I cant imagine there was 18.5m one off payment. There had to be some kind of add on however small, however even if you took 18.5m as gospel, he wasnt a bad signing comparitively. How much does a mid twenties aged, 25 goal a season in the championship forward cost a championship side? Its always 12-15m these days, the most we lose on him is 6m, without any add ons on our purchase. I think it was worth a shot. Oulare and success will probably depreciate by the same if not more.
It is vital that we get rid of Gray. Not that he's a poor player, far frim it. It's just that he's Championship standard - and if a PL side has Championship standard players in it, there's a good chance they'll end up in the Championship. He'll do well at Stoke.
Bizarre post. The bottom 14 of the PL are candidates for relegation before a ball is kicked in anger anyway, and for a relegated team to bounce straight back up keeping the core of their players just doesn't happen often. It's more the case recently that promoted Championship sides retain their PL status. Essentially saying there is still a cat's whisker between the two leagues despite the gulf in revenue.
It's really not. What's vital is that we get a better starting striker. None of our current three are Premier League quality. Gray is no worse than Deeney or Okaka, and contributed more than the others last season. It doesn't really matter which of the three we get rid of, but as Deeney and Okaka are more similar in style, I'd rather lose one of them.
If it's true his problem is that he wants to start more games. Our problem is that he hasn't shown us enough to start more. Whatever money you pay for a striker he must be able to control a football, he needs to take the pressure off while we are defending. He is absolutely hopeless at this. It's part and parcel of a forwards job. I have no doubt that he will leave along with Okaka. But he must be replaced by a more all round striker.
Gray is quite clearly more effective than both Deeney and Okaka, who offer absolutely nothing at all. They're all crap, but Gray is far, far more likely to score goals on a semi regular basis due to the fact he's not just a static lump.
An interesting albeit speculative piece here. http://the72.co.uk/105984/opinion-andre-gray-way-nottingham-forest/ Speculative for the reason Jorge Mendes has Forest as his Championship project for this season (I presume it was Wolves last year?) They've already spent big on Joao Carvalho, a club-record fee of £13.2m, and completed a season-long loan deal for Benfica team-mate Diogo Goncalves. A deal for our own Pantilimon has supposedly been agreed with just wages to be finalised. Interesting in that Andre Gray is being linked (his agent is Mendes after all) but that they quote the fee we paid Burnley as being a mere £11.5m.
Deeney is already our 'all round' striker. What we really need is a 'fox in the box' as another poster never tires of mentioning.
Strikers cost ridiculous money. I just don't see Gino stumping up for one proven striker let alone 3. Hope I'm wrong.
F***, don't YOU leave. That will leave me and Hornetgags. If Hornetgags is one of yours, well played sir.
I left the forum ages ago and I won't return til Hogg does and we pay decent wages and we sign someone to play the Chalobah role.
someone better keep that twitter thread away from this forum, otherwise there will be a [cheese] meltdown
Whenever I say I have high hopes for Gray this season my mates reply with the usual “are you pissed?”. However, I do have high hopes for him. It’s a hunch.
If Gray is a regular starter he’d probably get 10+ a season which with our midfield would be just about ok. He only really appears to be good at 5 yard tap ins, but that’s ok somebody has to do it.
I think people remember the Newcastle away game a tad too much - I would rather remember his performance in the home game. Dropping deeper, collecting ball in space and running at defenders. If I recall he played a part in the first goal and scored the second... And generally played very well with a lot of energy. Not bad for a player who can’t hit a barn door, they say, and had barely kicked a ball in 5 months. Yep, I’ve convinced myself if nobody else.
