BRISTOL CITY COMMENT: Proven goal-scorer is still the missing piece of the jigsaw for Robins. a_Stockhausen please log in to view this image BRISTOL City's failure to secure the striker they have been seeking since last summer was thrown into sharp focus when their relegation rivals bolstered their attacking options on deadline day. While the Robins were trying desperately to land a goal-scoring forward on loan, fellow Championship strugglers Charlton, Fulham, MK Dons and Bolton Wanderers were all bringing new players in. please log in to view this image One point and two places above City in the table, MK Dons completed a deadline day double, signing strikers Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Alex Revell. Former Ashton Gate favourite Emmanuel-Thomas arrived on loan until the end of the season from Queens Park Rangers, while Cardiff allowed Revell to move on a free transfer. Charlton also recruited additional firepower for the run-in, landing Arsenal's 23-year-old French forward Yaya Sanogo on loan until the end of the season. An FA Cup winner with Premier League and Champions League experience, Sanogo is expected to make his debut against the Robins in this Saturday's crucial relegation battle at The Valley. please log in to view this image Fulham enjoyed a successful end to the window, keeping hold of prised assets Moussa Dembele and Ross McCormack, fending off interest from Bristol City for Matt Smith and recruiting attacking midfielder Zakaria Labyad on loan from Sporting Lisbon and former Chelsea man Rohan Ince from Brighton. Bottom-of-the-table Bolton Wanderers will have experienced similar relief when the deadline passed without Zach Clough, a target for City earlier in the window, leaving the Macron Stadium. Blackburn Rovers lost top-scorer Jordan Rhodes to Middlesbrough, whose persistence eventually paid off with the Scot moving to the Riverside in a deal worth £11m. please log in to view this image Rovers boss Paul Lambert moved immediately to secure the services of creative midfield players Jordi Gomez on loan from Premier League Sunderland. One place above the relegation zone and desperate to strengthen following Saturday's 4-1 defeat at home to Charlton, lowly Rotherham managed to add seven players to their squad in all during January. Recognising a need for more goals, manager Neil Redfearn recruited winger Chris Burke on loan from Nottingham Forest, took a gamble on former Leeds United veteran Luciano Becchio and then signed attacking midfielder Andrew Shinnie on a short-term deal from Birmingham City on deadline day. please log in to view this image In contrast, City's only business on the following day of the window involved turning goalkeeper Richard O'Donnell's loan from Wigan into a permanent transfer, the 27-year-old signing a two-and-a-half-year deal. Forced to abandon their search for a midfielder after Gillingham rejected a late £2m bid for Bradley Dack, the Robins will renew their search for a striker when the window for emergency loan signings reopens at the beginning of next week. Interim manager John Pemberton's requirement is for a goal-scoring forward with a Championship pedigree who can come in and strengthen the starting eleven and chief operating officer Mark Ashton is already working on potential deals. please log in to view this image But that will not assuage some City fans, who are becoming impatient at having to wait for the arrival of a new centre forward. Supporters of a disgruntled persuasion point to business done by City's rivals and question why the Robins were unable to recruit a forward on deadline day. But the question they perhaps need to ask themselves is this; how many of the attacking players recruited by their rivals would have made a real difference had they signed on at Ashton Gate instead? Some City fans were casting envious glances towards Stadium MK last night, but close analysis of their careers shows that Revell and Emmanuel-Thomas have only ever been regular providers of goals in League One. Neither has set the Championship alight and there is no guarantee their presence will save a team that has been conceding goals at an alarming rate recently. please log in to view this image On the face of it, bringing Sanogo to The Valley looks like cracking business for Charlton. But his goal-scoring record is not overly impressive and the Frenchman has struggled to make an impact at the Emirates since arriving in 2013. Again, a team near the bottom of the table are taking a gamble on someone who has hardly played as boasts no form to speak of. Rotherham's recruitment of Becchio smacks of desperation, while Blackburn new0-boy Gomez cannot possibly replace the weight of goals Rhodes has taken with him to Middlesbrough. Retaining the services of Clough represents a coup for struggling Bolton, but the Trotters are weaker now than at the start of the January window and face a major struggle to retain their status. please log in to view this image Of those teams involved in the relegation battle, only Fulham emerged from the window with flying colours, managing to retain the services of Dembele, McCormack and Smith despite interest from Tottenham, Middlesbrough and Bristol City. The arrival of Dutchman Labyad could be sufficient to help the Cottagers pull away from trouble. But then Bristol City themselves have enjoyed a far more productive window than last summer, when high-profile players appeared to turn the Robins down on an almost daily basis. Five players arrived at Ashton Gate during the past month, satisfying the joint requirement for increased creativity and Championship experience. please log in to view this image Lee Tomlin and Ben Gladwin can be expected to provide City with a cutting edge in the final third, while O'Donnell, Alex Pearce and Scott Golbourne will provide solidity and knowhow at the other end of the pitch. A goal-scoring striker remains a priority and, providing Ashton can land one when the loan window reopens, the Robins should have enough to climb out of the bottom three and give themselves a decent chance of survival. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-CITY-COMMENT-Proven-goal-scorer-missing/story-28652461-detail/story.html
Some City fans were casting envious glances towards Stadium MK last night, but close analysis of their careers shows that Revell and Emmanuel-Thomas have only ever been regular providers of goals in League One. You could argue that had we been successful in prising Bradshaw away from Walsall during the window we would have been in the same boat as he is untried at this level, whilst JET and Revell have had a go and not really made names for themselves either.
