Wait for it - George Boyd. A few Championship clubs have been trailing him for his midfield skills but he can hold the ball up when playing as a front man as well. He's easily over 6 ft but not big built like a typical hold up target man. That doesn't matter as long as he has the skills when the ball is played to his feet to bring others into the game. A bit like the good side of Bothroyd without the bad bits thrown in. A bonus is that he can strike the ball with both feet and score goals from open play. Nothing wrong with a footballing centre forward rather as opposed to a battering ram. I'd take him on board - anyone else?
Totally different player to Helguson - I don't know how you even can begin to compare the two. For a start, Boyd can use his feet as well as his head - a pretty big advantage for a footballer.
In April 2012, Boyd rejected a contract extension at Peterborough with only a year to go on his current deal. Consequently, manager Darren Ferguson placed Boyd on the transfer list as part of the club's new policy.
He's looking to get out Red, and Posh need the cash. Forest want him but are a playing the usual tight-fisted approach.
Never rated him. Never impressed when hes played us....................... until that game in December. He was outstanding. I dont see him as a striker though. Attacking midfielder and I dont think thats what we need.
I see him in the same mould as Hilts does. On his day a very skilful player but can disappear from games if the going gets tough. Probably on a par with Whitts skill wise but plays further forward and wider. Didn't he knock one in from about 50 yards against Huddersfield 2 or 3 months ago?
Agreed he's not a recognised striker, but that doesn't mean he couldn't hold the ball up further forward to give our other guys chance to get up in support. He's also got the vision as well as the shooting ability that Helguson and Rudy lack. Sometimes thinking outside the box could be an answer to an obvious problem. Don't know what Posh would take for him, but it would be nowhere near the multi millions we're reported to have spent in total on the "potential" of Velikonja and Kimbo. We'd get a player who would influence the team right now, not in the future.
I see where you are coming from Sparks but to play in the role you suggest he will have his back to goal quite often and be prepared to take knocks from big ugly bruisers of centre backs. From what I have seen that is something I don't think he is keen on doing. Not great in the air either despite being about 6 ft tall. On the plus side he has excellent ball skills and if played into feet he can hold up well and play others in as well as having a great eye for goal. On balance I see him as something of a luxury player who might not fit Malky's team ethic. As usual I would love to be proved wrong. Good topic for discussion though with bu££er all else happening with us on the transfer front.
Haven't forrest just had a 'derisory bid' for him turned down? An interesting suggestion, but you could equally say why not put Smith in there to play the role and save signing another midfielder.
I also agree about the luxury player bit Bluey - he's not someone that would necessarily fit Malky's ideal player profile. It's fair to remember though, that most of us on the old 606 saw Whitts as a luxury player that we couldn't afford to have in the side a few years back. Malky turned him around and Boyd could be in the same bracket. He could hold the ball up just like Whitts, but much higher up the pitch. Remember that when Whitts picks up the ball, he's usually got 70 yards of pitch in front of hm. He's got a lot of work to do before we get the ball into their danger zone. With someone like Boyd receiveing the ball with say just 30 yards to their goal line, we could do much more damage. Holding up and bringing others into play, or just dropping his shoulder and hitting the bloody thing with some degree of accuracy - two things that Heidar and Rudy don't seem capable of. Remote - I'd quite like to see Smithy given a go up there on the same principles, though I don't think he's an ideal candidate for the role. About the same height as Helguson but nowhere near as good in the air. At least both his feet work though.
I rate Boyd but as an attacking mid. I don't see him as a HH alternative in the side at all, as you say Sparks, you can't even compare the 2 in terms of attributes. I don't know why we weren't interested in Woods. He's 6ft 3 and was scoring goals for fun in an average Millwall team, no suprise he's hit the ground running at Leicester. He would be first team for us and Hull yet we both stood by and watched him go to Leicester for £1mill. We could have paid that for him, kept him till summer then sold him back to the Championship if MM doesn't think he's PL quality. Best of all if we'd signed him Leicester wouldn't have been able to.
I can't understand that apparent ignoring of Woods either Stevo. Difficult to understand the apparent lack of activity by the club thus far into the window. Unless there's the old swimming duck syndrome going on - all serene on the surface but a lot of activity underneath - I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to be a repeat of last January. TG said in an interview at the start of this season "If promotion had happened last year, then we would have taken it, but this year we are ready". The implication was that he was justifying the lack of January action last year to support the playing staff when we were in second spot on New Years day having just thrashed Reading 3-1 at the CCS. As we all know, Reading eventually went up as Champions and we faded badly. The other implication you could take from that TG quote was that whatever we needed come this January, we would get it. I wonder. I just hope being 10 points clear of the playoffs right now doesn't spawn some degree of complacency.
I'm getting the feeling Malky is being advised that he can bring in a striker when a deal is done with some yanky doodly dandy club for the services of Earnie.
I think Boyd would be a steal! Out of contract in the summer so they would sell for peanuts, we may have depth in midfield but Whittingham is another question we got no other creative midfielder, we've all mentioned how Whittingham is off the boil! Not saying we need to drop him and replace him with Boyd but WE do need to freshen it up and have competition for places We do need a striker and a fullback but saying that we can't miss an opportunity to strengthen in other areas if the situation is presented to us!!
That may be book-balancing and a very prudent approach, but if having to pay their wages for the rest of the season prevents access to VT's little purse, I'd be very surprised. Not just surprised, more like amazed that such an issue would be allowed to damage our effort to reach the ultimate target that VT and TG have openly desired. Either we're not going to get anyone significant at all or there are issues being resolved in the background. The FA cup replay results last night and tonight could be a factor for some of the clubs concerned.
I don't think a new signing would be dependent on the other two moving out but the owners are succesful people and I'm sure they would have an eye on the balance sheet.
