It is amazing on how much a win lifts the mood. “DIallo may come good”. “Nathan Jones may be ok after all” Moussa MOTM Go on then, I raise you all. I think we should offer Moi El another contract.
This needn't be a bad thing. It looks like we are way off Lorient's valuation for Moffi. I'd rather we knew now that it's a hard 'no' rather than a month long saga where we don't get him in the end and end up bringing Shane Long back on loan as a panic. Let's bid the max we think he's worth and then move on if it's rejected. Everton, West Ham and others are all after a striker or two.
NJ in the presser for Everton let slip - i believe it was a slip - that we wont be signing players to make up the numbers anymore. i thought that was rather telling and damning. everyone who comes in needs to make us significantly stronger. I like the sound of that.
I guess this is one thing he has always done at Luton (yeah like comparing apples and oranges). They had the smallest budget in the Championship last year I believe so there wasn’t excess cash to be bringing in players to pad out the squad. The money had to be used wisely and on players to improve the team now. Feels like we have a fair bit of cash and spread it around thin to improve the squad but not really the first team, that is a side effect of no real investment for 3/4 years in the first team squad so there were a lot of holes to plug. Now we have had that 10 signing window to fill out the squad a bit hopefully money is there to target real upgrades for the first team.
Also - looking ahead to the summer... Liam Delap has been recalled from Stoke loan and farmed out to Preston. We're known to be very big admirers so would be surprised if he didn't come in over the summer at a better price than was touted last summer. With Broja and others likely on our list but not able to come/contribute right now, I'd be comfortable with a loan striker to mix things up and add a bit of quality if permanent targets are not possible. An Origi, Iheanacho type maybe... All for not wanting to just make the numbers but equally if strikers at the top of our list aren't available I'd hate for us to do nothing up front.
I take this piss out of Moi but I actually think he is a premier league player. I think our issue is that we are relying on him to get goals and assists and be one of our leading players. In reality, I think he is a good squad option. Wages are probably reasonable and we know he works bloody hard. If you want to see out a game he is a good player to bring on. You can't have a full squad of top talents with our budget, I'd much prefer to keep hold of Moi as a squad player than Djenepo.
He's a Milner type. Never going to be your star player, in an ideal world wouldn't be starting too often but will do whatever's asked and rarely does anything disastrously bad.
Moi is okay as a steady Eddie type player, has decent vision and will occasionally run with the ball. If he had more pace he would be better than decent.
Athletic article on Orsic and Alcaraz suggests we are apparently still interested in Nicolas Jackson from Villarreal despite playing in a similar position to Orsic as both are flexible with their role across the front line
If he thought Southampton was too boring for his lifestyle, just wait until he gets to Wolverhampton!