By Kevin Affleck AIDY BOOTHROYD has revised his number of transfer targets following the "appalling" display against Sheffield United on Tuesday night. But the Watford boss will not be making a move for Ade Akinbiyi or David Healy in the January transfer window. Boothroyd admits he now "possibly needs more" than the three players - two strikers and a central defender - he had initially earmarked to bring to Vicarage Road at the start of next month. However, Akinbiyi, the out of favour Sheffield United forward, and Healy, the prolific Northern Ireland striker at Leeds, are not among his targets. "Ade is not a player I will be bringing in," said Boothroyd. "We need to get some strikers in as Darius Henderson is up there on his own and Young is playing out of position. Advertisement continued... "David is OK," he added on the striker he worked with during his time at Elland Road. "He's a great lad and has got a terrific international scoring record and I think he'll want to be playing at the highest level he can, because he is not getting any younger. I like David and I know him well of course, but that doesn't mean to say he's top of the list. He's not really on the list."
4 mill for 2 strikers a defender and a midfielder? they are not going to be top quality are they? Unless of course the revelation that we may not be able to hang on to Ashley is to prepare us for the fact that he's on his way either in January to provide funds or on a pre-arranged sale at the start of next season and to be used as a sweetner. either way I can't see Ash being a hornet next season. Also knowing our club we will probally under value him and let him go for less than £2 mill though personally I'd want at least £4 mill for him. We are in serious doo doo!!!!
i think realistically that it is unlikely he will bring in many new faces on a permament basis.. more likely to get a couple of good loanees in at the moment.... and IF we get relegated then look at bringing in new faces with the drop money.
£4 mil is enough to get 3 players IMO, maybe get a couple on loan as well. The players probably wont be quality, but that will have made our spending around £7 mil (i think) which i a fair bit - you can't seriously have expected us to spend more than that. How are we in doo doo? We are in the Premier league, we are not struggling at the foot of the championship like the two teams we beat in the play-offs and our local rivals up the road. IF we go down (I still believe we'll stay up) £4 mil will allow us to get players good enough to push for promotion next season. Freddie Eastwood around 1.5 mil, Southend struggling, unproven in the Premiership but doing well in the Championship, could be useful. Jarvis 500K contract up at the end of the season, winger linked with us Edwards 1 mil winger/full back, contract up at the end of the season Davenport 1 mil could be the centre back Aidy is interested in? Linked with us in the summer Total 4 mil (obviously just an example of how far 4 mil could go)
Love Aidy's quote about Healy not getting any younger! I'm sure that's a plot to lower the price!! Defintely worth a shot IMO.
To answer your question. We are in the doo doo because: We are second from bottom of the league, We could not beat Sheffield Utd on our home ground (don't kid yourself that was a defining moment in our season) Our top striker is injured for the remainder of the season. Ashley Young is going to be sold Our squad is wafer thin We have not had a single positive decision from an official all season, eg pens at Everton one we should have had (not given) one they sould not have had (given), Same at Pompey, A legitimate goal against Spurs given offside, An offside goal for Sheff Utd given. Pundits hate us and slag off our style of football at every oppertunity, (this is bad publicity and will deter potential buys from coming to us) On the plus side we do have Ade Boothroyd and if we do stay up I will be the first to admit I was wrong. I just think that the odds are stacked heavily against us.
The only way to get value with this type of small change is to buy foreign but sadly we do not have the scouting network in place to do so. With Clarke coming back I'd settle for our Centre Halves and concentrate on Forwards and Carlos Edwards.
I tend to agree... there is little wrong with the Defence as it stands, could be better but theres nothing wrong with it as it is.. we have midfielders coming out of our ears though and most are capable to do the job, but then again why do we need them when the ball goes from the back to the front totally missing them out anyway. Its a striker who can actually find the net that we need, we are thin on the ground with strikers and the ones we do have dont know what to do with the ball when they have it.
I was reading watford observer today and he said he isnt a target but he would be it would be good to see healy's talent in the preimer league
