Chronicle Questions

[BottledDog]

So who was there that teams around us got that would have been 'b' grade upgrades (though obviously some had moved by the time we were struggling)?

 

Yakubu

Jordan Slew

Tuncay

Ngog

Orlando Sa

Steve Morison

DJ Campbell

Jay Bothroyd

Ji Dong-won

Danny Graham

Leroy Lita

Shaun Maloney

Nouha Dicko

 

Hell even some of the 'a' grade players like Peter Crouch at £12m I'd struggle with, and I can't say I'd have been jumping up and down at being stuck with any of those on on 4/5 year contracts (or even Bentner on loan considering he's not that far removed from Best or Shola to a point).

 

It's ridiculous that we didn't get a top striker in, but if we do struggle through and get him in the next window (yes, it's a big if), then I'd prefer to wait.

[Colocho]

Nobody said it was unreasonable, Cronky was arguing that if all we can get are players that are slightly better than Loven and Shola, we might be better off holding onto our money for a while longer.

 

He's also said that he doesn't feel that judging Ashley harshly over non spending of the Carroll money is unjustified and premature.

 

I think that is blatantly ridiculous.

 

 

Where did he say that?

[Dave]

What is it we're waiting for? Players to go on strike (oh wait, that didn't work did it)? Other clubs to feel pity on us and give us their best striker for half price?

[Colocho]

Would have taken N'Gog. We need a pacy striker.

[Dr Venkman]

What is it we're waiting for? Players to go on strike (oh wait, that didn't work did it)? Other clubs to feel pity on us and give us their best striker for half price?

 

yep. if you want players to be available without release clauses or with 6 months left on their contract, you've got to make them available by bidding higher than the market value. not gonna happen.

[BottledDog]

Would have taken N'Gog. We need a pacy striker.

 

We do, but really not a fan of N'Gog at all (possibly unfairly).

 

Just realised that Tuncay was a loan. There probably would have been some grief if we brought him in, but if he was still available late in the window, I'd have been happy to take a punt on him for a few months.

[TBG]

Chronicle Questions sounds like an ITV afternoon quiz show.

[BottledDog]

What is it we're waiting for? Players to go on strike (oh wait, that didn't work did it)? Other clubs to feel pity on us and give us their best striker for half price?

 

yep. if you want players to be available without release clauses or with 6 months left on their contract, you've got to make them available by bidding higher than the market value. not gonna happen.

 

Aye, Santon this summer, or Tiote (and I suppose Perch) last summer never happened (nor the majority of players we have brought in under Ashley).

[taxfree]

What does it matter what other clubs bought this summer? I don't think everyone one of them had seven months to come up with a striker, and all the money we got from Carroll.

 

Anyway, N'Gog is p*ss poor.

[furney89]

I think the most important point about not getting a striker is that they (the board) are jeopardising the club again. they are gambling the future of the club again by not willing to invest in personnel, just like when we got relegated in 09.

 

Non of us want to waste money on players that will not offer much more than what we have, but we are seriously thin on senior squad numbers, even more so than last year!

 

we WILL go through a bad patch,every team has a poor run or month etc,things will no doubt meltdown again here, but how major that bad patch will be depends how lucky we are with injurys...and with the lack of quality in depth and strong characters there is a chance that it could be particularly bad patch.

 

i just find it irresponsible on the clubs part not to fill the gaps in like-for-like, i.e sell your best striker...and replace him with a top quality striker.

 

The board will know that relegation again would be catastrophic for the club, but they dont seem that bothered about gambling on luck to see us through another season in the premier league.

 

 

[Dr Venkman]

What is it we're waiting for? Players to go on strike (oh wait, that didn't work did it)? Other clubs to feel pity on us and give us their best striker for half price?

 

yep. if you want players to be available without release clauses or with 6 months left on their contract, you've got to make them available by bidding higher than the market value. not gonna happen.

