He's off to QPR apparently, Maguire is still our Number #1 target. Not heard anything on Robertson for a while, I wonder just how dug in they actually are.
Seems Bruce has now come out and said as much... Once LB and CD sorted he wants a middle of the middle larker. He sees TI and RS as wingers or off the front man, and then says Quinny is the same, so he seems to realise we have no central cover: ""If we can get a left-back in and a centre-back to cover the loss of Abdoulaye Faye, maybe we'll look for a middle of midfield player too or someone that can do a bit of everything. "I'm happy with what we've got up front. Tom Ince and Robert Snodgrass can both play off the front, as can Stephen Quinn as we saw in the FA Cup final. It's a big year for Jelavic and Long, we only just bought them in January."
I still think we need another forward too. Three forwards with all the games we have simply isn't enough.
We have five forwards on the books. Long, Jelavic, Aluko, Sagbo and Proshwitz. Untill they get rid of Proshwitz they wont get in another.
So from that list it's really 3 strikers (Long, Jelavić and Sagbo) Aluko is often injured and Proschwitz is surplus to requirements. I also don't see Aluko as a traditional striker, he's almost an attacking midfielder with the positions he takes up, he's a nice option to have, when fit, but he doesn't fulfil the criteria of a traditional centre forward like Sagbo, Long and Jelavić. Bruce did want to keep Fryatt, plus he has allegedly had talks with Bendtner - So that does suggest there's room for one more.
I personally think we'll see one more striker in before the window closes. We haven't used a loan yet and it appears the two defenders will be coming in on a perm.
This sheds a bit of light on the whole Dawson situation. Dawson, 30, agreed in principle to join Hull on a three-year deal a fortnight ago, but he qualifies for a testimonial next January after a decade of service at White Hart Lane and won't leave until he gets a pay-off from Spurs. Bruce said: "It's stalemate with regard to Michael and, at the moment, we are probably as far away from a deal as we can be."
He was playing left wing in all the games he scored in, so Bruce probably isn't considering him for a strikers role either(other than in an emergency).
His record overall is 11 goals in 92 games according to Wiki. Whilst I admire your enthusiasm, he still isn't a striker. As OLM points out - he's a goal scoring left winger, no doubt he's talented. I'd rather play him on the left, as left footed, left wingers are a scarce commodity.
In fairness he wasn't played as a striker for the majority of those matches and can play in that role. I still think we need a striker though as real competition to Jelavic and Long. I don't see Sagbo as competition because he isn't a natural goal scorer and is more useful as player to hold the ball up when your wasting time with a narrow lead and Aluko being injury prone. With Prochswitz hopefully and likely to leave the club and someone with the finishing ability of Fryatt gone then I definitely feel we need another Striker. Problem is we don't have the finances to afford a quality striker to sit on the bench and why would a player join when they know they will behind Jelavic and Long. I'd like to see us sign a striker from the Championship as there are a few quality ones in that league. Its likely that if we get a striker that it would be a Loan move.
