Striker options?

I don’t think Welbeck would be a terrible idea if also brought in a youngster like Kilicsoy. It’s definitely not ideal but have to compromise somewhere.

We need two centre backs and at least two midfielders so I think zero chance of someone like Toney or Gyokeres being signed. As Sesko and Zirkzee have release clauses they are more realistic and but even they might be too expensive.
 
Big issue at this point is we're on a downward trajectory at this point so why would any of these targets join us ?

Europa league looks dead certain at this point.

have To either overpay like we did for Pogba / others or go for players like holjund who are projects in their own right.
 
Mibabalou said:
Big issue at this point is we're on a downward trajectory at this point so why would any of these targets join us ?

Europa league looks dead certain at this point.

have To either overpay like we did for Pogba / others or go for players like holjund who are projects in their own right.
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I'd argue we're on an upwards trajectory, or at least approaching that. Yes the results are bad, but for the first in a long time, we've finally made a change with INEOS coming in and are signing a director of football, technical director and head of recruitment. We are going to be considerably more attractive for a new prospect now than we were 6-12 months ago.

Players were joining us at our worst, they'll join us now.

It is us who need to be more particular on which of those players we choose to spend money on.
 
Wrecking ralf said:
Sporting consistently have decent players coming through. Same as Benfica. Would be in our interest to have some type of relationship with them where we could loan players to them and have first option on their sales.
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We had a working agreement with Sporting years ago which is how we got Ronaldo and Nani and I’m not sure why that ended, I remember there was a fallout over Miguel Veloso then City struck an agreement with them.

I think Ratcliffe is trying to do something similar with Nice and Lausanne and there’s been rumours of other clubs, I think an agreement with a Spanish and Portuguese team would be a great idea due to them finding the best South American talent as well as their own young talent.
 
I still remember when there was talk about Kane VS Osimhen. And now it's complicated to sign a top striker.
If we sign a forward, it would have to be someone who offers something different from Hojlund, a versatile forward who can play as a right winger would be a good option considering our budget and other positions we need to strengthen.
 
We can't spend ridiculous money on a striker however we can't settle for a striker who struggle to score goals either. A Welbeck in a team that barely creates anything would basically mean forfeiting scoring any goals at all. Imagine if Hojlund pick a long term injury and we end up with injury prone and goal shy Welbeck as our sole option upfront.

There's plenty of forward in our price range that can be considered

a- He's second top scorer in the French league after the pretty obvious. He's got 1 year left in his contract as well
b- Adam Armstrong - 27 years of age and with 1 year left in his contract. He's been scoring bucketloads of goals in the Championship both as a striker and as a right winger.
b- Guirassy - he's been an absolute goal machine this season and he's got a 17m minimum clause fee inserted in his contract
 
Depending on how far we can go with the Nice-co-owner thing, we could try to get Moffi, alongside Thuram and Todibo, for not too expensive.
 
devilish said:
We can't spend ridiculous money on a striker however we can't settle for a striker who struggle to score goals either. A Welbeck in a team that barely creates anything would basically mean forfeiting scoring any goals at all. Imagine if Hojlund pick a long term injury and we end up with injury prone and goal shy Welbeck as our sole option upfront.

There's plenty of forward in our price range that can be considered

a- He's second top scorer in the French league after the pretty obvious. He's got 1 year left in his contract as well
b- Adam Armstrong - 27 years of age and with 1 year left in his contract. He's been scoring bucketloads of goals in the Championship both as a striker and as a right winger.
b- Guirassy - he's been an absolute goal machine this season and he's got a 17m minimum clause fee inserted in his contract
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It’s not quite that easy though. Wout Weghorst scored 20 goals and 9 assists for Wolfsburg the year before he moved to the premier league.
He’s have seemed a great option just looking at that. We need to look at talent and price. A striker who makes us work better tactically could perhaps do more for us than the one who score more goals.

I don’t know about Armstrong but David and Guirassy are definitely good options, as are Zirkzee and Šeško. Whittaker looks an interesting punt aswell.
 
