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Yorkshire  Canary

Strikers big jump up from the championship

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Already the 3 promoted clubs have made reasonable starts and many of their players have made reasonable starts in the premiership.

The single exception to this though seems to be the strikers.We know the position of the Norwich strikers who are finding it hards. danny Graham is not off the mark yet and sinclair and Lita only have 1 each. Shane Long probably the pick of championship strikers could be the exception to this with 2 in his first 2 starts but even he has found it hard thereafter.

This does pose a problem for the future, where do any of the 3 promoted clubs go for a striker in January and what is left in the championship would they be able to make a difference?

This is probably the one position where shrewd purchases from overseas at reasonable rates is the order of the day but you need the contacts/spotters which we have yet to develop

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Yorkshire Canary, it is the big question.

The last striker to have an impact from being bought in January to the end of the season from the lower leagues was Jon Stead at Blackburn and obviously Ashton.

I think the issue is, as we found with CMS, is the over inflated valuations of championship strikers by their parent clubs. Shane Long was the pick of the champiosnhip striekrs last year and will have an ok season, but £7 million. You have to be very outstanding, I believe, in the championship and hence that will then come with a crazy price tag.

Personally for all three clubs it will depend on their situation with players on loan. Certainly a better alternative rather than rading the bank. A possible prem. player wanting to prove a point. But I also think that this is not always the answer, but it does not have the problems with looking to europe in regard to settling in etc.

That brings me to Europe, personally the avenue that fits our bill with two players on season long loans. Is to buy a player from Europe. The premier League is where a number of players want to be and the valuations not so high. This is a risk they may be cheaper but not come good so early. So the research has to be thorough and taken early on.

You outline exactly this on the bottom of your post. I think it is the best avenue, a risk but with correct research and contact we could get a steal. Compared to £6 million on a championship striker, who still would not guarantee survival.

With Ayala and Pacheco being here in the last year, it is worth looking at players who have played with them. Personally I also think Mexican players have a particular drive and energy in the box which makes them stand out to the european league, as we said the transition may be hard.

I have seen many mexican players in America who are outstanding. I stick by what I say that I have seen many youth teams there that would walk our youth team and many top flight premiership teams youth teams when working alongside US Youth Soccer.

It was reported that Lambert was talking to his contacts from his playing days in Germany last January and Summer so I am sure we are keeping tabs overseas.

I think it is the best option.

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I think you''ve both touched on a good point. I think looking into Europe for a quality striker come January could be the way forward.

However it''s not as simple as that, bringing players in from different leagues, countries and cultures are a much bigger gamble than bringing in a player from the Championship to step up to the Premier League.

Perhaps Lambert could look to the Bundesliga where he has plenty of contacts and knowledge. Behind the Premier League I believe it is the best league, ahead of La Liga because of the strength in depth down the table. Players coming over have generally done pretty well in England also.

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I''m not sure if Lambert ruled this out indefinitely but certainly at the beginning of this season he said. "he was put off by continental players because they take time to settle" and, there isn''t time for that in January. They have to hit the ground running in January from when they get off the plane.

I think the remaining outstanding strikers in the Chaqmpionship are Lambert and Maynard, i think they would both be valued at 3.5m upwards. Quite a comitment for an unknown quantity at premiership level.

I''d go the loan route i think, decide who is more important de lait or naughton (ward, whitbread back, lose de lait?) and loan a top striker.... maybe Tevez ;)

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I think the other problem of going down the championship or indeed league 1 route in January would be the willingness or otherwise of their parent clubs to let them go.Any club in the top 6 of their respective leagues would almost certainly block the move, we saw that with bennett in january. This would rule out Southampton players for a start.

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[quote user="Rob Sims"]

I''d go the loan route i think, decide who is more important de lait or naughton (ward, whitbread back, lose de lait?) and loan a top striker.... maybe Tevez ;)[/quote]

As both were agreed as season-long loans, I don''t think we can send either of them back early.

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[quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]Already the 3 promoted clubs have made reasonable starts and many of their players have made reasonable starts in the premiership.

The single exception to this though seems to be the strikers.We know the position of the Norwich strikers who are finding it hards. danny Graham is not off the mark yet and sinclair and Lita only have 1 each. Shane Long probably the pick of championship strikers could be the exception to this with 2 in his first 2 starts but even he has found it hard thereafter.

This does pose a problem for the future, where do any of the 3 promoted clubs go for a striker in January and what is left in the championship would they be able to make a difference?

This is probably the one position where shrewd purchases from overseas at reasonable rates is the order of the day but you need the contacts/spotters which we have yet to develop[/quote]Lita has never really been prolific in the Championship, he has only reached 15 goals in one season once, last year he only scored 12, the year before that 10.I think he is seriously over rated by Norwich fans, because a half decent striker was a luxury at the time. The 7 in 16 that he scored for us is his best strike rate so far in that league, actually by far his best strike rate for any team.

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I''m not sure about the regulations regarding the loanee''s. If someone got injured badly and went back to parent club and so on, would your quota still have been used and so on.

If loan is completely not available option then i don''t know what i''d do!! I can''t see buying a lower division striker in january resolving the issue of consistent goal scoring. morrison, holt, martin are all from the lower divs and aren''t _likely_ (although i hope they will be) the answer to the 12-15+ goals a season to keep you in the division. Mind you if you don''t conceed many you might not need it.

Go super R.Martin! (and Tierney, Naughton, Barney et al)

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[quote user="Rob Sims"]I''m not sure about the regulations regarding the loanee''s. If someone got injured badly and went back to parent club and so on, would your quota still have been used and so on.

