Kone has already scored goals in the PL for a smaller club - he'll fetch £8m Hooper has scored in the CL but has never played PL - £6-7m Austin neither but seems a natural aka Le Fondre. - £5-6 Holt surprised many at Norwich - £4 There's some kid from Belgium too who was mentioned but their league sees loads of goals due to the defenders being less talented than in England - no idea on his price tag
I wouldn't be at all concerned starting the season with Austin and Hooper up front and as far as we're aware, they're the only two we've actually bid for.
We won't have to go to £11-13m to get Austin and Hooper, the combined fee's are unlikely to reach eight figures.
Enjoyed your artical although I really dislike Stoke City and Pulis' stupid tracky/cap combo persona.
I think we are bidding low (not too low) for both with the selling clubs knowing that if they don't crack first we might not buy their player. If they both crack we might buy both because we certainly need two strikers. We don't want to get one and then he plays like a German.
If we bought both for between £4m - £5m each that would be great. I wouldn't want to lose either of them for the sake of a few hundred thousand.
IF we come back down we will have a better squad then we went up with. Parachute money to add to the squad. Go back up and get another 60m, add to the squad and stay up for ever Simple....we can't lose whatever happens..
I think Hooper may end up going for £6m plus. How about in midfield? Ince or Redmond of interest? And from the two parts of our guide, do you think Hull will follow Norwich's example, or Stoke's?
Today's Scottish papers are all suggesting that £5m would be enough, as the player's asked to leave.
This is a misconception. The gap isn't between the top two tiers, its between the handful of rich clubs at the top of the Premier League and the rest of football. If you made up a league of the teams 9-20 in the PL and the top 12 from the Championship it would be very competitive. It's a simple fact that the percentage of promoted teams that stay up (62%) is higher than teams that bounce straight back after relegation (25%). There are lies, damn lies and statistics: however my interpretation of that particular stat is that teams at the top of the Championship are stronger than the teams at the bottom of the Premier League. The way to stay up is to do well in the league within a league that is the lower half (or two-thirds) of the PL. Picking up any results against the top teams brings satisfaction but is a bonus.
This. It really pisses me off when certain elements of the media just expect the 3 promoted teams to get relegated. I can cast-iron guarantee that on the First Football focus of the season, when asked which teams will go down Lawro will say "the three promoted teams" and have that smug smirk across his ugly fookin' face. This just doesnt happen, in the same way the 3 relegated teams dont all get promoted again. This, if anything, demonstrates that the perceived gap isnt there whatsoever. The EPL is a division of 5 clubs with massive spending power, another 3 or 4 who will be on the periphery of doing well and never flirting with relegation and then the rest all looking over their shoulder every single season. Even if we stay up for 5 years we'll always be in this lattre group, much like Stoke last season.
It was either him or Dixon that said, upon our confirmed relegation last time, "they're back where they belong", or something to that effect. What a tosser. I think this will be one of the most interesting seasons in a while. I'll take 17th place, but I want us to be safe by the end of the season, not decided on the last day.
I think what also goes in our favour this season is there have been a lot of managerial changes. Stoke, Man Utd, Man City, Everton, Sunderland, Chelsea. They will all want to put there stamp on the teams they are now managing. I'm not suggesting we're competing with those listed for relegation avoidance - but in a period of transition (for them) I see no reason why we can't take points off them. Stoke, Newcastle, Sunderland, Southampton, Norwich, Villa, Cardiff, Palace will all be in and around the bottom 3 with us.
