RUMOUR - Robert Beric

[Nameless]

£4m for a proven goalscorer nowadays is not expensive. If we are serious about getting back to the premiership we have to make this type of signing. If its just a pipe dream then the £1m on Sa may be just enough to keep us in the division. In the Times last saturday we were tipped for relegation together with Rotheram & Huddersfield. Think its going to be a long hard season unless we can sign a goalscorer.

How many other teams in the division have a striker who scored 20 goals last season ?
Sa has got a goal every 2 games forvtheclast couple of seasons.
Who knows what he will do, but I'd think he counts as a goal scorer....

[Extended-Phenotype]

Given that we bid £1m+ for Donaldson and around £2m(?) for Beric, it will be pretty frustrating if we end up not bringing anyone in.

Same old story. A few rumours set in motion, a few gesture signings followed by the "happy to go with what we have" line.

Wasnt expecting anything else tbh, so not particularly frustrated or disappointed.

[genome]

Saw a Mercedes SL AMG rolling through town yesterday with the number plate RB 500. Just saying.

[SCIAG]

£4m for a proven goalscorer nowadays is not expensive. If we are serious about getting back to the premiership we have to make this type of signing. If its just a pipe dream then the £1m on Sa may be just enough to keep us in the division. In the Times last saturday we were tipped for relegation together with Rotheram & Huddersfield. Think its going to be a long hard season unless we can sign a goalscorer.

1) £4m is extremely expensive for a Championship player. Championship clubs have only paid that 15 times in 14 years (and most of those, in retrospect, were flops. Two players moved for that fee this summer, both wingers: former England international Stewart Downing, who played 36 times in the Premier League last season, and Tom Ince.
2) We've got promoted to the Premier League twice, both without spending £4m on a striker. On both occasions, our combined strike force cost about £1m. Most clubs who get promoted don't have a £4m player - the Pozzos didn't even pay a million for Watford's three strikers last season.
3) Surely by now we've all learned not to put much faith in the thoughts of journalists who can't pay attention to 24 clubs?

[maffff]

Saw a Mercedes SL AMG rolling through town yesterday with the number plate RB 500. Just saying.

Robbie Blake?

[Royalcop]

Saw a Mercedes SL AMG rolling through town yesterday with the number plate RB 500. Just saying.

Bertrand's coming back!

[YateleyRoyal]

£4m for a proven goalscorer nowadays is not expensive. If we are serious about getting back to the premiership we have to make this type of signing. If its just a pipe dream then the £1m on Sa may be just enough to keep us in the division. In the Times last saturday we were tipped for relegation together with Rotheram & Huddersfield. Think its going to be a long hard season unless we can sign a goalscorer.

1) £4m is extremely expensive for a Championship player. Championship clubs have only paid that 15 times in 14 years (and most of those, in retrospect, were flops. Two players moved for that fee this summer, both wingers: former England international Stewart Downing, who played 36 times in the Premier League last season, and Tom Ince.
2) We've got promoted to the Premier League twice, both without spending £4m on a striker. On both occasions, our combined strike force cost about £1m. Most clubs who get promoted don't have a £4m player - the Pozzos didn't even pay a million for Watford's three strikers last season.
3) Surely by now we've all learned not to put much faith in the thoughts of journalists who can't pay attention to 24 clubs?

at using the Pozzos as a yardstick.

[Extended-Phenotype]

3) Surely by now we've all learned not to put much faith in the thoughts of journalists who can't pay attention to 24 clubs?

Zac learned this well before you did.

[SCIAG]

at using the Pozzos as a yardstick.

If they can do it, we can do it. Maybe they can do it more reliably, but all the same.

If you'd like more examples, Burnley paid a combined £2m for Barnes, Vokes, and Ings (including only £350k for 20 goal Vokes), Swansea paid £900k for the front three that got them promoted, Southampton paid £1m apiece for Lambert and Sharp, Leicester's two main strikers cost them £1m between them. Grant Holt cost Norwich £400k, Cardiff and Hull both went up without having a player score 12 goals, even Bournemouth "only" paid £3m for their main striker.

It's just not true at all that you need to spend £4m on a 20-goal striker to get promoted - most promoted teams don't. £1m seems to be about the going rate but you can pick them up for less.

[RoyallyFcuked]

Times are changing, we can't keep expecting to get promotion whilst spending next to nothing. You might not need to spend £3-4m on a striker to get promoted but our strikeforce is still too weak.

We have Cox who is ok and might do pretty well with the right partner, possibly this could be Orlando Sa who could be good buy but he is unproven in the Championship. Then we have Pogrebnyak who has proven over the last 3 seasons that he doesnt score enough goals to say the least. Also we have Samuel who has good potential but is also untested at this level.

Looks to me as though we need another striker in there, it doesnt have to be big money. Even if we spend about 750k on a Le Fondre type player, someone who has scored a good amount of goals in League's One or Two, its better than nothing.

[paddy20]

at using the Pozzos as a yardstick.

If they can do it, we can do it. Maybe they can do it more reliably, but all the same.

If you'd like more examples, Burnley paid a combined £2m for Barnes, Vokes, and Ings (including only £350k for 20 goal Vokes), Swansea paid £900k for the front three that got them promoted, Southampton paid £1m apiece for Lambert and Sharp, Leicester's two main strikers cost them £1m between them. Grant Holt cost Norwich £400k, Cardiff and Hull both went up without having a player score 12 goals, even Bournemouth "only" paid £3m for their main striker.