 

Aye, Santon this summer, or Tiote (and I suppose Perch) last summer never happened (nor the majority of players we have brought in under Ashley).

 

granted my original point was too general, it still applies for some transfers though, namely the important ones, and even more so for strikers. our transfer strategy is far too inflexible and the team is suffering because of it.

[TRon]

The thrust of the Luke Edwards article was that there were times when you do have to pay over the odds for the player you want. Fair enough, but was this really the time? So far as we can tell, wed had bids accepted for the players on our A-list, but those players opted for other clubs that had better prospects. We were looking at our B-list, and as such its a bit more questionable whether you should over-pay, or hang on to a future transfer window when a better player might become available.

 

A lot of people seemed to be getting worked about us not signing Maiga or Roux, without knowing a great deal about the players. Thats what can happen at the end of the window, when a lot of pressure gets put on a clubs owners to ease the anxiety of the fans and the manager. Landing the wrong player for £10m, plus a 5-year contract at £40k per week is a £20m+ mistake. I cant say that our position is so desperate that we need to take a risk.

 

Time will tell whether its all a big con and Ashleys going to hang on to the money, or whether in time its going to be re-invested on the playing side as promised. However, I do believe that this owner is working to a different time-scale from most fans and journos, and now is not the time to judge.

 

 

Shola, Lovenkrands and Best are among our four current best strikers. How can our B targets not be better options than them?

 

Well any transfer is a gamble, and it's possible to spend a lot of money and not end up with a better option.

 

But I find the way you've put the dilemma quite strange. Instead of looking at the players you don't rate that highly and saying we can find someone better, shouldn't we be aiming to get in the best player that we can possibly land? At the least, better than Ba, who I assume you feel is our best striker at the moment.

 

To put it another way, if all we end up with is someone marginally better than our weaker players (as you define them), would it not be better to wait?

 

Unless what we've seen of Ba is very misleading we are still missing a Bellamy type of player who will run down the channels and play off the big man. The two we have are Ben Arfa possibly, and Lovenkrands who is not fit for this level. Relying on Ben Arfa to be fit for most of this season is optimistic at this time when no one knows how completely he's recovered from a serious setback. So yes we should have brought someone in. Even Bellamy himself if no one else was available. I'm sure he would have preferred first team football here to sitting on Liverpool's bench.

[Nobody]

When do these get answered?

 

Is this a rhetorical question?

Also, is this?

Answer: Yes, they both were.

[BottledDog]

The thrust of the Luke Edwards’ article was that there were times when you do have to pay over the odds for the player you want. Fair enough, but was this really the time? So far as we can tell, we’d had bids accepted for the players on our A-list, but those players opted for other clubs that had better prospects. We were looking at our B-list, and as such it’s a bit more questionable whether you should over-pay, or hang on to a future transfer window when a better player might become available.

 

A lot of people seemed to be getting worked about us not signing Maiga or Roux, without knowing a great deal about the players. That’s what can happen at the end of the window, when a lot of pressure gets put on a club’s owners to ease the anxiety of the fans and the manager. Landing the wrong player for £10m, plus a 5-year contract at £40k per week is a £20m+ mistake. I can’t say that our position is so desperate that we need to take a risk.

 

Time will tell whether it’s all a big con and Ashley’s going to hang on to the money, or whether in time it’s going to be re-invested on the playing side as promised. However, I do believe that this owner is working to a different time-scale from most fans and journos, and now is not the time to judge.

 

 

Shola, Lovenkrands and Best are among our four current best strikers. How can our B targets not be better options than them?

 

Well any transfer is a gamble, and it's possible to spend a lot of money and not end up with a better option.

 

But I find the way you've put the dilemma quite strange. Instead of looking at the players you don't rate that highly and saying we can find someone better, shouldn't we be aiming to get in the best player that we can possibly land? At the least, better than Ba, who I assume you feel is our best striker at the moment.

 

To put it another way, if all we end up with is someone marginally better than our weaker players (as you define them), would it not be better to wait?

