January Transfer Window 2021

No thanks.

 

We already have two strikers who were once excellent in the Championship but are now the wrong side of their peak and completely stinking the place out - I'd rather not risk adding a third to that list.

 

Honestly I don’t think they have much or any value - I’d give them both a free to get the wages off the books .... that’s £7–£8m a year saved.

 

The difference is whilst Gray and Deeney were scoring goals in the Championship 5 or so years ago MV scored 26 goals for Darby and won Championship player of the season in 2018. Clearly he is still talented and has shown glimpses for Burnley but is the wrong player for their tactics.

I don't think it's fair to compare Vydra to Troy and Andre, firstly because his technical ability is on a different planet to Grays, secondly he's far far superior at finishing than both Gray and Deeney. Last but not least Troy is the wrong side of 30 and has dodgy knees.

 

Obviously upfront. But hasn't that been the case for the last 6 transfer windows? I am astonished we still haven't fixed this situation, it's been clear we have needed to for so so long.

 

I'm really starting to think that maybe we should cash in on Sarr. Get Deeney, Gray, Nate, Murray off the payroll. Then go all out for somebody like Adam Armstrong from Blackburn. He is a guaranteed goalscorer in this league and would easily step up. Would cost a bundle but he is some player. He is very adapt at playing the loan striker, good pace, great movement, strong and scores. Big pipedream on my behalf though.

 

Troy's finishing was still decent up until a couple of years ago, when on the rare occasion the ball fortunately and conveniently landed at his feet he could at least usually find the net, or at least hit the target. Even that has deserted him now though.

Vydra would likely still be better than our current two, sure, and I prob wouldn't reject it if we could sign him, but I'm just hesitant regarding the idea that we can replicate our promotion season by just bringing back players who did well then, even though they might not be quite the same players any more.

 

He has been shifted wider recently though to accommodate Gallagher playing as the front man. He also benefitted from Brereton playing alongside him being a bit more of a targetman.

I think Armstrong would cost way too much for someone I don't see as being good enough to step up to the PL in a significant way.

I wouldn't mind Brereton as a Deeney replacement though to play alongside a more mobile forward (like Armstrong, but not Armstrong).

 

Jesus. It’s gotten so desperate that I’ve just spent the last 5 minutes convincing myself that Success is going to come good, and starting to get excited about the possibility of that happening.

 

Yes I've just read that Mowbray values him at 30m. So can forget about that.

Why don't you think he could step up in leagues? He seems to be a constant thorn for defenders and he's still only 23 I believe. Time to improve.

 

Sell Sarr.

Take whatever we can for the ones on the stupidly long contracts.

Try not to sack anyone for a while.

 

You're asking far too much.

 

You mean after Munoz goes, right?

 

Blimey, have a lie down Luke, that moonshine you’re drinking at 7am in the Texas sunshine is affecting your thinking..

 

Gray isn't going to get offered the same wages anywhere else, so what makes anyone think he has any interest in signing for another club for less money? He strikes me the type that would be happy seeing out the rest of his contract, even if he wasn't playing.

 

Yep thats the fella

 

Imagine the carnage on here when Sarr goes for less than 15 million

 

We’d have to pay his contract up or if he goes out on loan pay some of his wages, these are both things we should seriously considering.

I believe he has 1.5 years left on his contract? If we could somehow find an interested club that would perhaps offer him a much longer deal at a lower wage, then we’d be able to negotiate with him to end his contract and not necessarily have to pay all his wages.

 

I can guarantee that will not happen.

 

I was only trying to be funny. Then I looked these up

Doucoure for 20 mill
Suarez for 6 mill
Vydra for 8 mill
Lukebakio for 16 mill
Berghuis for 6 mill

Now I'm worried it might actually happen!

 

The difference being we couldn’t have spent much more than £5-£10m on that lot combined.

 

His best asset seems to be his shooting - he does have a cracking hit on him. But I'm not sure there's enough to the rest of his game which means it could be difficult for PL teams to accommodate him. I don't think he'd do enough to be a lone CF in the PL.

I could be being a bit harsh on him, but I don't see where he'd fit in the PL in terms of his position and the level of club, beyond say being a rotation option for the second striker spot at Brighton. He could also maybe work at Leeds but they're already well stocked in players of his style.

 

That's fair enough. He does exactly what I thought people said Gray was able to do. A constant thorn in the defensive line. Not bad pace and movement. Maybe he couldn't step up to the PL, but he could very well help us to get there.

 

Right . Here's the plan .

Someone gives Elton a ring and says we need to offload Troy , Gray and Isaac.
Until this happens we don't have the wonga to buy any decent strikers let alone
afford their wages. Any chance rush releasing yet another "Best of Elton" to pay
these wasters off ?

 

If reports are true that he is on somewhere between £60k-70k a week, then with 18months left on his contract that’s approx. a total of £4.6m-5.4m.

He ain’t going anywhere whilst he can sit back and bank that. If we cancel his contract now, we would have to negotiate a termination fee and as long as he is making those figures above, he won’t settle for much less. He would probably accept £3.5-4m upfront but there goes our entire January transfer window budget in my opinion.

Best hope we have is Burnley come back for him. I know that sounds crazy but their fans on social media recently have been saying they would take him back.

Other hope is fat Sam being desperate enough.

 

Seems very settled in his £5m house with his pop star wife. Wonder whether this might limit the options for getting rid of him as he won't want to move too far away?

 

To be fair though if he goes back to the premier league to play I reckon he could get an England call up.

 

I've been searching for our missing piece of our jigsaw for 3 years, but you've hit the nail on the head with that, by jove. Now, how could we possibly solve our ongoing manager problem?

 

It'll take several windows to move along all those who need to be moved. A good start has been made by moving on Capoue, Holebas, Pereyra, Deulofeu - players who were bad influences, uncommitted or both.

Deeney, Gray, Murray, Penaranda, Success, Chalobah should all be in focus now. Possibly Foster as well.

We are in the Championship for a while yet so we might as well strip bare and rebuild.

 

Where did you get these prices from? To be fair some of these prices are reasonable Vydra went a few years back, Berghuis hadn't really done anything to warrant a big transfer fee, Hertha qouted that Lukebakio was their record signing at 20 million Euro. I think we probably got a little bit more for Suarez.

 

He'd cost £20mil+, a Championship club has never spent that much on one player, and I very much doubt we'll be the first to do so.

 

You're correct on all fronts.