[NOT HAPPENING] Ashley Fletcher?

I'd say the price is right with him, not quite sure what some of the uproar is about on here in regards to his fee.

Young, but already a Premier League record of about 1 in 3.5 (1 in 3 if you include cup and European football) despite mainly being used as a sub, good record at international level already, has that poachers mentality that's hard to teach and has years to get even better.

£20-25m for a young striker with potential that's semi-proven at this level is nothing these days. We sold Ighalo for the same.

 

For City hes scored a goal every 106 mins and and an assist every 212 mins.

Id say 20 mill is an absolute bargain.

 

We will never ever be over Vydra..too many residual ifs buts and maybes. We will not be satisfied until we have a pacey instinctive striker who can dribble anticipate run fast and get in behind defences regularly. Someone like Iheanacho or Simeone. COYHS

 

Whilst that may be true, I'd be cautious offering £20m for someone who's only played 1278 minutes of PL football in 2 seasons (14 or so 90 minute games). He is undoubtedly talented, but it's definitely not a "no brainer"

 

Signed for 'Boro for £6.5m

 

Am I bovvered?

 

Good. We've already got 1 Jerome Sinclair in the squad, there's no need for us to waste 6.5mil on another. (For the record I think Sinclair has time to come good, but if we're gonna give an unproven striker who's never really played at the top level a chance, we might as well give our own 1 a chance)

We need to take a page from Boro's book though. They've spent roughly 25mil signing 3 strikers in 1 window. We're still sat around guessing

 

Yep, let's take a page from relegated Boro's book. Buying Championship level strikers for Premier League fees and wages.

They've just bought a striker no-one's ever heard of and has played 37 games in his entire career for more than we paid for Will Hughes.

Yes, let's copy them.

 

I hope your name stands for just kidding Hornet...

 

8 million hahahahhaa oh my god what is going on!?

 

The mind boggles....

 

Just thinking about how much Helguson, Bouazza, Ashley Young, Marlon King, Danny Graham, Priskin etc would've gone for in today's market.

I honestly think we would've sold Sordell for around £15 million.

 

That's a relief

 

We could probably sell Jakubiak for £10m

 

I was clearly talking about the intentions they have to sign the player they want regardless of the situation. I know your dull sarcasm only works if you don't consider the context of a post though.

They sign the player they want and don't run away at the first sign of the fee increasing. If we followed suit and signed a player like ineanacho for 20--25mil id be more than happy, so yes lets copy Boro and actually sign our transfer targets rather than having them end up at our rivals. If we did the same thing last year we may well have Boufal/Gabbiadini on our books right now, how awful does that sound eh? yeah, id hate that too, I much prefer seeing them in a Southampton kit

 

Because...?

 

We were never in for Gabbiadini so that would have been tough.

 

Boufal chose Southampton over us, Gabbiadini would have done the same.

Signing players like Ineanacho for £20-£25m and £100k a week wages? This is why I'm glad Gino is in charge of recruitment and finance rather than the FIFA/FM generation. We'd be bankrupt in a week.

 

He not good enough

Why not go for ing

 

Boufal has done absolutely **** all and Gabbiadini had three good games. And they cost nearly £40 million.

Thank **** you're not in charge of the club. Donut.

 

u tak in v pizz m8

soooooo meny on ear now FML

 

Promising Strikers cost obscene money. Proven Decent ones even more. The Pozzos are wealthy and can afford to, but paying £25m plus salary will still leave a big hole vs not paying it. The temptation to keep looking for bargains must be very strong. That's great if we do unearth a gem but they do run the risk of always struggling in this league if we are constantly outspent by those around us.

 

Boufal did nothing. He was injured when he signed, scored one good goal when fit and sat on the bench for half the games. So I'm quite happy seeing him in Southampton's kit.

You say let's copy Boro and actually sign our targets - we have. Femenia? Hughes? Chalobah? All targeted and all signed. Until the club comes out and says who we want or are in talks with (which they won't because that isn't how we do business) we don't know who our targets are or who we have missed out on. I'd like to see us buy some players and especially some offensive ones but any criticism of the club should be reserved for when the window closes - or at the very least until the season has started.

