Please buy a striker!!

[Row D Seat 7 0]

I liked our approach last season with spending money during the summer on 7/8 players but saving money for two important signings (Howson and Bennett) in January. I believe this should be the policy again and by the lack of activity recently looks to be the way things are going to go.

However, our lack of goals concerns me. Not scoring yesterday is a little more forgivable than the two blanks against MK Dons and Hull. The signs and hints are there that we need to spend some real money on a striker. By real money I mean spend say £5-7m on one player. Our usual transfer fees seem to range from £1.5m-3.5m and nothing above. Why not? Like another post said, what happened to the biggest budget in the clubs history?

I know a certain amount of player budget had to go on getting Hughton & his team because McNally made that utterly ridiculous, basic and embarrassing error with regards to Lambert & team leaving for free, but surely we must have money available.

It seems that if we are to sign a striker he''s going to come from the lower leagues and a risk is always involved with signing lower league players because you have no idea if they can cut it at Premiership level. Jordan Rhodes seems to be the man most want. Why not take the risk and get him?? Surely that''s better than going with what we''ve got at the moment.

I can''t see Holt scoring anywhere near as many goals as last season. Morison is so unpredictable form wise that I suspect he will have a similar season to last year. Jackson and Martin are not good enough at this level, and Vaughan might be on his way to Birmingham or Blackburn, so we have no striker that we can pin our hopes on to deliver. We have a very average front line.

As I say, the hints and signs are there should Hughton and the board wish to take notice of them. If they don''t, they have to wait until January where desperation might set in, if we are lowly placed.

[lake district canary 0]

Don''t know why people think Holt won''t score as many goals this season..   He''s always scored goals, its what he does.   If he gets more starts this year than last year he will probably score quite a few goals  more than last year.............

 

 

 

 

[lappinitup 629]

[quote user="Row D Seat 7"]By real money I mean spend say £5-7m on one player.[/quote]I agree. If only we had bought Snodgrass last summer when Leeds wanted £8m for him than wait until his price dropped to £2/3m, we''d have had a much better player! [:S]

[Bill 1,788]

" because McNally made that utterly ridiculous, basic and embarrassing error with regards to Lambert & team leaving for free"

 

If you feel the need to attack the club then at least you should substantiate those attacks

 

so can we have the evidence for your claim ?

 

 

[Nexus_Canary 1,028]

After huge success on a limited budget over 3 years I find it highly amusing that people now think we should be throwing £5m around over a single player !

[Yellow Wal 314]

Most of the reason why we are not scoring goals is not the players who are playing but the system that we have been adopting.

Presumably if we had bought a £7M striker (Jordan Rhodes - no thanks) he would have had as few opportunities to score as our present strikers.

I do not believe that we will start every game with one up front and I am sure as the season goes on the strikers we have will score the goals we need.

The first problem that Hughton had to deal with was a leaky defence. The defence is about the whole team, not just the back four. As a result we have, as a team, played more defensively and have not created as much as we did at times last season. But you can''t have it both ways!

A new striker would have to cost a lot more than £7M to have an immediate impact, and we would then have two double figure Premiership goalscorers and a £3M? recruit surplus to requirements.

A little more patience please.

[Row D Seat 7 0]

@lappinitup - Sometimes you just have to take the risk and get players for high prices otherwise we will always be a small club dealing in small money. We were never going to pay £8m for Snodgrass so that''s not even an issue. Your argument suggests we should always wait for players to be cheaper the next summer, but what about if we''re competing for a lower grade of players because we are in the division below? Surely it''s best to sign a striker who might cost a little more but could stick the ball in the back of the net as apposed to waiting too long, then not scoring enough.

Re McNally. We didn''t receive any money for Lambert & team because of clauses in their contracts which Villa exposed, thanks Lambert''s agent Athole Still who gladly made them aware of this loop hole. I have no evidence of this whatsoever, but would suggest if you don''t believe, contact David McNally. His email address is easily findable I would imagine.

