In yesterdays echo it read that Sam might be interested in Charlie in January if true I would be happy, as long as Duncan gets chances in the first team.
Austin would be top of my wish list Fletcher and Graham will leave on frees in the summer which would leave us short up top. Wouldnt be shocked if Defoe leaves in the summer too
If I were Ellis, I'd demand Whatmore played and I'd invest in a good defence. Austin is a luxury which would be nice but is it required? From what I saw against Stoke (yes I was there!!) Whatmore looks good enough to keep you up.
Austin for Danny Graham would be a definite upgrade. But if we keep Fletch where does he fit in? Defoe, Fletch, Watmore & Borini. And Austin? Not when our defence needs its average age bringing down by a decade...
And Allardyce walks away just like Keane did because of short getting himself involved in team matters. Managers manage and chairmen run business. I'd honestly prefer Watmore to be sub on Saturday and come on second half
Echo also says that Sam is only looking at the loan market in January - can't see us getting him on loan. Mind, they were quoting Sam when asked about Townsend and that deal's a no-goer as far as a loan goes as we've already got one from Spurs. Don't know if Sam is trying to throw people of the scent with the loan market comments or if the Echo are just confused
Chris Young works for the Echo and he quoted sam as if he was saying "getting back from 2-0 to 2-2 is as good as a win regardless of the final result" (after the Everton game) when, if you look at the whole quote, there was much more to what he said so I don;t really take much notice of what he prints nowadays
I see him being Fletchers replacement if he comes, Watmore has replaced Graham already. We still have Borini, Toi, Lens who can also do a decent job up there. Austin would be a great addition and an improvement, Sign him and in my opinion we would have no trouble staying up, as long as we also signed 2 x decent defenders.
I'd see us as being as comfortable as the like of Stoke and West Ham in the league table if we can get Austin in, to stand alongside the likes of Borini, Watmore, Toi and Lens. There are goals in that line-up. We just need to consolidate the good work being done on the defensive side and I see less sweaty-palms times ahead. It doesn't sound much to want to be around the likes of Stoke and West Ham, but that would represent a substantial turnaround from the last few seasons.
Totally!!! But there's a good player in there somewhere and I'm hoping Big Sam can find him and get him performing!
A lot of if's and but's in my last 2 posts there. Everything's still up in the air, but the early signs are looking promising. Three wins in six. Couldn't have dreamt that 2-3 months ago. I've got a lot of faith in Big Sam. But if he can't fix us, I'm not sure where we'd go from there, except downwards.
Austin would cost us 15m plus we need to spend at least 10m on the defense. If we can sell a few like Bridcutt, Buckly, Graham etc... its maybe a 20m investment. To stay in the premier league this year 20m investment is a good deal because we will lose a lot more dropping into the championship.
He won't cost £20m as he's out of contract in the summer and will leave for nowt. If he leaves in Jan I'd guess for £8-£12m max unless someone like Villa put a desperation bid in for him to try and keep them up.
