This is a waste of money imo. Josh King brings nothing to the team and we have plenty of back up players. We need to concentrate on quality players like Bruno is in order to catch Liverpool and City. Put it this way, what other top team would be after King?
Joshua King / signs for Watford
- Thread starter Ranchero
- Start date
Spending 20m on Josh King instead of 25m on Odsonne Edouard is the kind of move a team hoping for a Europa League spot would make, imo.
Appreciated.
Yes, £. It's in the link here somewhere. Might be wrong, but they say the club wants to convince him with an improved deal.
They like big names so there might be a chance.
Except we already have ‘back-ups’ of the same caliber as King, in Lingard, James, Pereira. I get your point, I just don’t think our squad would be improved in any way by signing the 18th placed team’s second best forward.
Maguire, Robertson were signed from a relegated team. We are also might be hoping to sign another player from a relegation threatened team(Grealish). We signed Ighalo from the Chinese league and it proved to be smart business.
How long will he be willing to stick around if he doesn't break past Martial?
Any top team that has no backup striker and wants a cheap solid one would be after King. But the twist is they would have a worldclass striker while King would be the back up. For example I doubt anybody would complain if Kane was our striker and King was the backup. Thats actually very solid
But we don't have Kane or a worldclass striker...we have Martial. I get the feeling that Ole is trusting Martial to become good enough for any top team. We wouldn't have been targeting a back up striker like King or Ighalo happy to sit on the bench if Ole was not comfortable with Martial
The question for me isn't whether King is a solid back up option for any top team because he is. The question i would ask would be "can we trust Martial to become a reliable striker that is enough for any top team to be able get a back up like King or Ighalo who are willing to sit on the bench".
Last edited:
If he isn't good enough then he shouldn't be sticking around. If he is more than good enough for the bench but Martial is doing too well for him to break past then that means Martial is a very good striker. I'd be more worried about him flopping than him being good but not able to break past Martial
Edouard doesnt have Jim Solbakken as his manager though.
Hence here is the problem I think a lot of you expect every hole to be filled up at one go. Martial hasn't been world class but has done well enough with limited service, hence can be trusted in the current face of the build. Our right wingers are to not be trusted that's why we should fill that rw spot with a top class player (Sancho) . If Martial was our main weakness we would probably sniffing around kane/werner. As it stands a striker and maybe lb are problems for next year.
About as long as Martial will be willing to stick around when he breaks past Martial. Competition promotes quality, imo.
They don't play in the same position. And the main problem with the three players you named is that they haven't been back-ups - they've been first choice most of the season.
In terms of striker we only really have Martial and Greenwood, with Rashford as an emergency option. Greenwood isn't ready to slot in and play every game if Martial gets injured, but does need a decent amount of games to continue his development. Signing someone of the profile of King or Ighalo basically means that we have faith in Martial being first choice next season and faith in Greenwood going further forward. If Martial doesn't take the step up to the next level I'm sure we would then be looking to sign a proper replacement the following season.
King isn't my first choice either, but signing someone like him or Ighalo is important to tide us over for a year or two. By that stage Greenwood should be ready to play a more important role and we'll also know whether Martial has taken the step up or not.
Maguire was signed from Leicester. We weren’t interested in at Hull, you can’t say playing for Leicester did nothing for his development as a footballer. Also, him and Robertson were far and away Hull’s best players, and they were 24 and 23 when then were signed.
I’m not sure what I’m arguing here for any more. It makes no difference either way, I’d just rather we didn’t waste time and money on signing such an underwhelming player.
Thats the $64000 question. Will Martial ever get to be that top striker. Comparing him to Kane at his age and there is no comparison. Thats why i said we need to concentrate on getting a top striker as we already got the backup striker - Martial
I wouldnt mind having Martial as a bench option but we are not operating on a limitless budget so we have to spend on positions that matters first and i'd say Martial as our striker should be among the least of our worries. Unless theres a top striker available for cheap, i dont see why we should be spending alot of money on a striker when we have other pressing needs
Makes sense if we fail to keep Ighalo beyond this summer.
