Stottie

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!

:clap:

Gambling addiction does exist, but it means you bet against your own team? Pull the other one.

I suspect he's not really suited to British football, but in Rafa we'll have a fine judge of that. If we had a PFM, I think we'd have to sell Perez.

Regarding that team of the season, does any striker in the league come close to Gayle for goals per minute played and goals created by his own pace?

Great lad, super motivated, and an example for the rest. Definite captain material. Just think what he might have done with a decent wide player on the other side.

Ritchie and Gayle even for me. Shelvey and Clark not that far behind. Great work from all of them in spite of some of the pairings they found themselves in.

Just an obvious point, but success/failure of transfers also has to be judged on whether someone was better or contributed more than another player you had already. Going into the season, I would have expected Perez to play more at #10 than Diame (only five million remember), so in my book Diame has contributed more than he should have done. Perez has been very disappointing at this level. Likewise Murphy getting the nod over Mitro in certain games where Mitro was available. It's also silly to offset the runaway success of Gayle, Ritchie, and Clark with three players who've hardly featured to produce a number of 50%. We've played some quite dull and tactically constrained football this season, but it's been mostly effective and part of me suspects it's been a case of KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid), Benitez running a stripped-down system that can be fairly well executed regardless of the limitations of the players at his disposal. To thrive back in the Prem, we'll need better players whose presence will open up more tactical possibilities.

Rooney's all-round game is great, but I don't think his finishing/striker instincts are good enough for him to prolong his career as a forward. That's the greatest difference with Shearer. His movement is not up to him playing as a modern #10 either, a very demanding role.

Reading are down to +1 too. One team up near the top with pretty much zero is uncommon, but two must be very rare.

3-1 Fulham. Looks like game over.

Fulham level. Well on top in the last five minutes.

I agree we have a big problem in midfield, not least because Wor Jackie concedes a good few of the set pieces we then concede from.

Shawcross would be great. Just saying for the doubters, but look at the pairing Leicester won the league with. Solid, reliable are the attributes we should be looking for. Especially given the proportion of goals we concede from set pieces.

Birmingham are bottom of the form table for home games. They've lost six of their last eight. P8 W1 D1 L6 F5 A14 GD-9 Pts 4 Just saying, but we've just won two and draw one away in quick succession at the other teams in the top four.

I only saw the highlights but Huddersfield's defending is awful for the goals. When you score as few as they do, you can't make mistakes at the back.

At the present time, I think it would be better to wait to see how the "safe standing" issue plays out before building a very costly new stand. It may become possible (i.e., allowable) to increase the capacity of the existing stand with rail seating in the not-so-distant future. It would be better to spend on a Premiership level team that Benitez can take forward. That level of team would also be needed to fill any larger stadium anyway.