Right then, who should we sign?

[morty]

I just worry that with this we're risking repeating old mistakes. Swapping our effective Holt (Jerome), established in English football, for an unknown quantity RvW (Mbokani) who has never played in England before - all in the name of 'upgrading'.

Id be happier if we were bringing in someone with Premier League experience, or even just experience of English football as a whole

Trouble is we can't afford what we want. We would end up taking a punt on an untried youngster or end up with someone at the end of their career ( Crouch?) which is just as much of a risk really if you consider fitness / motivation.

We have never really worked out the reason for buying Ricky, or the logic behind it. I hope we have learned from it and don't repeat the mistake.

 

[dj161]

personally i'm all for giving Ricky another go, he's here, he's getting paid still so why not give him a go, pretty sure he would of scored that Grabban chance in the first half, that was the sort of ball across the box he thrived on before arriving here

 

[morty]

personally i'm all for giving Ricky another go, he's here, he's getting paid still so why not give him a go, pretty sure he would of scored that Grabban chance in the first half, that was the sort of ball across the box he thrived on before arriving here

If thats what Alex Neil wants to do then I would be 100% behind Ricky, and wish him success. The VERY best outcome from all this would be Ricky becoming the player we thought we were buying.

But I wouldn't bet any of my money on it.

 

[Din]

I would quite like us to keep Ricky and then play him in the cup and see what he can do. If he performs well then perhaps we could give him the odd chance in the league, however if it's clear he's not up to it then we sell him in January. 

As for bringing in an unknown quantity such as Mbokani instead of sticking with Jerome. I think Jerome will be our first choice striker, and the only reason he didn't start on Saturday is because he'd been injured for most of pre-season.

 

[Yellow Fever]

I suspect that Jerome not starting is AN being careful with his previous 'sore foot'. I hope he starts against Sunderland. If Mbokani does come in (and I hope he does), he'll have to earn his right to start.

 

[Boyerboy]

Just to be a little controversial, mention of Grant Holt leads me the Holtesque performance of Glen Murray on Saturday. His aggression together with his hold up skills would be just what we need to create time and space for Howson et al. Probably cheaper too. Short term fix but could be very effective for us. 

 

[dj161]

I too saw a lot of Grant Holt in Murray, holds up the ball well, but knows when to hit the deck after the slightest bit of contact to win his side a free kick, could do worse than Murray to be honest, I still think i'd rather have Cameron Jerome starting if we're going to play one up front

 

[KeiranShikari]

So our McNally quote was a load of tosh. Shocking.

 

[morty]

So our McNally quote was a load of tosh. Shocking.

Just short of 4 hours left 

 

[SussexYellow]

Just short of 4 hours left 

Not going to happen. Which is sort of where I started from.

But for those that want a silver lining maybe there is something going on, just not going to be announced today. Medicals, fees , wages all take time. Not able to convince myself though!

 

[Killiecanary]

AN has made it pretty clear he wants a striker his week.  Mys guess would be that they have 3 or 4 potentials that they're  working on, probably in order of preference.  Never gave much credence to the MCNally thing (mainly because I think Nick Conrad is a total w@nker from his radio persona) but I would  be astonished if there weren't strenuous things going on behind the scenes - to be fair Norwich tend to be quite good at keeping transfer stuff pretty quiet so no news doesn't necessarily mean nothing happening for me.  

But striker asking prices are nuts - 12 million plus for Jordan Rodes who has never played a premier league game or scored a premier league goal????  That's the problem - given McNally never wants to pay over the odds (and we were burned by the RVW episode) I wouldn't be surprised if we decide that the money that needs to be paid is too much of a gamble...

 

[eatonparkboy]

Despite the frantic calls for new signings, the club has to bring in players for the whole season and onwards. There seems to be a bit of a knee jerk reaction to Saturdays game regarding strikers particularly. That is understandable as Palace were on of the teams that we would probably expect to take three points off at home.

Having gone on to many sites and read many reports, Grabban is about the only player not considered MOTM. Posters on here have blamed the defence, midfield and strikers for the defeat yet many believe that we did quite well and the stats do tend to back that impression. So we lost, and that isn't easy to swallow but played OK is the overall impression I have.

