Sure. Or we could sign a right winger for our vacant right wing position instead of Moussa Dembele and not change our entire system for some reason.
RW will be the priority as it’s the only glaring hole in our side at the moment when everyone is fit. I don’t think signing Dembele would change our whole system but the fee would be a big issue if it in anyway compromising our ability to sign a first team winger.
You are missing his point. His point was that having good striker option on the bench and someone to challenge the main striker. If we let Ighalo go without a replacement then this is what our bench will look like in 2 seasons (assume if we sign Sancho)
Greenwood, Mata/Pereira, James, CM/DM, FB, CB, GK.
I would rather see: Striker, Greenwood, James, CM/DM, FB, CB, GK.
Or for next season I would rather see (assume we can't afford Sancho this summer): Striker, Greenwood, Mata, CM/DM, FB, CB, GK.
I don’t think anyone missed the point. We had 4 top strikers for 2 positions.
We have one position for central striker now and two wide forward/ winger positions.
Martial Rashford Sancho first 3
Ighalo James Greenwood second 3 is absolutely fine and Ighalo has worked really well with our players when asked. He’s a known quantity and does exactly what is asked of him.
Take Sancho out and replace him with Dembele and you then have
Martial Rashford Greenwood
Dembele James Mata?
I know which one is much prefer to be focussing our efforts on.
The issue isn’t really the player it’s the fee. If Dembele was gettable for £30m it might be worth a gamble but for £60m I’d be looking at Jonathan David, Haaland, Werner, Martinez someone who looks either already really good or that they could be something special soon.
I don’t see what else Dembele is going to be able to do in terms of physical maturity and technique he may improve the mental side of the game but that is far from certain
We also have Greenwood who is arguably as big a potential talent as any and I’d rather give him more games this season and see how he copes and I think in our current setup with Sancho he’d get a good mix of wide forward and central strik
We need to forget about Ighalo. Ok, he’s had a few good games for us, but he’s 31 years old and would be a huge financial risk.
If he’s being offered £400k a week by the Chinese then he’d be looking at a minimum of half that to stay with us.
There’s very few players of that age that I’d want to hand a multi year contract to on those kind of terms, and certainly not one that has been pretty mediocre for most of his career in the PL.
You don’t turn down the opportunity to sign a top player because you’ve got Martial. If we can get Haaland, we should do it.
I remember a lot of fans (Not on here) not wanting to sign Rooney because we’d recently bought Smith. That wouldn’t have turned out too well if they’d had there way would it.
Oa side note, Dembele is not worth £60 fecking million.
Ighalo isn’t worth £20m or whatever the reported figure is I agree and that would be a risk. But he is a known quantity and has done well in his time at the club so less of a risk than Dembele. He’s older but that’s not a bad thing as we don’t have an experienced striker who will do the dirty work of holding up play etc.
He would not be looking at even close to 200k a week everyone including him knows that.
I think more likely we’ll look for someone like Ighalo. A bit more experienced but £20m ish fee max. Or use a loan. It doesn’t have to be Ighalo but £60m on just a good striker doesn’t sit right. Half the fee and I’d be all for it but do you class Dembele as a top player?
Also the Rooney comparison isn’t fair. A really exciting promising young English talent who was proving his worth in the PL against top sides and scoring great goals is nothing like the situation with Dembele who isn’t as young, isn’t as promising, isn’t doing it in PL and isn’t English (I only reference this as it counts towards homegrown and British players tend to stay longer at British clubs that has no bearing on ability)
There's no way we have a spare 60 million left over if we buy Bellingham and Sancho for 150 million. I don't think he's worth the money Lyon want for him.
Odsonne Edouard is a far more realistic target.
I forgot about Bellingham too who is a very big risk but equally is very promising and again I’d prefer those kind of funds be directed towards that kind of potential over a know arguably slightly above average quantity like Dembele.
Edouard for £20m is a decent shout but he’s very similar to Dembele in terms of criticisms I’d have if the fee were much higher.
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