Agreed. He's somehow gone from an extremely limited forward to our saviour by some. Don't get me wrong if he stays he'll get my support but in all honesty if he goes and we get better I wouldn't batter an eyelid.
Ok Bayo may not be “very good” but don’t expect us to be in the position to replace him with anyone who is “very good”. All the players arriving this summer are and will be “average champ level” at best including this Moldovan chap. We are shopping at the football equivalent of Aldi.
After ripping up the Championship and Pro League last season, it’s only fair to let Bayo move to Udinese, and give him a chance in Serie A
I doubt its that good , were the big issue seller outside the door at Aldi!!! picking up any rejects ,crumbs and freebies.
But it’s hardly beyond the realms of possibility that we could find a better player than Bayo. He has hardly set the bar very high has he.
I think it shows just how softly our fans grilled Gino when they had the chance. Literally pouring money out of the club via deals which never made sense at a time when we were in a state of decline and needed investment in the team. Bad judgement? Poor scouting? Bad luck? Nah, this was worse than that.
I’ll be honest I don’t see Bayo as any sort of a loss. Think a lot of people forgetting how poor he was last season and getting caught in some sense of false hope that he’s the number 9 we need. I’m sure there’s better available out there, even for our lowly budget
Totally agreed. He's so much like Gray in my eyes. Always finding good scoring positions but fluffs far too many. That miss against Palace was like a toddler kicking the ball for the first time. Ridiculously bad. No loss for me either and another example of shocking spend by the club. However, if he does go, then we'd need to sign THREE strikers, as we've only got Healey as a viable option, then you have the kids. I know we're in talks with Wesley and Nicolaescu, but we'd need another one if Bayo goes.
There's always a chance of course. But there won't be many bargain-basement strikers available who have any sort of proven decent scoring record about them. I think Bayo would score a lot of goals for us over a season and miss twice as many sitters. As opposed to someone like a Davis, who of course would be out of our price range anyway, who'd barely be on the end of anything.
I await some tough negotiations there! I think Bayo can be useful to us, he's nowhere near as bad as some on here make out, but considering we already have Healey, Wesley is seemingly on the way and now possibly this guy, I'm not surprised. If I'm being honest, Wesley and Nicolaescu are unknown quantities at this stage in their careers, I don't know if they'll be as good as Bayo, but I think both of them will be playing second fiddle to Healey who I think should be better than all of them
Considering we've mainly been playing with 1 striker this pre-season do we really need 4 senior strikers? Healey, Wesley and Nicolaescu, with Adeyemo in case of emergencies should be fine numbers wise
It depends on how Ismael wants to set up, but he’s big on rotation as players will run themself ragged under him and need switching. So, in reality, two will always play in every match, even if we start with just one up front. Plus he’d never be able to play a 2 striker system, if we only had a maximum of 3 strikers, as he couldn’t rotate effectively. We really need 4 players who can do the role, as just one injury/suspension and we’re fully stretched immediately.
But surely it'll be hard to get 4 decent strikers, 2/3 of whom are happy to sit on the bench? I'd be happy with 3, plus a youth product, as well as players like Martins and Kalu (don't laugh) who can fill in there if need be
That’s down to Manga and co to facilitate this. The Moldavian guy has popped up from nowhere and is low profile with hopefully some ability. With 4 strikers, they will all get game time. Kalu, Martins or even Ince cannot play central striker. The only one from the academy is Adeyemo and maybe Forde, but I feel their development is best found in League Two right now. They are not ready for Championship football. There has to be question marks over the long term fitness of Healey and Wesley if we do sign him. It’s a huge gamble getting these guys to play a high pressing game with the injury record they have, and expecting them to come through a 46 match Championship season unscathed.
We took this same gamble last season - the powers that be thought Araujo and Britt would be upgrades over Bayo - that didn't happen and we were a worse team because of it (was probably worth the gamble at the time though). Bayo certainly has his limitations but at least we have some semblance as to his quality at this level - I've not watched any of Nicolaescu so I'm just going off his previous career here (and I hope that I'm wrong) but someone who's only around 18 months younger than Bayo and has spent most of his career to date kicking around the Moldovan, Belarussian and Israeli leagues doesn't really scream upgrade to me.
In hindsight, for all of Araújo's promise, it was always going to be a challenge for him to adapt to English football, Healey almost certainly won't ever hit the heights Araújo will in his career, but he seems a safer bet for the Championship. Mind you, if Healey is injured, or if his ACL injury is still affecting him, it could turn out that Wesley and Nicolaescu are just another Britt and Araújo
