Theres no way we should be pinning our hopes on Che signing again to be our first choice striker. Just as, if we have signed McCarthy as number 1 we have learnt no lessons. But as a backup striker we will struggle to find better with a limited budget. And only signing a new first choice striker is a big risk given who our other options are, and their history; Mara - Not good enough, needs to be sold or loaned out, and...who I assume we are pinning our hopes on being the back up, Stewart - who has been out injured for what? At least a year and a half at this point, and has yet to even prove if he can stay fit let alone the fact that he hasn't even done it at Championship level yet. Maybe the way forward is to bring in a new first choice striker and a backup on loan and hope that the loan is a better option than Che.
He was absolutely exceptional, wasn’t he? The fact his level hasn’t dropped since his move to Saudi just speaks volumes as to his professionalism.
This club definitely has some glaring blind-spots. The most obvious is goalkeepers - they just can't seem to get it right - even on a limited budget, McCarthy is not the permanent first choice and although he is young and great 'with his feet' I am still to be convinced by Gav. The other is a good centre forward/striker - the budget again is limited but they seem to expect people who have proven they can't score to suddenly change and start banging them in regularly. For all the love of Armstrong, he is/was proven in the Championship before we signed him and he has proved it again. The problem being is he a few seconds slower in reacting or needing time to set up when most of the players and goalies he will play against are the same but in the other direction? Will he struggle again? Che Adams is poor in the Premier League and Stewart is having a huge paid holiday courtesy of Saints. They need to sort this out or at least give signals they are because I suspect last season's euphoria and goodwill will evaporate rapidly if we lose the first couple of games like Sheffield United did.
Arma, Che, Onuachu & Stewart were all banging them in regularly when we signed them (Stewart was before injury), so I don't think that's the problem. The problem is we have signed them from lesser leagues and they haven't made the step up for whatever reason. But without budget we don't have the luxury of buying proven PL strikers so we will have to continue with this strategy and hope for more Pelle and less Tall Paul!
Ramsdale and David. There I have said it. If FFP (what a load of bs) allows it, spending say £60M on 2 quality players that keep us up, will be well worth it.
Think David will go to a club in champions league but agree with the sentiment providing wages don't cause us issues down the line (mainly in terms of other players being on contracts where it requires matching or wanting more etc)
A British Canadian, now living in New Zealand lol. Saints should really look at Canada for players, there's some real talent in the men's national team, and Canadian football league.
We've had glaring striker problems for many seasons, coupled to our lack of funds, I do wonder if we should be looking at players like Callum Wilson [Newcastle] or Chris Woods [Forest]. Not suggesting either of these, but there has to be proven strikers out there that are better than what we have or those we have been likned with?
Just finished a work call and a Palace supporter on it said we are after Edouard. First I’ve heard of it, doubt we could afford him anyway
Seems streaky, has runs of scoring a few in a row but then nothing for awhile, like Adams. He’s also on £90k a week according to the internet so most likely out of our price range
