Michael Owen? He can't even stay injury free playing 20 minutes a month! I don't think 'putting everything aside' would be as simple as that either! Either we recognise that we need a proper goalscorer and go and buy one or we are blind to it, ignore it, and have the same season as last year.
This attitude thing with A.Johnson isn't strictly true anymore. Okay, he doesn't work as hard as he should/could but he is not as bad as he used to be, he does work back now, just not to the levels of Dirk Kuyt etc. My concern would be with Sturridge. He's made no secret of the fact that he wants to play upfront and doesn't particularly like being played out wide. Is he good enough to be the front man? IMO, no
Sky are porting that QPR agree a deal in principle to sign Ricardo Carvalho on loan for the season - wow!
Oh right - To be honest, I've not seen a lot of Johnson so my opinion was based on 'reputation' and others. Sturridge could become our main striker? I wouldn't say no to that. But all in all, he's versatile - along with Borini and Suarez, they can all play along the front line.
Bloody hell, isn't he drawing his pension yet...? Hughes obviously didn't like his defense at the weekend. A £9m move for Dawson followed by Calvalho on loan...???
Got to say I quite like that idea. I love the thought of a free-flowing front three, a bit like Man Utd when they had Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo. Bit of an admission but I really enjoyed watching that Man Utd side despite wanting them to get butt rapped every week!
Haha my thoughts exactly. Just to add - James Pearce (Echo) went onto mention that we have given up on Sahin and Tello (I'm sure we knew that already), we're not interested A Johnson, and Rodgers wants to bring in a couple of players.
Rodgers was only saying two or three after joining the club and he has been saying a couple of players since we got Borini! IMO, we might see one more arrival, I just hope we get a forward or start using Carroll
I've seen a lot of suggestions we need a proven out & out goal scorer. Can I just ask for a consensus: approx how many goals a season would make a player this? I mean, Fowler or Owen are described as this. it's just I've gone and reviewed all the European leagues stats for last season and if we're taking 16+a season as the minimum you're talking choosing from 40 players (22 of which you can count out as seen below). If you're talking 20+ a season you're down to 22 players. Removing players that are going nowhere or at least not to us, like RVP or have just transferred to a new club you're down to: 0 Now I only looked at the 6 main European leagues but you see my point. By all means the stats are there on Google if someone else wants to look and disagree with me or name one of those 22 that would come to us & can, by all means do so. I know it isn't scientific and it doesn't take into account players that COULD be 20+ but aren't getting on but then you're into gambles which is what we've been buying anyway. I just think its an obvious need to suggest but it's not necessarily possible just to go buy a player to do it.
Signing a 16+ or 20+ goals a season man doesn't necessarily mean they have already scored that many in a league season. Torres never got 20 league goals for A.Madrid and only twice made the 16 mark (19 & 16) in seven seasons, yet he joined us and bagged 24 straight away. Basically, it is about potential and the fit between player and club. There could be players that clearly know where the net is but play for a relegation threatened side and chances are few and far between.
Rumours today about Aiden McGeady of Spartak Moscow. Would be a decent signing - he'd happily work with Rodgers, who is, (in terms of the area of Northern Ireland he grew up in) practically Irish. Pace, skill, creativity and entering the final year of his contract. Not a world beater but a very tidy player who would certainly fit in better than Downing.
He's better than what we have, arguably. SM signed him for £9.5M... So now he would cost in and around £6M.
And that's my point: we already have two of those "potentials" for two different styles of play. Carroll was many fans/pundits/managers dream until he joined us and Suarez previously & still with country looks like he should bang in that many. Borini appears to be the latest prospect (hopefully he works!) but it's not just a matter of saying we need a prolific striker lets buy him. Quite obviously it's having a team, and system that gives any striker enough real or as I like to call them "easy" opportunities to score. I think we are already not showing patience with the new manager and saying "go buy the magic striker who will cure our goal drought!!" I'm assuming BR when he was & thought we should be excited about Borini believes he has that potential you refer to so why would we need to talk about buying a "prolific scorer"?
Brendans comment about 'being excited' where not about the incoming signing as a deal, he said that a player was about to join that would excite the fans. I took that that he meant on the pitch. (meaning he gets fans off their seat etc) I agree about Carroll and Borini but I don't see Suarez as a striker. That is not a sudden or recent development, I said this during the first six months of him joining. He misses easy chances and scores the hard ones, that is the mark of a attacker rather than a striker IMO. A striker will score at last 50% of there chances from inside the box, Suarez must be below 20%? As for questioning Rodgers already, I think you may be right about some but not all. A lot of us knew we needed a striker last summer and last January but it never arrived. Same goes for a productive winger which we've lacked since McManaman left!
We spent £28.6m on Borini, Allen and Assaidi. Spurs have spent £22.8m on Adebayor, Vertonghen and Sigurdsson. Time will tell to see who made the best deals ... (The wages of our new recruits comes to £5.46m a season which equals Adebayor's wages alone).
Looking at it like that, I know which one looks better on paper. The wages won't be a great deal different either but I suspect their three will be on more than ours. The average age of their players is higher than ours too which could mean they have a better immediate impact