Also as a side-thought - given Silva's comment about English recruitment yesterday, I could easily see us trying to get someone like Danny Ings. Not going to get much game time at Liverpool. I'd say Sturridge but wages and/or desire to want to come once again would be the stumbling block.

 

They chose the side that showed the most intent when trying to sign them. Im saying we should show more intent and that is what Boro have shown this window, intent. If the fee is in the region of 20mil I think that is reasonable and we shouldn't be scared off at the first sign of the price increasing. Football has changed, when players like Bolasie and Benteke are worth +30 million I see no reason why we can't spend 20 on a single player, especially as we need a goal scorer and these are notoriously hard to find at a decent price

 

Both would've started a majority of games for us if they were in our squad last season and would've improved our team massively. Boufal was disappointing but never really got a change to get going after being kept out by Tadic and Redmond (both of whom would also walk into our side). Gabbiadini was a man on a mission before becoming injured

 

Boufal didn't have a good season, but that could've (not saying it definitely would) been a completely different story if he played for us. Rather than being a fringe Southampton player he would've been our main man when Pereyra got injured. He's a confidence player and I don't think being in and out of their side did him any good

All that bit in bold is fair enough. Its just frustrating that we're 1 striker and 2 wingers short with 2 weeks till the first day of the season and Troy has been carying a niggle which could keep him out of the first game. My worry is that we'll miss out on our main targets for the sake of a few mil, whereas id rather just get the man we want and forget the extra few mil. we've wasted enough money on players like diamanti, ibarbo, Suarez etc we might as well put it somewhere useful. If the players we get in aren't real gems I think its a wasted opportunity not getting the deals done earlier. On the other hand if they are real quality players I'm happy to eat my words

Also would be happy with Ings if he was able to stay fit. Could see a loan with an option to buy so we can monitor him before making our decision.

 

It's all a good debate and I can see what you are trying to put across. However the part I have highlighted - you say you see 'No reason why we can't...'....there is one very good reason why we can't. Regardless of the money that comes into the club from sky, in PL terms, we are not rich. We don't make enough commercially and that is shown when the club releases its figures - hell Gino is still owed money back from loans he has given so the club can break even, even in the PL. Barring Ighalo, we haven't sold any players for a large fee for a long time. Palace sold Bolasie and bought Benteke with the money.

The fact remains and will always remain unless we either get rich investors or make money by selling players for large fees, that we will not compete with 80% of the clubs in this division financially. Because we are not making lots of money and we don't have a rich owner or board members. We are being run sustainably and prudently and long may that continue. Might we sign a player for £20m and pay him £75k a week? - perhaps, maybe one...but that signing will be considered with a high amount of knowledge and probability that player will succeed and be a good investment. The absolute last thing we can afford to do is spend £25m on someone like Simeone where there is an unknown chance of his Success. We still talk about how much of a waste of money Ellington was - imagine that x10 and you'll better understand why we aren't spending beyond our means.

 

The main reason I see no reason why we can't sign someone for 20mil is because, if rumours are to be believed we were willing to pay the 20mil for Lemina before we signed Chalobah for much less. We must've had funds allocated for signing a striker already, so if we can add the extra 10/12 million to buying a striker I'd like to think we could afford a 20mil player! I also think it's the number 1 position we need to fill and we can't afford to gamble on a cheaper option. We've wasted 5-6 million here and there for years, id much rather put those together and go for 1 big player.

I get your point entirely though, we can't compete with alot of other teams in the league who've been here longer and throw money about because they have rich owners. I don't want us to go out and spend 20mil time and time again for every position (I'm actually happy with the loans with options to buy deals for most positions), but in the case of signing a striker id like to see us just announce our interest in someone and go for him. Currently without another striker I see us struggling this year. If a new striker can help us stay up and progress for a few seasons, 20mil would seem like a a drop in the ocean in the long term.

 

Well whoever this Fletcher bloke is we've lost out again to Middlesborough and the lure of the Championship. Borough will probably sign Simeone shortly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40741034

 

'Lost out' on a 1 goal in 20 striker? Shame...

 

Like when we signed Hughes and Nate? You really shouldn't believe every single piece of transfer gossip.

 

Nothing like having an argument over past players that we failed to sign , against potential players we don't have a hope in hell of signing .

 

That's not an argument, it's just contradiction

 

No it isn't!!