 

Unless what we've seen of Ba is very misleading we are still missing a Bellamy type of player who will run down the channels and play off the big man. The two we have are Ben Arfa possibly, and Lovenkrands who is not fit for this level. Relying on Ben Arfa to be fit for most of this season is optimistic at this time when no one knows how completely he's recovered from a serious setback. So yes we should have brought someone in. Even Bellamy himself if no one else was available. I'm sure he would have preferred first team football here to sitting on Liverpool's bench.

 

Don't forget Obertan was hinting that he hoped to move into a more advanced striking role when we bought him.

 

Not saying that I'd particularly want him there myself on what I've seen (and I can't see him getting many games up front now Barton has gone), but you never know.

 

 

 

/If Pards can flick a switch on his lightbulb heed, there may just be a 20 goal a season striker hidden in there somewhere... maybe.

[TRon]

The thrust of the Luke Edwards’ article was that there were times when you do have to pay over the odds for the player you want. Fair enough, but was this really the time? So far as we can tell, we’d had bids accepted for the players on our A-list, but those players opted for other clubs that had better prospects. We were looking at our B-list, and as such it’s a bit more questionable whether you should over-pay, or hang on to a future transfer window when a better player might become available.

 

A lot of people seemed to be getting worked about us not signing Maiga or Roux, without knowing a great deal about the players. That’s what can happen at the end of the window, when a lot of pressure gets put on a club’s owners to ease the anxiety of the fans and the manager. Landing the wrong player for £10m, plus a 5-year contract at £40k per week is a £20m+ mistake. I can’t say that our position is so desperate that we need to take a risk.

 

Time will tell whether it’s all a big con and Ashley’s going to hang on to the money, or whether in time it’s going to be re-invested on the playing side as promised. However, I do believe that this owner is working to a different time-scale from most fans and journos, and now is not the time to judge.

 

 

Shola, Lovenkrands and Best are among our four current best strikers. How can our B targets not be better options than them?

 

Well any transfer is a gamble, and it's possible to spend a lot of money and not end up with a better option.

 

But I find the way you've put the dilemma quite strange. Instead of looking at the players you don't rate that highly and saying we can find someone better, shouldn't we be aiming to get in the best player that we can possibly land? At the least, better than Ba, who I assume you feel is our best striker at the moment.

 

To put it another way, if all we end up with is someone marginally better than our weaker players (as you define them), would it not be better to wait?

 

Unless what we've seen of Ba is very misleading we are still missing a Bellamy type of player who will run down the channels and play off the big man. The two we have are Ben Arfa possibly, and Lovenkrands who is not fit for this level. Relying on Ben Arfa to be fit for most of this season is optimistic at this time when no one knows how completely he's recovered from a serious setback. So yes we should have brought someone in. Even Bellamy himself if no one else was available. I'm sure he would have preferred first team football here to sitting on Liverpool's bench.

 

Don't forget Obertan was hinting that he hoped to move into a more advanced striking role when we bought him.

 

/Not that I'd particularly want him there myself on what I've seen (and I can't see him getting many games up front now Barton has gone), but you never know.

 

I saw Obertan playing up front in one game and he was sat back on his heels whenever there was a header flick on from the striker. I don't think he's a natural forward and I doubt he'll get many goals. Lovenkrands is the closest we've got and he's abysmal. We might just have to hope Vukic or Sammy step up quicker than we hoped, although neither are genuine strikers either.

[jimmymag]

Out of all the strikers we were linked with my opinion is that all of them were risky and would not, necessarily, have been an improvement on what we've got. Bellamy a possible exception to that, but I wouldn't want to see him back here.

 

As someone said earlier it's potentially a £20 million call, and if I had been making it I would have kept the money in the bank too.

[TRon]

Out of all the strikers we were linked with my opinion is that all of them were risky and would not, necessarily, have been an improvement on what we've got. Bellamy a possible exception to that, but I wouldn't want to see him back here.

