To be honest its a tough one, Graham is tried and tested but then Hooper hasn't had the oppertunity yet to prove himself. Hooper has age on his side and could make us a tidy profit even if he bagged a few goals for us and we went down... You only need to look at Steven Fetcher! Signed for £6mil sold for £12mil. If it was down to me i would go for Hooper.
As much as i would be happy with either or both, Graham & Hooper, i don't think as has been said before by others, we'll end up with neither, hope im wrong but both could do better than us, and it pains me to say it !
Dont worry chippy, I'm with you. For this window these were unrealistic targets for us in this window and so i don't understand why we have gone in for them... When i mean unrealistic I mean we could probably have signed DG if it weren't due to the competition! If were bidding £10+mil on strikers then i will be prettey peeved off if we do end up with bargain basement signings again cause there is no excuse this time!
Talkshite report that Hooper has rejected Celtic's final contract offer, on the grounds that it doesn't put him on the same pay level as other top players at the club. He's now supposed to be looking at options in the Premier League, Norwich not specifically mentioned, but as we know we've bid, we must be one of those options. I've no idea what Celtic pay players, but I imagine it's a darn sight more than we do. If he's turning down Celtic, whether we can afford the wages he must be after is doubtful. The only other option (fingers crossed), is that he's simply rejecting Celtic's offer because he wants the move, and the wage thing is simply an excuse.
I know that ki who went to swansea got a big rise and hes said to be on just over 30k now, I read ages ago he's on 18k ish.
Talk ****e, oh no! I find it a bit odd that no other pl clubs are being linked with hooper, like Newcastle or villa Maybe they are interested just not reported
Hmm, actually looking into it, Celtic's wage bill appears to be roughly in line with us. It's figures from 2011, but apparently Kayal was on £7k a week, Izzaguire £5k, with the 'top earners' around £20k. Hooper would have signed during that period, and from Scunthorpe, so maybe his wages currently are actually sub-£20k too? If so, and the last ditch contract offer Celtic have supposedly made doesn't smash that structure, then maybe we could actually afford his wages as one of our top earners? Mostly speculation, but it's not as bad as I thought. On the other clubs front, I'd guess we're not the only ones now a ball-park transfer figure has been made public. Newcastle need firepower after missing out on Remy, and were prepared to pay about £8m for Remy, so I imagine they'd be in the hunt, I guess just not publicly. I read something yesterday (admittedly on the daily record site) that Southampton were offering to triple Hooper's wages, so it would seem we're not the only ones linked, just the only ones with a public bid at this time. I'd like to think we've got private bids in place for several other players, fingers crossed! With Villa, I'm sure Lambert said they had to sell to buy, and having been unable to shift the high-earners frozen out of the first team, I can't see them having the cash available, much as they might like him.
There's a small amount of rumours on Twitter that spurs are interested but haven't actually seem them named in any story etc. So far the other team I've seen mentioned is Southampton but thats regarding there interest from last season. Tbh they don't need him now!
Yeah, I've just seen 'Spurs mentioned on twitter. If I was him, I'd rather use Norwich as a stepping stone than become a back-up striker at Tottenham and maybe not get the chances to impress he needs.
Yeah, DH, I don't like to talk or consider Villa's position much but it appears nothi g is going on there and the way their season is going suggests that they need to get players in. As you have said p, they have been unable to shift the big earners, so unless they can rid of players soon they will be in big trouble.
He's young, has got plenty of time to play at a club like Spurs but at the end of the day money talks. DH, you saying about Soton trippling Hoopers wages. I think that is the story from last Jan cause they were offering 25k in the champ and 50k if they went up supposedly which would basically be triple what hes on now
I think beef has gone a bit far with that ending part to his post, no where has said were in negotiations to sign him
http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/transfer-rumours/130121/exclusive-hooper-closer-norwich-move-after-rejecting-final-c
Hmmm, I hope I'm wrong if we do sign him, but I'm really not excited about Hooper at all, he wouldn't be anywhere near the top of my shopping list personally, particularly if we are talking about anything like £8m I wasn't one of those banging on about signing him in the summer, but if we are paying that kind of money we could have got Jordan Rhodes for less. Yes I know he was asking for big wages, but they would still be less than what Hooper will be asking for. Rhodes is banging them in for a struggling side in the Championship against mostly better opposition than Hooper has ever come up against in the SPL or the Championship when he last played in it, and whilst he has done pretty well in Europe, some of the teams he's scored against in the Europa Cup are hardly world-beaters and it's only this season they've made an impression on the Champs League. I hope I'm wrong, but I hope even more that we don't sign him, I'd honestly rather sign someone like CMS for £3m and save some money for the summer when prices are more realistic
The problem really is that all signings from another league are going to be a risk, because you can't really tell how the leagues compare, and if you sign from within your league, prices tend to be inflated! I don't think many people doubt any of Hughton's signings, and no doubt any signing will have been thoroughly scouted, so I've got faith that whoever comes in will improve the squad. Fingers crossed we just keep the fee down though, and actually sign someone!
