it'd certainly have to be £7m+ i'd have thought, and i'm not convinced anyone will pay that based on last season. mind you, i didn't think anyone would pay £7m+ for snodgrass considering his deal was due to expire in 12 months...
We can only wait and see who leaves (or who WANTS/ALLOWED to leave). I'd love to see both RvW and GH stay along with our new recruits, as I think they could benefit from the 'more attacking style' (supposedly) favoured by NA and then be worth a lot more in Jan if they still want to leave. O/T - Quite an interesting article by Alan Shearer on the role of strikers in today's BBC website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28186605
If we get £7m+ for Hooper I wouldnt be so adverse to spending the £10m for Rhodes that Blackburn have reportedly asked for. Or the £7m it would likely take to get Deeney in. A strike force of Rhodes, Grabban, RvW, Lafferty and Loza (providing he doesnt go on loan) would be a cracking effort! This being said, will then need to set about buying players who can provide goals as this (as has been said by many a person on here) was our biggest problem last year. I truely believe that both RvW and Hooper would have got far more with a more positive midfield behind them.
I know that many have there criticisms of Rhodes about his all round game but in this league can you get a more guaranteed goal source? If Hooper was to go which I believe he will then Rhodes has to be up there and would rather spend £10mil on him than McCormack that's for sure. Although I would be surprised if weve even bid for Rhodes anyway and I certainly can't see us spending that sum in the championship.
Rather keep Hooper than sell and buy Rhodes. Seeing as I wasn't too far off the mark with Snodgrass, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the initial price was £10m when Hull and the price was then negotiated. If Hooper is going to go it's got to be for >£7-8m IMHO despite last season. Once again we don't need to sell and his contract isn't running down.
If Hooper goes, my choice would be Deeney. He scored 24 last year against Rhodes' 25 (25-25 if you count the Cup). Deeney's game is far more varied and he can play wide as well as providing a physical presence as a central striker. McCormack scored 28, but his overall scoring has been less consistent in previous seasons.
Id prefer Deeney for the same reasons as River. The only reason I spoke about Rhodes is because he has been mentioned on newsnow today. Id take Rhodes any day though. Goal machine at this level!
I agree Rick, the problem with Rhodes as I see it is you need others to do the donkey work to set him up, then he most likely will score, but when you're not in possession, you only have a ten man team to regain it, you'll get absolutely nothing from Rhodes!
rhodes is a typical example of a 'stats' player. looks great if you check out his goal statistics, but watch him play and more often than not you're underwhelmed. there is no denying that the lad knows where the back of the net is but if we do end up purchasing him it is even more essential that the supply line to him is upgraded or else we will be wasting the money. deeney has a bit of everything, he's more holt-esque and would suit us much better but at this stage, assuming hooper leaves (and i think he will) i wouldn't say no to either.
Spot on Supers. I really hope we go for Deeney and I really really hope we get a good creative midfielder and keep Fer!
If it was a straight choice of Rhodes or Deeney it's Rhodes all day long for me. I except what's being said about his work rate but the lad is clinicle in front of goal, something we've sadly missed since Holty got pushed out. I'm not confident yet that any of last years crop will be prolific ?
If Hooper leaves, it would seem likely at this point to be to qpr. So I think £10-12m is achievable. More money than sense them cowboys! Bah! P.s. Deeney or Rhodes and I'd be happy, still not sure we'll see either!
now now! let's not start re-writing history shall we? the only person forcing holt out of the door was holt himself.
I hope Hooper stays with us he has the potential to blow the Championship apart if he starts firing again . If QPR want to part with over £10 mil for him then it would make good business sense to take it if we can replace him with someone younger and better . We did very well from the sale of Snodgrass and as long as the funds are put back into new recruits we can get a few good players from clubs that need to sell. Having no overdraft and parachute payments puts us in the box seat for most negotiations either buying or selling in this league.
I don't for one minute think that's completely true? I believe that CH's style of turning everything into a defensive situation was the straw that broke his back ! He never looked the same person under CH as he did under Lambert, and no amount of debate will ever change my mind of that. He was forced to play a lone striker role which clearly didn't suit him, or he was benched and used in a cameo role usually entering the field like a raging bull. So you might describe that differently to me, but in my book he was ushered out.
Chippy, you're right about the raging bull comment, there was more than one occasion where he was lucky to stay on the pitch within seconds of coming on! He was certainly very frustrated!
I do wonder if he looks back and says to himself, ahhhh bugger, just over how it all played out and ended up. He might not have ended up with as much money in the short term, but he'd have probably done very nicely in Norwich when his playing days came to and end, had he stuck around.
We need to keep hold of Hooper at all costs, I think he'll do well in the Championship, Rhodes and McCormack would be a waste of good money which could be applied elsewhere. We have enough strikers and shouldn't need to sell as they are all well within their contracts. On another front I was reading earlier that Adams claims our midfield is the strongest area, he hasn't ruled against signing players but I find it quite concerning that he hasn't appeared to notice a lot of the issues we all observed last season.