 

As someone said earlier it's potentially a £20 million call, and if I had been making it I would have kept the money in the bank too.

 

I said this earlier, but if you are only willing to spend £8-10m and pay 50k a week you aren't going to get a proven striker unless he's past his sell by date. For that price all you can buy is promise such as Maiga or Connor Wickham and with promising players there is always a risk. It's the market we want to trade in so why complain about it?

[Cronky]

The thrust of the Luke Edwards article was that there were times when you do have to pay over the odds for the player you want. Fair enough, but was this really the time? So far as we can tell, wed had bids accepted for the players on our A-list, but those players opted for other clubs that had better prospects. We were looking at our B-list, and as such its a bit more questionable whether you should over-pay, or hang on to a future transfer window when a better player might become available.

 

A lot of people seemed to be getting worked about us not signing Maiga or Roux, without knowing a great deal about the players. Thats what can happen at the end of the window, when a lot of pressure gets put on a clubs owners to ease the anxiety of the fans and the manager. Landing the wrong player for £10m, plus a 5-year contract at £40k per week is a £20m+ mistake. I cant say that our position is so desperate that we need to take a risk.

 

Time will tell whether its all a big con and Ashleys going to hang on to the money, or whether in time its going to be re-invested on the playing side as promised. However, I do believe that this owner is working to a different time-scale from most fans and journos, and now is not the time to judge.

 

 

Shola, Lovenkrands and Best are among our four current best strikers. How can our B targets not be better options than them?

 

Well any transfer is a gamble, and it's possible to spend a lot of money and not end up with a better option.

 

But I find the way you've put the dilemma quite strange. Instead of looking at the players you don't rate that highly and saying we can find someone better, shouldn't we be aiming to get in the best player that we can possibly land? At the least, better than Ba, who I assume you feel is our best striker at the moment.

 

To put it another way, if all we end up with is someone marginally better than our weaker players (as you define them), would it not be better to wait?

 

Unless what we've seen of Ba is very misleading we are still missing a Bellamy type of player who will run down the channels and play off the big man. The two we have are Ben Arfa possibly, and Lovenkrands who is not fit for this level. Relying on Ben Arfa to be fit for most of this season is optimistic at this time when no one knows how completely he's recovered from a serious setback. So yes we should have brought someone in. Even Bellamy himself if no one else was available. I'm sure he would have preferred first team football here to sitting on Liverpool's bench.

 

I was starting to get quite confused about what sort of striker we were looking for.  Perhaps Pardew figured we generally lacked a bit of pace in our strikers, but you have to look for other qualities as well if you're forking out £10m+.

 

On the general situation, I don't know what I can add to what I've said before. A lot of the responses seemed to be based on emotion more than anything. The squad we've got is actually quite decent and we may as well wait and try and land players who can really lift us. New opportunities will come up and the money won't disappear.

 

Well taking the last point, the big fear seems to be that the caution about spending is just Ashley trying to salvage money for himself, and the cut-off time for him to prove otherwise was Sept 1st. Fair enough, but I still believe that he has a longer-term plan in mind, and part of that plan is not getting caught on expensive panic buys that either don't improve the team much, and / or get us hamstrung financially in the longer-term, which is what has happened in the past.

 

Has there not been a boom and bust element to the way in which our transfer spending has gone in the last few years? I don't actually think that team building by one-off splurges actually works.

[Guest DavB93]

Hope the answers come out soon.   

[Guest Geordiesned]

I thought Ryder had said the answers would be at the end of the week? Well there doesn't seem to be anything on the Chronicle website today. Don't know about in print.

[Colocho]

Caulkin also said they'll be published later today...

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

tomorrow according to the back of tonights copy.

[Colocho]

PR stunt for both parties...

[Wilson]

at least they've had plenty time to ponder their answers eh

 

 

[Guest Geordiesned]

at least they've had plenty time to run the answers past the lawyers eh

 

 

 

FYP