Stottie

Rossi had not banged in a ton of goals over a full season at the next-lower level of English football. Some loans of strikers with English football experience between PL clubs have been very successful. See Sturridge at Bolton, Lukaku at West Brom, and Welbeck at the mackems. We need so many players that getting a potentially very good striker who can play (for the time being) in Rafa's system for nothing is a clever move. We cannot fill every position we need with Prem-proven starters in one window. The main thing is to get the improvements in (i.e., spend the money) at the positions where we are most lacking.

I didn't see Hull play much, but Grosicki is down as having played left wing most of the time.

I've only seen the 26 goals video but he looks like a ball magnet in the box and is a cool finisher. 190cm tall but slim and clearly hasn't had a PFM in his ear telling him to bulk up, so he is lithe and fast. This could be very good indeed.

Darlow is young and English, so he should bring decent money in when sold.

Bou-de-bouz! Ah-ha! Take it now or leave it. Now it's all we get. Ah-ha Nothing promised, no regrets.

Selling Darlow might pay the Reina transfer fee, leaving funds for elsewhere in the team. Blob as provisionally #2 also opens the door for Woodman, who may be the ultimate long-term plan after learning from Reina.

Probably Giggs, but Skybet has Huddersfield at 8/13 for relegation. It's very likely, but 8/13 ?!?! btw, we're sixth favourites at 7/2.

Just another case of Pardewing I suspect. Under Pardew 1 goal 2 assists in 1183 minutes Under Allardyce 2 goals 4 assists in 1343 minutes Ritchie involved in 10-12 goals on one side and Townsend or someone else involved in 10-12 on the other and we should be comfortably mid table.

I think that's fair, honestly Terry was nothing special at all, just consistent inside a quality team, far easier to be a CB in a team that dominates games than one in a team that is on the back foot all the time. All the players you mention where better CB's than him. I'd imagine playing centre half is a lot easier with the likes of Makelele/Essien/Kante sitting in front of you. I find it tough to judge Terry impartially though given he's an utter c***. He was definitely outside his comfort zone against Germany in 1-4 at the 2010 WC. He wasn't alone, but it was about as bad as you'll see from any good player.

Streaky? He scored in 22 games this season. Harry Kane scored in 20. His record against top 6 clubs isn't too good apparently. If you're Chelsea you have to consider that. Very few strikers do have a good record against the top 6 - http://www.football365.com/news/the-nonsense-of-the-flat-track-bully-criticism Pertinent section (correct as of mid-April): The fact that every elite striker in the Premier League this season has endured such criticism at one time or another is enough to deem the accusation itself as nonsense, but let’s prove it so anyway. Judging the six top-scoring strikers in the country on the number of non-penalty goals scored in starts against the top six produces the following results (non-penalty goals is the only fair way of comparing penalty takers against non-penalty takers: Lukaku – 3 non-penalty goals in 9 starts Ibrahimovic – 2 in 5 Aguero – 2 in 6 Costa – 2 in 8 Defoe – 1 in 9 Kane – 0 in 7 Great article Hughesy, thanks for the link. I think Lukaku is class and will score for any top team. My impression of games between top four teams is that they are frequently dour and often won by a defender heading in a set piece.

Didn't Terry get "Dad of the Year" or some other BS award just before the Wayne Bridge thing broke? Great player, but so full of himself, and an example of the entitlement that turns many English people off the England team. That's if the Oompah band, "10 German bombers", and the general ineptitude of the FA don't do it already.

For this plan to work, it might be an idea to first sign a #10 who can also play as a lone striker, Josh King being the name put forward. For the same reason, I like the idea of Cairney since he could play in the two or fill in as AM.

I guess Everton having Schneiderlin and McCarthy being injured most of this season mean he'll be available and not as expensive in relative terms as a season ago. It doesn't sound like he's on crazy wages either. Whether him or not, a big upgrade at DM is essential, especially if the idea is to proceed with Shelvey.

