Although I could be pedantic and suggest that at 26 he is better than ?? was at 26?? or at least has shown more than ?? at 26. I get the puzzlement of some posters and I get that they don't understand why last week to this week things have changed but being a keen politics follower and someone who loves the ins and outs and backroom dealings of politics this saga has all the hallmarks of a masterclass in politics. This transfer has not just happened overnight and he hasn't been injured for a month to suddenly fly through our medical and earn a 4.5 year deal. This has been in the planning for a while. I expect there will be some extra millions hidden away in a vague area on the accounts for this year end where we have softened QPRs blow so we can get a coup in terms of price. I expect this cost more than the £4m fee otherwise it wouldn't have been kept so quiet. I also suspect this deal would have been announced on day 1 of the transfer window had Koeman not been under fire and it has given the board the opportunity to bolster their head coach. Koeman comes out in the press with undisguised digs at the board about not selling anyone and wanting money in the window. Koeman gets to talk tough, board backs him. Koeman comes out the other side looking stronger. Has all the hallmarks of politics to me and must admit I didn't see through it all. I suspect Pelle will be gone this window if the right offer comes in now. Otherwise he will stay until the summer. We won't be letting him go cheap. As for Austin. He isn't the superstar, superflash, super-skilled eye catching forward so I can see why there are a few 'mehs' however he is what a centre forward should be and that is deadly. No tricks needed, no skills needed, just strong powerful quick minded. The type that is in the right place all the time and the type that has just that extra desire that means he beats the defenders to the ball. As an example from today's game. If he had that chance that Mane had gone through on in the second half he would have scored that 9/10. If he had that opportunity that for a brief second that appeared in front of Tadic before the Brom defender hooked the ball away he would have scored. He would have reacted much much quicker than Tadic. That millisecond of quicker thinking / instinctiveness is what the excitement is about. As for what has changed? Today signalled that it is Long that will be the one we want to keep and Pelle will be on the way out. Mane is going anyway. Seager is not a starter and I think we will play both Long and Austin together. There will be opportunities from the bench for the kids next season. Can I just add...how good was Davis today? World class performance. The vision and execution of some of his forward passing and through balls were way beyond what he is capable of. MOTM for me just ahead of Long who was incredible. Special mention to Mane as well who put a great shift in. So for the signing. This is a stunning signing for us. We will not be able to get a better quality CF at this juncture of our development without it being a mercenary at double our wage bill. Quite simply we could not bring a better striker than Austin to St Marys at this moment in time. Comparisons between him and Rickie are unfair like Beefy says. Rickie holds the ball up, is involved in the build up and then slowly moves into the box. He is involved in as many goals as he scores. Austin will lay the ball off and then bust a gut to get into the box. Rickie does more work with his back to the goal. Austin faces the goal more. A different type of player. A Shearer type of player.
I said last week that I've never been excited at signing Austin and didn't know why. I remember watching in league one and thinking that he has a lot of ability. He always scored against back. Then and seemed to now. Back in the summer when people were saying we should go for Austin, I just wasn't convinced for 15m or whatever QPR wanted. In recent weeks I've sort of been more tempted because we went through that spell of no goals. I am gob smacked at the fee. In today's market, that's a steal and a no brainier. We signed a RB for 2m as cover and he's only just a footballer. This deal is incredible in today's values, even if he doesn't play all the games. Finally, when was the least time Saints had a striker who scored 18 Premier League goals? ** ** I know, James Beattie
Even including high wages, it's a good deal. If Austin's total earnings with bonuses included come to, I dunno, 90k a week, our total start-to-finish commitment with agent fee and the rest is probably going to clock in around 25-27m over 4.5 years. Which is a lot of money, but thoroughly affordable in the current era.
Yeah, thought I heard that, just a Qpr fan told me he's out injured. They were never going to risk him knowing the situation were they.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...us-intent-with-signing-of-Charlie-Austin.html Interesting point in Telegraph suggesting that releasing Caulker so that QPR could make a better deal with Liverpool may have been part of the deal.
