KangarooVillan

23 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

This is almost the opposite of my view which is: Pereira is the best of them now with guaranteed goals, Buendia has the highest ceiling but I have a nagging doubt he will reach it for some reason, McNeil is a proven PL player and will always perform at a high level but will never be a Grealish which Buendia might (might!) be.

Three very good players anyway.

Pereira drops in and out of games too much for me. Keep in mind to, his 11G and 6A look good, but 4 of his goals were penalties. Without those he looks like a less mystical Traore.

When comparing Buendia and McNeil remember Buendia is 24 and McNeil is 21. Buendia is only 1 year younger than Jack and McNeil is 3 years younger than Buendia. McNeil also has better Premier League form than either Jack or Buendia at the same age. 

6 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Absolutely not

When Buendia was McNeil’s age he had 6 goals and 13 assists in LaLiga 2. 2 years before that he scored a singular goal in LaLiga in 17 matches. By 19 McNeil already had 3 goals and 5 assists in the prem.

McNeil also has the same number of score involvements as Buendia when Norwich was in the Prem and has done it over 3 years in an equally non-attacking team. Prem wise they’re on par, but McNeil is younger and has done it for longer...

On 27/05/2021 at 23:51, pete101 said:

Think he plays against the bigger tesms when he is fit , in a system of two 8s rather then playing a 10 against the lower sides

This was my instinct too.

Then I had a flash of what we did to Liverpool and Arsenal with a very good CAM. I would like to see that again

8 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

No? 

8 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Exactly.  If they start asking 40m we move along. He doesn't have anywhere near the credentials of Buendia or Pereira, so only if he's significantly cheaper is he worth pursuing. 

Now if the other i mentioned are being held on to until a club offers 60m, then it sets the scene.  But based on rumour and hearsay, that is surely unrealistic. 

Better than Pereira.

Buendia is probably better right now, but McNeil has a higher ceiling.

1 hour ago, MaVilla said:

 

That first song is song is so incredibly apt for a creative player at Burnley... 

2 hours ago, MaVilla said:

ye, i would 100% take McNeil.

However, i would also 100% take Buendia!

Ideally......we could have McNeil on the left, Buendia on the right and Grealish at no.10

I would imagine it would be the reverse - McNeil is a left footer and Buendia is a right.

McNeil/Traore on the right and Jack and Buendia swapping on the left.

48 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

Yes, Koopmeiners would be ideal or someone similar. I hope Smith can see that Luiz shouldn't be played as a DCM. He'd be much more effective futher forward with a proper DCM behind him.

Koopmeiners tackle and defensive numbers aren’t that good tbh. He strikes as more of a box to box mid than a DM.

2 hours ago, Awol said:

Yep, plus 2 goals and 5 assists in 36 PL games doesn’t scream 1st choice winger target. 

The articles this morning claim that Pep was interested in him previously but a deal didn’t come together. Must be something in his game that you and I aren’t seeing. 

I think the argument for is age (21 if I recall) and that his production is due to playing in a largely one dimensional Burnley side (from an attacking point of view).

I don’t know if he’s my favourite as I generally like to see production, he does have some very good traits though that will probably result in better production in a more attacking/better side.

2 hours ago, paul514 said:

I didn’t write him off, I said I wanted a better player to replace him as a starter. Also Matt Targett isn’t a different player from the season before he is just more effective.

That’s some impressive mental gymnastics right there

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I’ll be shocked if we don’t sign a striker. Oko covers it well and outside our creative weakness is our a key area that needs filling this summer.

See where we land in August

28 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

It was in January. Might have been an article in the Athletic. He requested more game time with a few Championship clubs interested in a loan but it was refused. I don't like the "if we need him we need him" attitude. This is a 23 year old who needs game time and wants game time to develop himself. Who are we to deny him that? If we can only offer him 10 minute cameos every other week, why should we deny him a move?

I do know that Wesley's career was in serious danger of being ended. In fact, at one point his career was not the only concern. There were plenty of question marks over him even before the injury. It would be a minor miracle to expect him to be able to play at a Premier League standard.

Barry is far too young and Traore is not a striker. Not even close. And Smith clearly agrees with that.

Agree to disagree. I feel where you’re coming from, I just probably have more faith in Wes and Davis. If we could get a winger who can play ST that would be good for if all else fails.

I personally don’t think we’ll sign a ST, but let’s see what happens come end of August.

Wouldn’t Buendia play on the LW for us? He’s right footed and likes to cut in

21 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

https://barcainnovationhub.com/recovery-time-of-the-anterior-cruciate-ligament-injury-in-elite-football/

Good article on the topic

If you’re interested I found this article regarding AFL players: https://www.dovepress.com/anterior-cruciate-ligament-injuries-in-australian-rules-football-incid-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-OAJSM

Incidence rate of 0.8 players per club per season, and interestingly 74-77% are able to return to the elite level. Surprising it’s slightly higher as I thought they’re would have been more twisting and turning in AFL than football.

13 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

https://barcainnovationhub.com/recovery-time-of-the-anterior-cruciate-ligament-injury-in-elite-football/

Good article on the topic

That’s actually very helpful, thank you

1 hour ago, Okonokos said:

Another point about backup strikers I could make is by comparing us to Everton.

Their main man is Calvert-Lewin just like ours is Watkins. Both are fantastic at playing up front on their own.

But then Everton have Richarlison who is also a great player and easily capable of playing as a striker or out wide. Calvert-Lewin plays every minute and only misses games through injury, like Watkins. But that does not mean Richarlison is a bench warmer. He played 34 league games this season.

