’s the opposite there are still some people who are skeptical or cynical. I get it I guess as players could be super promising and not settle or not fit in the side (just like Alcaraz) The thing about Hugo is that it’s not like we can find nothing on him. There are glowing scout reports and links to wolves for a considerable fee (same wolves who seem to have had an inside track on Portuguese and Brazilian players recently). Indeed it’s intriguing that we’ve got a Brazilian and a Portuguese player when they’ve all been going there. Saints fans one Twitter are raging because they assume Hugo is another Turkey loan. Presumably comparing him to Wellington and Juan. Both players where, unlike Hugo, you really can’t find much information on them
Yes but with another goalkeeper in Lumley could be sent out on loan. Not that we’d need the squad space. There was an interesting comment on TSP about the big clubs having loads of keepers on the books to play in training matches whilst the actual keepers (I think) do focused training. Perhaps we haven’t been doing that and suffered for it ?
Adding Hugo to an already congested midfield squad seems daft especially when we still need a proper striker
What makes a proper striker? And is Cameron Archer not a proper striker ? Is it the apparent Saintsweb criteria of transfer fee? Where we ignore archer because he cost lest than 20m? Or because of his goal record last season? I guess BBD doesn’t count either? I did heart that he was less effective central at the weekend. But he also made himself the villain for a massive crowd I am not sure what people expect. Or more likely who people expect. The people who talk about a striker that is. We signed one. There aren’t that many available. There don’t really seem to be any available on loan because there aren’t many in the first place. And the ones that are available are going to be affordable if they have anything like a decent goal record. Which means gambling on someone who has the right stats and listening the fanbase moan about not signing someone with 20 goals more last season I saw someone challenge on this and ask “who then”. And the reply was a cowardly “that’s the scouts job”. No - it’s the scouts job to identify someone who we think has all the attributes and playstyle to eventually score a lot of goals. When people say we should sign a proper striker and usually mean “quick, strong and with a good goal record” - anyone with Google and a bit of time should be able to make some suggestions. But you quickly realise that those players are super rare and the ones that have all three are not in our price range (even when the goals come in a weaker league they still aren’t). Rutter was 40m and only really scored in the championship. So was Evanilson and he scored 13 goals in Portugal in his highest scoring season. Portugal is ranked similarly to the Dutch and Belgian leagues. If we signed a player with 13 goals in the Dutch league people would still be nervous. Especially for 40m. Giminez probably costs at least that and Forest backed out. We actually did sign a player with a lot of goals in the Belgian league. Not only does he not fit but absolutely no one seems to want him despite a good goal return in Belgium and Turkey. I’m just not sure another striker is likely - or even on our target list. The value really doesn’t seem to be there. And lots of other clubs seem to be finding this as well. I think another attacking player is on the list. But I think people will be disappointed if they think it’s going to be a “number 9” who will score a hatful of goals. We got super lucky with the last one who we only got as he had a previous ACL injury. But now an identical deal for a player with a recent ACL is 10m more expensive for a player with a far inferior goal record (Broja vs Ings)
I sold my Renault Clio to those chiselling bastards 'Find out online how much your car is worth'. Yeah, right
I’m amazed enough people use them for it to be viable. I guess it makes sense if you are just selling your car and not trying to get a new one. Because usually a car dealer will give a semi favourable exchange if it means you actually buying a car from them You don’t get that with them
It would be 1 in 1 out with Charly going but I also expect Charles to leave on loan. Fernandes, Smallbone, Aribo, Downes, Lallana, Ugochukwu & Hugo leaves 7 options across 3 positions. In a perfect world you have 2 players for each position so it doesn't seem too crazy.
I think when people say proper striker they are meaning a bigger, more physical striker who can hold the ball up and bring others into play and maybe they mean a player whose best position is through the middle too. Che did that and we played best last season with Che leading the line. We don't have Che anymore. The argument is there for whether BBD coming in replaces Che but that depends on where we intend on playing him. If it's on the left which seems like it's his best position, then with Che and Mara gone we now, despite bringing in a striker, only have Archer and Stewart. If we play BBD centrally you could say we don't need another striker (though we would then definitely need a starter quality left winger which may be the route we decide to go down). If we are buying the GK instead of a loan, that does leave the door open for us to bring a striker in on loan. I'm not anticipating that being a proven goalscorer or anything, but just another option up front is necessary if we are going with BBD on the left. Otherwise we are putting all our hopes on Archer and...Ross Stewart.
And people seem nervous about the idea of Lallana having lots of game time and/or don’t think he will be fit enough
I think the number of even average strikers actually available for loan is quite small. It would be someone like Chris Wood. But that doesn’t seem a goer as we a potential rivals to Forest. And so that leaves overseas teams who probably want some of our money rather than loan fees
I could see us looking to the young and promising market for loaning a striker and hope for another Broja. As you've said buying strikers with our budget is likely to be an issue and there probably isn't much in the way of experienced strikers available for loan without having some major shortcomings. We'll see I guess. But I don't think it's unreasonable to think we need another striker.
Young and promising loan strikers will likely mean someone no one has really heard of and perhaps only played in PL2 type games up until now. Such a move will be met with howls of derision from our fanbase who will talk about how “we still haven’t replaced Ings” and “we don’t need another Mara type - especially as it’s only a loan”. Only dispelled if this previously unknown player shows the flashes Broja did. It’s a very big ask What is more likely is another left winger with archer and BBD being the striker options with a hoped for Stewart recovery to eventually add to that list. Far from ideal but still most likely
We haven't bought a single Man City youth player in yet. Wonder if they have any promising strikers who are ready to breakthrough to first team football. I can see us going for another left wing and moving BBD central or getting in another versatile attacker who can play either centrally or on the wing too. I doubt the club care if the fans are unhappy with another unknown youngster coming in as another striking option if the club think they are good enough though. I imagine we are quite fluid about which we go for and depends a lot on who is/or becomes available between now and the end of the window. We absolutely need more in those attacking positions though as we don't have enough goals or creativity in the team at the moment.
As a wider issue, from someone professing absolutely no knowledge of how any of this really works, will Saints (and, indeed, every other club) know exactly who is 'out there', and is willing to move clubs? Is anyone, with a reasonable amount of knowledge of the machinations of football transfers, genuinely surprised when a club announces a 'new' signing? The only example I can think of as an entirely 'left field' transfer (or not, as the case may be) is when Peter Odemwingie thought he was moving to QPR, despite the club changing its mind.
Yeah I think so, but didn't we start on the Man City youth thing before we brought Shields in anyway?
