a team& squad built for 6th/7th?

[Joe Clash]

We can't afford to fail at buying a striker...or well another one at least.

Ok, but's that not a reason to not try. There seems to be a worrying acceptance of our lowly status. I've said it before, but if we'd beaten woolwich twice last season, we'd have finished 4th - surely a little bit of a gamble is warranted?

 

[Joe Clash]

Before last summer a lot of fans thought all we needed was another striker so we went out and bought one. Another year on and we're still wanting a striker. It's a never ending cycle (or rarely ending cycle).
We can't afford to fail at buying a striker...or well another one at least.

You talk about fans discussing finance yet the only input youve given regards to the striker situation is "just buy one"..not nearly as simple as that considering we don't have CL and don't look like we'll have CL in the near future.

Why isn't it as simple as that? Don't knock me back with that. We have the money to buy a top striker, but ENIC are looking to sell, so they're hardly going to throw £40 million away on a striker that might help us get champions league for another owner. You are talking as if football is is on the decline. Tell me why it isn't as simple as that before you start patronising me, there are billions coming into the game, and your views strike me as a bit small time. "and don't look like we'll have CL in the near future". Not with that mentality, no.

 

[BentalebWho]

Why isn't as simple as that? Don't knock me back with that. We have the money to buy a top striker, but ENIC are looking to sell, so they're hardly going to throw £40 million away on a striker that might help us get champions league for another owner. You are talking as if football is is on the decline. Tell me why it isn't as simple as that before you start patronising me, there are billions coming into the game, and your views strike me as a bit small time. "and don't look like we'll have CL in the near future". Not with that mentality, no.

I actually haven't a clue what point you are trying to make. It's as though you are putting all these different opinions in my mouth. I said nothing about ENIC. I don't have what ever defeatist attitude you seem to think I have.I was making the point that there is no such thing as a sure thing in football. Saying "just go buy a top quality striker" is useless. We tried to do it and failed. We can't just keep going around buying shit strikers every window and forgetting the ones we already have. Our team needs to develop under MP.

 

[BentalebWho]

Why isn't as simple as that? Don't knock me back with that. We have the money to buy a top striker, but ENIC are looking to sell, so they're hardly going to throw £40 million away on a striker that might help us get champions league for another owner. You are talking as if football is is on the decline. Tell me why it isn't as simple as that before you start patronising me, there are billions coming into the game, and your views strike me as a bit small time. "and don't look like we'll have CL in the near future". Not with that mentality, no.

Also I am 110% sure my mentality of where we are at in regards to CL will have literally 0% affect on what we achieve. Just being realistic on a football forum.

 

[Joe Clash]

I actually haven't a clue what point you are trying to make. It's as though you are putting all these different opinions in my mouth. I said nothing about ENIC. I don't have what ever defeatist attitude you seem to think I have.I was making the point that there is no such thing as a sure thing in football. Saying "just go buy a top quality striker" is useless. We tried to do it and failed. We can't just keep going around buying shit strikers every window and forgetting the ones we already have. Our team needs to develop under MP.

Don't be obtuse. By saying 'we' you are obviously implying ENIC. I didn't put opinions in your mouth. Why is buying a top quality striker "useless" when you are around 5th or 6th? and why shouldn't you try just because you bought a dud the year before? Our strike force is the weakest in the top 6, and there's no need for that. Why do Everton, for example have better strikers than us - they have less money.

 

[Joe Clash]

Also I am 110% sure my mentality of where we are at in regards to CL will have literally 0% affect on what we achieve. Just being realistic on a football forum.

I'm not sure you are. 110% sure of your mentality? That's pretty sure - 10% more than certain. We were 2 wins away from CL last season. 0% unrealistic? I'm glad you're not running the club. Solid 6th and a meal with the bean counters.

 

[BentalebWho]

Don't be obtuse. By saying 'we' you are obviously implying ENIC. I didn't put opinions in your mouth. Why is buying a top quality striker "useless" when you are around 5th or 6th? and why shouldn't you try just because you bought a dud the year before? Our strike force is the weakest in the top 6, and there's no need for that. Why do Everton, for example have better strikers than us - they have less money.

Im not saying it's useless buying a striker..by no means..im saying its useless now. There are no good options whatsoever.

Because they waited for the right player. They were smart with their money. With some of the players and suggestions on this board it's like people just want to keep pissing away money and getting nowhere in the process. Adding duds to the squad is also terrible for team chemistry. Bony is literally the only option left that has the highest chance of being successful and he's only 4 games into his second season. Lukaku was the best option by far but the previous summer we used the 26m on a high risk player.

 

[Joe Clash]

Im not saying it's useless buying a striker..by no means..im saying its useless now. There are no good options whatsoever.

Because they waited for the right player. They were smart with their money. With some of the players and suggestions on this board it's like people just want to keep pissing away money and getting nowhere in the process. Adding duds to the squad is also terrible for team chemistry. Bony is literally the only option left that has the highest chance of being successful and he's only 4 games into his second season. Lukaku was the best option by far but the previous summer we used the 26m on a high risk player.

I know that, but you seem to be saying that because of that, we've got to take the hit for the next 2 or 3 seasons. All the top clubs have fucked up with their striker acquisitions in recent years, but they've all gone out and sucked it up and bought better ones, with the exception of us and woolwich. Ade, Soldado and Kane will not get us into 4th or above, regardless of the players behind them. 67% possession, 16 shots on target, blah blah blah. Same old story. It wasn't that long ago when we had the best strike force in the country.

