Afobe 12 mill - too much

[grefstad 0]

Rumours of us bidding 12 mill for Afobe. Way too much. Has not really cut it at Wolves this season, but got the ability. Still, 12 mill for a 22 yr old Championship striker seems way too much.

Must mean that the Eder and Haller links are growing cold?

[whoareyou? 0]

Afobe is struggling with Wolves as they play a lot of hoofball which is not really playing to his strengths. However he still has 10 goals this season in a poor team.

[......and Smith must score. 1,596]

If we want to stay in this League we''ve got to spend money.£12m sounds high but that''s the world we''re in at the moment. If Afobe is who AN wants then I hope the Board have the b*lls to agree.

[Captain Canary 0]

12 million is nothing for a striker these days

We didn''t spend that much in the summer so there must be money available

[Branston Pickle 4,149]

When you consider the prices paid for Champs-to-champs transfers for guys like McCormack and Gray, you don''t get even Champs players for small amounts these days. As a PL side if you want a player you have to stump up the cash. £10m+ is not ''expensive'' any more.

We have to trust the judgement of those in charge if they want a player - they''ve done the scouting and know far better than us what it is they want. What we do need is to hit the ground running and not be waiting around to the end of the month - which may cost us a little more.

[norfolkngood 1,174]

I think he is 2nd or 3rd in most goals scored in the year 2015

you have to pay for players who score goals and before you say he only scored in lower leagues

well yes very true but he has never played in this league and neither did dean ashton till we bought him !!

[The Great Wall Of Tettey 0]

id much rather take a punt on afobe, unproven in premiership but has a great record for an average championship team than go for a similar priced player like gayle with a very average premier league record. Afobe has a right build and qualities for our loan striker role too.

Big Signing for us could be Naismith, ideal Neil player and a really hard worker, knows where the goal is too.

[smooth 114]

We are short of 3-4 starting players

Striker (although mbokani is being used too little)

Centre half

Attacking goal scoring creative tenacious midfielder

Right back/ centre half

Key signings and then if we stay up we need to look at other positions. Unless Toffolo proves he can compete with premiership calibre players he may well be on loan next season if we stay up.

Potentially competing with olsson for back up to a new left back if we stay up.

But if we do stay up we will need to reinvest in the summer and let our young guys go out on loan.

This window is critical and I hope the next will follow with premiership first 11 calibre players coming in.

[......and Smith must score. 1,596]

To be fair to the doubters back in the early 90''s when we were in the top division we bought striker Darren Beckford from Port Vale on the back of 20+ goals in three consecutive seasons only find he couldn''t hit a barn door for us at the higher level.It was a calculated gamble that failed ( but he did sound good on Radio Norfolk on Saturday.....[;)] )

[Woodman 92]

I''d settle for 3 players:

Centre half

Attacking midfielder (a clone of Wes ideally)

Striker

Given we could see 3 strikers leave (Lafferty, Hooper, Grabban), I think we''ll need at least one replacement.

I also think Redmond might also go, if anyone wants to test us with £10m. We''d need to replace him then of course.

[Cantiaci Canary 610]

Any decent new player up front will cost us £12m minimum.

He looks well worth the gamble to me. Young, strong, quick, eye for goal ... knows the culture / language obviously.

Would be very handy if we went down too. Can see Villa and the Toon sniffing around this transfer too though.

[ricardo 8,034]

I''ve seen him a few times on Sky and I''m not impressed. The quoted price is way over the top.We need somebody who can fire on all cylinders from day one, not somebody who may or may not make the grade in a year or two.

[Yellow Green Army 248]

Andros Townsend would be the ideal replacement for Redmond if he was to go. Not that I want him to though!

Not getting a look in at Spurs at the moment. I imagine he''s on big wages also.

[smooth 114]

I think if the rumour is true and that we are bidding on a striker at 12 million would mean that we are shifting a forward on with a reasonable fee.

