The improvement in our team with even an average top 6 striker would be ridiculous
The centre-forward market...
- Thread starter Rozay
- Start date
Yep. That could be quite a good signing
The improvement in our team with WW over Ronaldo is already ridiculous. His pressing and tackling in advanced areas combined with reasonably good build up play has outweighed the negative of him being probably the worst finisher and slowest player I've ever seen play for the club.
Good lord, I don't understand sometimes how we can watch the same game as fans and.have such differing opinions on a player!
Personally I think he offers sweet FA and playing him up top is a large reason Chelsea score feck all.
Today's game has convinced me to chose Osihmen. He runs non stop too, pressing and always makes runs in behind.
If he was our striker today, no doubt it would have been 6
Yeah, haha, thing is, we score pretty much too with WW on top who also don’t score.
Seriously though, I was mostly joking with Kai Havertz. But the thing is, if you look around Europe for strikers that (a) have some size, (b) have a lot of quality on the ball, is good on the linkup, (c) have the smarts to play in an advanced system and (d) might be available — the list isn’t that long.
Like of course you take Osimehn or Kane or Sesko — and I would actually like Toney — but there are no guarantees.
*Napoli might not sell Osimehn. Napoli might go to the final of the CL and want another shot at it next season, could they tell Osimehn, ‘we will sell you, but only next summer’? I don’t know, but it’s not like I would fall of a chair in surprise if it happened.
*Is Harry Kane available? Maybe. Probably. But again, it’s basically never guaranteed that a top player of a top 5 PL club will be sold. They would never sell him for money reasons, will he force himself out?
*Will Leipzig sell Sesko before he played one game for them? I think it makes sense, and I would pay through the nose to get him. But they aren’t in desperate need for cash either. Leipzig could litterary sell 3 players for well over 300m in Sesko, Gvardiol and Nkunku. They can’t be desperate to cash in all at once.
*Toney? Maybe he won’t be considered due to the betting issues.
There are of course other options.
BUT, I clearly remember a young Robin Van Persie having the exact same rep as Havertz have now (albeit at a bit younger age). RVP just could not score for Arsenal his first two years. Great team. A ton of chances. And 5 goals in 26 games. His second year, 5 goals in 24 games. And then for like 4 season, he didn’t score much, 9-10 goals. RVP didn’t score more than 11 goals in the PL before he was 28, then the year after he had 30 goals, we bought him, and he had 26.
Havertz do remind me a bit of a RVP in his early 20s. Is he a top “x” option, haha, nah, but like let’s say Boehly had to sell players for FFP reasons and we can’t get our top options, I wouldn’t mind buying low, could definitely see him come here and break out.
My preference out of the options we’ve been linked with would be Osimhen, Kane, Ramos in that order.
Chelsea fans would gladly sell him to us, which should tell anyone who doesn't watch him all they need to know.
Yep, it's the single reason I prefer him to Kane. Sure Kane will bully his way to numbers, but Osimhen is a more natural fit for how we look to press and play.
He would be a good signing because he is versatile. Havertz could play as CAM, RW, false 9 and ST. He would rotate with Bruno, Antony and hopefully Osimhen.
If we did sign Osimhen, Havertz could play any of those positions and still not improve us in any!
Yeah that's my order of preference
I'm with you, but we're probably wrong. This makes sense to me as plans A and B in attack:
Plan A:
-----------------Striker---------------
Rashford------------------Antony
------------------Bruno------------------
Plan B:
Rashford----------------------------
---------------Havertz-------Antony
------------------Bruno------------------
so basically what we've seen this year with Havertz as the Weghorst figure faciliating Rashford, but a proper #9 instead of Martial/Ronaldo.
