Hi All I see we have been linked loosely (possibly lazy journalism) on the pinkun site. I don'y know that much about either of these two players but I like the idea of Leon Best. He is down the pecking order at Newcastle and he has premier league experience. I am not sure if he is going to score buckets loads but the £3m fee is not bad for a striker with premier league experience. I feel he may also have a point to prove. As for Burke he appears to have got some good reviews from last season so it will be interested to see if Hughton wants to follow it up. I leave for 2 weeks on holiday tomorrow - it will be interesting to see where we are when I get back. The Holt situation should be sorted and we may be closer to some other transfers. Lets hope theres going to be some good ones!
Best has potential and remember him giving us a hard time last time he played for Cov at CR - the year we went down to League One. He is a bit injury prone I feel and we already have one potentially good striker whose best (scuse the pun) friend is the physio (Vaughan) so not sure if we should lumber ourselves with another sicknote. Burke I like - he would be a useful signing in my book.
Agree about Burke definitely. I have posted before about him. Scores goals as well as providing them. Only down side is that he has only played Championship football in England. Haven't seen enough of Best but know he was a wee bit unhappy at Newcastle but with Cisse and Ba in form he wouldn't be first choice.
i like both players to be honest. best has had injury problems but he's a very under rated player. he might not be a guaranteed starter and he certainly won't score 30 goals a season but he's a real handful - could do a good job. absolutely no worries about burke - he's an excellent crosser of the ball and would be good competition for pilks and benno at a fee far lower than a player like matt jarvis
Being linked to Leon Best doesn't surprise me at all -- indeed I was rather waiting for it -- and IMO would make a lot of sense. He would contribute goals -- but primarily by way of assists*, a foil and complement to our other strikers and breaking midfielders. Also, he has the right temperament for us. I hope we get him. * That said, if he maintained his current career rate of 52 goals / 219 matches, we would be signing a 9 goals a season striker. PS Southampton are also rumoured to be interested. Just how many strikers do they need FFS?
The good thing is that CH knows both players inside out. Best offers another Holt-like option. Even if Holt stays, and I hope he does, City need another striker like him so Holt isn't overworked. Lambert realised this, and Best would be a good option to come on as sub like Wilbraham did last season. Burke played 61 games for Brum last season after they brought him in on a free from Cardiff. He would offer another option in competition with Bennett, including a good goal-scoring rate. I'd be happy to see him come in.
I can see Bennett being converted to an attacking RB were we to bring in Burke and not be able to keep Naughton. This would give us some serious pace overlapping and a huge amount of quality on the right.
I like the idea of Bennett as an attacking fullback however, from his performances towards the end of last season I wonder whether it he may be able to continue to imrpove as either an attacking central midfielder or a right winger. If this was the case I think he deserves the opportunity to develop with us and not plug a gap.
I must admit I thought Bennet overshadowed Pilks in the end. Pilks started well and tailed off and in fact wasn't being picked whereas Bennet was arguably our best player over the last few games. He did play well in the time he spent as a full back and would, I'm sure fill Naughtons boots, plus be a better crosser of the ball. But as you say, would that detract from his improvement as a winger/wide man?
I think its good that he can do a job there. Realistically we still have Martin who has signed a new deal so will either be first choice RB or second choice if we bring someone else in. Its great that it would never be an issue to play him there and we could play him there in confidence but I think we have to develop him in the more attacking areas of the pitch. I think that his goal against Spurs will have lifted a weight off his shoulders as from watching him before he joined us he scored quite a few goals. Hopefully Bennett can become a really good young premiership players who can help us build a young top flight squad.
If they are replacements to Holt I will be very underwhelmed, and if they are alongside Holt than do we even need them?
not too sure what you are expecting. lionel messi perhaps... burke is an excellent winger in the same mould as previous transfers we've made under lambert, ie giving players from lower leagues a chance to step up, while best could fill the role vacated by wilbraham - both are much better players than you seem to think
I will be happy with both but tbh in my own opinion i was maybe expecting a little more for upfront but we haven't signed either yet so we shall see what happens over the coming days and weeks! I will say a fully fit best and Vaughan could be a leathel a strike force though on the other hand. It is a toughy I must say.
I like the idea of both Burke and Bennett playing at the same time. I thought Bennett impressed when he played RB and certainly could offer the wingback option going forward, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be competing with Burke for the RW position as well. I suspect CH would still want another RB option though. Chris Gunter comes to mind.
Bennett is best as a winger, no need to change his position, I think he had a brilliant season and think he improved more and more as it went on!
I don't think that converting EB to an attacking full-back will detract from his game. Watching the Euro's I was struck by how important the full-backs are in dictating the attacking play of their own team and restricting the ability of the opposition to attack. consider how little Ashley Young achieved in open play because he was always tracking back and how little Ashley Cole was able to offer in any of the games. If we had the pace and attacking ability of EB plus Burke/Pilks then this would, in my opinion, not only strengthen our attacking play but restrict our opponents ability to attack us.
I agree Norfolkbhoy, effective wingbacks can augment the attack, confuse defences, and still use their pace to get back to defend. Sometimes you need to think outside the box in order to get into the box!
