Ollie Watkins

[nick76]

3 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

So do the posters who aren't in favour of signing Watkins think we will be spending less than £100 million, £100 million or more.

What if we only have £60 million? Or more than the rumoured amount.

We need better players and he can play anywhere across the front 3. We don't know if Tammy wants to come or even.if Chelsea want to sell, like why's for the guy at Celtic.

Just don’t want to waste money on a player that makes us no better.  You think he makes us better, I’m far from convinced.  Whether we have 60m or 160m I think we all agree we don’t want to waste it, we just have different views.

[Keyblade]

Just now, Tomaszk said:

Obviously it'll be an effing treat if we do, but I'd be very surprised if we sign a striker and right winger both better than him.

Fingers crossed.

I would absolutely love it if we did, but I think people are both a.) overrating the quality of midtable in the PL and b.) underrating how difficult it would be to pull off the better signings for us. I don't doubt that we have the ambition.

[nick76]

7 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

How good does a striker have to be to lead us to mid table? Let's look at the midtable teams and their strikers, starting from Sheffield United:

9. Sheffield United - Ollie McBurnie, David McGoldrick, Billy Sharp

10. Burnley - Chris Wood, Jay Rodriguez, Matej Vydra

11. Southampton - Danny Ings, Che Adams, Michael Obafemi

12. Everton - Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison

13. Newcastle - Joelinton, Dwight Gayle, Andy Carroll

14. Crystal Palace - Jordan Ayew, Christian Benteke, Connor Wickham

15. Brighton - Neal Maupay, Aaron Connolly, Glenn Murray

How many of that lot are significantly better than him? Quite a few if not most of these players were playing Championship football not too long ago. I would go as far as say he's the type of signing midtable teams have been making in the past couple of years. 

So our benchmark is to get players that aren’t significantly less than our competitors? Great model that is for buying players.  Let’s buy players that aren’t quite as good as our rivals, that’s how we can improve

[mykeyb]

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Just don’t want to waste money on a player that makes us no better.  You think he makes us better, I’m far from convinced.  Whether we have 60m or 160m I think we all agree we don’t want to waste it, we just have different views.

Watkins or ElGhazi or Samatta Trez or Davis.

You decide

[Keyblade]

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

So our benchmark is to get players that aren’t significantly less than our competitors? Great model that is for buying players.  Let’s buy players that aren’t quite as good as our rivals, that’s how we can improve

Not the point. The point is, if the criteria is "lead us into midtable", he seems to be plenty good enough judging by the caliber of player currently "leading" teams to midtable.

[Adam2003]

I’m excited by the idea of a wide forward who is focused on scoring goals... ok he might end up at CF but the problem with 4-3-3 is the idea that everyone is trying to tee up one focal point for goals. It’s good to have forwards (as opposed to wingers) as options in the wide areas as well.

[nick76]

Just now, mykeyb said:

Watkins or ElGhazi or Samatta Trez or Davis.

You decide

For 25m, I’ll stick with what I’ve got thanks.  If no money involvedand I was starting from scratch I would say Watkins but for the fee quoted I’m not interested thanks.  To swap is too expensive for the benefit I’m getting.  I’d rather spend my money elsewhere thanks as the improvement along with the risk that comes with it is not worth 25m in my opinion.

it was like at the beginning of the year I was thinking of getting a newer version of my car but the price they wanted and also what they’d give for my car was not worth it.  So I can now save more an get a better car completely or use the money elsewhere.  I wasn’t going to pay that for not much difference really for the value I was outlaying 

[nick76]

8 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Not the point. The point is, if the criteria is "lead us into midtable", he seems to be plenty good enough judging by the caliber of player currently "leading" teams to midtable.

In your opinion.....

[Brumstopdogs]

10 hours ago, AndyClarke said:

From Percy's mouth....

 

[VillaChris]

5 hours ago, blunther said:

I don't know why people are saying they'd be happy with this if we buy two strikers. We won't be buying two, we have Wes coming back and play one up front. I'm expecting one striker coming in. I think those expecting two will be disappointed. 

Our strikeforce scored 6 league goals all season, of course we need more than one in. Wes won't be back to October/November and let's remember Kodj was never the same when he came back so think it will be a struggle for Wesley to impose himself in the premier league now.

