I have been surprised by just how weak many of the PL teams' defences are this season. Sunderland isn't that much of a surprise, but Southampton and West Ham have been taken apart in games already and Stoke rode their luck (and Butlan's blinder) yesterday. I wasn't at all convinced by Palace's defence either.
Transfer Central TNC @TransferNewsCen 30s31 seconds ago Southampton have won the race to sign Virgil van Dijk and will pay £10m for Celtic defender. (Sunday People)
Palace are the media darlings at the moment along with Bournemouth, they were bigging up Palace's defenders yesterday on Sky.
I imagine its bang on. But we won't get him for £8m unless we throw either Grabban or Hooper into the deal on top of that. I met up with a Wolves fan today - and a QPR fan - so as you can imagine the talk was of their respective strikers! Interestingly, the Wolves fan thinks Afobe is better as a number 10 rather than the centre forward (not sure I agree but he sees more of him than I do) and the QPR fan reiterated my view that Charlie Austin would be a bad fit for us because he is lazy. We'd lose out on all the great work Jerome does, not to mention the suspicious injury news and he's expensive. Just a few of the reasons he won't be coming here.
saw the wolves Cardiff game yesterday and afobe was very average, don't think his game will suit Alex Neil's 1 upfront option, surely must be better options out there for £8 million
Mirror reporting that Newcastle set to improve their bid for Afobe, must admit I hadn't realised that they had already had a bid turned down.
The question with Grabban for me is how much and are we close to getting a replacement? If it is £5M+ then I'd take it and use the funds and wages to aid bringing in an upgrade. But we need to be able to get that upgrade otherwise we are stuck with Hooper, RvW and Lafferty as main backup, none of whom I believe AN would trust to lead the line. For me Jerome is the only one of our strikers who should not be for sale. Bah!
Fully agree with your main point General but it is Hooper and RvW we need to get rid of as they are behind Grabban in the pecking order and are the highest earners. Unfortunately nobody wants them and until that changes little can happen.
We have to make a concerted effort for a quality striker. Would love to see Afobe brought in, immense potential with several years in the Arsenal accademy. Have seen a quote valuing him at £8m but would expect Wolves to want more than that. Hooper and £5m to swing the deal?
I would go along with that but would Wolves or Hooper? Hooper is on £32k a week - would Wolves be prepared to pay that or would Hooper be prepared to take a pay cut? I suspect that we have already made offers for players which include Hooper, RvW or Turner in part exchange.
Transfer Centre Live on twitter Norwich City are lining up a club-record bid worth in excess of £8.5m for Wolves striker Benik Afobe.
Nice one Dave - it has to be a record bid for us to even have a chance. What I fear is that even if they accept we will be matched by Newcastle and he'll choose there.
Probably it will just come down to cold hard cash - if we off him £40k/wk and the Mag offer £45k/wk he'll go there. If the roles are reversed he'd probably come here. Newcastle are hardly a paragon of stability at the minute are they? I don't think Wolves will let him go to be honest but hopefully I'll be proven wrong.
