What do you mean by 'proven', if it's 20 goal a season strikers then we can't afford one, nevermind two.
Why cant we afford one, or two? If Jela is going for 3 million, n'doye for 3-4, abel for whatever we get for him... then all 3 wages are suddenly available, add to that the money we got for Ince.. Why cant we afford 1 or 2 proven strikers? at championship level obviously.
Well 2 proven as in top scorers using around a 20 goal total would probably run 20 mill plus that's why.
The wages would certainly be freed up, but the fees would go straight into paying off what we still owe on those players, so we're really no better off.
It's been over a decade since we had a player score that many. Hard to even imagine seeing that repeated again in the near future.
proven striker, someone that's done it as this level before, we can surely afford 1 or possibly 2. for example, and im not saying these exact players, im saying its very possible to pay reasonable money to land a decent championship striker.. how much would Hooper cost us if we wanted him? he got 12 goals last season.. for example, Assombalonga - 15 goals (cost around 5 million) Cameron Jerome - 20 goals (cost around 2 million) Jordan Rhodes - 21 goals - (cost around 8 million) Bruce isnt going to make the same mistake twice and sign an unproven (proschwitz) striker and pin all our hopes on him. Dont forget last time we had Fryatt & Koren chipping in with goals otherwise we wouldnt have gone up. We need a proven striker, if not 2, money will have to be spent, any transfer money we had for the season, plus money from the sales of players will hopefully land us 2 quality strikers. The rest of the team is pretty much set. Might need a midfielder on loan once Diame or Thudd goes.
Hullborn, if you think City are about to cough up £20m on two strikers then you should prepare yourself for the possibility of being disappointed. I hope I'm wrong, mind.
We obviously need a couple of strikers, but don't expect to see any until at least one of our current ones are gone. I'd take Wilson from Man U, I'd also like to see us buy some academy players from the bigger clubs, like we did with Evans, Chester and Stewart.
To be fair we have been linked with Andre Gray at Brentford and he isn't going to befree if we are interested, I'd imagine he'll be circa £5m. If the Allams want to ever sell the club, then the reality is they really need to be back in the PL. Which means they will have to spend money - the current team is simply nowhere near good enough.
Of course we wont be spending £20m on 2 strikers probably not even half that. But we will be spending most of our money on strikers and if we get it right, its possible to buy 2 strikers that can get well into double figures with a reasonable amount of money. Bruce is a bit hit or miss with his signings.. hopefully he can get it right this time. Id love to go for Hooper and maybe someone younger with potential. A loan signing from the prem, like a Wilson would be great too, but only as a squad player.
Is Stan Ternent the one who identified Hernandez then? He seems to be the one signing all the young Academy players, doe he do the big first team signings too?
They weren't proven when they were signed for those prices though. Rhodes and Assombalonga had only ever played in League One and Jerome had scored 9 goals in his last Championship season. They were punts which paid off, not proven players. We may well take some punts on lower league/unsuccessful players, but still not at the prices of Assombalonga and Rhodes.
Of course we all hope that, I just think some people need a reality check. The reason we are selling players is because we need the money and to get them off the wage bill, not so we can re-invest in equally costly players. We are going to need 8/9 new players this window, and we will probably have £5-6 million to spend on them. We're not going to be looking at £12 million strikers, and anyone who thinks we are is going to be very disappointed.
Who is going to buy glass knees Jelavic and who is going to pay £50k a week to N'Doye? I can see us starting the Hudders game with them two up front
We're also selling them because they were ineffective and they don't want to play in the Championship. We have expressed a desire to hang onto our better players, some of which are entering the final year. I'd suggest the opposite and this season is actually **** or bust. I can't see the point in hanging onto our better players only to replace the forward line with mediocre run of the mill **** that aren't going to score goals. We've already lost Ince due to some ******. We are going to require a team capable of scoring around 80-100 goals this season to stand a chance of promotion. I think we are going to have to add about 50-60 goals to the side based on all of our current front line going.