This was never going to be easy. We have virtually the same defence as when we were relegated, Virtually the same midfield. The only difference is we have two different strikers. One doesn't give the impression of being up to scratch for this division and that leaves us with Jerome. But I get the impression we will be starting each game with a lone striker. And that means any new expensive signing won't want to be a bench warmer.

I'm sure the club is working overtime desperately trying to bring someone in to help AN. But so is everyone else in our position and for us as a club who were over 2/3 of our wealth in debt not so long ago, it isn't easy for them to contemplate spending big money on too many players, despite the claim that the stupid amounts being asked is the going rate.

We have three more games before the window shuts and I think we will have a better idea by then. There is no point in buying for the sake of it. Of course we would love to have a 25 a season player drop in our laps. But don't be disappointed if one doesn't.

 

[Boyerboy]

We need someone good enough to be picked ahead of Jerome or at least to take over competently in place of Jerome. For various reasons none of our other strikers is really that man. I wish Hooper was more mobile, Grabban was more physical (andRicky too!) and Lafferty was less Lafferty but there we are.  They're not  

We have plenty of goals in our midfield so a goal scorer is for me less essential than someone who can hold up the ball and bring others into play. That is why Dwight Gayle is not the answer; good player though he is. Glen Murray or Andre Gray could be. It is hard but life in the Prem is about difficult decisions. I would be very happy with Rhodes but I doubt if we will spend that kind of money. 

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

someone who can hold up the ball and bring others into play

Could this be Lafferty though? I know he's well down the pecking order, but he's never been given a shot here in a central striking role. He's done well there for Northern Ireland

 

[El Convento]

Agree with TGMD - strange that Lafferty should be overlooked when he proves his ability for NI consistently, even now as we scour Europe for a capable striker...

 

[splutcho]

I think we could kiss the PL goodbye if we went into it with Kyle Lafferty as our main striker.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

I think we could kiss the PL goodbye if we went into it with Kyle Lafferty as our main striker.

He's certainly never going to be prolific himself, but might he prove a good foil for the rest of the team?

 

[Canaryboy]

Lafferty is nowhere near good enough for this league in my opinion. 

Wouldn't pay much attention to his Northern Ireland form, David Healy is their greatest ever goalscorer and he was mediocre at best in the Championship. 

So poor are Northern Ireland that they recently called up Maik Taylor, a 43 year old goalkeeper who hasn't had a club for over 2 years and hasn't played regularly for 6 years! 

 

[It's Character Forming]

I think at the moment we are relying on Jerome as the main striker we'll be starting with, on his own most of the time.  That means we need someone who can at least challenge for his place, if we can get someone better then fantastic, but given the way Jerome was playing at the end of last season and the superb strike for the (goal) on Saturday, he will be competing for a place unless we sign someone really special.

I don't think it's a knee-jerk reaction to Saturday.  I think we all knew that Grabban is questionable at PL level and the rest of our strikers are not able to play the role of backups to Jerome.  So an extra stiker has always been a high priority, I just think we were so badly burned by signing RVW we're taking it extra carefully - and also strikers from the continent may be put off by the fact that after RVW came here, his career has gone down the toilet.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Lafferty is nowhere near good enough for this league in my opinion.

Wouldn't pay much attention to his Northern Ireland form, David Healy is their greatest ever goalscorer and he was mediocre at best in the Championship.

So poor are Northern Ireland that they recently called up Maik Taylor, a 43 year old goalkeeper who hasn't had a club for over 2 years and hasn't played regularly for 6 years!

Ah, but thats the Matt Le Tissier logic - Matt Le Tissier, one of the most gifted players of his generation repeatedly snubbed by England because he only played for Southampton. The fact he was surrounded by mediocrity makes his exploits all the more impressive. Many an average player has been carried by those around him.

We should be focussing not on the cr*pness of Northern Ireland (his ability to do well despite this should only enhance his reputation) but the quality of the teams he was playing against. I cant be a*sed to research which national teams he scored against, but if they were top teams and not Luxembourg then I dont think this should be discounted.

(Im not for a minute suggesting Lafferty has a fraction of Le Tissier's talent, Im just using an extreme example!)