As the title of this thread suggests, I'm confused - confused by the attitude of a number of our fans. There seems to be an alarming number of City fans who are questioning why the club have failed (so far) to bring in a new centre forward this January. What exactly do they mean by this? Are they genuinely suggesting that the club aren't bothered about signing a new striker and are just twiddling their thumbs all month? We know this is nonsense as Hughton himself is on record saying he'd like to add reinforcements up front. The club will have their targets and just because fans are not told who they are does not mean they don't exist. Are people seriously that impatient that they'd settle for any old striker, just to appease their own boredom during this window, or would they prefer, like me, to try and sign a striker (or any position for that matter) who will improve our side, and if that striker is not available, hold fire and not go out and purchase any available forward just for the sake of it? Say we signed Glenn Murray for £3m - a striker who is not going to improve the current side. Do people want that? For goodness sake, whoever you are, we don't want a striker - we want a striker who improves us, otherwise, what's the point? Stop moaning that we haven't signed anyone yet! We all want the team improved, so let the manager try and get the players in who actually improve us!! OTBC IHWT
Errrr, I thought that it would be obvious that people want a better, improved striker to join us? I think we do need more options up front. I don't know who, as I am not privvy to all the information that the club have on their various targets from scouting reports. I hope we get someone really good in that's an improvement on what we have at the moment and offers something different than what we already have.
All I would add to this is those of you saying we should splash the cash in order to get next years increase in TV money, if you really think that would work, I'll just say this! "Look at QPR!"
errr, EVERYONE wants a better striker in, that is a given. what i'm saying is why are people so desperate for any old striker to join, just so they can say we've signed someone?! people genuinely seem disappointed that the club aren't even trying to buy a striker!!! this isn't true! we should only buy a striker if they are going to improve us or at the very least be on a par to holt so they can realistically challenge him. buying someone who doesn't improve us isn't solving any problems, only creating new ones.
I think a lot of people are nervous about how the team would do if anything happened to Holt. I don't think many would seriously want us to buy someone who did not improve the squad but I personally feel that IF we can bring in someone good enough to take some of the load from Holt then it will stack the odds of us staying up even further in our favour. In the system we are playing he is pivotal and it does not appear that any of our other options are capable of playing that role sufficiently well, hence the perceived need. Personally I would rather we brought in someone to do this if the right player is available at a sane price. Perhaps it would be worth "trading-in" one of our existing players for a player of similar ability IF that player was more suited to the system CH prefers. On the other hand I also feel that if we were able to bring in some quality in the middle of the park then maybe we could afford to play with two up top and this would give our other forwards an opportunity to play in positions which suit them. I felt sorry for Jackson on Saturday chasing any number of God-awful passes and watching crosses hit the first man - square peg, round hole not helped by the failings of those around him. I still think that we have sufficient to stay up regardless but I would rather we take a punt on someone capable of giving Holt cover than do nothing and watch us slide if he loses fitness or form. I accept that this will not be easy and i also know that CH and the team will not be sitting with their feet up not trying to improve the squad and I would imagine that we, along with a lot of other clubs will do a bit of business once the end of the window nears.
we don't have the cash to splash, so its no wonder we aren't throwing it around! we have to be more clever with our funds
If that's the case then maybe they should take the train down to Loftus Road every other week or remember back less than five years when all we could afford were other clubs cast-offs, freebies and loan rangers. Compared with our very recent past we have a very good squad containing an awful lot of up and coming talent only likely to get better - I hope that the likes of Howson, the Bennetts, Snod etc can stay long enough to reach their full potential with us even though if we continue to do well I can see them being poached by others.
Presumeably that's a dig at me Dave for my comments on the other thread ? Let me make myself clear, when I said 'splash the cash' I didn't for one minute mean megabucks that we couldn't afford , merely what was within budget. And Supers, I'm not 'getting impatient' at all, as I'm sure the club is working very hard behind the scenes to bring in a striker. My honest opinion remains however, that if we fail to do so we will struggle to survive. We have ONE decent forward in Holt, Morison is slow, seems disinterested and frankly is just not good enough. Jackson just can't quite cut it, certainly not on his own anyway, so what does that leave us with ? Am I the only one who thinks that relegation would be an absolute travesty after all the hard work put in to get to the PL ? That TV money next year would basically ensure NCFC's future for years to come having learnt our lessons in the past.
what happens when we identify the player we want, his team agree to let him go and he is eager to join us? his team will need to get a replacement first and will wait to the end of the window to see if any other offers come in so they can force the price up. this may already be happening for all we know, so we don't need any kneejerk reactions until 5 p.m. on the 31st January.
No, it's a dig at QPR because they are trying to spend their way out of relegation by buying mercenaries yet that's what got them into the mess in the first place, and if they do go down then they are royally ****ed!
FOr me it is simple: If we can find a striker at least as good as Holt for a sane price and wage (big caveats I know) then I think we should buy him. If not then: If we can find a striker of similar ability to our back-ups who is capable of playing on his own up front then buy him, stay up and buy someone better in the Summer If we can buy a DM capable of playing a more expansive game or a CB who would make our defence strong enough to not require the protection of two DM's then buy them. Our lack of firepower is not just down to the forwards, it is down to the system we have to play which trades creativity for solidity. If we improve other areas of the squad so that we can play a more attacking formation then I suspect the goals will look after themselves. Bear in mind that we have the same personnel who scored plenty last season plus Snodgrass and a fit Howson. If CH played more like PL there is every chance we would be discussing our need to replace Bassong and Turner with better as they were shipping too many goals. I think that there are many ways of skinning this cat, not just the purchase of a Holt-quality forward. Currently we are not, in my opinion, as exciting to watch as we were under PL but we are getting results and in our current position that is the most important thing.
i'm confused superman that you are confused that people don't all have the same expectations, or the way they would like the club to move forward during the transfer window and beyond. i can understand why people have a somewhat knee-jerk reaction - we're not on a good run, which doesn't help matters, and other teams around are starting to bring people in. In my eyes, it's worry, worry that we could get dragged into the mire.
max, i suppose i just really dislike the transfer window because it turns normally rational people into nervous, gibbering wrecks. we see it at many clubs but our fans are as bad as any for believing it is a 'complete catastrophe if we don't sign someone today'. does my head in. just wait. why build it up so much? inevitably, if you build it up like this, when we do eventually sign someone it isn't going to match these peoples expectations. the amount of nonsense and abuse people are sending david mcnally on twitter is truly awful - i'm amazed he has been so dignified in his responses. its a pretty sad way for people to spend the month.
I just want a club to support and dont want cash spent just cause others are Im happy with what we have, if Holty gets hurt put Pilks up front
that's a very fair assessment. the media don't help really either - by the middle of the month most are feed up of it. i wish i had ignored all the rumours etc, and then start looking at them on the 25th January to save effort, energy and tears i'm not on twitter, and i don't really understand it unless you are in the media or are a celeb (for being on it). I'm on facebook, and there are plenty of stupid and ignorant comments on the NCFC page. McNally must get feed up with it
