Don't disagree with any of that. Of the players you mentioned that may leave, do you know their contract situations? Basically, can we just let them leave or are we hoping somebody might try and sign them. Might be tempted by Foster for another year as back up
What’s more Toney will have far better options than us. Been linked with Leicester and Arsenal. West Ham need a striker too and will almost certainly be playing European football next season.
Agreed he'll be well out of our price range but can't see why Brentford don't need to sell. If they stay down they'll almost certainly have to sell a couple more key players.
You know, I completed forgot about him!! Yes, of course Zinckernagel would be my backup RW and utility cover in midfield.
I expect we’ll bring in Young (there are a lot of links out there), a £10m+ striker - someone who thrives as a lone frontman - and a clear upgrade at CB to partner Sierralta, someone who has a bit more pace and is better in possession than the big Chilean to complement him nicely. Beyond that, I suspect we’ll take a couple of cheap, opportunistic punts: we could maybe use an extra defensive midfielder, winger and most of all a goalkeeper but none are absolutely essential.
In terms of wingers, provided we keep Sarr, I have high hopes for the Zinck and what he could do in his actual position (or at least the left hand side version of it) in a league of the constitution of the Prem, as opposed to the Championship. There have been flashes and signs, and we've occasionally seen both his intelligence and his technique on the ball, whilst the Pozzo must have bought him one way or another with a plan to see him on the wing/as a wide player. If we could get a striker who can play as a striker, that could be even more helpful in coaxing out his brilliance on a consistent basis - his final form at Bodo/Glimt was based around a relationship with a dominant centre forward, after all.
I'm obviously not up to speed on their financials but they did sell a couple last summer for big money and they seem reasonably well run and they won't have any Premier League wages. New ground may change that however
Proven goalscorers cost a lot and we probably won't spend that much so what seems key to me is that we get a physical and mobile striker that can bring others into the game and provide an out ball. As long as they can chip in 8-10 goals that could do. Any suggestions?
Tom Dele-Bashiru should be back next season, will be like a new signing. Sanchez is bang average at best.
Young - LB - Inter Milan (free) Mowatt - CM - Barnsley (free) Murphy - RW - Newcastle (free) Abram - LCB - Velez Sarsfield free) Bacuna - CM - Huddersfield (free) Capaldo - CM - Boca (free) Lundstram - CM - Sheff Utd (free) Mbenza - RW - Huddersfield (free) Dembele - LW/CF - Peterborough (free) Khedira - CDM - Augsburg (free) Dike - ST - Orlando (£14.5mil) As of right now none of the above have signed a new contract. More than enough realistic options there to make us better without breaking the bank. Sign 6/7 of those above and we will be fine. Obviously there are much better free options, but they will get much bigger clubs than us. I would literally only spend £14.5mil on Dike. We just need to hope that Barnsley don’t go up as they already have an agreement in place for that amount ($20mil = £14.5mil approx.).
I was about to post what think are realistic striker suggestions from championship teams and Daryl Dike was one of my selections, though I expect we won't be alone in going after him. Having said that we could probably offer him 1st team football from the off, which is more than he would be offered by many of the, shall we say, more fashionable PL teams, therefore that might be in our favour. Daryl Dike is aged 20 and valued at £14.5m he has scored 9 goals in just 15 appearances in The Championship on loan from an American team. Kieffer Moore is aged 28 and valued at 4m according to transfermarket and he has scored 18 goals this season for Cardiff. Lucas Joao is aged 27 and valued at 5m according to transfermarket and has scored 19 goals for Reading this season. Adam Armstrong is aged 24 and valued at 14.5m according to transfermarket and has scored 21 goals for Blackburn this season. I reckon we should splash out on at least one striker and bring in a less expensive one too.
Lucas Joaso isn’t good enough for the Prem in my opinion. Moore would be hit or miss. Armstrong needs to work on his finishing, he shoots 57 times a game just to score once. He would be my second choice after Dike though.
Your list of out of contract players is from Transfermarkt, right? They get it wrong sometimes and it seems from local media reports that Dembele and Murphy aren’t out of contract this year. Some of the other players either aren’t good enough to improve us (Abram or Bacuna) or are too old (Khedira). But I’d definitely take Young and Mowatt, maybe Capaldo too, and Dembele and Murphy if they were free. Dike is an interesting suggestion. I agree that he is probably the only option in our price range from the Championship that I’d be interested in. But he has massively outperformed his xG - which isn’t really sustainable over the long run. He has scored 9 goals from 4.5 xG. Some might say that’s great finishing but even top players like Harry Kane or Messi or Mbappe generally only outperform their xG by 10-20%; I think over a longer period he wouldn’t be as clinic and thus wouldn’t score as many goals. He is incredible in the air though and quick. There is a lot to like but at £15m we’ll probably be able to get a more guaranteed source of goals than him from abroad.
