Austin or Hooper?

You may as well write "Scored more goals in EPL last season then Messi and Ronaldo put together!" It means nothing.

(Also, "EPL"? Really?)

 

Mboyo would be a great signing, just the type of player that could keep us up.

 

If we got Mboyo it might take the sting out of the Hooper/Austin deals not happening, but I'd have thought those two were our preferred choices. Petric on a free would also be a good shout.

 

I don't think the Stoke interest in Austin is too significant. I expect us to land Austin and/or Mboyo. Hooper will go elsewhere (Sunderland probably).

 

This Mboyo fella sounds interesting. Perhaps someone should start a thread about whether City should sign him.

Or perhaps not.

 

It means he is more "proven" than Hooper or Austin, and it could be argued is in the same skill bracket. I didn't mention Messi and Ronaldo because as far as I am aware they are not on our list of potential targets. I was trying to remain both realistic and upbeat.

If, last year, we had talked about bringing Holt in then most people on here would have been turning somersaults up and down Ferensway.

I would be delighted with Hooper and/or Austin, but Holt is better then any of the dross we have had over the last 5 years. Including all current strikers (except Aluko). Can I remind you that last time we were in the Premier League we had such luminaries as Cullen and Manucho staring for us. Frankly, you and I could probably do better.

 

To be fair, last year, we were preparing for a Championship campaign in which we were looking to sneak into the top 6, but at least achieve top 8.

 

Holt would be a quality addition to our squad. Great player.

 

Not sure the "Stoke" interest is actually Stokes. May well be Burnley spreading disinformation to drum up the price by panicking us into increasing our offer. Unlikely to work with Bruce/Allam partnership. Look at Leicester and Fulham. Both left with "£4m" goalkeepers, who don't want to be there, because they tried to rip us off.

Why would Stoke sell tried and tested Kenwyne Jones in order to pay more for untried Austin? We should offer Stoke £1m for Kenwyne, see what they say!

 

Yes, exactly, and Austin was a Championship striker and Hooper an ex Scunny man, so about our target level. Didn't notice either of them being touted as Premiership players last year.

Top sides like Man U and Arsenal can afford to take a punt on some up and coming wonder kid. Those of us who expect to be scrabbling around the bottom of the pond need a, tried and tested at this level, goal scorer.

 

Hooper was being hunted by Norwich for all of last season, so I don't know where you got that from. They had around 5 bids rejected throughout the year, up to around £8m.

Austin delivered his best form last season, so it was only from late January onwards that anyone linked him with a move away.

 

Valid point, though he might argue that Stoke don't exactly swamp their strikers with chances. I'm not suggesting him as a target by the way, my point was I'm not sure Stoke are actually in the race for Austin.

Nor I might add, will many other clubs be. Too expensive for other championship clubs, too untried and therefore risky for most bottom of the table Premiership clubs, and not good enough for the top table.

Hence the Burnley chairman thinking "I know, I'll pretend Stoke have bid, their strikers are **** so it'll be believable".

 

Wasn't Norwich's bid £3m and as many turkeys as he could eat? I think they dropped out because Celtic wanted a lot more than Norwich thought he was worth. Look at how they reacted to our interest this summer. Nobody else was going to rival the Norwich bid because nobody else thought the Celtic valuation was realistic.

To be fair, Celtic always over value their players, because as a club they really believe they're up there with Chelsea, Man City et al. Deluded I think is the word.

On Austin I agree with you. That, in part, was my point. Come good in the last six months. Bit like Holt did the previous year.

 

Actually wasn't it £3m cash and a load of add on goodies over 3 years? Thought that was why Celtic rejected it.

 

Yes, but look at the phraseology, "...bids, the largest of which was worth £6m". I'm sure we had a canary on here singing about £3m and three years of add ons.

 

Just to let you know, Hooper is still our top transfer target

A fee had been agreed in January, but they wouldn't accept the amount upfront. We do our transfer business very sound, and no one gets a whiff of it till its basically done. I'm surprised we haven't been linked more this summer, maybe the signing of RvW has stopped it but down this way its very well known that Hughton wants RvW, Hooper and Toivonen as part of our attacking department!

If we get them, is a completely different matter!

 

Just out of interest what was the upfront amount you offered in Jan? Knowing the Scots they probably wanted to count every coin.