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

[quote user="Row D Seat 7"] By real money I mean spend say £5-7m on one player. Our usual transfer fees seem to range from £1.5m-3.5m and nothing above. Why not? [/quote]You really need to ask? Please refer the the last 10 years worth of posts. Search "Administration". We''ve found some real quality in that £1.5m-3.5m. Why would you want to spend more than you have to?[quote user="Row D Seat 7"]

I can''t see Holt scoring anywhere near as many goals as last season. [/quote]So, your entire argument for spending £5-7m on a striker rests on the fact that you "can''t see Holt scoring anywhere near as many goals as last season." Thanks for that expert analysis. I hope Hughton is reading this. He might not have realised you thought Holt wasn''t going to have a good season.[quote user="Row D Seat 7"]

Morison is so unpredictable form wise that I suspect he will have a

similar season to last year. [/quote]I hope so! 10 goals would be a pretty good return!Money is a funny thing. You''d swear it would burn holes in football fans pockets if its not spent before next Saturday.

[Row D Seat 7 0]

@the ghost

There are no decent strikers around for £1.5m-3.5m. We have had some success with players around those sorts of fees, but like Lambert said before he left, the lower division Well is almost dry.

Would gladly be proved wrong on Holt, but don''t think I will be.

Morison''s 10 goals were invaluable, but he didn''t perform well at all from January until May. Can''t be relied on.

By the sounds of it, many on here are happy for the club to stand still, stick with what we''ve got and player Chris Martin up front whenever possible next season "because he''s a local lad". Very laughable.

[Gingerpele 0]

If were going to play one up front, it has to be Morison.

When he played up front on his own, as the main man, thats when he scored his goals. Holt didn''t score up front on his own, he did score coming off from the bench, starting with Jackson etc.

If Vaughan is fit, and staying. I don''t think we''ll sign another striker, not until Jan anyway. I know everyone on here hates 4-5-1 (even though it can work, it just requires Snoddy and Pilks playing a more advance role. With a central three out of Howson, Johnson, Fox, Surman, Butterfield & Hoolahan we have great options for being more defensive and attackjing). But I think thats what Hughton wants to play, as long as the midfielders are on form, it will work. That doesn''t require a new forward, Moro or Holt up top, with Jackson and Vaughan as the pacey options for later in the game.

[CanaryOne 0]

Afraid we let lard arse blackmail us into a ridiculous 3 year contract now we have to pay the price by picking him week in week out .

[Bill 1,788]

"I have no evidence of this whatsoever"

 

though it hasn''t stopped you repeating this slur on other threads

 

two points - one maybe you should consider the laws of liable, McNally has a track record of dealing with liars and two perhaps explain why you feel the need to constantly attack our club with this slur ?

 

something we should know ?

 

 

[Bury Yellow 2]

My concern is that we do not appear to be creating too much going forward.

If we take this pattern into the league then even Holty will have difficulty scoring. As others have said, it''s no good paying good money for a perceived class striker if you can''t give him the assists he would need.

I live in hope that these latest friendlies have been for a defensive exercise.

[Skerritt 0]

We have vaughan back to change to the 4-4-2 fromation and if Vaughan goes we will bring in a striker so we''re fine.

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

[quote user="Row D Seat 7"]

By the sounds of it, many on here are happy for the club to stand still, stick with what we''ve got and player Chris Martin up front whenever possible next season "because he''s a local lad". Very laughable.[/quote]Sorry, I missed the point where I, or anyone else of this thread said we didn''t want to spend 7 Million quid on a new striker ''cos our 5th choice striker was from Norfolk. If you''re going to argue your point, you''ll have more success sticking to what is actually said, rather than putting words into others mouths.What I did imply is that the reason we won''t be spending 5-7 million on any one striker is because quite simply we can''t risk the financial implications of doing so. Regardless of your opinion of what the squad needs, this is the financial reality.

[Phil Schmil 0]

[quote user="Row D Seat 7"]@lappinitup -

Re McNally. We didn''t receive any money for Lambert & team because of clauses in their contracts which Villa exposed, thanks Lambert''s agent Athole Still who gladly made them aware of this loop hole. I have no evidence of this whatsoever, but would suggest if you don''t believe, contact David McNally. His email address is easily findable I would imagine.[/quote]

So basically, you post a rumour and then expect somebody else to substantiate it for you.......... OK

[Legend Iwan 30]

This year was always going to be tighter finically as we have to pay back a considerable sum of money by the end of the season.

I also feel we spent a huge amount of money last season on players; that was unlikely to be replicated this summer.

I''d love to sign another two maybe three players, but they need to add and improve the team, something that doesn''t come cheap. We have a solid side with a lot of attacking flair in midfield, most of who have that "Premiership experience" now that so many were craving for last year.

[JF 694]

Holt and Morrison will both get their fair share again but I can''t see the other forwards getting many. What we need is a Earnshaw type player to partner either big man, The problem is who and how much?

