Fun fact.
Dan Ashworth sold Gyokeres to Coventry for just £1 million.
Dan Ashworth sold Gyokeres to Coventry for just £1 million.
Victor Gyökeres
- Thread starter Berbaclass
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) review both the Everton and Bodø/Glimt victories at Old Trafford. Listen to the guys discuss 2 wins and 7 goals in the last week, analyse of the Amorim formation, focus on Amad and how he is playing, and also take a look at Hojlund, Rashford & Zirkzee – who starts v Arsenal?
I remember the Arturo Vidal megathread from 2014. He'd just turned 27 during the summer we were after him, and the early naysayers would round that up to 28. Further naysayers who arrived later to the thread would see the references to 28 and ask if we should be signing a player who's nearly 30.
Yeesss the legendary Vidal thread. No more muppetry these days 
Thiago and Vidal were peak caf. With Olly posting gifs.
I think there is no way Amorim leaves a perfect situation in Lisbon to come and be consigned to bargain basement dealings. We will have another £200m window, I also suspect that some of our saleable players will find out they are not in the coach's plans going forward and move on.
It's also incumbent on Amorim to work on some players and make them useful for roles in his system, for a couple of years at least, so that he limits the number of positions he needs to strengthen thereby increasing the budget for the forward positions. I'd suggest trying out Antony for LWB role, Amad for one the AM roles, Amass also for LWB, Shaw for LCB etc.
If we go into the summer needing like three players we can get top quality players, it now depends on our scouting because we have, on more than one occasion, wasted huge fees on flops. But you could get an £80m striker, £50m CM and a £70m CB for £200m. Obviously sales will drive down the net spend but that's what we should be looking at doing.
Agree on the rest but its clear we need a more senior and established number 9 and even Ten Hag said so, the numbers don't lie and our goal scoring has been anemic or a few years now, including Oles finals season
No Rashford takes a lot of the blame on himself, but there have been times where he plays a run of games at a very high level - it’s up to a good coach to get those levels from him more consistently and we haven’t had that coach in a long time.
Acting as if he’s a busted flush that has never been capable of scoring or creating goals isn’t right either. Nor is dismissing the likes of Hojlund, Zirkzee, Garnacho and Amad as hopeless.
How many experienced stopgap no9s have we brought in over the past decade and what has it done for us in the long run? Did Falcao, Cavani, Lukaku, Weghorst, Ibrahimovic or Ronaldo leave us in a better place than they found us?
We’ll have 6 months to see what he can do with the options we have. If in the summer we are clearly creating a platform from which to launch attacks, but either the wide and supporting attackers still cant create chances, or the chances are being created but the centre forwards can’t finish, then we can look to bring in better options then.
He might be. Not even Daniel James and Antony were this underwhelming
I don't know Amorim enough to counter that and TBF I am surprised of how cocky managers tend to become once they come to United. Moyes spent his entire career managing the likes of Freddie Flintstone in midfield. Once he came to United he aimed for prime Bale, prime Fabregas and he thought it was a good idea spending silly money to bring Freddie Flintstone at United. Same can be said about the likes of ETH who thought that the only way to success was to splash ridiculous money on an Eredivisie side. I have no idea what ETH was smoking when he gave the thumbs up for Antony on 80m (or Ole's Maguire deal) but I'd love to try that one day.
However outside the United bubble, things work very differently. Take Simone Inzaghi as an example. Inter had a very modest 21-22 transfer window with Vanheusden being the highest transfer signing (16m euros) followed by Dumfries (14m). The season after they spent 65m euros, the season after that 73m euros and this season 76m euros. Throughout that time they broke the 30m barrier twice with Frattesi (this season) and Pavard (last season). Bayern is considered relatively high spenders but in the past 3 years they never went beyond the 200m euros barrier in terms of transfers . We did it 3 times in 3 years (243m which included the fenomeno Antony, 202m which included Mr consistent Mason Mount and this season with 214m). That's more to even Real Madrid who spent 140m the season before this and 80m in 22/23. These are clubs who constantly make in to the CL and do well in it.
This club is losing money. There's also a stadium and a squad that needs to be built and very little appetite in looking ridiculous as we've been doing by spending 80m on Antony and another 80m on Maguire. INEOS had also invested heavily on the a top top CEO, the best Sporting director in the country and a manager whose renowned in building a squad around youths. I don't think that they'll be plenty of appetite for INEOS to go on and spend 200m again.
I hear you and there is nothing I want more than for United to rely more on scouting and youth than paying huge fees. Huge fees take a long time to recover from if a player flops and it's not helped by how the spotlight is always on the club and goings on with it.