If loan is completely not available option then i don''t know what i''d do!! I can''t see buying a lower division striker in january resolving the issue of consistent goal scoring. morrison, holt, martin are all from the lower divs and aren''t _likely_ (although i hope they will be) the answer to the 12-15+ goals a season to keep you in the division. Mind you if you don''t conceed many you might not need it.

Go super R.Martin! (and Tierney, Naughton, Barney et al)[/quote]You don''t need a 15 goal a season striker to stay in the division, and frankly we aren''t going to be able to afford a player with that capability until we have been in this division for a good four or five years.What we do need is for the players all over the pitch to continue to score goals, and the midfield is doing OK with that so far, Pilkington, Johnson, and Hoolahan have already stuck one each in the back of the net. Barnett popped up with one out of nowhere. Everton finished 7th last season without a single player hitting double figures in the league, they had Saha with 7, Beckford with 8, and Cahill with 9. In fact only one Everton player has scored 15 goals in the past 15 years, Yakubu did it a few years ago and it was the first time since Kanchelskis in 1996! Stoke, obviously as you say they don''t concede many, had Jones (9) and Walters (6) as their top scorers. Bolton squeezed 8 out of Davies and 8 out of Sturridge. Fulhams lead scorer last year was a midfielder, Dempsey managed to score 12. There next top scorer was Hangeland, a centre back, with 6. What I''m trying to say is that you don''t need a goal machine as long as you get the goals from somewhere in the team, and Lambert says that all the time. We could easily get away with two strikers scoring 8 each, I would think that any two out of Morison, Holt and Jackson are capable of that, as long as the other 8 outfield players in any one game pose a goal threat themselves.I think we have got enough goals in the team, we know that Pilkington and Bennett are capable of scoring goals, we know that Hoolahan is capable of scoring goals, Johnson is getting in there with some shots, Crofts scored a few last year. In fact I would say that the only players that we probably won''t see goals from are Marc Tierney and David Fox (the major thing missing from his game). Even Russell Martin has that mean shot of his when playing right back, and went gung-ho the other day. Goodness knows how Leon Barnett got into the position that he did last week. I reckon we have got goals well and truly covered to be honest, it''s the clean sheets that we need to work on. We''ve scored more away goals than Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea, and Villa, all above us in the table, and only three of the 11 teams below us have scored more goals this season.OP, have faith!

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[quote user="LeJuge"][quote user="Rob Sims"]I''m not sure about the regulations regarding the loanee''s. If someone got injured badly and went back to parent club and so on, would your quota still have been used and so on.

If loan is completely not available option then i don''t know what i''d do!! I can''t see buying a lower division striker in january resolving the issue of consistent goal scoring. morrison, holt, martin are all from the lower divs and aren''t _likely_ (although i hope they will be) the answer to the 12-15+ goals a season to keep you in the division. Mind you if you don''t conceed many you might not need it.

Go super R.Martin! (and Tierney, Naughton, Barney et al)[/quote]You don''t need a 15 goal a season striker to stay in the division, and frankly we aren''t going to be able to afford a player with that capability until we have been in this division for a good four or five years.What we do need is for the players all over the pitch to continue to score goals, and the midfield is doing OK with that so far, Pilkington, Johnson, and Hoolahan have already stuck one each in the back of the net. Barnett popped up with one out of nowhere. Everton finished 7th last season without a single player hitting double figures in the league, they had Saha with 7, Beckford with 8, and Cahill with 9. In fact only one Everton player has scored 15 goals in the past 15 years, Yakubu did it a few years ago and it was the first time since Kanchelskis in 1996! Stoke, obviously as you say they don''t concede many, had Jones (9) and Walters (6) as their top scorers. Bolton squeezed 8 out of Davies and 8 out of Sturridge. Fulhams lead scorer last year was a midfielder, Dempsey managed to score 12. There next top scorer was Hangeland, a centre back, with 6. What I''m trying to say is that you don''t need a goal machine as long as you get the goals from somewhere in the team, and Lambert says that all the time. We could easily get away with two strikers scoring 8 each, I would think that any two out of Morison, Holt and Jackson are capable of that, as long as the other 8 outfield players in any one game pose a goal threat themselves.I think we have got enough goals in the team, we know that Pilkington and Bennett are capable of scoring goals, we know that Hoolahan is capable of scoring goals, Johnson is getting in there with some shots, Crofts scored a few last year. In fact I would say that the only players that we probably won''t see goals from are Marc Tierney and David Fox (the major thing missing from his game). Even Russell Martin has that mean shot of his when playing right back, and went gung-ho the other day. Goodness knows how Leon Barnett got into the position that he did last week. I reckon we have got goals well and truly covered to be honest, it''s the clean sheets that we need to work on. We''ve scored more away goals than Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea, and Villa, all above us in the table, and only three of the 11 teams below us have scored more goals this season.OP, have faith![/quote]I agree, Le Juge, and I was working on a reply similar to yours, but you beat me to it!It really isn''t necessary to score lots of goals to stay in the Premier League. Look at Wigan, for example - they have averaged just under 38 per season over their 6 years in the Prem (i.e. less than a goal a game!) but have survived.On the other hand, a leaky defence almost always condemns you to relegation - since the Premier League went to a 38 game season in 1995, only two teams have ever conceded more than 70 goals and survived. The 78 that we conceded in 2004-5 tells the story, really.The moral is - if you want to stay up, get the defence sorted!

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It all depends on who you buy from, some clubs like Leicester, Southampton etc don''t need the money so don''t need to sell players unless they get offered stupid money. Some teams are desperate so you could probably get quite a good bargain. A player who I think will be a top top player is that Marvin Emnes from Boro, still really young but has bags of potential and could be purchased for a reasonable price, same with Wilfred Zaha although Palace have mega rich owners.

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