We are scouting europe for young talent

[LeazesMag 0]

Lets put this into perspective what you're saying is, say we sold Tiote, Enrique, Barton, Ben Arfa all for profit and kept Nolan you'd be happy?

 

If we then used the money we'd got off of selling the first four for profit to buy superior players in those positions, yes. And I would be too.

 

But that's where it all falls down. That simply is not going to happen.

 

We've now sold Carroll for a 35m profit. Are we going to buy a superior striker to Carroll with that money? Probably not.

 

Are we now going to buy a good striker with that money and use the remainder to improve other problem areas of the team, like CB, fullbacks and wide players - let's say Demba Ba 12m, Chris Samba 10m, Phil Jones 8m, SWP 5m (and I'm just picking names out of a hat here without regard for realism/wages/whatever)? That would be brilliant and - if you ask me - the best possible use of the Carroll money, although we need more than one good striker to come in.

 

But is any of this going to happen? No, and I think we all know it will not. We'll be linked with endless players, we'll make some derisory bids, some good players will go and we'll sign some dross on free transfers/bargain basement deals and then we'll have a late flurry of activity leading to another deadline day where we sign no-one. During this entire process, we'll sign some unproven players from foreign leagues. One may come good, a couple will be decent, the rest will be crap. And at the end of the day, our net spend will be under 15m, probably even under 10m.

 

we will paper over the cracks of a small squad, spending about half the fee for Carroll on 2nd rate players, and they will try to kid everybody that it is "well spent/good business/we are better off" having filled those weak places.

 

However, its quality that counts. They will not be good enough to go higher, and we will struggle. We already have the weakest set of strikers in the premiership, every single team has a strker who would walk into our team, even mid table teams like Stoke have 2 strikers who would walk into our team. The absence of Carroll will have a big impact on Nolan picking up the pieces, that isn't knocking Nolan because he's a top pro and a top captain, but this means our most potent goalscoring threat of this season in the form of those 2 players, will be gone.

[nortoon 0]

Erik Huseklepp would be a better shout if u want norwegians. Signed for Bari in january for about a million. They are now relegated and there have been reported trouble about them paying the installments, he shouldnt cost much. I would consider him a Peter Løvenkrands who has strenght, pace, stamina and a bit of a trick. He's regularily featuring for Norway and can play as a winger if needed.

Nowt like him then?

 

Well small scandinavian predatory like. You cant deny Peter Løvenkrands has good off-the-ball movement and runs. Its just his overall play and finishing that is awful. I think Huseklepp could be average, or he could grow to be an odemwingie-like bargain. Was disappointed we didnt go for him in jan and he went to Bari.