Been away for the weekend and eagerly looked forward to finding out the score from Molineux. As like last week, I was left feeling despondent. We have looked really good in pre season, albeit against some less quality teams. Deep down I did not really expect anything from today but felt with Jol involved we may offer something. From what I have read we certainly were the second best team and justifiably Wolves walked away with the 3 points. Is the need for a quality striker all we are lacking ? Demps ripped apart Dnipro on Thursday, but any premiership team we come up against now will know how effective he is and go all guns out to stop him. We essentially need something new up top that is not so predictable. For me one striker is not enough, we desperately need 2. Just one other point that concerns me is that the likes of Wolves and Villa are slowly improving season on season. We need Jol to get his style working soon and more importantly we need him to stay for at least 4 seasons. I think that our changing of managers has hindered us more than I first realized. I do however think that we will have a good season and get stronger as it goes on. COYW
Frogman spot on. I would add one striker to the current squad and if AJ is sold (instead of offered a new contract) buy another one. May be is also time to see Baird in place of Etuhu in midfield. Not as athletic but can pass the ball and shoot!
Zero goals in two EPL games is pathetic, but there might be a bright side to all this. I suspect Jol is ready to sign a good striker, but the sticking point is Chairman Mo's unwillingness to lay out the transfer fee and/or wages to make the deal happen. Our lack of EPL goal productivity might just force Al-Fayed's hand in the matter. Another thought - Sunday showed just how dependent we are on Bobby Zamora. Last season we were hopeless in front of goal during his injury. In the past I've been against signing someone like Peter Crouch, since he fills the same role as Bobby. But maybe now is the time to step up and sign another target man, rather than waiting a long injury spell to make the decision for us. Just a thought.
A one word answer to your question Frogman: yes. Like everyone else I was disappointed with the Wolves performance as much as the result. As someone said in the Wolves thread (sorry for not remembering who) teams that don't score go down and we need to sort this out before another non-scoring match goes by. I have now got to the stage where I would be happy with anyone at all who can actually score a goal. I don't particularly like Crouch but signing him would be better than signing no one.
I agree we need a striker badly, i think the prioty has changed aswell now, i dont think we need a RB it would be nice but i feel that after the last 2 games that a striker should now be top of the list
Hahaha good point but are we really beggers? The problem I see is that the price might inflate due to our performance over the last two PL games and teams might spot a weakness...
Only when compared to the top 6 and their zillionaire owners! It would be VERY annoying to pay more than the market rate for either Crouch or Cole (or for anyone else for that matter). I really hope there is a deal (or deals) in the pipeline that we know nothing about and that by the time we go to Newcastle there will be some new players in the line up.
This story's being widely reported in the Dutch press: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...double-4-3m-bid-FC-Twente-striker-Chadli.html Don't know anything about him myself, but according to Wikipedia he plays as a winger for Twente.
Penguin, it was me who stated that teams that don't score go down but I am not sure adding either Bendtner or Crouch would actually solve the problem. We have a track record of signing strikers who have difficulty living up to the job description - and even Bobby fell into this category when he first came - Brian Mcbride being an honourable exception. Crouch isn't prolific and Bendtner is next to useless. I know you can't ecpect a striker to score every game but they should be able to manage 1 in 2.5 or 3. I've named him before but will do so again. We should go all out to get Castro from Real Betis. He shouldn't cost a fortune and would be a real capture.
Latest rumour from the BBC is that Papiss Demba Cisse - who I recall us being linked to in a previous transfer window - is angling for a move from his German side. He scored 22 in 32 games last season, and has 7 in 9 games for Senegal. Sounds like he knows where the goal is, although there's nothing solid in the article to suggest that we are actually doing anything about his desire to move to a bigger club. Spurs are interested in him as well, although all the 'nothing solid' caveats apply there too.
He's 26 with a good scoring record. He was linked with Spurs back in July, but nothing came of it. Given their performance last night, Spurs might up their interest in this guy. If we land him, hopefully he'll be better than our last Sengalese striker.
If I was told I was only allowed to get 2 players out of all the players that we have been linked with and were still available, the 2 I would chose would be Cristian Zaccardo from Parma El Hamdaoui from Ajax (even though he'd be off to the African Nations)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14649595.stm This sounds a bit (only a bit) more solid about our interest. I'm not sure I can see Al Fayed paying out the reported £13m for this guy, but if that's the case, then at least it looks like a striker is a seriuos priority.
Rumors are hotting up concerning Papiss Demba Cisse - 13 million. I looked up a clip of him on YouTube ... he's big, fast, technical and cool as the other side of the pillow in front of goal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCzf6HLw2cw&feature=related ... these are the top 10 Freiburg goals, but most are of Cisse, who accounted for more than half his team's goals last year. Good news is that he's class. Bad news is this is his second club in two years, starting with Metz then moving to Freiburg. And after just a year at Freiburg, he told a German radio station, "I really want to try playing at a different level." Capt - looks like you posted just a few minutes before me.
I may have beaten you to the punch, but I bow before your turn of phrase - 'cool as the other side of the pillow': wish I had come up with that one.
BBC Sport only tends to report transfer rumours if they're from a credible source, so it does sound like there's something in this. Others reported to be interested include Blackburn and Sunderland. Of the two I'd have thought Sunderland are more likely to have £13m to spend, but who knows what's going on at Blackburn. Looks promising and MAF must know that we need a striker and they don't come cheap. Will watch with interest.
Maybe its just me but with Steve Marlet and AJ in the back of my mind, I always struggle to get excited when I see us linked with a striker worth more than £10m!
