That sounds quite positive to me, especially "We have not had any stumbling blocks so far". This suggests that many of the rumours posted so far have been wide of the mark and hopefully that Naismith will be signing soon. Someone mentioned that he'll be staying with the team in Stoke tonight and will watch the match tomorrow. Very positive, if true, but at least AN suggests that there have been no stumbling blocks. That also suggests that progress is being made elsewhere for that elusive CB and perhaps another striker to replace Grabban and/or Hooper. Naismith and those two would satisfy me.
Pretty much what I thought and seems as though he'd decided not to bid for Afobe. I think it was KIO who said one problem could well be not being willing to go above our wage structure and so I'm sure that will certainly deter some targets from joining us. I know some posters have suggested Charlie Austin as our elusive striker, but I remember reading somewhere that he doesn't want to be involved in a relegation battle and I also think his wage demands would be too high. Let's hope we hear details of the striker and CB soon, but I guess with a match tomorrow and another on Saturday, we won't see much transfer activity until next week.
Austin would be way too expensive - he'd break our wage structure for sure - so would Remy I would suggest. In truth I'd prefer Andre Gray.
Smoke and mirrors or have Leeds completely pulled the plug on Lafferty? http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/633805/Leeds-Norwich-deal-pursuit-Celtic-ace
I get the feeling that we will end up keeping Lafferty - I can see Hooper going to the Wendies and if that happens (assuming no-one else comes in), our striker options would be Mbokani, Jerome and Naismith (if and when it happens). Even playing one up top it leaves us short on cover so I am half expecting us to keep hold of Laffs and maybe send him out on short-term loans.
If we sell Lafferty, really we need Naismith and 2 striker. (If hooper rumours are true). That's expensive and risky as they would have to settle quickly to the club and the league. So, I'm pretty sure Lafferty will remain on the bench. Poor lad. Naismith and 1 striker, probably from a foreign league, seems more likely.
I don't think we need that many. Naismith should settle easily. We then have Mbokani and Jerome as our "target men"/"lone striker" roles, Naismith playing off them, Lafferty in a utility role. We could usefully do with one additional second striker type role as back-up to Naismith, but it may be that Neil envisages Jamar Loza in that role. So even if we have injuries we have good cover. But if we sell Lafferty as well as Hooper then I definitely agree we need a new striker.
Naismith isn't an out and out striker. So would have Boki and CJ as our lone striker options. So I'd want 2 strikers if we sell Grabban, Hooper and Lafferty. If we get injuries or suspensions, I'm not happy relying on Loza to keep us up.
Sorry - I've misunderstood. I think we're actually agreeing. Yes, Naismith isn't out and out - I see him more as a second striker/Hoolahan replacement. If we sell both Hoops and Lafferty as well, we will definitely be short. If we keep Lafferty, I don't think we'll be short because he can also play as the lone striker, which is our favoured formation, so we will have three of those. We will also have a couple of "second striker" type players, plus Loza. The problem arises if we sell Lafferty as then, as you say, injuries or suspensions could put us in deep trouble
Yea, we are agreeing I'd be happy to put a good amount of money to a striker like Haller or Eder, and keep Lafferty and actually give him some day time.
Looking at it from a season so far perspective we have basically played with one up top with occational late additional attacking options added. For those striking options we have really only used 3 players; CJ, Mbok and Grabban. I'm not sure Naismith would be seen as an option for a lone striker so I would say we need one more to replace Grabban. Lafferty and Hooper are not seen as good enough to fulfil that role any more than Loza to a large extent. So I think if we get one more in then I'd happily say goodbye to both Lafferty and Hooper. I think it's all we'd need. In a worst case sense, I would think that Naismith could play as a lone forward before we had to call on Loza. But asuming one replacement arrives for the sold players, I think it would be beyond unlucky for all three frontline options to be injured and then even Naismith as back up! Bah!
I'd be happy to get Naismith signed up and then go hell bent after a decent CB. Over and above those two positions, the rest is largely peripheral / fine tuning. Having a fit Matt Jarvis and for once a fully-firing Vadis is like having two new signings, anyway!
Interesting take on transfer rumours!! http://www.thelittleyellowbirdproject.co.uk/articles/2016/1/12/transfer-window-of-doom so true!
Paddy Davitt @paddyjdavitt #efc boss Roberto Martinez confirms last few mins no decision made on #naismith future. #ncfc #efc RM: 'Steven right now is concentrating on the next 2 to 3 weeks and the games we have coming up here.' #ncfc
