Transfer Rumours The 2015 Summer Transfer Window Thread

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Not a fan of signing players who'll top out as backups. Nor is a backup role likely to be beneficial with a player whose coach has openly stated wasted the bulk of his career to date by not working hard enough.

Quite possibly true. But how many weeks were we crying out for a back-up last season? Likely to be more crucuial this year.
 
Ah I see where the Dost rumour has come from, HITC has recycled a article The Mirror did a month ago.
 
Quite possibly true. But how many weeks were we crying out for a back-up last season? Likely to be more crucuial this year.

We didn't need a backup this year so much as we needed another starting-quality striker to allow Pelle to be rested without much drop-off. With Jay returning, a back-up quality striker might struggle to even reach the subs bench with everyone healthy.
 
I find it hard to believe that we couldn't find a better striker than Pelle with our scouting system. I'm hopeful we sign 2 strikers this summer but think it unlikely with Gallagher knocking at the door, Rodriguez back and with Koeman's comments about Mane potentially playing through the middle.
 
I find it hard to believe that we couldn't find a better striker than Pelle with our scouting system. I'm hopeful we sign 2 strikers this summer but think it unlikely with Gallagher knocking at the door, Rodriguez back and with Koeman's comments about Mane potentially playing through the middle.

What you're forgetting about Pelle is that Koeman knew everything about him on and off the pitch. I'm one of Pelle's biggest critics, but we mustn't underestimate how good Ron is at getting the best from him.
 
What you're forgetting about Pelle is that Koeman knew everything about him on and off the pitch. I'm one of Pelle's biggest critics, but we mustn't underestimate how good Ron is at getting the best from him.

Oh yeah I'm certain Koeman had a big input on Pelle's signing, and he may well know how to get the best out of him/like him a lot. But I really hope we haven't seen the best of him as nothing I have seen so far has really convinced me that he is anything more than an average to poor PL striker. Off the top of my head I think basically every team in the PL has a striker I would prefer to Pelle. My other slight fear is that Koeman likes him a lot and continues to stick with him even when he is playing poorly, but I have nothing to found that on atm.

I'm not saying sell him as he will be needed with the extra games next year, but if we really are going to be that top 6/4 challenger the club keep talking about we need a striker far better than Pelle.
 
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Oh yeah I'm certain Koeman had a big input on Pelle's signing, and he may well know how to get the best out of him/like him a lot. But I really hope we haven't seen the best of him as nothing I have seen so far has really convinced me that he is anything more than an average to poor PL striker. Off the top of my head I think basically every team in the PL has a striker I would prefer to Pelle. My other slight fear is that Koeman likes him a lot and continues to stick with him even when he is playing poorly, but I have nothing to found that on atm.

I'm not saying sell him as he will be needed with the extra games next year, but if we really are going to be that top 6/4 challenger the club keep talking about we need a striker far better than Pelle.

If you read back through the posts since about December you'll see I'm right there with you.

I was just saying that the Koeman thing made him pop up ahead of signing anyone else first.
 
If you read back through the posts since about December you'll see I'm right there with you.

I was just saying that the Koeman thing made him pop up ahead of signing anyone else first.

Oh yeah most definitely, and tbf I thought Pelle would be a Balotelli level flop when we signed him after watching a fair bit of him in the past, so he proved me wrong there.

I think the main thing is that to be a regular challenger you only use target men type strikers as a plan B, unless they are truly exceptional like Ibrahimovic. I can't think of a team who regularly plays European football whos main striker would be considered a target man. Sure they have one in the squad but their first choice is almost always a smaller player with a bit of pace about him who takes people on, we have Long and Mane who do this, but I think we need someone who really is an out and out striker who does it.
 
We didn't need a backup this year so much as we needed another starting-quality striker to allow Pelle to be rested without much drop-off. With Jay returning, a back-up quality striker might struggle to even reach the subs bench with everyone healthy.

Fair distinction. Pretty much was I was getting at.
 
[QUOTE="I'm not saying sell him as he will be needed with the extra games next year, but if we really are going to be that top 6/4 challenger the club keep talking about we need a striker far better than Pelle."[/QUOTE]

To be totally fair, there weren't many people knocking Pelle before xmas when the team was scoring freely. We spent XX weeks in the top 4 with Pelle leading the line. That's CL quality. He certainly went off the boil but he's got the potential to go either way I think, next season could be better or worse. If even half of his chances that hit the woodwork had gone in he'd be close to 20 goals last season. Nobody would refuse a 20 goal return next year. On the other hand he might react badly to competition up front in which case he definatly isn't going to work out because everyone agrees we need some of that.
 
Mane could be an exceptional centre forward if he improves the timing of his runs, his finishing is pretty damn good and that pace is electric. Wasn't it Terry who said he was his toughest opponent this year?
 
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