It's just not true at all that you need to spend £4m on a 20-goal striker to get promoted - most promoted teams don't. £1m seems to be about the going rate but you can pick them up for less.

Can you name one??

[Nameless]

Only in hindsight.
If you could name a player now who will score 20 goals next season then he wouldn't cost a million.
But you can obviously pay less than a million for a player who then goes on to score 20.
That's what makes the transfer market such a tricky place.

[CountryRoyal]

I agree with both points. You're not going to get a player, expected to net a lot, for less than a few mil, in today's market. By the same token you don't need one for promotion. I would love to add a 20 goal striker, but don't expect one. It's been a while since we've had a player that's done that and it was only after 5 years of being "not quite good enough". Also scored in the Europa league qualifiers tonight.

Despite being cautiously optimistic that Samuel will be able to step up I still want another striker, ideally established at this level and with a bit of pace.... But then £££

[tidus_mi2]

I dunno, you probably need goal scorers, look at the 3 who went up last season:

Bournemouth

Wilson: 23 goals
Kermorgant: 17 goals
Ritchie: 16 goals

Watford

Deeney: 21 goals
Ighalo: 20 goals
Vydra: 16 goals

Norwich

Jerome: 21 goals
Johnson: 15 goals
Grabban: 12 goals

Compare that to ourselves

Reading

Cox: 8 goals
Murray: 8 goals
Pog: 7 goals

[Ian Royal]

£4m for a proven goalscorer nowadays is not expensive. If we are serious about getting back to the premiership we have to make this type of signing. If its just a pipe dream then the £1m on Sa may be just enough to keep us in the division. In the Times last saturday we were tipped for relegation together with Rotheram & Huddersfield. Think its going to be a long hard season unless we can sign a goalscorer.

A large transfer fee doesn't guarantee a better player
A lower transfer fee or free doesn't guarantee a poorer player
Our record with high value transfer fee signings are poor
We've made it to the Premier League twice out of twice without making really big value transfers
If you don't have the money, you can't spend it. Learn from the Zingaravich years

[West Stand Man]

I dunno, you probably need goal scorers, look at the 3 who went up last season:

Bournemouth

Wilson: 23 goals
Kermorgant: 17 goals
Ritchie: 16 goals

Watford

Deeney: 21 goals
Ighalo: 20 goals
Vydra: 16 goals

Norwich

Jerome: 21 goals
Johnson: 15 goals
Grabban: 12 goals

Compare that to ourselves

Reading

Cox: 8 goals
Murray: 8 goals
Pog: 7 goals

That is an amazing and unexpected statistic. Teams that score more goals win more matches and finish higher than teams who score fewer. Who'd have thought it eh? It's amazing what information and understanding you can pick up on here. It is simply enlightening!

[Ian Royal]

I'd like to see a much bigger sample size to prove the view (obvs more goals is good).

Our top scorer when we last won the League was ALF on 12, followed by Hunt on 8 and Church on 7. I think it'd be fairly rare for all three promoted sides to have someone who got 20+ Although you'd expect the majority to have much better than 12 as top scorer and only one player in double figures.

[tidus_mi2]

I dunno, you probably need goal scorers, look at the 3 who went up last season:

Bournemouth

Wilson: 23 goals
Kermorgant: 17 goals
Ritchie: 16 goals

Watford

Deeney: 21 goals
Ighalo: 20 goals
Vydra: 16 goals

Norwich

Jerome: 21 goals
Johnson: 15 goals
Grabban: 12 goals

Compare that to ourselves

Reading

Cox: 8 goals
Murray: 8 goals
Pog: 7 goals

That is an amazing and unexpected statistic. Teams that score more goals win more matches and finish higher than teams who score fewer. Who'd have thought it eh? It's amazing what information and understanding you can pick up on here. It is simply enlightening!

Love the sarcasm mate but the point was in reference to people saying you don't need a 20 goal a season striker when the 3 promoted teams last season clearly did.

[Ian Royal]

You've shown they had them, not that they needed them.

QPR 2013/14 - top scorer had 17
Cardiff 2012/13 - top scorer had 8
Hull 2012/13 - top scorer had 9
Reading 2011/12 - top scorer had 12
West Ham 2011/12 - top scorer had 14
QPR 2010/11 - top scorer had 19
Swansea 2010/11 - top scorer had 19
Newcastle 2009/10 - top scorer had 17
West Brom 2009/10 - top scorer had 13
Blackpool 2009/10 - top scorer had 16

So that's 10/18 promoted sides from the last 6 years who didn't have a 20+ goalscorer. Even including the two 19s it's only 56/44

I'm amazed at the number who've gone up without someone scoring 15+ let alone 20+

[paddy20]

£4m for a proven goalscorer nowadays is not expensive. If we are serious about getting back to the premiership we have to make this type of signing. If its just a pipe dream then the £1m on Sa may be just enough to keep us in the division. In the Times last saturday we were tipped for relegation together with Rotheram & Huddersfield. Think its going to be a long hard season unless we can sign a goalscorer.

A large transfer fee doesn't guarantee a better player
A lower transfer fee or free doesn't guarantee a poorer player
Our record with high value transfer fee signings are poor
We've made it to the Premier League twice out of twice without making really big value transfers
If you don't have the money, you can't spend it. Learn from the Zingaravich years

Contrary to that we did have the money first time round and didn't spend it. Of course big money doesn't guarantee but it does make it far more likely! When was out last big money signing,ignoring wages?? I don't think we have ever had one have we?