However, if you look at your examples none of those teams is in the PL. In this league you can't afford to wait around and find out because there are about four teams ready to take your place. Even this great Liverpool side, which has been admirably assembled, has failed to play CL football on one or two occasions. The league is just too competitive to ignore first team needs.
That's why I am saying we are going to need another big window to bring in a top striker, a top CB and possibly a top midfielder. We have physical limitations in defense where our quickest CB is 18, we could amble along with De Ligt and Martinez as his partners but I think we need a more physically imposing CB who is quick and technical. The striker is non negotiable for me, we can't wait to find out how Hoijlund will fare. In midfield we can penny pinch given that we have Casemiro who is quietly having a good season, Ugarte who is settling in and Mainoo who is our great midfield hope.
If Amorim is going to thrive here he is going to have to be pragmatic with his demands and appreciate that we can't buy six players in one go. He will need to find uses for other players who are struggling and for youth yearning for opportunities because if he is not smart he will go the way of others - always moaning that I didn't get the DM or striker that I wanted having spent half a billion on dross.
As good as he might be for SCP, he just shouldn't be a priority for us imo. Our lack of goals are do to with not having control in the build up play in deeper areas of the pitch and then that's compounded further by not having the pace and power in deeper areas (rest defense) to then control/contain opposition transitions when the spaces open up in a higher defensive line. And the biggest weakness in that regard is the midfield right now where we clearly lack players who are comfortable playing in confined spaces with the ability to vertically progress the ball along with the added pace and athleticism to thwart opposition counter attacks out of possession. And if we can create a team with the above qualities, I think we'll see the intensity levels going up and that will result in us pinning the opponent in their own half with the high press more effective and thus enabling us to sustain attacks. If you as a team can't sustain attacks against the competition in the league then it will affect your goal scoring as a team.
Bruno, Rashford, Garnacho and even Hojlund will score goals. All of these players carry a goal threat and with Hojlund I believe there's much more to come and by getting him into positions where he can have more attempts on goal will only further aid his development and thus boost his confidence. So if we can add the qualities mentioned above, it will improve our goal scoring as a team and not just individually because when you can dominate the ball as a team where you're then camped in the opponent's half, you then have the foundation to overwhelm the opposition with wave after wave of attacks.
Personally, if it was up to me, i'd add 3 first team players to the team which would have a potentially galvanising effect on the team dynamic imo and add the missing components which I've outlined above.
I'd go for Angelo Stiller (Stuttgart), Carlos Baleba (Brighton) and Ousmane Diomande (SCP). The trio would add the pace and power into the team without compromising on vertically progressing the ball and imo it would have a positive impact on the team collectively as a whole.
Bruno, Rashford, Garnacho and even Hojlund will score goals. All of these players carry a goal threat and with Hojlund I believe there's much more to come and by getting him into positions where he can have more attempts on goal will only further aid his development and thus boost his confidence. So if we can add the qualities mentioned above, it will improve our goal scoring as a team and not just individually because when you can dominate the ball as a team where you're then camped in the opponent's half, you then have the foundation to overwhelm the opposition with wave after wave of attacks.
Personally, if it was up to me, i'd add 3 first team players to the team which would have a potentially galvanising effect on the team dynamic imo and add the missing components which I've outlined above.
I'd go for Angelo Stiller (Stuttgart), Carlos Baleba (Brighton) and Ousmane Diomande (SCP). The trio would add the pace and power into the team without compromising on vertically progressing the ball and imo it would have a positive impact on the team collectively as a whole.
Hes never been a consistent performer in his career at any point, if he puts in some good performances between now and the end of the season, he should be immediately sold to the highest bidder.
Also I did not dismiss the rest of the players read my post.
I never mentioned anything about a stop gap number 9 either read my post
As a club it should be quite obvious that we lack senior players in their prime in attack. Amad, Garnacho and Hojlund are good talents, the senior attackers which is really only Rashford now since we already moved on Sancho are not good enough and should be replaced, and we should also add a senior number 9 (no not a stop gap)
Last edited:
You replied to my post bud. Those were the points I was making and you jumped in to challenge. I didn't seek you out to start a row so you can relax a small bit.
You explicitly said we need a more established, more senior striker which is exactly what we said when recruiting all the names I mentioned above. None of those signings did us any good.
I believe that with better attacking systems and coaching, we'll see far better output from the attackers we already have. You disagree and that's absolutely fine - we can revisit in May and see who was right.
As I was driving home from a business trip i just heard on radio about 40 mins ago that the reason Gyokeres doesn’t want to leave in January is that he has some kind of agreement with Amorim for next season. Comes from a former Portuguese ref Pedro Henriques turned pundit. I don’t really know how reliable he is.