Ideally we could have a Haaland & Alvarez situation with either Kane/Osimhen and a backup capable of still offering threat
Ideally three strikers with the amount of games we are going to play, and the likelihood of subbing on a striker every game, either to replace the striker, or to change formation if we are chasing the game. I've started to cool on both Kane and Osimhen. The "leaks" from Tottenham of £100m valuation are clear signals that they won't sell unless they get a ridiculous offer. Osimhen is brilliant at some things, pressing, heading, speed and strength, but his style is probably not what ETH is trying to implement. I think they will both be stupidly expensive and not worth the risk. Martial will still be here next season as nobody will buy him or agree to pay his current wages, and when fit (say 30% of the time) he is actually a very good striker and is perfect for our set up. Beyond that, Weghorst, while a genuine, good character and top professional, is not good enough. I can see us bringing in a cheap solution like Benzema or Thuram, along with a couple of young players with a lot of potential, maybe Hojlund initially and Ferguson being loaned straight back to Brighton until Martial's contract is up.
Kane Kane and Evan Ferguson.
And since we can't sell him, Martial as a third option behind Rashford/Garnacho and behind Kane/Ferguson.
And since we can't sell him, Martial as a third option behind Rashford/Garnacho and behind Kane/Ferguson.
Why would Evan Ferguson ever come as a back up to Kane? That's one way to ruin a burgeoning career.
Benzema with a talented backup could work but despite having agents Rapha and Casa I still don't think he would come
A highly debatable concern. So let's debate it!
Evan Ferguson will still be 18 (but 19 in October) when the new season starts, not exactly an age when one's career is threated with ruin .
There is no top club* on the planet which would instantly make Ferguson an automatic regular starter. None.
Ferguson might reasonably expect to start o a regular basis for a top club when he's 21, but not as a teenager.
Kane is on the back end of his career now, probably having only 2 stellar seasons left in him.
Kane and ETH, both being aware of the need to manage Kane's minutes, will be delighted to use Ferguson quite often during these transitional years from by to man.
Ferguson would benefit immensely by going to a top club but not having the weight of the world on his shoulders to deliver immediately.
Ferguson will outgrow Brighton quickly.
*By "top club" I mean the following in no particular order:
United
City
Arsenal
Liverpool
Chelsea
Real
Barcelona
Bayern
Dortmund
PSG**
(Brighton is not a "top club"...although I've just checked this week's 538 world ranking of top clubs and Brighton, incredibly, comes in 10th! https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/global-club-rankings/)
**I hate to include PSG as they've won fukkall, but let's include them anyway.
Grew up as a United fan. Bit more palatable if hes coming off the bench for United
Buy both Ferguson and Kane, let Brighton keep Ferguson for 2 seasons. He'll be ready when Kane starts declining.
Evan Ferguson is an interesting, rare talent. He plays in a way naturally and instinctively efficient. At 18, no one knows if he ends up a high-yield goal scorer one day, but his play can already make big impact even without goals. We should go for him.
There are lots of good strikers out there to make us a better team than Kane or Osimhen will but they won’t cause the buzz. It’s getting to a strange level where people accepting price for ability. I believe Kane to be a better striker than Osimhen will ever be but I don’t think he will be a great signing.
We don’t only need a top striker, we need one that will allow us to dominate games and those don’t come with exceptional goal count.
Our scouting department should start doing their job and get the manager what he needs, instead of social of listening to the social media brigade.
We don’t only need a top striker, we need one that will allow us to dominate games and those don’t come with exceptional goal count.
Our scouting department should start doing their job and get the manager what he needs, instead of social of listening to the social media brigade.
We can't get any of them it's a total shambles and shows we haven't much pull
What?
He's literally just established himself as a first team player for Brighton. It would be incredible stupid to come and be a backup/rotation to one of the best strikers in the league.
But he is starting for a very decent club now. It is far better for him to develop his game, playing regularly than given limited game time at us. I say limited game time as well, because if we are purchasing Kane, he should be the first name on the team sheet and should be pretty impossible for a 18/19 to dislodge one of the prem's top goalscorers of all time.
The bolded makes my case for me! Why move then?
