Where it's always been. In Shangri-La along with Santa, the Tooth Fairy and Raffaele Riva Never stop believing, that's when the magic stops
Possitivity! (Is that a word?). Anyway, I welcome the optimistic tone. There is a gloomy outlook by many on the forum at the moment. I am going over to the West Ham game next month with a (possibly illogical) sense of hope. A 3-1 win with Gradel scoring one and providing the assist for Zarate for another, with Success setting up Deeney for the insurance score. Meanwhile, Ighalo makes his debut for his new Chinese masters, following on from the big money move.
In the case of Gradel, I don't think it will be a short term signing. It's a player they wanted in the past, and have an opportunity to sign now, at a much lower price. If they pay £3m, then the contract will probably be at least 2.5 years, if not longer. Zarate, if we sign him, is clearly a stop gap just to get us through the season, because of the Pereyra injury. The club have money and would spend it on the right player, like Boufal, but in the absence of that, they have to do the next best thing. Look at who is available on loan for a remainder of the season. That list would be relatively small and it's not as easy as many people think to get quality through the door for the right price. I don't think anyone will be jumping in excitement over Zarate, but he offers something no one else does in the current available squad, so would make sense.
We have gone from signing the likes of Peryra and being linked to good players to taking a gamble on a player like Gradel, personally i would rather spend 3 mill on lansbury than gradel.
Aren't Gradel and Lansbury completely different players though? Who says we're not going after good players still? Just because it's not being reported on tw@tter doesn't mean the powers that be aren't hard at work. 15 mill on one good signing when we need to fill several positions?
We got Cleverely instead of Lansbury, who is a much better player IMO. Gradel is a completely different player to Lansbury as he plays on the wing. A more realistic comparison would be recalling Berghuis instead of signing Gradel, as both play wide on the right. That would be a better debate.
So filling positions of players that are out injured with players that are always injured makes sense?Plus we have cleverley on loan with option to buy, there is nothing wrong with loaning players and then buying a player for a fair sum of money. I dont believe it is worth spending 3 mill on Gradel i think we should do the same as Cleverley, then if he is no good or injured alot we haven't wasted money.
Huh? I never said that? Was merely pointing out that Gradel and Lansbury are completely different players, it's not really a like for like alternative. We've also signed Cleverley so I can't really see where Lansbury would fit in.
Yeah that's fair enough they aren't the same player. i think to go from a good signing like Cleverley to Gradel i just think we could get better players than that.
Not read the whole thread, but can't see how this can be a bad signing. If £3m on a 3 year deal, he fills a HG slot for what is, essentially, cigarette money in Premier League terms. If we have someone with pace to bring off the bench and inject some urgency into our pedestrian attacks, when chasing games, at the very least, that has got to make him worthwhile. I'm sure we'd all prefer to be signing £25m world beaters but needs must and a pacy forward who knows the division, doesn't mean we have to lose a player from the squad and also brings a quality we sorely lack - looks like a slam dunk to me.
What this thread shows is that some people place far too much expectation on us! This season is about staying up and becoming established in this league. At the moment that is in some danger, I'm not saying we are in a relegation battle yet but we need to start picking up points again. As a stop gap this signing makes a lot of sense.
If it's £3m and is HG it's a no brainer, if he turns out to be sh!t then we can simply sell him to Derby or Sheffield Wednesday.
Would be happy at this, Don't understand the negativity surrounding this one Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk
It does beg the question as to why he doesn't fit that role for Bournemouth who play in that style as a norm, not in terms of game chasing. Anyone heard anything?
Outside looking in would just seem that others have stepped up and taken their chance like Fraser recently. A bit like Mings I guess, they spent a lot of money on him and after a long injury last season he only got his first start for them at the weekend I believe.
Looked decent every time I've seen him for muff. Direct and pacey with end product. Would be happy with this one
£3m for someone we wanted to pay £6 or £7m for a couple of years ago, ok before his CKL, is a good deal Benefits of homegrown and pace worth a punt
I assume Berghuis doesn't want to come back, as I agree he would be a far superior player to a limited journeyman like Gradel.
WD Sport @WDSport_ · 19 mins ago Source: no interest in "crock" Gradel, or "Nut Bag" Zarate. Berahino a real target.
Considering we currently have unfilled HG squad slots and 3 million is back-of-the-sofa money in Premier League terms, it's a completely sane transfer. If it doesn't work out we just turn around and sell him to one of our B teams in the Championship for a nice profit.
Thinking about it, it could be that Gradel just wants to join a bigger, better club. Bournemouth are a small team with a small ground and the stadium is in a horrible area, I can totally understand Max wanting to leave and join us. I expect an exodus from that League 1 level side soon. This won't be the first. We could even....... Cherrypick their players.
No but a realistic suggestion would be Robbie Brady currently at Norwich, Left sided midfielder and under 30.
If we are relying on second grade injured Bournemouth cast offs, regardless how cheap, we can use him ourselves in the championship next year.
How much would he be though? £15 million? More? I suspect if Norwich were to sell there'd be a bidding war with quite a few mid-table Premier League teams involved. We can't pay that much for every signing, we need to take the odd gamble.
Considering his new role, I would have thought that Kevin A has this spot on. I wouldn't mind Gradel if he is fit and has his pace, although if he had I can't see Sir Eddie selling him particularly as he really fought hard to re-sign him. Zarate is not one for me. Berahino is worth a punt.