The league is basically 6 good sides, Everton, and then a 12 team relegation battle, none of them are up to much. Those 12 teams include ones who aren't relegation candidates but play like them once 40 points are reached. Stoke, WBA, and Southampton. Meanwhile, Leicester and Palace started like relegation candidates, but have finished the season with new managers and better form than Man U over the last 12 games, suggesting that they are not fundamentally weak. However, you're definitely right in that 9-10th is not a big achievement and is not too much to hope for for a promoted side who starts well and doesn't hit the beach in March.

Cheers Parsley Just off numbers, but Cairney has 70 goals and assists in 180 games' worth of minutes in the Championship. His biggest production was in this past season. 20M does not strike me as unfair, because he is a proven top 10 Championship player. While the Championship is not a strong league, you'd think 10 players at least out of the 500 or so could make the step up (!) I suppose we'll be playing 4-2-3-1 again with the bias on keeping it tight against better opposition, so the "3" will all have to contribute.

Very interesting shout this one. I'd agree that he appears very Rafa-esque in terms of characteristics. Chicharito is mint. It also looks like he's out of contract in June 2018, so standard logic suggests he's available and the issue will be a combination of wages and ambition. After his first season, Leverkusen must have tried to get him to sign a longer deal, but the fact that he hasn't signed one means he must be thinking about elsewhere. Leverkusen are left with the option of getting 15M maybe for him now or watching him walk next summer.

He's not an out and out striker, nowt like Cisse. Would suit Rafas number 10 position beautifully. Based on the transfermarkt website alone, it looks like King has been playing both as a lone striker and as #10 in a 4-2-3-1. This means he could be bought ostensibly as #10, but also used as competition/injury backup for Gayle in the striker role. It sounds like he can play off the shoulder. This would let us buy another, more defensive #10, a Sigurdsson type who can link play and contribute defensively but can't actually play up top. In this situation, you'd have King as an upgrade on Perez and the Sigurdsson type as an upgrade on Diame. In simple terms, that is.

Getting back to Josh King, but our last buy from Bournemouth has been a good un. He doubled his wages when he came, if the reports were correct. I've not watched the games but the analysis sites have King down as playing behind Afobe in a 4-2-3-1 about half the time this season.

Great news! About the money, but more so about Rafa Benitez. I thought Gayle and Ritchie were safe bets when we signed them but couldn't understand why we went for Clark. I wouldn't be surprised if Rafa pulls off a similar feat this time, signing an unfancied player who proves to be very capable. Exciting times!

What an amazing spot to sign him. A center half from a historically bad relegated team. I completely defer to the football brain that could see his ability through all of that. Clark's only 27 too, so plenty of time to go.

I know that's Ashley's obsession, but come to think of it, one consideration should actually be getting more experience into the squad to play at a higher level. We've been putting out teams with Gouffran as the senior pro as Darlow as third oldest. Maybe that's why we've been falling back instead of pressing on when ahead in games. If Fulham don't go up, then yeah Cairney looks great. With Sigurdsson, he's had the experience of not really playing for Spurs, so we'd have to attract him with a combination of Rafa, first-team football, and wages. I don't think it's out of the question.

Sell Mitro and Perez, get Llorente and Sigurdsson. Pay the wages and they would come, I reckon. Llorente offers goals, but in completely different way to Gayle. Though they look like they'll get relegated, Swansea are fourth in the PL with goals from set pieces. If job#1 is to get established back in the league, making the most of set pieces strikes me as easier than trying to break down teams with far better defenders than we've been playing. Marginal gains etc. etc.

I can understand wanting to right the wrong of the Pardew derbies, especially now we've got a good manager, but it'll just be another "them as underdogs, us as everything to lose" situation best avoided. The sight of half of them running into the crowd and not getting booked is also something I can do without.

This thread needs more mattyp and less speculation. Congratulations big man!

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