I disagree he would benefit immensely by going to a top club, he would benefit immensely from a couple of good seasons at Brighton way more.
I don't disagree he'll outgrow Brighton quickly, but that does not make the decision to go come and be backup to Kane, a good one.
Whoever buys Ferguson should send him straight back to Brighton on loan.
Think there's more chance of Brighton doing what they did with Caicedo and offering him a new more lucrative contract which reflects his progress. They might even add a release clause that is high but not unattainable which would give him some control over his future should he outgrow the club in the medium term.
Luckhurst didn't even know this Danish lad existed two weeks ago. His tweets should be banned from this forum. He is an absolute chancer and hasn't got a clue about anything.
Hiya - just a slight correction. Brighton as a club don’t do release clauses under Tony Bloom’s ownership. Paul Barber has spoken about this in fan forums over the years and made the club policy very clear. Barber has stated that Tony believes having a release clause of any kind - even a very high one - is never beneficial to the club. The thinking is that if a player wants to move, and the fee is right, the club won’t stand in their way in a summer transfer window. So having a release clause is actually a hindrance to negotiating a sale, given all our most valuable players are already signed to long term contracts.
Potter didn’t have a “release clause”, De Zerbi doesn’t have one (despite what Fabrizio Romano claims on Twitter - a guy who is something like 0-6 in Brighton transfer predictions) and none of our players have one. What they have is a very strong negotiating position and some superb businessmen running the club.
For the sake of completeness, there has been one “release clause” activated during Tony Bloom’s 14 years as Chairman. Aaron Mooy was allowed to move to a Chinese Super League team, due to his family situation, which was non-negotiable to allow us to sign him.
Evan Ferguson renewed his contract until June 2026 in October 2022, so while another new contract in the summer is possible, it’s not that likely as the club won’t keep giving new contracts to players with three years already remaining, solely on the basis of half a good season and internet rumours of transfer interest.
I personally think a move for Ferguson is very unlikely yet, but if it should happen this summer the fee would be enormous, as I opined in the other thread about the lad.
Hojlund is the one - I have just decided. Kane too old ; Osimhen too expensive; Ferguson too slow; Vlahovic = average; Sesko too raw; Toney too much of a gamble…; )…Ramos too expensive and looks average;
Hojlund is our next Great Dane.
What?
IF we can't get any of those players mentioned then it's a shambles was my point
No worries, I was just speculating about the transfer release clause but fair enough if they don't do them at Brighton although not quite sure what motivated someone like Caicedo to stay and sign a new contract when he seemed so adamant to leave to Arsenal in the summer (or was it January). Perhaps he just wanted a fair deal.
Hadn't realised Ferguson had his contract renewed. Fbref uses capology for contract data and it still has him on a 3k/w contract until Jun 2023 which is clearly not up to date (I should have put two and two together over that in fairness or else he'd be a freebie for the highest bidder this summer). However, there is a story in the S*n today saying Brighton would be offering him a bumper new deal despite re-signing in October.
Whatever about being ‘too slow’, he certainly isn’t slow.
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I have the same worry that he will eventually be, maybe after a first bad knee injury or something, a big lumbering Irish Lukaku. And not young Lukaku, but the present day version.
And I haven't seen Ramos that much apart from the World Cup and the highlight vids, but I thought he looks like a young version of Aguero and certainly doesn't look average.
That could happen to any player after a knee injury. I don't know where this notion that Ferguson's slow comes from. He's perhaps not rapid from a standing start, but he's got pace.
We should just hire the whole of the Brighton scouting organization. Will probably cost less than signing Ferguson.
Kane... and if we can''t get him... Kane! It's such a no brainer. The guy is close to the City scoring machine as we're likely to find on the entire planet. How many season is it now that he's got well over 20 goals? Plus an extra penalty taker for any shoot outs!! I wonder if we could entice them with DDG going the other way (cue abuse from all corners of the caf)