Refer me to it please, can't find it. James Vaughan is completely different situation to Cody. The guy has been lingering in top two divisions all his career and if not for injuries could be an estabilished Premier League striker. Cody McDonald was not loved, his story was. I never though Cody McDonald was anything other than a decent League 1 striker. I actually rate James Vaughan.
The reason Vaughan was shipped out was 1. Wages and 2. Injury problems. For the wages he was on he was costing us a lot of dead money basically and hughton didn't want to take the risk again.
For me its all about patience. While we have the debt to pay off, we are always going to be operating under the kind of strict financial controls that will limit our aspirations in terms of the quality of player we can bring into the squad. CMS, Rhodes or an overseas striker are all a gamble. It may pay off, it may not. The more money you have to spend (fee plus wages) will change the odds on our 'gamble'. CMS is not proven but he will not cost so much (fee or wages). Is he better than Chrissy - Yes I think so. Better than Morro - sometimes (Morro can be rather up or down). Better than Holt - No. Improving our squad - Yes I think so. For the European scouting. Again we need to be patient. When the debts are gone, we can afford to invest in the scouting a little more, and then some months later may have some targets to pursue. In my opinion, short-term plans in football rarely work.
I also rated Vaughan and I'm puzzled as to why Hughton has let him go, but then again we're not privvy to what goes on within the corridors of Colney
Vaughan is an enigma - he's got lots of talent but (injury wise) is a potential liability. He buried his goal superbly at London Road in pre-season and looked sharp but at the same time everyone in the crowd grimaced when a defender went anywhere near him fearing he'd fall over crocked again - that's not the kind of risk Hughton wants to take forward I'm sure. That, and the fact his wages are high, are probably the reasons he's been let out on loan - same goes for Ayala. If they get a full season in the Championship they'll return to us next year fitter, wiser and more experienced - if they spend half the season in the doctor's waiting room then Hughton's decsions will be justified.
JV has talent but history suggests that you're only going to get a few games per season out of him. I suppose it depends on how CH weights the risk of JV breaking down against the risk of CMS not being good enough to contribute.
But someone on here said that Vaughan only has 12 months on his contract. Does anyone know if this is right? And if he is brilliant for Hudders, do we have first refusal on a new contract?
ok, just checked with brighton fans with regards CMS and despite his lower goal tally than expected, they absolutely adore him! they love his work rate and tenacity and believe that in the right system will score goals at any level. general consensus is they feel he is easily worth £3m+ and not one of them wants to see him go. might put one or two minds to rest a little though i doubt it... as for vaughan, i liked what was said above - he's an enigma. unfortunately, despite rating him highly myself, he cannot be trusted to be fit. yes he has 12 months of his deal left but we have the option to take up a further year, so the club are in no panic about losing him for nothing. if he fails at huddersfield then we just won't take up the option and if he does well we might well either sell or give him a run on the extended contract
With deadline day also being my birthday, it would be fantastic if we could sign a decent striker, would be the perfect present for my birthday
CMS wouldn't have been on my mind before today, but I think he'd be a decent addition. He'll be a handful for anyone he plays against, and he carries a decent goal threat. If it's the right price, fine by me. As for Vaughan, I keep thinking of what an Everton fan said when we signed him. It was something along the lines of 'loads of potential, but he's made of glass'. How true. His loan is the right thing both for the club and him. Let's hope it works well for both.
With Rhodes gone to Blackburn, Vaughan should have a great opportunity. Let's hope he takes it. I wonder if Leeds fans are getting nervous though; what price Becchio to Huddersfield? Bates's mouth must be watering as he counts up to 8 on his fingers again and again.
What's happen to Mohammed Abdellaoue? I know he said he wanted to remain at Hannover, but there was lots of speculation at the beginning of this week.
Don't we have enough hard working strikers, for ****s sake there are thousands of them in English football, you can't move for them. How on earth can CMS be 3 million and Michu 2 million? Lets just scrap the British thing altogether, they are an expensive taste (which isn't very nice) and a drain on finances we don't have.
I dont buy into this "our budget is small" business as we were said to have the biggest budget in the clubs history. Lasst year we spent £12m so must be more this year n weve.not spent much. I know wages are an issue as well but I think we still have enough to buy a player from abroad with more quality than CMS. Wouldnt be too disappointed but he wasnt what I was expecting. As long as we dont spend too much on him.
i would say we have around £13m to spend this season. we've spent about £9m already, so you do the maths! people got overly excited when bowkett said 'its our biggest ever transfer kitty' but he never put a figure on it - it could be £1 more than last year! we know we have to pay our debts off and the payments are twice what they were last year so with added income and doing some basic sums we can work out that the budget will be anywhere between £12m and £15m. i'm afraid as premier league clubs go we are paupers and that isn't going to change for the foreseeable future. and carrabuh's point about hard working players is typical of him. how did those hard working players get on last season? that's right - 12th place. now i'll happily admit we need more guile to get better but to maintain premier league football for the time being, its the best route to go down. nobody knows how the hell swansea got michu so cheap but apart from him, who are these other gems that are being spotted from abroad who are dead cheap? there is value out there but we haven't got the infrastructure to source them. i mentioned on this thread or another that we are still lagging behind in our scouting network, hence why our targets tend to come from this country, so be patient and we'll soon start seeing a difference.
Goddam I bet Bowkett regrets that "biggest transfer budget ever" A lot of people seem to negate the quality we've already bought in and think its all going to be blown on a last minute striker bonanza. Incidentally apparently wilfried zaha has said he's about to sign or something?
Have we really offered 3m for Mackail-Smith? My first thought is that, if true, this smacks of desperation.
Strongly disagree. It makes a lot of sense to me. CMS is a goal scorer but like any other striker he needs to play in the right position (which he didn't at Brighton) and needs service. Before his move to the south coast he was prolific and I really do believe if used to his strengths and gets the service all strikers need he can do the business. I would ask you what the alternatives are, given our small transfer budget and wage structure?
I hope you're right and I'm wrong, Thai. I don't want to say anything more because I will be accused of being negative.