 

[Éperons]

Is the argument now that we should have signed Costa?

:adelol:

 

[Joe Clash]

Is the argument now that we should have signed Costa?

:adelol:

No, just ambition.

 

[ArcspacE]

I must have imagined Chadli's 1 on 1 then.

I imagine it every night ..

 

[scott]

A system.

More revenue.

Better players across the park.

its worse than I thought! better players, an actual decent system & much more income.
a lot of work to be done!

 

[scott]

Eh, as someone who has done some scouting, most of the good players...... *cough* unless your a teenage prodigy you don't make it under the radar. There are often good strikers at the European (and by that I mean the Basels, Portos, Ajaxs of this world) but their players are frankly not worth the prices paid and any transfer is a big risk. It is all well saying that our club should take a risk but you try and convince any sensible person to risk £20+ million, Chelsea, United and City can do it because they could literally burn money and be all like 'fuck it!', we don't.

And while we hire Baldini and the scouts watching Eastern/Central European youth football is one of the most drab things I have ever done.

I see what your saying but I do disagree. I am not saying spend a huge amount on a new striker.
u don't need to do that to improve our striker force.

also I disagree about the scouting etc. we got lloris, eriksen, bale, vertonghen etc all for good prices.
& they were quite highly rated & well known.
it seems to me u guys seem to think u either get a near world class top proven striker or no one.
theres middle ground. & players who are going to become near world class top proven strikers if given the chance. we should have staff members finding those players.

& lastly we could have easily afford 20m for a striker if we didn't spend it on the likes of say chirches, chadli, stambouli. id have rather got a good 20m striker then them 3. not saying stambouli wont be a good signing.
just given an example.

 

[scott]

It wasn't quite like that. We had a good chance just before half time. If that goes in, different story second half.
We were looking to build momentum, steadily but got sucker punched at the start of each half. Again it was poor defending that lost the game. We were chasing form the 8th minute and again after the break .
Football is about confidence. look at Dier against Sunderlands first goal. He hesitates to tackle (in the box), this is because he conceded the pen against Liverfools. Confidence.
There is a balance to reach which we will get there.

true. but if u go by that logic, u could say if Mario hadn't missed those 3 good chances we could have gone in 4-0 down.

 

[scott]

Yea but how long did it take Chelsea to get Costa. We simply can't afford to keep taking risks on strikers like they could. We essentially wasted 26m on Soldado which 3 seasons ago would have been our whole transfer budget nearly.

I don't think you understand the word adequate. The adequacy of a player is relative to the ambitions of a club. Adequate =/= Average.

I disagree. they let both sturridge & lukaku go. both easily would be out best striker!

 

[scott]

Settle for 2nd best and you end up 6th. Why can't we afford it? Everyone keeps telling me we're such a well run club, but our fans think we can't afford to buy a decent striker. Have we all turned into accountants? Buy a striker, win some games and stop going on about money that isn't ours (fans).

agreed! and we are quick to spend 20m on 3 fairly unknown & proving midfielders and defenders.
could we have not spent that on 1 striker?

 

[Freudlyuchenko]

I see what your saying but I do disagree. I am not saying spend a huge amount on a new striker.
u don't need to do that to improve our striker force.

also I disagree about the scouting etc. we got lloris, eriksen, bale, vertonghen etc all for good prices.
& they were quite highly rated & well known.
it seems to me u guys seem to think u either get a near world class top proven striker or no one.
theres middle ground. & players who are going to become near world class top proven strikers if given the chance. we should have staff members finding those players.

& lastly we could have easily afford 20m for a striker if we didn't spend it on the likes of say chirches, chadli, stambouli. id have rather got a good 20m striker then them 3. not saying stambouli wont be a good signing.
just given an example.

Your ignoring wages, the wages those three contribute is like to be less than 70k a week. Strikers are in high demand, the truth is there are not many if any strikers playing for clubs beneath us in stature. Saying that we should find them implies that they are there to be found. If you wanted defenders, midfielders of goalkeepers, there are those who exist in the plenty. But strikers who will succeed in the Premier League, are harder to gage and a bigger gamble, we need a strong, good finisher, with pace who had good link up play, Adebayor is probably the best we can do in that department.

 

[Crockett]

agreed! and we are quick to spend 20m on 3 fairly unknown & proving midfielders and defenders.
could we have not spent that on 1 striker?

Not scientific, but about 90 per cent of fans wanted to seal the deal with Welbeck. Absolute no brainer. How the people at the club paid to do this stuff can't see it is a mystery.

 

[Spurbanite]

Not scientific, but about 90 per cent of fans wanted to seal the deal with Welbeck. Absolute no brainer. How the people at the club paid to do this stuff can't see it is a mystery.

There is one explanation. Poch prefers Jay Rodriguez.
They plan to go back for him. So they did not want to pay big money to buy Welbeck, since they play the same role. Spurs wanted to get him on loan until JR is ready.

 

[Simmo]

If we'd beaten the scum twice last year we'd have been 4th. A big if, I know, but it illustrates how important the 8 games against the top 4 are.

Exactly and we have gone backwards from holding our own in most of those games recently, so frustrating. Annoyingly the two scum games were both them nicking an early counter attack goal and then parking the bus, pretty pathetic when we were disorganised or inept most of the season.