I was really surprised when Korey went to Oldham. He was easily a championship player at the time. I wouldn't mind some of his sort of guille in our midfield this season.
Skybet have tweeted that we've had a £5M did for Troy Deeney rejected! How many strikers do we need FFS
Surely we'd have to sell two strikers at least for that to be in any way realistic. RvW, Hooper, Lafferty, Grabban, Becchio, Deeney, Loza.... Are we just going to play a 6-0-4 formation? Pack the defence, then lump it up to a load of strikers all waiting on the last defender and let them sort it out? We don't appear to be concerned about creative midfielders yet!
It says we've had a bid rejected this summer, which makes me wonder that we moved onto Lafferty and were no longer looking at Deeney.
The news of the Deeney bid was on an article about West Brom's interest saying we had a bid rejected earlier in the summer. Not necessarily recently as we've bought two strikers now I think our attentions will shift.
I also think that the interest in Deeney was much earlier. It would seem that we've managed to sign both Grabban and Lafferty for what we'd have paid for Deeney, and half of what Rhodes would have cost. More wages I suppose, but then they should be in the medium bracket wage wise. Snods will have been in the top bracket, and at £7-8m his transfer will cover that of both Grabban and Lafferty. That leaves a 25 man squad, so from now it'll be replacements as other players leave. Adams and McNally have handled this well, IMO.
Whilst true, it's still a reasonable target. We don't want a 30 man squad that means we'll have to sell a load of players should we go up. I'd like to think we'll aim for 23-25, and any further additions will come from the loan market.
I think the nature of championship football means that really you need more than 25 men. It's a gruelling season and you really need to rotate the squad more.
* Bosnian winger alert * http://www.first4lcfc.co.uk/blog/leicester-and-norwich-battle-it-out-for-bosnia-international/?
Either we are going to have a shed-load of forwards or we're not bothering with the area we need to strengthen!
I don't know about that. A quick look online suggests he's a left winger capable of playing on the right, or up front if desperate. I don't think we can rely on Murphy as one of the squad just yet, so another left winger isn't unreasonable. At 24 he's a decent age, and notched 10 goals and 10 assists last season, admittedly playing in the Turkish Second division with the eventual champions. Contracted until 2016 apparently, so wouldn't be too cheap.
I still think we need to prioritorise things better than this. Firstly, an upgrade on Wes / Howson who can spot / anticipate movement ahead of him and get decent service to the strikers. This surely has to be our main focus, as our goalscoring record last season was as laughable as it was pathetic. Once that's been addressed, then we can think about replacing Snodders (don't forget we have Benno back, almost like a new signing, having missed 98% of last season through injury) and strengthening at the back if required - this could be helped out with loans at a push, but I still think a permanent ACM is critical to whether we sink or swim next August
That'e what I meant by "area we need to strengthen!" I don't want Hoolahan after his histrionics last term and I'm not sure Howson is right for there!
I didn't mean the 25 man squad as a limit, just that it gives 2 players at every position and 3 keepers. Given that Grabban can play as a RW and Lafferty can play WL (but not necessarily as a winger) it would seem that we have at least 3 options each side, not counting Josh. That leads me to agree with Cromer that ACM should be the next priority, followed by strengthening the defence.
I wonder how many of the top English club's will be pursuing James Rodriguez after his match-winning performance yesterday - his first goal was a beaut!!!!
And his 5th in the World Cup so far. Hot property, methinks. Also, articles on NewsNow's transfer page suggest that West Ham are in negotiations with Boca Juniors about an Argentine LB and are also in negotiations with Lyon about their LB, Kolo. May reduce the chances of Olsson moving on. Only a thought.
Whilst other areas are a greater priority, the club will be working on multiple things at the same time, we just hear the odd rumour. Just because the search for strikers and wingers appears to be proceeding quicker doesn't mean effort isn't going into signing a CAM. I'd like to think we've got a budget for each position that needs work. Supposedly we nearly signed a quality CAM in January, so targets must have been identified and the club knew it's a position requiring work. Alternatively, Adams may not want to play in such a way that requires a central attacking midfielder. Perhaps he's looking to play 4-3-3 with wide strikers rather than wingers, and 3 holding midfielders. Something like: Lafferty - RvW/Hooper - Grabban Johnson - Tettey - Fer Olsson - Turner - Bennett - Martin Ruddy I don't think many could afford him. Monaco splashed £40m on him last summer, and they won't be paying him pennies. Real, Barca, Bayern and Man City are probably the only clubs who could stump up the cash required. Chelsea probably could before signing Costa and Fabregas.
Seems like SAF spurned the chance to sign Rodriguez as a teenager for £5 - http://www.theguardian.com/football...uez-manchester-united-colombia-world-cup-2014. Seems like several clubs are interested in signing him - "Monaco will compete in the Champions League next season, but are nevertheless braced to field interest in their young Colombian, with Real Madrid and Napoli having initially made clear they are monitoring his situation."
