In his first positive move, Big Maarty has decided to withdraw the one year contract offer to Eidur Gudjohnsen. Swansea have shown interest. I hate to bring the horrible prospect of Keane into another thread, but could he be behind the boss' thinking ? Please not. Do you think Jol is a bit blinkered in his apparent choices ? Why isn't he in the mix with the other managers chasing French under 21s, or following Coyle down to Spain. Why isn't he using his European experiences/contacts ? Or is he and the press as usual are ignoring us ?
I have to say that if that's the case it seems like a strange move. Gudjohnson had settled in well and certainly brought something to the team (even if only as a substitute). I'm not heartbroken he's not staying but I'd rather have him than Keane and I bet his wage demands would be a lot more reasonable! However, nothing is certain yet and maybe this decision is because of El Hamdaoui not Keane.
If the worst should happen ie: Keane comes to Fulham on a 2 year contract for around 4/5 million and a salary of say 30/40k per week,not only would we would instantly become a laughing stock,but without a ball being kicked Jols ability and rating would immediately,go down in my estimation.
Why is everybody so against Keane? Granted he wouldn't be my first choice but i've heard people want to keep AJ. Keane would cost roughly the same as what we would be getting for AJ. Both are supposed to be goalscorers but AJ's record is nothing like Keane's. The man has scored 51 international goals and 123 league goals(10th all time Premier League goal scorer) and he's the same age as Johnson. I know we should be looking at faster younger strikers but if we replaced Johnson with Keane I don't see how that could be a bad move. As for Gudjohnsen I would have liked to see him stay but I can't see him getting too much game time so it's probably in his best interests to move.
"Why is everybody so against Keane?" The question answers itself really. Why has a player who looked so promising at a young age had so many clubs? He's been to so many with a big flourish, Inter, Liverpool, Celtic, Spurs, but never settles. There's a problem somewhere, and now he's ageing, if the salary demands quoted above are accurate he is not value. And I haven't even mentioned the naffest goalscoring celebration of all time. I agree with Cottager58, there's not a future in substituting one ageing player for another, we need to reduce the age of our squad. The priority anyway must be full backs, surely.
Quite agree Rocky,I would not have been saying this 12months ago,but it appears as each month passes, his ability is rapidly deteriorating,just look at his last 3 months performances with WH
Its been a good few seasons since I've seen anything of note from keane. Would be similar to AJ, essentially overpaid and a hardly prolific strike rate to show for it. Can't understand why we're not offering gudjohnsen another year as he has made a decent contribution since january and unless Jol has identified a younger alternative then this seems a strange move.
With Gudjonsen, Kamara, EJ and possibly AJ all leaving, we should expect some interesting new signings up front. It may be that one or more of Hoessen, Dalla Valle, Trotta will see some first team action, but I think we will need at least two new strikers for the first team squad. If Dempsey and Dembele are likely to be used more as midfielders than strikers this season, and if Gera still leaves we'll only have Bobby as an out and out striker. I'd like us to sign a good big 'un and a good little 'un, with one youngster to come through - either one of the aforementioned or Danny Ings of Bournemouth if our reported bid for him isn't dead in the water with our change of manager.
Keep Gudjonsen,buy a highly rated C/F and try and bring along Hoessen, and another of our talented youngsters.
I'm taking every press report about players linked to FFC with pinch of salt at the moment. Last Summer and in the transfer window we were being linked with every ex-Blackburn and Man City player who wasn't currently a regular with whichever club they were playing for at the time. In fact, unless I'm forgetting someone, none of the players we signed had worked with Hughes before: Salcido, Dembele, Sidwell, Gudjohnsen, Kakuta. Now we're being linked with anyone who can't get a game at Spurs or players who are unsettled at Ajax. I'll believe it when I see it . . .
I agree Fulhamish. A lot of it is lazy journalism: our new manager used to manage Spurs, ergo half the Spurs team will be joining us. Highly unlikely
Very much agreed Penguin. A few gossip columns today are suggesting we're currently in a tussle with Swansea for Eidur's signature. I can't imagine MJ putting up a huge fight for it, when there's other and more capable targets that he probably has his eye on.
Good point Fulhamish. As you say, most press reports at this time of year come to nothing. But when that's all we've got, it's natural to seize on them and treat them like holy writ. At least come Friday (and then Monday) we'll have something definite - the fixtures - to start fixating on. Obsessed? Me? Surely not.
Let Eidur go, who would be a free transfer, and replace him with Robbie Keane? Has Jol gone mad? Obviously he is blinkered by the fact that he managed Keane at Spurs. Keane was WOEFUL at Wet Spam last season (that miss against Chelsea) and you can't argue that he didn't have good enough service, as Wet Spam's midfield is actually better than ours (Parker, Noble, Hitzlesperger etc)
Is that etc to cover the fact there isn't a fourth midfielder? Besides, I'd take Murphy, Sidwell & Dempsey over those three although I'd say they are actually pretty even. Taking overpaid players on loan into relegation fights very rarely works. Keane's motivation is completely gone rather than his talent; the question is whether Jol could motivate him again.
Hahahaha I hoped no-one would notice I was about to list Boa Morte then realised his career has gone off the deep end. I too would take our three, but that's because we watch them week in week out. But there's no denying that the three listed are all quality players. If we were to look at a Spurs striker who is out of favour, I would prefer us to look at Defoe, as maybe a possible replacement for AJ.
Defoe wages are too high for Fulham - plus he would command a high transfer fee. Good idea however no chance.
I'm not so sure he would command a high transfer fee. In my opinion it would be no higher than 8 million, he's a non starter at club and country level and is in his late 20's. Both Crouch and Pavyluchenko are rated higher than him by bacon face.
Not saying they are not. But the only reason I would say that WHam's trio there could be better is because of Murphy's age. As for Defoe, I think he'd have a field day playing off Bobby. But he'd need to take a rather large pay cut to fit into our structure. But £3m for AJ and £8m for Defoe would be decent business; Defoe could have AJ's money...