The only striker that would fit that bill is grabban, if grabban is not sold now his value will shrink further. Lafferty I would think is off. Ao suddenly 12 million is not looking so far off. I would not be surprised however if we may look at eder too. The more I think about it the more we need firepower. Mbokani and jerome are not looking like clinical options for the rest of the season. Yes they will score but I think it is clear we are looking for firepower and goals that are coming from players in form.

I did see that wolves had themselves up for sale at 30 million so surely afobe is not worth a 1/3 of the value of the whole club.

Hoping business is very busy in that first week of the window.

[AJ 1,358]

£12m for Afobe, or £12m for Austin?

Bearing in mind that the latter has proven his ability on the Prem stage before

[norfolkngood 1,174]

tricky one AJ

one that might be worth 12mil and maybe worth 20 mil + if he continues to improve or

one that is worth every penny of 12 mil if he didn''t have bad knees and might break at any point

Austin is the better player and would score more I feel if he was at full fitness but then again if he was he wouldn''t be coming here !!

[......and Smith must score. 1,596]

[quote user="AJ"]£12m for Afobe, or £12m for Austin?

Bearing in mind that the latter has proven his ability on the Prem stage before[/quote]If only things were that easy.Austin would be a shoo-in if we didn''t have to worry about wages. Factor those in and unless we can get him to take a big pay cut he won''t be coming here.

[KeiranShikari_2 0]

Is suggesting we sign Austin some sort of ongoing joke with Norwich fans?

[lake district canary 4,830]

Spending £10 million plus on any one player is not going to help us massively. Unless we can by three or four players at that price, it isn''t going to make much difference overall.  Even if we did buy three players at over £10 million, success isn''t guaranteed.  If Afobe as seen as a good buy, then we should get him, but he would not make the difference between staying up or going down, imo.  That is a team thing - and in January you should only buy players who can walk straight into the team - and there are not many players who could do that, even at £10m plus.

[Barclay seats 4849 the 3rd 0]

Charlie Austin every time for me !

[Redders Right Foot 22]

I hope the Eder link isn''t growing cold, as you say.

I think 11m for Eder is much better value than 12 for Afobe. And I don''t believe that the price tag would stop us from getting him, we need to try and convince him we''re a good choice for him.

If we can pull back to back away wins, against big teams like manu and spurs, it could open up a few doors for us. one down, one to go...

[mrs miggins 0]

lake district canary wrote the following post at 21/12/2015 5:34 PM:

Spending £10 million plus on any one player is not going to help us massively. Unless we can by three or four players at that price, it isn''t going to make much difference overall. Even if we did buy three players at over £10 million, success isn''t guaranteed. If Afobe as seen as a good buy, then we should get him, but he would not make the difference between staying up or going down, imo. That is a team thing - and in January you should only buy players who can walk straight into the team - and there are not many players who could do that, even at £10m plus.

-----------------------

I disagree, I think one player can carry a team. You look at Suarez nearly winning the title for Liverpool in a very average team.

Or Austin for example, imagine if they just had Jerome up front; they would''ve been down by Xmas (thats not me saying Jerome isn''t a good player, just that Austin very much is).

Of course you need 10 other players, but if you''ve got a £10m-20m striker in a $hit team who''s going to score you 15-20 goals a season out of nothing, then you''re onto a winner; look at Benteke - villa now all but relegated. Look at Bony; bought for £12m, scored goals, was sold and now have been flirting with relegation.

I''d rather spend £10m on a player who I knew was quality than 3 players worth around £3-4m of whom are average e.g Fer, (although we sold him for more than that.

The only problem in this scenario is that we don''t know if Afobe is going to be good in this league, though he does seem to have all the attributes. Luckily this is up to AN to make that call.

[Jacko 0]

Charlie Austin is not going to come to Norwich (in January or the summer). He''ll be out of contract at the end of the season and he''ll be able to move to practically any club outside the top 6 (possibly even one in the top 6 if they need a squad player) that he wants.

Because those clubs won''t have to pay a transfer fee for him, he''ll pocket a big signing on fee and the wages to match. That simply isn''t something that Norwich City can afford and we wont be able to compete with many of the bigger teams in this league.

