Fulham close getting Hooper on loan!? Please no, we are going to end up with a worse squad than we started deadline day at this rate!
Hate to admit it, but I'm getting a bit like that myself as well! I'm sure it was only a week ago that I was lecturing folk on patience and caution, and I think I need a dose of that myself right now because if I'm being honest I am genuinely getting a little bit worried about our squad, particularly when I see just how much the clubs around us are strengthening. Moses, Song and Jelavic all excellent signings for West Ham, Dyer is superb business for Leicester and even Glenn Murray will do a good job for Bournemouth. I'm hoping there's a rabbit or two to pull out of a hat in the next couple of hours or so, though as the clock ticks there is less and less chance of that happening.
It may just be waiting for finalising, you should know by now, DM never says "We are doing!" He only says "We have done!"
Which is about the only thing making me think this Mbokani work permit is a done deal! BBC West Midlands reckon WBA are unlikely to do any more business, which bodes well for Walters I guess.
At least if there were 1/2 or even no rumours it would feel like we were working sensibly behind the scenes to make 1 or 2 important and well thought out deals come to fruition (Though that is difficult to imagine on deadline day even for an optimist). These names coming through fill you with dread and a feeling that the club is rather desperate with any plans having been; scuppered, handled badly or just ill conceived! It's time to please log in to view this image Bah!
Though admittedly it is most likely agents feeding the rumour mill. I sincerely hope that the Onoha was agent nonsense because we surely can't be that desperate! Can we? Bah!
I've been the same as you all summer. Only comfort is, I suppose, that this squad should never have been relegated two years ago. Even if the players are largely the same, at least the manager has greatly improved. Gives us a fighting chance...
Weird - I am more relaxed about our squad than I've been for most of the Summer, other than maybe I'd be very keen to see the back of Grabban (and keep Hooper). I don't see a desperate need for CB that some do, we should only get one if they're going to be a marked improvement on what we've got, which it seems will cost us £8m plus and there don't seem many in that range that are available or want to come to us. Obviously judgement should be reserved, but I'm keen on Mbokani and it seems that Neil has wanted him for quite some time so although it's come through late in the day that's because of external factors we couldn't do much about rather than suggesting we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. From what little I've seen, Mbokani is very similar to Jerome being big, strong and pacey, so I think represents a safeish bet as far as foreign loans go. Yes, he doesn't have sell-on potential, but we need someone who is ready straight away and what we really need in our squad is someone who will regularly put the ball in the back of the net with all these chances they are given - whether Mbokani will do that can't be seen from youtube vids, but time will tell. As for other clubs - the ones who have done good business IMO (Palace, Stoke, West Ham and Leicester) are, having seen the start of the season, not the ones I think we're going to be fighting with (Leicester's bubble may burst). I don't think the likes of Sunderland, Bournemouth, Watford, West Brom and Villa (and perhaps Newcastle) have shown much so far whereas before the season had started I was really concerned. I think our squad as it is is now able to stay above those five/six clubs for safety. It's healthy that we've offloaded a few players like Turner and RvW and I do think we need to get rid of Grabban and perhaps Lafferty if possible and I'd be delighted if both of those went and we got in Walters, but not too fussed at this stage.
Hooper Having a Fulham Medical now apparently!? We bloody better have a really good goalscorer all but signed up! Otherwise this is Bulls**t
Saw a story a hour ago or so that he was having Fulham talks, Just seen that there's a medical. It' only says to both stories "from reports" So we can hope it's false, but they are usually pretty good. Watford have signed another 3 players!?!?! That's about a whole new 25 man squad they have bought this summer! Murray makes 10 for Bournemouth, which surprises me, I thought the manager would have shown more faith.
It's not just the lack of sell-on value that concerns me about Mbokani, it's more the fact that by the age of 29 (30 in a couple of months) he remains competely unproven at this level. Yes, he scored lot of goals in Belgium, but that's not comparable with the Premier League, and his only spells in Europe's top divisions were fleeting ones with Wolfsburg and Monaco, both of which were unsuccessful. If Hooper does move on and nobody else comes in up front today then we are taking one hell of a risk if you ask me, especially if Grabban remains part of the squad.
Brady "buzzing" at the thought of Walters joining the club and hope it happens. Wonder why he's said that. Anything to ready into it?