We just need a stop gap squad player, someone happy to be a bench player for Hojlund but with a good attitude and ability to bring others into the game.

We don't have mega bucks this summer, to buy a striker that could wipe out our budget. Maybe a loan signing as much as I hate them.
 
Devil81 said:
We just need a stop gap squad player, someone happy to be a bench player for Hojlund but with a good attitude and ability to bring others into the game.

We don't have mega bucks this summer, to buy a striker that could wipe out our budget. Maybe a loan signing as much as I hate them.
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Agreed. But I would think we could identify a decent backup striker for 15-20M.

Has to be a Fullkrug type late bloomer out there. Sorloth went to Villareal for 10M after a decent season at Sociedad and is doing well there, so that sort of thing would be fine.
 
Watching the PSG game and seeing Ramos come on for 10 minutes and Kolo Muani not even play with Asensio starting up to and Barcola higher in the pecking order, I wonder if they'll try to replace Mbappe with Osimhen or another top #9 and sell or loan one of them.

Worse ideas than paying a big loan fee to get Ramos or Kolo Muani here for a year and putting off the striker position for a year and spending the big summer money at RCB and DM and then adding a left-sided defender and another midfielder on more reasonable fees.
 
Sesko scored again. Looks more gifted than Hojlund tbh. Could be worth a try with his release clause.
 
NoPace said:
Watching the PSG game and seeing Ramos come on for 10 minutes and Kolo Muani not even play with Asensio starting up to and Barcola higher in the pecking order, I wonder if they'll try to replace Mbappe with Osimhen or another top #9 and sell or loan one of them.

Worse ideas than paying a big loan fee to get Ramos or Kolo Muani here for a year and putting off the striker position for a year and spending the big summer money at RCB and DM and then adding a left-sided defender and another midfielder on more reasonable fees.
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Yeah but would PSG be open to that idea
 
NoPace said:
Watching the PSG game and seeing Ramos come on for 10 minutes and Kolo Muani not even play with Asensio starting up to and Barcola higher in the pecking order, I wonder if they'll try to replace Mbappe with Osimhen or another top #9 and sell or loan one of them.

Worse ideas than paying a big loan fee to get Ramos or Kolo Muani here for a year and putting off the striker position for a year and spending the big summer money at RCB and DM and then adding a left-sided defender and another midfielder on more reasonable fees.
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Wouldn't hate loaning in Kolo Muani for a year. Versatile, extremely quick, can play across the front line, and you hope that he rediscovers some of his Frankfurt form. Highly doubt PSG does that though because quite honestly they have no reason to (unless we made it a stipulation in a Rashford sale deal or something)
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Wouldn't hate loaning in Kolo Muani for a year. Versatile, extremely quick, can play across the front line, and you hope that he rediscovers some of his Frankfurt form. Highly doubt PSG does that though because quite honestly they have no reason to (unless we made it a stipulation in a Rashford sale deal or something)
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So wish they would take Rashford off us
 
Ivan Toney would be the perfect addition, great on and off the ball, his hold up play is fantastic and he brings others into play. Doesn’t mind getting stuck in either and would definitely be a great player up top with Hojlund playing off him.
 
croadyman said:
So wish they would take Rashford off us
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Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Wouldn't hate loaning in Kolo Muani for a year. Versatile, extremely quick, can play across the front line, and you hope that he rediscovers some of his Frankfurt form. Highly doubt PSG does that though because quite honestly they have no reason to (unless we made it a stipulation in a Rashford sale deal or something)
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I assume they wouldn't want to keep Ramos over Kolo Muani, but I'd take either as our #2 striker.

I wouldn't risk spending big on Rashford if I was PSG - for the same reasons we should probably bite the bullet and sell - but there are crazier things to predict than this type of summer for PSG in attack:

Mbappe, Ramos out,
Osimhen, Rashford in

for:

Osimhen/KoloMuani as 9s,
Dembele/Barcola/Rashford/Asensio as wingers

and so it's Rashford for Ramos + money, whether Ramos is on loan (lots of money) or permanent (much less to even a small fee).

