So we came close to signing Austin, but didn't. We could've been more aggressive signing Rhodes, but we weren't . We could have signed Gray two weeks ago, but we didn't. What is it about signing goalscorers that we are so **** at?
I like McShane, Quinn, Rosenior and Harper. But in the long run it was probably better we got rid of them. We are going through a period of rebuilding a team to target promotion and I would like us this time to be a lot more prepared. With young players as it appears that Bruce would also. Truth is that those players I have mentioned aren't really Premier League quality and if we wanted to keep them then we would have needed to offer them new contracts that would most likely mean we would have kept them in the Premier League should we get promoted. It's difficult to get rid of players you like but it doesn't mean we should keep them indefinitely. It's clear that we needed to start a new chapter and the dead weight and stalwarts where the first to leave. I'd rather have Maguire given the opportunity than sticking with McShane. I'd rather have Odubajo than Rosenior. I'm pretty sure we will buy a centre mid and a goalkeeper so I will reserve judgment on who I would prefer between then new signings and Harper / Quinn. The only one I think we desperately miss is Harper. Because we have the two most calamitous keepers in the league.
Or what happens if nobody else leaves after spending £7/8/9m on Gray and giving him a decent wage, we end up making a loss of let's say £12m, we start next season in the championship with a fine for £12m, have to sell everyone to meet it, begin the season with a mixture of academy players and James harpers on free transfers? What if we don't get promoted again at all? Where does the money come from to cover the losses? Don't say we just sell Gray back on because there's no guarantee he'll come here and score goals. We could be hawking him about on loan offering to pay half his wages in two years time, it's not like there's no precedent for this type of thing. We have been relegated from the PL, we can't afford to go paying out £7m without having that sort of cash first. And don't say 'well we got x amount for Brady Chester and ince', the stark reality is, a good sizeable chunk of that money goes elsewhere, sell on fees, agents, the players themselves, the fa, an even bigger chunk will hve been spoken for already to cover whatever we owe on transfer fees from the pat couple of seasons and excess wages we're left with (despite 50% pay cuts we had players on 40/50k a week. 20-25k per week is a lot of money for a club with championship income). I suspect all the money we've recieved has already been spent. I would be absolutely ****ing amazed if there was even half of the initial fee for Gray left over. So who's going to pay for it? Who's going to cover his wage? And with five strikers already on our books, there are far more pressing matters elsewhere. Central midfield, in goal and the left flank for starters.
Is Sterling worth 49m, is Stones worth 30m+, was Shane Long worth 15m. The answer to all is no. But sometimes you have to pay over the odds to get the player you want. Everyone wants a goalscorrer and they are few and far between. We spent over the odds on Hernandez who hadn't scored a goal in English football. We could spend less and get a player who has. No disrespect to Bristol City. But it's embarrassing for us if he signs for them over us.
Well to us he was worth at least the £12M we got for him, if he hadn't been sold he would have been enough to keep us up as he'd formed a decent partnership with Jela, oh and we probably wouldn't be struggling now to move Hernandez on as we wouldn't have bought him in a panic.
I get the feeling we aren't struggling to move him on, I think Bruce wants to keep him. If we do, could turn out to be a better move than buying Andre Gray.
I hope you're right Bob, to be fair to him I could see Abel doing a decent job in the Championship, we just need that creative central midfielder who can slot those diagonal passes through to him.
It says to me that Bristol are willing to pay a bigger transfer fee, pay more wage's and if its all about money then Bristol are welcome to him, would like to see him at city, but not if we have to bust the bank to get him, and at the moment the only thing that's happen is Brentford have accepted the money offered and the player has been given permission to talk to them, talking and signing are totally different thing's, this is were the money grabbing agents get involved and bearing in mind the size of the transfer fee he'll be after PL wages now.
Genuine question, what have you seen in him that makes you think that? I saw the good flashes when we first came in but being away most of last season I had to rely on dodgy streams and the rare TV coverage. I was was excited when we signed him, heard he was all about pace and running.. I just haven't seen it!
Norwich have made a substantial offer for Wolves centre-forward Benik Afobe. Unlikely they'll want Jelavic as well.
If we got back in the top tier I expect we could afford it. And I'd worry about that wonderful problem of getting promoted once it happened. With Hernandez while he has ability I'm not sure I can really trust he will be mentally up for it much of the time.
I think we'll struggle to sell Jelavic. He's a grafter but has no pace and his first touch is often poor.
I also don't think we've dropped out for Andre Gray over £500k. It's possible, but I reckon our previous interest was more posturing, upsetting the player, making sure he knows our interest is genuine. I think we purposefully stopped a smidgen short, waiting until one of our other centre forwards leaves before we can actually push a deal through.
Interesting. This could result in one of our competitors losing their best striker and freeing up Hooper for a move to us.
I think our masterplan is to wait until our players leave on the last day of the window and then we pay over the odds for rubbish.