[Gingerpele 0]

''RE McNally. We didn''t receive any money for Lambert & team because of clauses in their contracts which Villa exposed, thanks Lambert''s agent Athole Still who gladly made them aware of this loop hole. I have no evidence of this whatsoever, but would suggest if you don''t believe, contact David McNally. His email address is easily findable I would imagine. ''

McNally said on twitter we did get money for Culverhouse and the other one. And Lambert issue was supposed to be going to court/tribunal. So, were supposed to believe an anonymous poster on the pinkun, over the CEO on Twitter?

[KeelansGlove 0]

Agreed everyone hates 4-5-1 why because we dont have the players to play it. Morison should never be played up front on his own. He does not link up well with midfield generally becoming very isolated and not chasing last causes.

If we have to play it Holt is the only choice and only in games were defence is a priority.

I think we need another striker but with what we have would probably go with Holt & Morison

[PurpleCanary 5,587]

[quote user="Row D Seat 7"]

Re McNally. We didn''t receive any money for Lambert & team because of clauses in their contracts which Villa exposed, thanks Lambert''s agent Athole Still who gladly made them aware of this loop hole. I have no evidence of this whatsoever, but would suggest if you don''t believe, contact David McNally. His email address is easily findable I would imagine.[/quote]

 

I seem to remember a statement (a tweet possibly) from McNally that we had received some - unspecified - compensation for Culverhouse and Karsa. I don''t remember it ever being suggested that we had broken their contracts, enabling them to walk out. Indeed they didn''t walk out. It only ever seemed to be a question that concerned Lambert and his contract.

As to whether we did screw that up, we may have done. Or we may not. Villa must think they at the least have arguable case. But in civil law (which is effectively what this is) it is perfectly possible for the lawyers  on both sides to examine the same set of facts and come to opposing points of view.

Assuming it goes to a tribunal we will know then, from the verdict initially and then in more detail from the summary of evidence. And from our accounts, and from Villa''s. I would guess that - if we miss out - we will be missing out on something between £1m and £1.5m. Not to be sniffed at in our financial state, of course.

[KeelansGlove 0]

I think there is every chance Holt could score more. Especially if he gets more game time likely under Hughton

[lappinitup 629]

[quote user="Row D Seat 7"]Your argument suggests we should always wait for players to be cheaper the next summer.....[/quote]No it isn''t. My "argument" is that simply splashing out on big transfer fees as so many want on here, is not the way forward. Football history is littered with clubs who have chosen that route only for it to be their downfall. You only have to look at our neighbours down the road. They did it in 2001 and they have never recovered since. Of course, there are some on here who''ve always used the binners as role models!

[KeelansGlove 0]

I woulnt suggest spending a fortune just freshening up the forward line I suggested a couple of days ago Sam Baldock and Dani Pacheco

[Yellow Wal 314]

And who would you replace for those two?

When you look a little deeper into your suggestions they become even more questionable.

[KeelansGlove 0]

Wouldnt need to replace anyone as has been said elsewhere we have 2 spaces in the squad.

but if we had to I would replace Chris Martin. Wilbos departure leaves one space in the Forwards department with Vaughan being dubious fitness wise it makes sense to have an extra striker.

[Yellow Wal 314]

It''s not a space in the squad I''m talking about it''s a space in the team!

At the moment we''ve mainly played with one up front, how many do you want to chose the''one'' from?

[dpit 1]

City 1st, what is the law of liable?

[kingsway 94]

I''ve been saying for a while now that after letting Wilbraham go we are one down from last season upfront and Chris Martin doesn''t count in this cause hes not an out and out striker and probably not an effective one at Premiership level!

 

Therefore another striker is needed I think but also we have to start attacking as a unit and not playing on the break all the time. When we start putting our foot on the ball and the midfield pushing forward more than we''ll be more affective in the final 3rd!

[sjs7 0]

If we can only squeeze in one more purchase before the window slams shut then i hope its a quality defender like Curtis Davies, we are fairly solid elsewhere in the team, then in January (as with Howson deal) we can look to buy another striker if we need to, the fact that we have Holt, Morison, Vaughan and Jackson in the squad means we have good lively options, all slightly different strikers... plus Pilkington, Butterfield and Hoolahan can all play just behind a Striker so all is not lost as some fear.

Its just my opinion by the way and im not sure where exactly Chris Martin will fit into all this ... things will no doubt become clearer over the coming days and weeks !!

Otbc :)