Mattster wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 10:12 am
Benteke or Origi on permanent deals with Guirassy on a loan with buy option would be a great way to spend the Wood money.
Signing Benteke would be a repeat of the bad business model we have previously followed. It would mean spending £10m+ on a player in the latter stages of their career with no resale value. A player who would want a significant amount of money in wages.
Huge expense for a fading star. We also have to take into account the possibility that we might well get relegated. If he isn't chomping at the bit to join us now then what will he think about playing in the Championship. He would probably want to leave us and nobody will want to buy a 32 year old striker from us for anything like what we might pay for him now - or pay his wages.
A dumb move all round.
Origi has more to offer, but he is currently injured and we need somebody to start now. Signing him would also take a big fee, big wages and pose the same potential relegation problems. However, we could expect to sell him on in that case, probably for a loss.
Does he have qualities that we could use, possibly, but as you correctly say his addition would force us to make tactical changes to the way that we play. He would define us, to get the best out of him the team would have to conform to the way he likes to play. For my money, we have very little use for a another mobile poacher at the moment. We already have Cornet and the injured Vydra.
However, in both cases we could find ourselves chasing after two players who don't want to come and join us. We are in a relegation battle in which strength of character plays a big part. We need players who will be instantly committed to the cause. That means any player who responds to our transfers offers with " I'll think about it " or " I will need this that and the other " is a poor choice.
We need players who are eager to commit, players who will see a move to us for what it is. A huge undertaking to survive and if we don't a long hard slog to regain what we have lost. The last thing that we need are pampered prima donnas who feel like they are doing us a favour by signing.
Guirassy is a roll of the dice player. You can see that in his stats. He has been in the same squad and the same league for the past four years, but his performance indicators vary wildly. He was poor in 2018/19 and 2019/20, had an excellent season in 2020/21 and is currently having a bad season this year ( but brief cameo appearances can make performing harder ). His shootings stats a sporadic in terms of quality, with more hits than miss, and this is evident if you watch him. His finishing game definitely needs work.
So for me, he is a risky and expensive signing that could easily turn out to be a complete dud. We could be paying a lot of money for a once in a career purple patch statistical player who may not perform at his 2020/21 season level ever again.
Besides, are we really that confident Stade Rennais will sell their only tested back up striker to the excellent Laborde with less than 2 weeks to bring in a replacement - when they are challenging for a lucrative Champions League place ?
Would Guirassy jump at the chance to swap a battle for Champions League qualification for relegation avoidance when he has a contract with Stade Rennais that runs until 2025 ?
We are in such a poor state of affairs because of our poor recruitment in terms of target selection and more importantly a complete absence of any strategic vision in relation to future implications and succession planning.
When we sold Sam Vokes we should have immediately replaced him with a young striker for the future. Or at least somebody with a good few years left in their playing careers. At that time we could have picked up Karlon Grant or Josh Maja. Two young domestic players who were available during that Winter window for 1.5m. Players with future value and more than 1 or 2 years left in their playing careers. Players myself and others suggested on these boards.
We signed Peter Crouch
When Crouch left us shortly after we had the same choice to make. However, instead of buying a player with more than a couple of years left in their playing career, we spent £10m and high wages on Rodrgiuez. An expensive player for today who would offer little 3, 4 or 5 years down the line.
We need to look to the future and consider how a new striker would fit into our plans for now and the future. In the PL or the Championship. That makes Benteke an obvious no, Origi is a possibility ( if we intend on changing to fit him and we more than likely accept relegation as we go through that change ) and an expensive gamble Guirassy.
In my opinion, what we need are two committed strikers, for little to no money, who fit the way we play ( or the eye of the tiger, win ugly, way that we used to play )and are up for a slog. And who are available to buy with little to no fuss.
So, on another thread, I suggested Mikael Uhre. He has the height, physical stature, heading ability and positional sense to operate as a Target man and the explosive mobility to function as a poacher if we need him to. He picks up and scores from chances all over the box, unlike Wood who liked his central corridor shots. I think we could quickly coach Uhre the holdup skills he would need to round out his Target man profile and he could also fit the role of a mobile poacher now or in the future if we need him to. By all accounts he wants to join an English club, Brondy are open to selling him on in this window ( before his contract ends in 2022 )and his price is rumoured to be £1.25m.
Him and Carroll ( on a short term deal ) or a player on loan like Delap would do me and leave us with a lot of money left. We could spend some of that money in this window to improve other areas of the squad. Like bringing in Jed Wallace and Brian Ocampo to fill our wing slots and spending 5-10m on a good central midfielder like Lewis Ferguson.
That would leave us with a lot less work to do in the Summer window come rain or shine - and an extra 15-20m cash in the pot to do it. We could spend some of that on a striker when we have a bigger choice of players to choose from and we aren't under a critical 2 week time cosh.
If you look at all the clips on Youtube Uhre also looks like a good bloke and the sort of character who would mix in very well with our lads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ep_F_IfpBg
Having just turned 27 he will also have another 5 or 6 years left in his career to offer us.