Mark_1989

Where did I put that?

I’m obviously grateful for the goals he scored but on the flip side if he had done his job throughout the season we may not have needed such a strong finish?

Completely agree. Very poor footballer. People have been duped by the two goals v Palace and goal against Arsenal and seem to think he was much improved after restart. This is a false narrative. He was the player I was screaming at my tv more than anyone since restart in the games he played. The only two players who improved after lockdown were Konsa and Luiz. People seem to say we were much improved but in reality we weren’t. We got 10 points from 10 games which is relegation form. The goals Trez scored all seemed to be ones whereby they happened fast and he had little/zero time to think. Or whereby it was a half volley etc where he had to just make contact rather than generate the pace himself. His finishing and strike is actually very tame. I certainly was hoping he would be replaced before start of season. Don’t trust him as a footballer, he offers far more lows than highs. I want to be proved wrong but I’m pretty sure I won’t be.

Anyone with any sense of football IQ could tell that Douglas Luiz was a very talented footballer long before lockdown. To compare the Samatta situation to Dougie is simply unjust. Samatta has shown nothing to suggest he can cut it at this level. The air kick v West Ham told me all I need to know. Simply not good enough. Id love to be proved wrong but doubt I will be. If we can get a replacement in and recoup our money on him I’d be happy to let him go.

Rob Dorsett on SSN saying we have ended interest in Rashica as he believes it was Traore or Rashica and as we expect Traore to come in then we will no longer want Rashica. I take this guy with a pinch of salt but we shall see.

Stfu you troll. All you do is moan and groan. Our board fortunately has higher ambitions than you. I can assure you if we finish 17th Smith will not longer be our manager. Im not saying we are going to storm the league. But to think we can’t finish above WBA, Fulham, West Ham, Newcastle, Palace, Leeds, Brighton....that’s delusional and sad.

True but our owners are not investing large sums to battle relegation every year they will wanna see marked improvements. Smith won’t be allowed to have us languishing near the foot of the table either, think if we start badly Wes and Nas may act.

it is now - 12th or higher I should say. Couple more quality additions and we should really hope to kick on. Feel more confident about our defence this year with Konza settling in great alongside mings. Started as a slow transfer window but bubbling up quite nicely now

Top 12 minimum has to be our aim

Will we ever sign a striker 2 weeks to go and we could end up starting the season with samatta and keinan. 2 extremely important games to open up with and I trust neither of them. I just hope we have it all in hand.

No chance - desperately need new additions before season starts. Cant afford to go into the first couple of games with Samatta, Davies, Trez. Our opening two games and the opposition we face are two which come end of season could prove vital.

Everyone coming in with some wise crack responses I literally said as a short term fix should we not get any strikers in pre start of season. He clearly isn’t someone I would want and certainly would be underwhelming but on a risk free basis I would back him to at least contribute to some goals ahead of samatta and Davies, and yeah his injury record is awful but for a few matches I stand by the fact I’d trust him over what we have currently. If people cared to read how I opened the hypothetical I fail to see how this dosent have credibility. Yet people on here would still hang their hat on samatta and Davies. Who’s gunna start the relegation thread for next year? Either way UTV hopefully we make some signings tomorrow.

I hope/confident we will get a striker in before the season starts but utterly baffled how some people can be content with our current strike force should they start in our opening game. Time purslow starts pulling some strings.

Can understand everyone’s opposition to Sturridge but I was merely stating him as a possibility as a ‘short term fix’ as at the minute we look likely to enter the season with Samatta and Davies. (1 league goal this calendar year) Two pretty important games to start and with zero probability of Keinan and Smatta scoring we better hope the MF picks up the pieces early on.

Picture this. One on one with the keeper v Arsenal coming in from the left hand side, which one would you think has a chance of scoring? Sturridge or Davies. West Ham ball across the box, who’s air kicking? Sturridge or Samatta. my point is still I’d have more confidence in Sturridge scoring than what we CURRENTLY have.

As stated...a quick fix that could prove useful. He’s obviously not my number one choice nor do I particularly want him. But he could defo do more than samatta and keinan

Let’s start Vassiev up top and let him run around for a few games. I’m merely saying we need something/anything than what we currently have to start the season with. Sturridges injury record isn’t really an issue if he’d only get paid if playing. I was using it as a quick fix to start the season in the event that we haven’t bought in a proper signing to start the season. I love the idea of starting the season with a strike force that scored once since January.

Yet I said on a paid for performance..ie no risk. yet you’d be prepared to have samatta? Or Davies the known goal scorer?

I appreciate this and stating 15+ goals is probs a bit of a stretch maybe 10/12+ is more realistic. clearly we don’t want to be like newcastle and waste a fortune on a Joelinton but teams like West Ham have shown they are willing to invest I.e Bowen and he proved valuable at back end of season. I can understand us taking time to get as good a deal as possible I guess I just want us to at least get a ‘band aid’ type of striker in who can at least start the season for us. someone like Sturridge on a p4p type contract is something I wouldn’t be against until we buy our main striker. I just hate the idea of starting the season with Davies or samatta. We can’t afford a slow start this year.

Agreed but we can’t wait too long. A) we want players in to gel etc. B.) before the end of the window we play Sheff U and Fulham, two huge games in the sense we will be targeting 6 points. We can’t afford to lose those as we really would be behind the 8 ball. Risk not worth taking starting with Samatta and the garbage entourage.

Elaborate?

As other posters have stated I’m starting to get fed up with lack of striker signings. It’s inexcusable tbh. Before anyone shoots me down saying we don’t want to pay over the odds etc, we’ve had literally 9 months to work on striker targets. We panicked in January and bought the junk that is Samatta and literally haven’t had a goal scored by a striker since January...we clawed our way to safety plying with 10 men for the most part as our strikers converted 0.0% of their chances and to think we could be in a position to start the season with Keinan and Samatta is appalling. Clearly we have targets in mind and don’t want to pay over the odds but we need to face the fact that we may have to pay more than we would like to. We wouldn’t be the first team to stump up large money for players, but if we think they are going to get us 15+ goals we need to go for it. Leaving it till the end of the window we will already have let nearly 20% of the season slide and if we are to start back with samatta, Davies, ghazi or trez starting well we simply deserve to go down.

Not sure why people get caught up with these so called ITKs..guess it’s just something to fill people’s time and optimism but none of them have any sense of inside knowledge. Throw enough s*** at the wall and hope it sticks comes to mind.

Anyone else bored of being linked to every man and his dog, who lets be honest we haven’t got a clue who they are!!..just want some signings through the door

I see a lot of merit in this. The later you leave it in a window the more desperate and ‘panic’ purchases walk through the door. Apologies if I’m wrong but did Samatta come in late during the window, I think he did I could be wrong but he smacks of nothing more than a panic buy and has since struggled immensely at this level. As much as I want Jack to stay and really hope he does, all the uncertainty on whether he stays or goes makes it very difficult for us to plan too. I hope he let the board know of his decision early on so that we can plan.