Liverpool (42m, 172m, 143m), Arsenal (109m, 235m, 186m) and City (25m, 260m, 155m) beg to differ. These are clubs who tend to make it in the CL on a regular basis and they sell far better then we do.
United has to buy multiple players. First of all because we lack the players with the intensity Amorim needs. Secondly because the new system is unsuited for our team and thirdly because there are players who are with 1 year left on their contract. To give a better picture of things
WB - We have no LBs and Garnacho/Rashford are too lazy for the role
CB- Maguire, Lindelof and Evans are set to leave. We would need at least 1 CB to replace them, possibly two.
DM - We're probably need a cover for Ugarte
MC- Casemiro/Mainoo might do the trick but I'd rather see us bring someone young now (Nypan?)
No 10: Bruno is fine but can we count on Mount to remain fit?
No 10/winger: Is Garnacho/Rashford intense enough for the role?
Now as said before certain bargains can be stuck. I am sure that United will be scouting the likes of Tah, Alfonso Davies, Alvaro Fernandes, Nypan and possibly considering the return of Angel Gomes. However as SJR said we simply have to start finding the next Mbappe. That's why we spent big to get the likes of Berrada, Ashworth and Amorim.
I am not excluding the signing of Gyokeres. However a well run club would be asking questions such as....if we're spending 80m-100m on Gyokeres while concurrently revamping the creative spark in the team (which I think is the real issue here) then a responsible club would be asking why the feck we're still keeping the likes of Rashford, Hojlund and/or Zirkzee? I can't see us going for such an expensive deal without 2/3 out of Zirkzee, Antony, Hojlund, Mount and Rashford leaving for decent money.
Liverpool and Arsenal are pretty settled but look at the money they are spending even then. I wouldn't trust figures coming out City btw. But all of them are circa £400m - £500m in three seasons, we were starting from a much lower base and doing it with an incompetent executive team. All those points mean that going forward we have to spend to catch up or we risk falling further behind.
Like I said previously, if Amorim thinks he is going to get solutions to 5 or 6 positions in the market then he is in for a whole lot of trouble as it is not just feasible. He is going to have to compromise, be creative and develop players for other positions. If he doesn't do that then he is going to be in a perpetual rebuild but if he can get two or three current players to fill roles in his system he can then use the availed budget more pointedly towards high impact players.
First summer he's got to bring in a striker and a quicker CB to play the CCB role. A midfielder will be handy too. This means that he's got to find solutions within the squad and the academy for the LWB role, the second 10 and CM.
In his second summer he can then go for that LWB, RWB and 2nd 10/winger if none of the current players step up. Buying players at 20m a pop and spreading the budget can also mean compromising on quality. So he has to do a phased build while leaning on the academy for solutions to fill out the squad in the meantime.
The team has struggled for goals for years, and some of you don't want to sign a guy that is banging in goals for fun and wants the team to instead rely on Rashford, Hojlund and Zirkzee for goals instead. Laughable really.
I'm pretty sure every Utd fan would be really happy if we sign him and he scores 25 goals a season for us for 5 years.
No one is really saying otherwise, just some people being a bit cautious about the quality of league. Then being shouted down by a lot of the same people who wouldn't shut up about Hojlund's goals per minute record in Serie A and his international record in the Euro qualifiers.
This was off the back of a series of disappointing loans though. At that point in his career he didn't look particularly special.
It would corroborate what Amorim himself has said about not taking any Sporting players in the winter window, but then after that "we'll see". It seems they may have some sort of tacit gentlemen's agreement about a transfer next summer.
And we’ve done this deal in Hojlund who’s 21 years old and scored 16 goals in all competitions last year including 2 goals against Bayern Munich.
But fans have given up on him after 10 games this season.
Agreed.
I'd be happy if we signed him but his signing shouldn't come at the expense of other more important signings which I believe are required for the development of the team to reach a higher level collectively. And without reaching a collectively high level as a team we won't be able to play a high level game to compete against the best teams domestically and in Europe.
And if one takes a closer look at the SCP team, then it's clear to see that they're among the very best or among the best teams in their league when it comes to progressing the ball from the backline/deeper midfield. And when you have such a variety of ball players at the back and in midfield which is backed up by their ability to defend transitions in larger spaces, it creates the platform for the forwards to thrive. And that is exactly what we lack and have lacked for many years hence we don't create a high volume of chances consistently. So instead of misdiagnosing the problem it would be beneficial for us to raise the collective level of the team where we're able to consistently dominate games, pin the opponent and create a high volume of chances which will then result in a higher number of goals. Otherwise we will be papering over the cracks and the solution isn't to stick another player upfront in the hope our weaknesses in deeper midfield dissappear.
