Your point though was "coaches rarely rely on youth plus only playing 1 up top puts him further down the pecking order behind players bought for millions." There are a lot of criticisms to be levelled at Arteta, but he has played lots of youth this season. The arsenal strike force was in pretty awful form this season, especially in the first half. If he had something about him he would have played more than 400 minutes in the league. I am not saying he is an awful player or anything like that, but I don't think he is worth the price that is being mooted and I don't think he is good enough (at this moment in time) to start for us and keep us up.
That's such a low bar though, there are 100s of strikers out there we could sign if that was the main factor. We don't just need someone better than what we have, we need someone good enough to keep us in the PL.
He’s English and therefore worth £5m and £30k pw. More than that though and I think there’s a very real risk that he flops and you’re stuck with him, throwing away good money after bad.
I mean relying on youth as your main man up top, you see it occasionally with the big clubs but normally phenomenal prospects breaking on the scene like Owen Rooney. And not when a teams crying out for goals. Would he of provided them goals given the chance nobody will ever know. Maybe he’s not the answer for us in our position as we badly need a proven goal scorer but seeing him on the bench in the squad wouldn’t upset me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I obviously wouldn't complain about him as an option in the squad, but he aint coming here to sit on the bench and he certainly aint coming here for bench money.
Your right we do need someone to score the goals. And he’s probably not the answer to that. I’d like to see him on the bench and in the squad instead of some we have at the moment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
What would worry me about this sort of signing is it’s potentially a lot of money for a young player who doesn’t really have any goal scoring pedigree at any level. My issue with that is he probably won’t have the gravitas to go straight in as a starter, and hence we’ll probably still be starting Deeney and bringing this guy on to fight lost causes. He’ll then just do what a number of our young players do and flatline/go backwards. I suppose what I’m saying is I think we need a striker who is unarguably a starter ahead of Deeney.
I don't even know what kind a striker he is. But as you say it's a risk but what transfer isn't? He could be an Andy Cole we don't know. What I do believe is that we need a box striker who gets on the end of things. If we do say have Hauge and Sarr bombing down the wings Deeney would be absolutely pointless starting. Deeney as an impact sub I could just about bare. But in all honesty he shouldn't even be in the equation.
He is almost certainly better than Deeney and would likely start ahead of him, but that is such a low bar that quite a few league one strikers would likely meet. However, I don't think there is anywhere near enough evidence to suggest he is good enough to start and keep us up.
We're not paying £15m for someone out of contract next summer. He'll have a Brighton shirt on before you know it and we'll take our chances with Borre who only heard of Watford a couple of months ago. Which I'm fine with by the way.
My understanding based on what Leeds / Arsenal fans have said is that he offers almost nothing in terms of overall play, but does have a knack for getting on the end of things. I don't think you can start a passanger like that if you are a newly promoted / weaker side in the division.
Exactly, half my family are Arsenal season ticket holders and they describe him as "a notcher and nothing else".
Ok that's fair enough. But I do like the fact they've said he gets on the end of things. So what's needed is a more well rounded attacker which I'm sure most of the Premier are looking for. It's no easy job to find that type. There have been plenty of strikers who offer nothing in building play but have the knack of tap ins though. Anyway maybe Borre is the number one choice.
I completely agree, but with all the noises coming out of the club/Deeney I just don’t have confidence in them to not at least start the season with Deeney upfront unless we have a compelling alternative. I really hope I’m wrong and I hopefully should be, it’s just a nagging doubt I have.
Chris Wood, Callum Wilson and Neal Maupay offer hardly anything in terms of overall play. What Nketiah does do similar to the latter two is get in behind and be in the right positions, also stretches defences and is technically good
£15m seems a lot. But then I remember it’s only 3 lots of £5m and that’s what we are selling Ashley Fletcher for next summer after he flops. Apparently.
I think there is a lot more scope to "carry" a poacher in Burnley and Newcastle's systems than the way we currently play. I also think Chris Wood and Wilson are also both far better than Nketiah is (at this point in time) and so the trade off you get from them is far greater. Andre Gray gets in the right positions, stretches defences (but has all the technique of a dog turd) but I still think we look far better as a side when JP plays. He seems to suit the current system more.
I agree, but I don’t think we can play the same way in the Prem as we’re not coached or individually better than most teams. Having someone who just sticks the ball in the net might be more beneficial than playing JP10 like Firmino - unless we get a better left sided player in
You may well be right. I am not negative about this because I think he would be a bad signing in isolation. However, I think he is not enough of an improvement to keep us up single-handedly, and given the fees being talked about for him I can't see that we could sign him and significantly improve our left wing / midfield options. Borre plus a quality left winger just seems like better business to me.
Sorry I have to totally disagree. The law of averages will put you in the right position on occasions. As for stretching defences that has long gone. Atleast the ball sticks to dog turd unlike Dre.
The stats suggest he got into better positions than just about any striker in the division. The problem is that when he got there he kicked it into his own foot and out of the stadium. I think Andre Gray is currently ******* awful and I genuinely despise him but he was once a decent championship "poacher".
