I did note that Celtic were reported to be interested in Charlie Austin as a replacement for Hooper. May I suggest that Charlie Austin might be a cheaper option than Hooper and someone who has scored regularly in L1 and now the Championship.
Agree the kid has done well but I doubt he would be cheap. You would still be talking 6 million plus I would imagine. Having seen him I doubt he could play a lone striker role very well in the prem either. Good finisher but the rest of his game is a bit lacking, certainly for that sort of price he would be a massive risk. But who knows
Twitter this morning suggesting we've made a third bid for Hooper (some saying £9m, I doubt that), and we've also been linked with Jamie Mackie, and Kei Kamara again. Apparently Korey Smith has ruled out a return to Yeovil, as he'd like any full transfer to be to a bigger club. The Fail report we've bid £1.2m for Kamara, and would pay £3m for Mackie. Both of those look too high for me!
Mackie and Mackail-Smith would be good for me and would fit in with our similar surname policy .........................
Sorry, but if hughton sticks by his words "we need to score goals" then these arent the players to do it. We need to be seriously realistic with a striker who score goals and thats he will cost alot of money, and Hooper is no exception.
To play one man up front you need a hard working type of player who will run his legs off and hold the ball up for long enough to get the wingers and holding midfielders involved. He will also have to try to stifle any attacks that may break out to allow our wingbacks to get back into position if your attack breaks down and we lose posession of the ball. For this Mackie would be great. Mckail Smith is also brilliant at doing this. Hoilett is a funny one really, on fire at Blackburn and those goals he scored against us were brilliant but not done anything at QPR. I personally think that Jackson's future is in doubt as he cannot hold the ball up and Morison is ok if your playing a 4-4-2, which we hardly ever do these days. See Villa in the cup, urghh.
I really don't think 'arry would sell mackie, he's a fighter and that's what they need right now. underwelmed by kamara and CMS, seems like we are trying very hard.
Kamara looks pacey, strong, good leap and header, good shot. Fairly similar player to Lukaku. But he has shown all this in a pedestrian league, not sure if he could make the step up or not.
The same questions happened with Holt and a few other Norwich players who had never played in the Premier League before. But then they were used to the English leagues which is something Kamara doesn't have.
i know it wasn't the Premier League wonky, but playing devils advocate, the Cody MacDonald example! every new player is a risk to some extent
Good point. I was also arguing against myself! Zaha to United will that work? Or should he have done what Moses did? Chelsea via Wigan? Moses is having a fairly good season. Every player is different but you need to take risks. Moses has appeared to work out, Wilshere developed at Bolton, waiting on Miyachi (on loan from Arsenal to Wigan) and Henderson is a mess at Liverpool.
henderson has picked up a bit - he scored a good un against us last weekend! i heard Zaha was going to be loaned back to palace for the rest of the season, certainly that's the rumour
The one positive so far for me is that at least we have made bids for very good players (Hooper and Graham). In the past we were not even linked with anyone this good! The issue with signing bargain basement players is that if we stay up and have more money to spend in the summer, we will be have these players on the books whilst looking to spend £10m or so on a goalscorer (this of course would be the case if the bargain players fail to make much of an impact). There is, of course, the scenario where we get in one or two bargain players and they perform outstandingly! I am still holding out hope for Graham, Redmond, Davies and Bridcutt but, alas, I fear we will end up with no-one anywhere near as good as this.