Just read an interesting bit on Matt Smith on OTIB and it really makes sense when you think of it. Why would Fulham sell / loan us a forward who could potentionally fire us to safety and could potentionally put them in danger of relegation. The only bit I'm disappointed in regarding the others is Pembo came in with SoD so knows that JET can be a good addition, so surely if we was struggling why didn't we at least enquire? I hope MKD get the Cardiff version of JET and not the version we had for the first 6 months.
I said that letting JET go could come back and bite us on the arse. He may not be setting the world alight but every goal he scores for MK will be another nail in our coffin.
I'm not sure it'll be possible to sign a 'proven' goalscorer in the loan market - for the few players out there that can be described as such at this level, they'll be too valuable to their parent clubs to want to let go. Unfortunately, I think we'll be left hoping to get someone that you hope enjoys something of an Indian Summer (I know it's going back, but a Mark Robins type), or a promising youngster at a Premiership club that you take a punt on. I don't want to sound overly pessimistic, but I can't see us getting someone in that would be a significant upgrade, or provide much of a different option to, what we already have.
Just been told who we are trying to get next week on loan... decent striker to be fair. If it comes off we'll all be happy.
I have never heard the nail in the coffin term more than right now. What a sad sack lot we have running our club and some of the rumours going the rounds during the transfer window were probably part of the smoke and mirrors campaign adopted by the waffling leaders that we appear to attract with regularity. Trying to get a player is one thing, but convincing them that Bristol City is where they should be clearly isn't working, and I think the latter is down to the apathetic way we try to do business. We have almost run out of time and from here on out it will get a lot messier.
No such thing.... Proven goalscorers are proven at the clubs they are currently playing for if they exist, they aren't proven to score for your club. Fernando Torres, Benjani, Chamakh, Wilfried Bony. Even if they have played for several clubs and had a good goals to game ratio at all of them, still doesn't mean they will do the same for us if we brought them into the fold at Ashton Gate. A lot of it is just luck I think, with talent and hard work also mixed in. But look at the SAGS strikers down the years, Beadle used to be good, Hayles, Roberts, Zamora, Lambert, Will Hoskins, none of them were expensive buys that were brought in as "proven strikers" at the level they were brought in to play.
Why because in the last four games we've conceded 2 goals? Granted that Kodjia has not scored in a few but all forwards go through lean spells, he's even been having to do all the approach play himself. Now we've got two additions in midfield who can I'm sure help contribute with goals and play help feed him the service needed. Or is it that you just like to moan?
Of course I like to moan and that's what being a City supporter for 60 years does to your psyche. You hit the nail on the head by saying that Kodjia is not getting the support he needs to score more goals and like you I hope that some of the new additions will help him with better midfield distribution. Perhaps only 2 goals in our last 2 games is down to O'Connell or a better back line in front of him and long may that continue. However the biggest problem is our lack of goals and we need to address that issue in the upcoming loan window or we may fall. Moan on Mike it's what keeps me going, and have a great day ROD. Moan again.
I like that Moan on Mike, can you change your user name just for one month please to that. Then every time I see it I will start reading with a giggle
have to go along with all here! its time to knuckle down and start moaning again AT EASTER .... then we can moan about if only we had done this before Christmas we'd be top 6 or sack the board div 1 here we come............... it will be interesting to see if the midfield will turn on the supply ... and forwards water the lawn ...
I'll just keep moaning on then? I hope the new midfielders can supply the chances and if we sign a proven goal scorer at this level who knows what might happen, and you never know I might stop moaning on and on and on. Yeah right!!!!!
You want to moan Inver, you bloody moan away, it's good to have balance, I may not agree with you mind but I love differing points of view and if they give you a verbal kicking they may leave me alone as well.
Bring it out into the open shiney,tell us i did and hope it happens. But i get the vibes we would like big,but don't like the baggage and costs that come with it.
Everyone and his dog is banging on about us not signing a striker which is perhaps not unexpected HOWEVER our forwards HAVE been scoring, Kojida has 9 and Wilbraham has 6. Ok, maybe they should be on more but what people are not thinking about is that it is not just the forwards who are allowed to score, the biggest deficiency that we have all revolves around midfield in that whilst not playing badly, it has not: a). created enough for our forwards b). it has scored 3 goals all season In the window, we have bought in Tomlin and Gladwin, both attacking and goal scoring midfielders so am I seriously the only one on here who has managed to work out that if we up our goals contribution from midfield, this will create more balance take some of the pressure off the forwards. That said, if Sanogo scores the winner on Saturday, it will not be good Also, we HAVE bought in a striker in the form of Garita. I really don't care if he is young, he looks plenty big and powerful and I imagine he is pretty quick too so why not chuck him in and create havoc in a struggling teams (Charlton's) defence...
