What's the upwards limit you'd be comfortable paying for Akpom? Considering his age. For me £7m max, which I'm not sure would be enough for Ajax to let him leave.
Not sure how. He fits the versatile forward description and has scored plenty goals and in this league
Le Fee will eventually play the no10 position imo, Akpom isn't great out wide tbh - I like him in a front 2 or as no10 as his movement in and around the box is very good Not against the signing at all, especially if it's short term only. I just domt really like us playing 442 both in and out of possession, especially because of the genuine quality we have in CM now. I dont want to see Le Fee playing as wingers too many times (I get theres a need at the minute)
Also according to transfermarkt he’s still been playing more games upfront for Ajax than anywhere else. I don’t think he would struggle in the loan striker role for us. I think the system would suit his style, he has good hold up play and would drop deep to link up well
How versatile is he though? From what I've seen I'd say he's either a number 9 or a number 10. I don't see him as a starter option on the wings. So he's fighting for position with Isidor, Mayenda, Le Fèe and Rigg with 1 or 2 of them needing to be benched to accommodate him. Not saying he's not a quality addition, I just don't think he's an obvious fit.
Wouldn’t mind playing Akpom in the 10 with Jobe and Le fee behind a lot of creativity and penetration there. But where does that leave the likes of Neil, Rigg, Samed, Browne and Aleksic ? Absolutely spoilt for choice
Might be that we don’t need an obvious fit. Anyone that adds goals, helps us close out games, is ideal now. We are right in this.
I’m not particularly interested in transfer fees personally. If the club know they can afford it and think a player/deal is worth it then that’s good enough for me.
I think it's worth caring about because if we overpay now we will spend less later to make up for it, we saw that with Ellis Short towards the end of his time at Sunderland and we ended up in free fall because he'd only shell out £500k for James Vaughan.
I’m comfortable that the club won’t suddenly go crazy and overpay. If the club consider it value, then it probably is. The failings haven’t cost us much, bar maybe Rusyn. He does well at Hajduk we get out of that with a small loss anyway.
Absolutely agree with this regime. I’d care a bit more if we’d shown signs of recklessness in the transfer market but if anything it’s been the opposite. Even the failures in the market have been calculated risks.
I would do the Akpom deal personally. He is a top class goal scorer. Him, Isidor and Mayenda make for a good pool of talent to spearhead the attack. I think some underestimate the impact Mayenda has had this season. To me he has been excellent. 4 goals, 5 assists in 15 starts, from 3 different positions. For a 19 year old that is excellent. We dont need him sat on the bench for the second half of the season tbh. Isidor 8 goals, no assists, in 22. Is Isidor that much better? Kind of why I think we need an extra player to really make that number 9 a really strong part of our team. If it turns out to be Semih then stand by your beds. He is next level altogether imo.
Mayenda is the break out of the season really. Mundle I think many thought would happen, but Mayenda went from miles off, including first game, to an absolute headache for the oppo and one we trust to make things happen. He is developing arguably faster than Jobe right now, and if that continues lad will be a monster. He still has his wild bits but he is one I love watching. Nice take the other night as well as he didn’t try and hit the ****er into orbit.
IMO if you have a chance to bring in Akpom you do it. Maybe I rate him higher than others do but imo his stats show he can and still does score after that top goalscorer season in our league two seasons ago. I also think his style of play would really suit this side. like I say for all I like Mayenda if Isidor gets injured I’m not liking the reality that would be relying on him, a 19 year old lad who’s really not that composed infront of goal to spearhead us in an automatics race. The pressure would be unfair. Get akpom in and have people competing and there’s no reason not to rotate from game to game either. Also Mayenda could find game time from the right wing which I still think he does a fine job there. Just purely my thoughts on it
I think Mayenda's ceiling is stupidly high as well. Think if he develops right he is a ****ing world beater. What a steal he looks to have been.