All we'd end up doing is allowing the opponent to have a more effective high press against us with a more potent counter attack due to our inability to circumnavigate both the small spaces against a coordinated press along with the inability to control the counter in larger spaces. The midfield should be the priority imo.
Hahaha no way! Typical untied carry on if so. But jokes aside. I saw a video on 442 and they said sporting created really good chances for him through carries into the box and cutbacks to the penalty spot or just outside the first box. Rasmus if he was getting that kind of service into this areas could knock in 20 goals and have a platform to build on. The thing is Rashford seems to have lost a yard and the belief to take his man on. I do think someone consistently going on the overlap on the outside of him will help him but he’s also just a shooter these days. Garnacho is a bit more physical and certainly works harder off the ball but he’s shooting too. Bruno wants to play the Hollywood pass or get a shot off but he also finds himself badly out of position due to frustration and trying to cover for other players not getting back
All in all our attack is disjointed. Any striker in the world would struggle to score goals the way we’ve been set up. I think Rasmus once he develops will be the better player of the two. Gyokeres is in his absolute prime in a slick hardworking team greater than the sum of its parts. I think if you put him into this forward line he would cut a lonely and frustrated figure trying to play on the shoulder
C.L is one thing - internationally, the majority of his goals have been against awful opposition. 10 out of 15 goals have been against Estonia and Azerbaijan - but of course those are great numbers against most teams.....
Done a quick bit of basic analysis Gyokeres' goals and the Portuguese league...
Portuguese League Goals
Below are the goals Gyokeres has scored in the Portuguese league. It shows the number of times Gyokeres has faced them, the number of goals he has scored, and the total market value of that team.
- We can see from the Data that 27 of Gyokeres' goals have come vs 7 teams.
- Porto are the obvious standout, in terms of squad market value, remove them and he's scored 23 goals against six teams with a total market value of 117,000,000 EUR
- There are only two other teams in the Portuguese league (minus Sporting) with a squad market value of over 100,000,000 EUR, Benfica and Braga. Gyokeres has 2 goals in 5 appearances vs these teams.
Comparison Data for Squad Market Value
Below is some Data for squad market values for teams around Europe that I just picked completely off the top of my head at random for comparison purposes.
- You can see from this comparison that the Portuguese league is weak, if we use 'squad market value' as an indicator of squad strength (not perfect I know, but an inidication).
- We see that a fair Premier League opponent like Bournemouth are on par with the best opponent he'll have faced in Portugal
- We see that the 6 clubs he has scored 23 goals against have a lower combined market value than Union Berlin
- We see that 3 clubs (accounting for 8 of his goals) have a lower market value than Wrexham and Stockport County, League One teams who were in the Conference two seasons ago.
- Mid-table teams in 'farmers leagues' like Ligue Un and the Bundesliga have values that would put them 2nd only to Porto (and Sporting) in Portugal
- Troyes, in the French 2nd Division, outrank 8 Portuguese teams
Now, take from this what you will....but my point is...this lad has scored a hatful of goals and looks useful....but let's be realistic about his age, his market value...and who he has scored those goals against...BEFORE we decide he's the answer to all our woes
Be in no doubt, the Portuguese league is very, very weak...much weaker than Ligue Una and the Bundesliga and arguably much weaker than the Championship, on balance.
Portuguese League Goals
Below are the goals Gyokeres has scored in the Portuguese league. It shows the number of times Gyokeres has faced them, the number of goals he has scored, and the total market value of that team.
| Club | Matches | Goals | Squad Value |
| SC Farense | 3 | 6 | 18,980,000 € |
| CF Estrela Amadora | 3 | 4 | 16,000,000 € |
| FC Porto | 3 | 4 | 351,750,000 € |
| FC Vizela | 2 | 4 | 10,730,000 € |
| Casa Pia AC | 3 | 3 | 20,230,000 € |
| FC Arouca | 3 | 3 | 35,400,000 € |
| Boavista FC | 2 | 3 | 15,600,000 € |
| Portimonense SC | 2 | 2 | 11,100,000 € |
| GD Chaves | 2 | 2 | 7,650,000 € |
| Rio Ave FC | 2 | 2 | 31,700,000 € |
| Gil Vicente FC | 2 | 2 | 23,230,000 € |
| Vitória Guimarães SC | 2 | 2 | 47,430,000 € |
| Avs Futebol | 1 | 2 | 18,400,000 € |
| CD Nacional | 1 | 2 | 15,680,000 € |
| SC Braga | 3 | 1 | 127,450,000 € |
| FC Famalicão | 3 | 1 | 50,400,000 € |
| Moreirense FC | 2 | 1 | 25,950,000 € |
| SL Benfica | 2 | 1 | 335,500,000 € |
| Estoril Praia | 3 | 0 | 23,050,000 € |
- We can see from the Data that 27 of Gyokeres' goals have come vs 7 teams.