Davis and Wesley just aren't close enough to Watkins' standard, whereas Richarlison isn't far off Calvert-Lewin. This is the mould we need to use. We should be looking for an upgrade on Davis and Wesley in terms of ability but also someone who is comfortable playing in multiple positions, like Richarlison is. Watkins alone just isn't enough.

Okay okay okay.

This is a good example. Would you be happy if we signed a £30-40 million LW who could play ST?

Or even...

A CAM who can play ST and LW

2 hours ago, Okonokos said:

I'd guess we wouldn't be signing someone who's been injured for 18 months though.

Why is there such a big thing about players returning from an ACL?

I am genuinely curious - in AFL players do them all the time, they spend 12-18 months out then generally come back fine. In a small percentage of cases they may do them again. Is football different?

2 hours ago, jacketspuds said:

£35m for Wesley and Davis? I’d be very surprised if we’d get anywhere near that if we sold them. Even if we got £20m for Wesley, Davis isn’t a £15m player.

Given Wesley’s injury I can’t see a team taking a risk like that either.

We need to find a younger version of Watkins, but I just can’t think of a player that could do anywhere near the same role that he does. I don’t think that any of Traore, Wesley or Davis have the right skillset to do it.

Sure, no worries - let’s go spend another £15 million of our transfer budget this season on a speculative young ST who is no guarantee to be any better than Wesley or Davis so that if Watkins gets injured we have a backup.

Nailed it.

3 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

No.

Even if Wes is up to being back up, we still need another as we do not know how he will perform.

Traore is not the answer and neither is Davis, with the latter possibly going out on loan or sold.

Barry is a year too early still.

Are you suggesting the club don’t have an idea of how Wesley will perform despite monitoring him on the track most days and giving him some exposure late in the season?

Davis can’t do a bit part role if required?

3 hours ago, Okonokos said:

Like I said yesterday; Davis has already asked to leave once to get first team football. He will do that again this summer and I don't think the club will stand in his way. I don't want the club to stand in his way because at his age he needs to be playing every week.

Wesley will struggle to play consistently at a top level again; his injury was that bad.

Barry is 18.

Traore is not a striker.

All of a sudden we look very light up front then.

Source in Keinan asking for a loan? Somewhat irrelevant anyway because if we need him we need him. We have obviously retained him in the past.

You don’t know that for sure about Wesley - none of us do except the club. If he’s okay to go then he’s more than ample backup.

Barry and Traore can fill in it above two fail for whatever reason.

There you go, suddenly look very full at up front again

7 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I'm not suprised to see you'd be against it too.

You would only have 11 players in the whole team if your posts of last summer are anything to go by.

There is a thing called squad depth, and quality and backup in every position is required - including strikers.

 

Wesley, Davis and Barry/Traore (if really required) are backup.

There’s about £35 million in backup with just Wesley and Davis alone. 

If Wes isn’t up to it, this is a different conversation, but we just don’t know that yet.

11 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

It's not that people are against. It's just realisation that it's unrealistic. Before Covid, Smith and Purslow talked about the 4 parties that had to agree to make a player signing, now it's a post Covid world plus we're not in Europe yet and not one of the glamour PL clubs and Watkins would've played every minute of every game but for the 2nd yellow. We're not going with 2 up top and a "quality" striker isn't guaranteed minutes. We're more likely to sign a player for another position who can deputise if required

I really don’t understand why other people can’t get this, the bolded in particular

11 hours ago, abdulaziz1 said:

Get him, the new Kiyotake.

He seems really good, how much do you guess he’s cost?

£26 million was what was bandied around here: https://www.givemesport.com/1693204-tottenham-transfer-rumours-spurs-want-15assist-star?amp

But they’re probably just making stuff up so who knows.

Transfermarkt has him at €16 million euros, so I’d say you could comfortable get it done inside of £28 million. Cheaper and better alternative to Buendia.

5 hours ago, wilko154 said:

On the striker subject, I think it's clear to see that we need to sort out the backup striker role over the Summer.

Keinan Davis has the potential to be a very good striker, unfortunately he just hasn't had the game time to prove it despite some goods cameos this season. Next season he needs a loan to a Championship or PL side; currently there's little value in him and so a loan would both increase his value and allow him to prove himself in front of goal for a shot at first team football at Villa.

Wesley I think also needs a move. Unfortunately he's not going to get the game time at Villa that will allow himself to build himself up to full fitness and regain his form. A loan move would be good for him this summer; however if he doesn't perform we lose a lot of value on him. If a team comes in with a bid, it may be in our interest to sell him and cover our losses.

Louie Barry just isn't ready for PL football yet. There's been a lot of talk that he can be our backup striker next season, but he's not physically ready for that yet. However I think he will slowly be introduced to the first team squad by the end of next season in the same way Chukwuemeka has this season.

The need for a new £30-40 million striker just isn't there unless Smith has visions of playing two up front. If we can pick up a solid backup striker for low value; a calculated risk from the lower leagues or abroad then I think it would be the best way to go. This is what Lange has been brought in for and it could well be his most important job for next season where we don't look to go out and splash the cash on a well known player.

I just really really don’t understand. On one hand you say Davis and Wes have potential but won’t get enough game time so we should loan them out and on the other you say we should bring in a solid backup striker who also isn’t going to get game time to return to form?

What is the plan here? Why can’t Wes and Davis be back up? How are they worse than a cheap back up from a lower league or abroad?