I would love him here, he'd add a slightly different dimension to the side, with his pace + power, and he's a good finisher to boot!
Fair points lad. I wrote that whilst sat in traffic, so apologies for my rushed point of view. What I meant is that in my opinion, I have not seen anything from him to make me think he will be a proven premiership goalscorer and I feel we need that to progress in the premier league. He fits the mould of a few types of player that I have seen that are ok but never prolific in the premier league. Bothroyd, Beckford, Zamora etc I would like a Darren Bent or a Defoe that gaurantee goals. (I appreciate that Zamora has his place in the PL, I just don't like him). For the record, I like Jay Rod and I think he would do a job but because my preference is for a proven premiership goalscorer It does not make room for the lad with the strikers we already have. If Jay Rod was that special big Sam would have been all over him like a rash in January. He's brought every other striker in the league. I'm sure he could have been swayed by West Ham due to their recent history. This is my opinion, I care not to persuade you to agree because I also understand and accept your views. It's an unknown.
I can understand that! I do agree on Zamora though, never really rated him, and he's meant to be on £90k a week at QPR?! Mental.
Oh how i would love jay rodriguez to be a Southampton player! He has the potential to become a very good striker, and i sincerely hope that nigel pursues him in the summer. From what i have seen of him, i feel he has many of the attributes that we desire, and require. Imagine lining up in the Premiership (slightly early to be assured, but I am extremely confident) with Rickie and Rodriguez on the team sheet, with the option of using Sharp, who I believe will thrive in the Premiership! However, the one striker I have my heart set on is a certain Mr. Gary Hooper. Nigel knows him, he has buckets and buckets of talent, and the mind boggles at a partnership of Lambert and Hooper! The only hinderance is the price, but i feel signing hooper would be worth every penny!
If Huddersfield fail this time round they might well sell Rhodes to finance Grayson's summer rebuild - personally think he's been well developed there with loads of first team experience for a young lad and now bags of goals, personally think he's more of a talent than Jrod, and believe we'd face tougher competition signing him
I'd hate us to do a QPR and go whole sale on "proven" premiership players on "reassuring expensive" pay packets. Leave that to Leicester, QPR et al. Adkins has shown he can take rough diamonds from the lower leagues and make them into quality team players, lets continue in that mould
Another playing from the Championship who it seems is going to be available in the summer is Jacob Butterfield from Barnsley. I have seen him play a few times and have been really impressed, and I think he fits the "Adkins mould". Only 21, got a fair bit of experience in the Championship and seems to have loads of potential.
Boooo. Zamora's brilliant and I've been saying it for years - he's just better now that he can finish. If £90k is true, though, it's absurd.
Sometimes though you need experience as well as potential. You have to have a good mix of that to survive in the premier. We have players that in my opinion will do well in the Premier but they will not have that crucial ingredient, experience! It really is no good pretending that all the players we have now are going to make good in the higher league. We are already seeing players that have reached in my opinion the highest level they can maintain. Chaplow, Hammond, Butterfield, Richardson...just to name a few. I am not having a go at these players or criticizing them, just saying I think they will be a liability if we make the premier. There is probably at least another 4 maybe 5 players that won't cut it also. In truth that only leaves us a small band of very good prospects excluding any that should break through from the Academy. So what does that mean for the future? In my view what will happen is we will bring in maybe up to 3/4 players in the close season. Some of the above mentioned may well be let go as well as a couple of others.In the January window we will see at least another two possibly three being brought in.....or maybe Academy players bought through.......but all I can say is the team at the end of next year is going to look mighty different to the team we put out for this week end.....
^^^Agree with all that Beddy. There is a very sad paradox involved with a team working so hard to get promotion, and at the same time a good proportion of the players knowing or fearing they won't get to play at the next level. It happened last year, and happens with every promoted team, but I've never been able to get my head round the effect it has on the players' motivation.
Even for those not kept next year, most will get a medal this year (if they've played enough games). That's an achievement on your CV. Most of the squad have a long contract and will therefore hope to be involved if we gain promotion.
We won't be signing anyone on mega wages. By mega wages I mean wages outside the structure that Cortese already has typed into his Premier League spread sheet. Wages will increase, but only to the level that has already been set. We will also only sign players that "fit the mould" and have the personality type that Nigel wants. I can't comment on Jay Rod as I don't know him and never even seen an interview. I can't comment on his game as I've only seen him play two or three times. As for him nearly signing, some big money deals were agreed during the last two transfer windows, but the agents wanted too big a salary.
Didn't we read somewhere that Hooper was offered a wage in the 20Ks with an increase to 38K in the PL? If so, I would guess our star players will be on the same contract. Damn good wages to most of us, but sustainable in the PL i.e. not silly money.
Tbf it only really happened with Dickson and perhaps Forte, Holmes & Butterfield. Jaidi, Seaborne and Barnard had no choice but not play at this level but other than them a great chunk of our Lge1 side is still with us reguarly