"To make us better?" Really?! I don't think Mowatt, Murphy, Bacuna, Lundstram, Mbenza or Dembele are necessarily any better than what we have. They all seem like squad filler fodder at best to me at Premier League level rather than being clear improvements on who we already have in those positions. We'd be lambs to the slaughter if that was our summer business. Last season I'd have been interested in Lundstram, but supposedly he's dropped off a cliff and been cack for Sheff Utd this season. I'm also not as convinced by Dembele as I was by Toney. For free he could be worth a punt, why not, but really we'd need a guaranteed upgrade on Sema for that position and he's not that. Don't know about Abram or Capaldo. Khedira might be passed it by now. Young we already expect is coming and will again just be a useful squad option but I'm not convinced a regular starter. Dike I need to see a bit more of before passing judgement for such a fee. I'll keep my eye on him in the playoffs (assuming Barnsley are in them, hopefully I won't be watching him against us as touch wood we'll be promoted before them).
I believe a few of us mentioned Dike awhile back. I did see him one game and tbf didn't look all that. He is big and strong, fair pace but you can't knock his scoring record. 15m seems like a decent fee. He definitely has something about him, is he the answer I'm not sure. But I would be happy if we're looking at him.
No such thing, mate, Some are one season wonders, some get homesick, some just don't adapt to the English game. Yes Dike comes with a hefty pricetag, but at 20 years old he would obviously have some resale value, giving The Pozzo's a very good chance to make a profit (which we all know they like) or at least recoup most of their money. Even if he didn't make the grade immediately he has age on his side.
Yeah they do unfortunately, but that’s all I have to go off. There’s probably a better website to use, but you normally have to pay for those like Wyscout etc. Abram and Bacuna would both improve us in my opinion, and Khedira is only 27, so he’s in his prime. You're probably thinking of the former Liverpool khedira.
The Khedira mentioned is Sami Khedira’s brother I think. It’s Rani Khedira who’s 27 and played almost 100 times for Augsburg.
There’s no such thing as guaranteed goals, of course, but there is some sort of scale for the likelihood of scoring goals at a certain level. Dike has scored 9 goals in one half season at Championship level. He’d be a huge risk compared to someone like Giovanni Simeone, a mid table Serie A striker who is still fairly young (25), would cost a similar amount, and has scored 50 Serie A goals already. I know they’re very different players but Sheff Utd signed Rhian Brewster on the back of a hot streak on loan in the Championship last season and that hasn’t worked out has it. That can happen when you take a punt.
Ah right, and on what are you basing him being a good signing? Whoscored has him down as being near enough their lowest ranked regular player for the last 2 seasons (and Augsburg have generally been just a lower-table Bundesliga side).
For all the talk of strikers.... Randal Kolo Muani - less than £5m. Happening from what I've been informed. Also Sarr expected to sign a contract extension this season summer. And a certain airline we are currently sponsored by are very likely to become shirt sponsors with the betting deal coming to a premature but agreed end. Not totally confirmed though but all heard from a few 'people'.
Muani at that price looks a shrewd acquisition. Young France u21 striker with 5 goals and 5 assists for likely to be relegated Nantes. Nantes are basically run by Mogi Bayat so makes sense on a number of levels. I wonder if he is coming in as a rotation option and to cement his place over the coming years, or as the main striker - if it’s the latter that’s a little underwhelming but maybe the club are hoping that at least one of him, JP or Cucho will make the step up.
As I've commented before on here (in the thread below), he seems a very good prospect but from what I've seen of him he appears more another wide forward/second striker a la Joao Pedro (or even Sarr). He's also pretty raw still (which is understandable). I'd be concerned if he were to be our only forward signing. http://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/randal-kolo-muani.58244/#post-2985203
None of them are really CFs, and none of them will be ready to score a decent number of goals in the PL next season. If the club try and bet on them doing so then we'll 100% be relegated again straight away.
This is more like it. People actually think we are going to sign duds from Huddersfield, Barnsley, brentford and other low level garbage. Just ***** LOL
As an outright CDM he’s very good defensively. 2 seasons ago (18/19) was one of his best seasons. His numbers, again defensively are not bad. Comparing him to Chalobah this season and his numbers aren’t too dissimilar. He’s better in the air than Chalobah, his percentage of winning ground duels is better, he holds onto the ball better and he gives away less fouls. Where Chalobah wins is in his passing is slightly better, his ball recovery and interceptions are better. He also wins more fouls. So on a free, yeah I would take him.
Don’t disagree with that. We’re basically in agreement just I’ve couched my comment in more forgiving/optimistic language. What I would say is that while none of them has a particularly good chance of stepping up and having a breakout season as a CF. Collectively, there is not an insignificant chance (say,for the sake of argument, 50%) that one of them could. But I certainly wouldn’t want to rely on that chance to stay up.
Muani certainly doesn't look like he would be signed as one to hit the ground running in the PL. Wouldn't be surprised if we signed him and loaned him out.
Doesn't seem particularly worth adding someone who sounds at best the same level as Chalobah who'll likely just sit on the bench on a fair wage with no resale value. Again, just sounds a squad filler rather than someone who will actually give us more of a chance of not getting relegated again. We'll need quality as well as quantity. No point in having a bloated squad if they're all as mediocre as each other; we can only stick 11 men on the pitch at a time. 18/19 is effectively 3 seasons ago. His numbers really don't seem all that.
