Keep that reverse psychology up Albert, we're gonna end up swapping Lazaar and Haidara for Ronaldo and Bale. Get an insurance bet on it
What do people think we should accept if we are going to sell? Genuinely I think it should be nothing under £20m. If Fulham were selling him to us do you think they would accept £15m? We bought him for £10m a year ago. He has proven himself last year and improved as a player so there should be an increase in value for that, then there is the 70% price inflation from the next TV deal. £20m, and not a penny less!! (or no deal if we can't get someone better in in time).
I'm quite happy for him to go. If we can bring in a decent LB and AM with the money and a loan signing as a replacement striker then I would be ok with that.
I think it would be important who the replacement striker is. Any first teamers leaving should only happen if they are being replaced by better. We should have £3.5m from Hanley and £4m from De Jong and there was probably a bit of cash in the bank, plus anything brought in from the fire sale over the next 24 hours or so. We must have a bit of money to spend anyway without selling Gayle?
Heard is was less than £2M for De Jong. However, I just don't like Gayle as a footballer and doesn't suit our dull and insipid playing style anyway.
He suited it pretty well last season. I wouldn't mind Gayle staying at all. Off the bench he'd be a real threat to nick a goal. Great natural finisher and just a total fox in the box - gets goals out nothing sometimes. What I don't like about him is his questionable injury record, not great at holding the ball up, disgraceful attempts to dive and try and win fouls/pens, and he's a bit small.
If our money woes are true then to have a £20M striker as an impact sub isn't that practical. I still think flog him and get a good AM. Would still hope for a loan signing of a striker - have a feeling that as Costa will stay at Chelsea we will get Bat(**** knows how you spell his name)shoey on loan.
If we can get £15m for him I'd take it even if we haven't got a replacement. We won't get that offer for him ever again and he'll miss more games through injury this season so I'd rather we cashed in, muddled through until Jan with Mitro, Perez and Joselu and looked at the market again then.
Think Joselu will end up being a Sibs signing - one we're not impressed with but does well. If Mitro isn't suspended he will get us 10 goals and still think Perez should be moulded into a poacher.
I think Joselu will be like a Murphy signing - comes in and does a decent job but better than Murphy so Rafa's done well in swapping them out. If Gayle and Mitrovic don't step up, though, he could end up being the main man.
Glad someone else sees this as an unmitigated disaster. Everyone was unhappy a week ago with what we have, and now all of a sudden we can lose the only prolific-ish one of the 4 we have?? This confirms we realistically have very little chance of survival this season. We have got a lot of garbage, such as De Jong and Riviere, off our books, and considering we are shopping in the bin which contains Joselu, I don't see a decent left back, DM, striker or goalie emerging before the end of the window. Some cracking signings have been done elsewhere. I don't blame Ashley for running the club like this, but it's frustrating that we can't compete at a decent level. If Gayle goes for £15 mil we will have probably recouped about 75% of what's been spent. Ah well.