Adam Le Fondre? Consistantly scored more than 20 a season, is only 24 and is begging to be tried out at this level. I agree we do need a decent winger, if Swansea don't go up this season would it be worth bidding for Cotterill? Despite his teams performance on the opening day, he was by far and away their best player. I'll just do a list, seems much easier.
GK - Definetly the most important position we need to strengthen, a bid of ã1.5m plus for Mannone should test Arsenal's resolve, especially if they are in for David De Gea/Pepe Reina as the papers state. Maybe even put in a buy back clause of something like ã12m, to tempt them further. If not, then I'd go for Tomas Cerny of Hamilton. Yeah, they are bottom of the SPL, but he is a talent and has had a **** team in front of him all season. Wouldn't cost more than 400k I imagine.
DF - A bid for Gerrard is a no-brainer. It does not necessarily hinge on them going up, as all parties have said, the ball is in Ant's court. If Cardiff do go up, it would be hard to imagine them not buying new defenders, putting Gerrard on the back burner. Hobbs I would have thought is another one who we will see permanently next season, although I doubt he will come cheap. Those two aside, I would have thought Ayala is a bit too ambitious, unless he wants to join on a full season loan. Sean St. Ledger (Preston) or Seb Hines (Boro) would do me just fine, the former we could swap for Kilbane/Garcia (give Phil back his favourites?). LB isn't much of a concern, as of next season I would have thought Chester would play there, with Dawson and Bradley to cover. At RB we have Rosenior and Liam Cooper can also play there.
MF - As I mentioned above, Cotterill would make a decent addition and is the right side of 25 for NP (His middle name is also George Best, that alone should warrant him being signed!). Devitt I think can leave, or at least on loan, he looks too lightweight despite his good feet. Oli can also go, for his wages we could probably get the majority of players I have listed above. The rest of the midfield is fine, I expect Belaid to get offered a contract so that's right wing covered, along with Danny Emerton and Gavin Holohan as back up for both sides.
FW - Not too much of a crisis area, Fryatt and Simpson are looking in good form and NP has no reason to replace them. McClean unfortunatley hasn't settled as well as we would have hoped, so maybe loan him back to Peterbrough? Le Fondre would be a decent acquisition, but Danny Ings from Bournemouth I think is on NP's radar after impressing this season and he may be the big front man we need. Him aside, and I always suggest him, I would love to see Derek Riordan at City. He just seems to have the right mentality for the club, despite not being called up for Scotland, he continues to perform week in week out and can also operate as a left winger, which would provide cover for Cameron Stewart.
Steve Morison from Millwall, how much would he cost though?
also is the Derby offer that ã1.2m?