[PaulC]

Not sure about him really but clearly up front is where we are sadly lacking . 6 goals from our strikers all season is pitiful 

[Johnnyp]

I genuinely don't know. Everyone is an expert with the benefit of hindsight but i mean i was excited when we were linked and ultimately signed Hogan and people here would be lying if they said otherwise. The thing that worries me about Brentford is that their players careers seem to nosedive when they are taken out of their unique, secret, closed off to the world way of setting teams up / coaching.  Hogan, Woods, Jota. All stellar for Brentford, looked like having world class ability to looking completely average in other sides. As creative as their sides are, are they shoehorned into a way of playing that comes hard to shake off when they move on. It's the fear with Watkins. Is it Hogan x2. 

Edited August 5, 2020 by Johnnyp
.

[MotoMkali]

2 hours ago, brummybloke said:

? Kienan Davis? Who had 1 year with stevenage then was realised and played for Biggleswade before villa signed him as a youth ? Try 6 years max.

OK I guess I was wrong. I thought he had signed when he was 12 or 13. I couldn't find any articles about his career. Well then he is at a similar point in his career so he could still develop which is why people haven't written him off yet and saying loaning him out would be a good idea. 

[MotoMkali]

20 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

I genuinely don't know. Everyone is an expert with the benefit of hindsight but i mean i was excited when we were linked and ultimately signed Hogan and people here would be lying if they said otherwise. The thing that worries me about Brentford is that their players careers seem to nosedive when they are taken out of their unique, secret, closed off to the world way of setting teams up / coaching.  Hogan, Woods, Jota. All stellar for Brentford, looked like having world class ability to looking completely average in other sides. As creative as their sides are, are they shoehorned into a way of playing that comes hard to shake off when they move on. It's the fear with Watkins. Is it Hogan x2. 

Jota was decent for small heath but he had a sports hernia for over year when he signed for us which was likely causing him to underperform.

[Keyblade]

32 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

I genuinely don't know. Everyone is an expert with the benefit of hindsight but i mean i was excited when we were linked and ultimately signed Hogan and people here would be lying if they said otherwise. The thing that worries me about Brentford is that their players careers seem to nosedive when they are taken out of their unique, secret, closed off to the world way of setting teams up / coaching.  Hogan, Woods, Jota. All stellar for Brentford, looked like having world class ability to looking completely average in other sides. As creative as their sides are, are they shoehorned into a way of playing that comes hard to shake off when they move on. It's the fear with Watkins. Is it Hogan x2. 

Jota was good for SHA. Woods also seemed to pick up form for Stoke towards the end of last season (bad move for him in hindsight). I just think it's a bit of circumstance and a bit of coincidence. Maupay for example hasn't done too bad this season.

[Johnnyp]

4 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Jota was good for SHA. Woods also seemed to pick up form for Stoke towards the end of last season (bad move for him in hindsight). I just think it's a bit of circumstance and a bit of coincidence. Maupay for example hasn't done too bad this season.

All very good points but their is a whole market out there for us to explore and real value if we do our homework. 

[momo]

Nice to have a feeder club

[sir_gary_cahill]

My 2 cents here, I don’t think I have seen Watkins play live, I have only seen highlights on Quest. He seems to be a very astute finisher who has a nack of being in the right place at the right time. He’s a fox in the box if you will. From memory, all of his goals are from inside the 18 yard box. A reported fee of £18m sounds like a lot of money for someone that has never played above Championship level but I’m confident that Watkins would repay that fee if he signs here. He’s clearly someone that our manager admires seeing that he also signed him for Brentford 

Edited August 6, 2020 by sir_gary_cahill

[stewiek2]

6 hours ago, Lomaski said:

That YouTube video is very unimpressive. Predominantly tap-ins and 6 yard line headers. Not one goal (in the first half of the video, got bored after that) was self created and we just aren't going to give him that level of service and chances on a plate. If we sign two great wingers then he might be an option off the bench, but not for 20+ million for me.

Gary Lineker says hello. He made a career out of tap-ins. Rarely moved outside the 6 yard box, but had incredible movement and intuition. A good striker does that. We haven;'t had a poacher I would say since Dwight Yorke.

 

btw i think £25m for Watkins especially in a time of even more uncertainty financially due to Covid lockdown is madness. Manure willing to do the business they are for Sancho when the world is struggling is repugnant imo.

Edited August 6, 2020 by stewiek2

[Keyblade]

1 minute ago, stewiek2 said:

Gary Lineker says hello. He made a career out of tap-ins. Rarely moved outside the 6 yard box, but had incredible movement and intuition. A good striker does that. We haven;'t had a poacher I would say since Dwight Yorke.