He can play in various attacking positions, but not sure he's actually any better than the backups we already got. And we also have to give Mason playing time. Dan James is just as good and brings a little more pace, but isnt as strong. King isnt a goal machine either, so he's not bringing much needed smartness to the attack.
I would rather we keep what we got and give Mason more time and bring in a really good RW, like Sancho. Rashford, Mason and Martial can all play LW and striker and that where King is best too.
I would rather we keep what we got and give Mason more time and bring in a really good RW, like Sancho. Rashford, Mason and Martial can all play LW and striker and that where King is best too.
Do you really think Ole would sign the wrong player for United just to do his mate a favour?
Is he really a better option than ighalo if we can't sign him up? I liked whatever I saw of odion and he has experience. I'm less convinced of Kings pedigree when he isn't even one of Bournemouth's stars.
I'd say it's his links to Utd more than Ole himself. I guess if we're signing a squad player who, in a perfect world (if both Martial and Greenwood really kick on), won't actually play all that much it makes sense for them to be a Utd fan who would be more willing to settle for that without causing problems.
Personally I would want someone the next level up who can actually push Martial and can be ready to be first choice if Martial gets injured for a decent amount of time (Greenwood is still at least a year or two away from being ready for that role).
I'd be surprised if we sign King but not disappointed if it were to happen. Would be a good backup option for Tony Mart.
I don't get all the negativity on here. Real football isn't like FM. It consists of a myriad of factors, including dressing room harmony. There aren't any top level strikers, of CAF standard, willing to sign up and take a pay cut, to be used in a back up role. A back up striker is exactly that, a back up, who can contribute in the easier games and when called upon. It makes sense to sign decent strikers like Ighalo or King, who have a genuine affection for the club and won't rock the boat when left out of the starting 11. Look at the reports of the effect the signing of Sanchez had, on sky high wages and not a 1st team regular. Ole knows what he is doing and is on the right track.
That's BS. A top manager can easily accommodate 2 strikers whose fighting for a first team place. Sir Alex did with the treble side and all the strikers in that team were way better then Martial and Greenwood are. After Fellaini (Moyes), Valdes, Bastian, Blind and Depay (LVG) and Matic (Mou), you'll expect the club to know better then signing a manager/manager's agent mate.
King is a solid back up but there are also quite a number of solid back ups we could get for the 15-20m. The difference is King wants to come here and we can be sure he would give his all. That's probably why King ranks higher than other 15-20m solid backups we could get
Last edited:
I think Ole will bring in another striker. Dembele seems to get the most mentions in the media. Not sure if he is that much better than Martial, but as you say we havent a limitless budget.
Yeah I'm pretty sure we're not spending past 30m on a striker. Don't know if we can get Dembele for that
Yep, there also wouldn't be any threat of him leaving as he'd know his place and would be comfortable here.
PSG? 
My arse
My arsePSG?
To be fair, they have used Choupo-Moting in this role for the last few seasons. King is a sizeable upgrade on him.
He's better than their back-up options in Jese and Moting.PSG?
Chupo-Moting was world class in that game vs us once
King is world class against us every season
I hope we aren’t one of those 15 clubs.
When's the title from? Have we bid recently?
King offers good work ethics, pace, experience and can play as both left winger and center forward, which makes him a good squad player.
The negative is that he is quite often injured. But if he is a squad player that will propably work out well and I think he will positively surprise many. Yes, there are better players but they will cost more too. He is a good package as a squad player and better to sub on instead of James on the wing and it would solve some problems vs. rotation and injuries/fatigue during the season. He will bleed for the club.
The negative is that he is quite often injured. But if he is a squad player that will propably work out well and I think he will positively surprise many. Yes, there are better players but they will cost more too. He is a good package as a squad player and better to sub on instead of James on the wing and it would solve some problems vs. rotation and injuries/fatigue during the season. He will bleed for the club.
January window I believe,