Sod the has-beens, we should go for Charlie Austin

[Tetteys Jig 851]

Seen us linked with Chamakh and Keane. Why don''t we actually go for someone in the prime of their form who can come in and immediately have confidence and ability to score goals. Austin would work ideally next to/ to replace Holt and then if we could stay up and palace dont come up, we could get Zaha to partner him, in my opinion, a lethal combo.

[I am a Banana 0]

How would you fund those players?

Austin would be £6-8m.

Zaha would be 8-15m

[pablofarmer 0]

Palace are looking for £20m for Zaha, and surely Austin is the new Rhodes. Not heard as much about him this season.

[barclay seats 4849 0]

[quote user="pablofarmer"]Palace are looking for £20m for Zaha, and surely Austin is the new Rhodes. Not heard as much about him this season.[/quote]

Rhodes scored twice for U21''s while the main team struggeled again !

[Move Klose 303]

I think looking back I would of taken a chance on rhodes. Not got great pace but certainly a very good finisher. Something we''ve been lacking, could of given them vaughan to bring price down. I see he''s got an injury again. I would take austin if the price was 2-3m. I would of gone for beckford, can play up top alone. Always scores goals and had a decent spell in the prem with everton.

[Old Shuck 291]

Beckford is a reasonable call and probably within our price range. He''s fast and he can finish. However, is he better than what we have already got?

[Tetteys Jig 851]

Austin at £6m i would be happy with and i am sure the club could manage that. if we went down, we would sell hm on for a decent price or go into the championship with the best strikers in the league

[Tetteys Jig 851]

i would give beckford a go, but you do have to wonder why he cant even get a look in at leicester

[Rivvo 265]

From what I''ve seen of Austin, Beckford and Rhodes, yes they can all finish but they need several chances to get a goal, I''m sure somewhere on the net there is a chances to goals ration chart but I couldn''t find it with a quick google. I think we''ve all seen the number of chances we get in the Prem drop markedly from the Championship, we don''t need a player who scores lots of goals we need a player who takes the odd chance he may get, I''m not convinced they''re always the same thing?

[York Canary 29]

I''m not sure we have £6m and I think Austin would cost more. I may just be overly-cautious/pessimistic, but I think we have much less than that. I''d love to be proved wrong though! I just can''t see us spending that big unfortunately.

What do people reckon we have left for Jan?

[star_manic 0]

i think some people on here need to get a reality check. zaha will go for way over £10M, arsenal are interested, and austin will be around that figure if his form continues. how are we, with our financial constraints, going to be paying that sort of money in january. next summer, when we are certain of another season in the premier league, we may approach the £10M  figure for a single player, though i think our upper limit will still be more like £5M.

[Old Shuck 291]

star_manic, thats absolutely spot on, of course-I don''t think many of us on here expect a Zaha-at the money that CP are talking, he''d be a risk for any club wanting to spend that sort of money. The trick with players like him is to see them and spot the potential early on. We may well have had a chance of signing him, say, eighteen months ago for a lower fee and one within our price range-then it might have been us talking about selling him on for 3, 4 times what we paid for him IF that was going to be the case. Same with Austin-if we''d have taken the punt on him when he left Swindon, well...maybe he''d be a 15 goals a season striker with us now and people would be talking him up as a £10 Million plus player.

 

I''m guessing we have done that with some of our players-Howson, Snodgrass, the Bennett''s etc-if they develop and become exceptionally good players, we''ll end up fending off bids for them. If!

 

Whose around putting them away who might be now what Austin was eighteen months ago? Cassidy is banging them in at Tranmere-but is on loan from Wolves, however, would they be in a position to turn down a bid for him from a Prem club? Nahki Wells at Bradford? Another-young, mean and full of goals. These are the types of players we have to pluck out of the ether, there is a big difference between "established striker" and "established Premier League striker" -like it or not, the latter is beyond us, so we have to keep on speculating. Time to find another Austin or someone like him before everyone else does.

 

And, as much as we fans have to take a reality check on the type of players we could be signing, the club also needs to take a reality check on what might be needed to keep us in this league and be prepared to write out another sort of check to give us the best possible chance of doing so. Always a gamble though, especially with strikers-we thought Cureton would perform here second time around and Chelsea must have thought they were on a winner with Torres. A million miles apart in terms of reputation and cost but no so distant in terms of disappointment for fans of both clubs concerned.

 

It''s a tough one. And, if Kane is fit, I suspect that Hughton may just go with what he''s got in January-another massive gamble but then what isn''t?

[smooth 114]

There is no way we won''t be looking to bolster our strike force. Kane may be fit but we need someone to come in who is better than what we have. I still don''t think with the scoring ratios of Jackson and Morison that they would be considered feared strikers in the champ.

We need quality in that position soon. I expect two European strikers both about 2-4 million, will players leave the club in jan, maybe... This is a critical window to move on deadwood, reap some cash on some of them and bolster our first team. Certainly we need two strikers pushing holty

[A Gay Schoolboy 0]

[quote user="smooth"]There is no way we won''t be looking to bolster our strike force. Kane may be fit but we need someone to come in who is better than what we have. I still don''t think with the scoring ratios of Jackson and Morison that they would be considered feared strikers in the champ.

We need quality in that position soon. I expect two European strikers both about 2-4 million, will players leave the club in jan, maybe... This is a critical window to move on deadwood, reap some cash on some of them and bolster our first team. Certainly we need two strikers pushing holty[/quote]Not sure we''ll need to buy two strikers if we are going to play 4-2-3-1 all season. I''d rather see one striker and then someone who can score from the wide forward positions, like Tom Ince.

[smooth 114]

Br sweatband, I agree with your point about a wide player who can score goals, eb and pilky need to start scoring or they will be looking over their shoulder as we will look at improving this team and the first 11.

I think two strikers should be looked at, c Martin prob won''t be here in jan or Vaughan. Kane will be with Jackson who never scores, Morison who never s gets any service and holty.

Now if holty gets injured we have two strikers desperate to find form and jacko''s contract runs out this summer hence worth looking for two now. If hoolahan gets injured what is plan b, well when we sub hoolahan plan b has looked a little short.

We need to be looking at improving and I know we won''t be looking at just one striker but I think with players likely to leave in Martin, Vaughan, Kane and Jackson certainly in summer 2013 it makes sense to get in two guys right now.

I agree we need creative wingers who can score goals, still think snoddy will gets fair few but eb and pilky need to perform as next summer we may be on the look for some better talent.

[Koreacanary 0]

Charlie Austin will cost way more than 6m and Zaha will never come to Norwich, he is bound for a Manchester Club or Arsenal. I can''t believe some of the figures people talk about on here.

[ROBFLECK 134]

I believe the club should take a gamble and try and get a good striker in. No use being cautious if there''s a lot of money at stake if you stay up! I agree the figure of 10 million is too high and we have no hope in hell of getting Zaha, but a decent offer for Austin isn''t unrealistic is it? I''m not saying we''ll land him though. I just think we are very, very lightweight (figure of speech ;-) ) up front.

[Indy_Bones 444]

Any club that pays 15-20mil for Zaha needs their head examining IMHO, there''s no doubt he''s got talent and potential, but that''s the sort of money that buys you established, proven international quality from half of Europe ffs.