Afobe hasn''t done too badly at all this season. In the early part of the season he was asked to play as a number 10 and adapt his game for the good of the team. He''s only recently moved back up front and he''s playing in a Wolves side that has been very poor this season and hit with injuries to key players like Dicko.

Given all of that, to score 10 goals in 24 games this season isn''t a bad effort. Is he worth £12 million? I think that''s personally far too much and we shouldn''t be held to ransom, particularly when Wolves aren''t going to be threatening the promotion picture themselves this season.

[morty 0]

[quote user="Redders Right Foot"]I hope the Eder link isn''t growing cold, as you say.

I think 11m for Eder is much better value than 12 for Afobe. And I don''t believe that the price tag would stop us from getting him, we need to try and convince him we''re a good choice for him.

If we can pull back to back away wins, against big teams like manu and spurs, it could open up a few doors for us. one down, one to go...[/quote]An important point.I wonder how succesful Villa will be at getting players in this January?

[Branston Pickle 4,149]

As a ''PL'' player at moneybags QPR, Austin would surely cost more than Afobe and also expect far higher wages. It simply isn''t an either/or situation. I just don''t get the love-in for the guy on here, he''s a decent enough player but they''ve scored just about the same number of goals this season and yet Afobe is not meant to be good enough for us.

[grefstad 0]

Miggins: kind of agree with you, but Suarez was a special player, and Liverpool buildt their game around him. Would we do that for Afobe? Doubt it.

As for buying players at all in January, it will have to be players that can walk into the starting XI, and we need at least 3 players. It will cost us at least 25 mill, only in transfer fees.

Will the board back AN? I think so, but the players will then have to have good resell value. Players around 30 will not be very resellable, and younger players in a good age, lets say 23-26, will cost a lot, if they are to improve our team right away.

[Fuzzar 1,860]

What Ricardo said - £12m is too much for Afobe, even in an inflated market.

Would much rather spend the £7m touted for Naismith and some defensive reinforcements, with Grabban (and obviously Hooper and RvW) out.

[smooth 114]

Fuzzar I hope the board realise how much we need to spend more than any other window we have previously had in this premier league.

So Naismith has been mentioned, some say a deal is done. But he would only be part of it.

Kone is apparently a target where we have a head start against others, but we will see.

Centre forward is def coming in, goals are needed and creatin an opportunity out of nothing is crucial when we create so little for a lone striker.

If grabban goes, he will join lafferty who needs first team football. Then I would expect us to spend on two strikers if we can.

It really matters not on the size of the squad as it is clear we will replace a few or even keep some out of the 25 if we get the players we need.

I expect us to spend, if not we are going to struggle to stay in this league, we are at least three players away. So we need them as early as we can in january.

[......and Smith must score. 1,596]

[quote user="lake district canary"]Spending £10 million plus on any one player is not going to help us massively. [/quote]How can you say that ?Let''s spend the £10m + and find out. I''d rather we got other players in addition but if  '' all '' we end up is one new player costing eight figures then that will at least show some ambition.If that player ends up scoring the goals that keeps us up then I would call that a massive plus, wouldn''t you ?

[lake district canary 4,830]

[quote user="......and Smith must score."][quote user="lake district canary"]Spending £10 million plus on any one player is not going to help us massively. [/quote]How can you say that ?Let''s spend the £10m + and find out. I''d rather we got other players in addition but if  '' all '' we end up is one new player costing eight figures then that will at least show some ambition.If that player ends up scoring the goals that keeps us up then I would call that a massive plus, wouldn''t you ?[/quote]I think that buying in January is frought with problems. Even a ten million pound player isn''t necessarily going to walk straight into the team. He has to be acclimatised, get to know the manager''s ethos and tactics, gets to know the players and settle into a new envoronment.  There are players out there who could do that - Naismith may be one and although I don''t rate him that highly compared to our players, he may be of the right character to fit in quickly.