Ramos I gather has been unimpressive, but Luis Enrique seems to prefer mobility and false 9s or sometimes more defensive/midfield options so Mbappe can not track back, so it's not necessarily the easiest climate.

In general, I think when you look around, there are lots of decent strikers in the 25-28 range who had a bad move or season in their 22-24 range and then did well, so I'd be looking at Kolo Muani or Ramos as pretty logical buys if they're struggling, the same way someone might buy Antony from us for 30M and get good production from him. In our case it would be because a 2nd #9 is just lower expectations, while in Antony's it would probably be a case of a better system/teammates to hide his weaknesses and an easier league.
 
Who would people prefer out of Toney/Solanke?.

Haven't included Watkins as don't see him wanting to leave Villa and price would be huge too.
 
croadyman said:
Who would people prefer out of Toney/Solanke?.

Haven't included Watkins as don't see him wanting to leave Villa and price would be huge too.
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Not sure. Probably most likely only Toney is available. I'll guess that Arsenal spend more and go for Gyokeres, so Toney might be gettable at a decent price.

Solanke re-signed until 2027 so I would think Bournemouth will keep him until at least the summer of 2025, make sure they stay up and not anger Iraola (who I think they might lose at some point, looks a solid Pochettino at Southampton style prospect in that he's been effective in La Liga and now the Prem both in terms of results and playing a decent style (it's not beautiful but it's up-tempo and he hasn't exactly had magicians out there on the pitch) and getting the best out of a squad, after a strong career as a defender). I assume getting Unal on a loan with an option is a tentative step towards getting a replacement if it works out, if they don't keep him maybe they buy someone in the 22-24 range with an eye to them being a backup for a year or two before replacing Solanke. So I think it would take a huge offer to get Solanke this summer.
 
Would take any of

Toney
Sesko
Ferguson

Like the above poster says Solanke probably won't move this summer,as I said earlier we will definitely be priced out for Watkins too.
 
croadyman said:
Would take any of

Toney
Sesko
Ferguson

Like the above poster says Solanke probably won't move this summer,as I said earlier we will definitely be priced out for Watkins too.
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Paper talk but I’m sure I read they want somewhere around 100 mil for Toney and he also would like 250-300k a week. If either of those things are true then Toney can do one.
 
Sesko has looked like he has a lot of potential the few times I've seen him. Has that strength you'd like in a lone striker.

Could be a tad awkward to have 2 young strikers who want to be first choice, but on the other hand, we're set to play 50 games this year and they can each start 25 games and get 25 games of say 20-30 minutes off the bench which is about what Mainoo and Casemiro will get to this year and basically the same as what Sesko will get to this year if he starts 3 or 4 of the last 5 games of the season, so not a step down for him in that regard. Maybe 4-500 minutes less for Hojlund. But also in real life there will be injuries.

For 42M, if the wages are reasonable, seems like a reasonable deal considering we don't know for sure Hojlund is going to be first choice here (and it wouldn't be an outright disaster if either guy is a solid 2nd choice striker for 5 years here and moves on at age 25 for most of what we paid, which is the advantage of signing 20 year olds who are at least good bench players, as long as we don't let them run out their contracts and they don't turn into pumpkins like Martial).

I think Solanke would cost at least as much and Toney is 28, so it's probably a 3-4 year solution at best with little resale value (though Prem proven and striker inflation means he can probably be sold at age 31-32 like Chris Wood was for a little over half of what Newcastle paid for him, and Toney is better so if he costs 40M, you'd still bet on getting 25M for him in 3 years from some desperate Prem side).
 
What about Abraham, seems like he has fallen behind lukaku and with the manager that brought him to roma now gone maybe he could be brought for a modest price
 
Lee565 said:
What about Abraham, seems like he has fallen behind lukaku and with the manager that brought him to roma now gone maybe he could be brought for a modest price
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He's just coming back from an ACL.
 
I watched the Roma-Bologna game earlier and it’s my first watch of Zirkzee.

He scored, but he seems like a bit of a lump and not that mobile.
 
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