- Porto are the obvious standout, in terms of squad market value, remove them and he's scored 23 goals against six teams with a total market value of 117,000,000 EUR
- There are only two other teams in the Portuguese league (minus Sporting) with a squad market value of over 100,000,000 EUR, Benfica and Braga. Gyokeres has 2 goals in 5 appearances vs these teams.
Comparison Data for Squad Market Value
Below is some Data for squad market values for teams around Europe that I just picked completely off the top of my head at random for comparison purposes.
| Club | Squad Value | League |
| Aston Villa | 615,450,000 € | Premier League |
| Bournemouth | 354,850,000 € | Premier League |
| Marseille | 305,300,000 € | Ligue 1 |
| Bologna | 276,800,000 € | Serie A |
| Lille LOSC | 263,700,000 € | Ligue 1 |
| Rennes | 203,250,000 € | Ligue 1 |
| Ipswich Town | 195,400,000 € | Premiership |
| Burnley | 187,500,000 € | Championship |
| Leeds | 173,580,000 € | Championship |
| Torino | 172,020,000 € | Serie A |
| Freiburg | 169,050,000 € | Bundesliga |
| Union Berlin | 122,180,000 € | Bundesliga |
| Mainz | 93,450,000 € | Bundesliga |
| AC Monza | 92,680,000 € | Serie A |
| Hull City | 76,333,000 € | Championship |
| Birmingham City | 41,600,000 € | League One |
| Troyes | 19,050,000 € | Ligue 2 |
| Stockport County | 11,380,000 € | League One |
| Wrexham | 11,230,000 € | League One |
- You can see from this comparison that the Portuguese league is weak, if we use 'squad market value' as an indicator of squad strength (not perfect I know, but an inidication).
- We see that a fair Premier League opponent like Bournemouth are on par with the best opponent he'll have faced in Portugal
- We see that the 6 clubs he has scored 23 goals against have a lower combined market value than Union Berlin
- We see that 3 clubs (accounting for 8 of his goals) have a lower market value than Wrexham and Stockport County, League One teams who were in the Conference two seasons ago.
- Mid-table teams in 'farmers leagues' like Ligue Un and the Bundesliga have values that would put them 2nd only to Porto (and Sporting) in Portugal
- Troyes, in the French 2nd Division, outrank 8 Portuguese teams
Now, take from this what you will....but my point is...this lad has scored a hatful of goals and looks useful....but let's be realistic about his age, his market value...and who he has scored those goals against...BEFORE we decide he's the answer to all our woes
Be in no doubt, the Portuguese league is very, very weak...much weaker than Ligue Una and the Bundesliga and arguably much weaker than the Championship, on balance.
We've been outspending almost everyone since SAF's retired.
The 2-3 signings per year make sense in a settled side. In such circumstances you'll be replacing a player or two who got injured/old/who wants out. But it doesn't really make sense in a squad who is the middle of a rebuild. SAF for example brought 6 signings in 1988 and another 6 in 1989. We're talking of a time when the squad was pretty much made up of 15-20 players. Pep signed 10 players in 2016. Sure half of them were youth/nobodies but others were the likes of Bravo, Gundogan, Sane, Stones and Nolito. He signed 7 the year later with most being important signings (Jesus, Silva, Ederson, Walker, Luiz, Danilo and Mendy). Signing a good number of players allow the manager to set the squad in track but also to keep the player he's already got on their toes. If someone slips then he can be replaced.
The issue lie in fees and we need to be smart about it. For example Pep's City had only bought two players who were more expensive then Harry Maguire and Antony ie Gvardiol and Grealish. They are also very good in selling their youths.
International football is what it is. As a comparison, Lewandowski has 11 goals in his last 25 internationals. That spans over 3 years. Two of those goals came against France. One against Belgium. The other eight were against pretty poor sides.
We've got a 64-71m rated striker, we just added a 36m rated striker, we spent big (relatively speaking) to get one of the hottest young strikers in England from Arsenal + we've got a 300k a week forward. In my opinion there's no way we're going to bring Gyokeres while still retaining all those players. I believe that for Gyokeres to sign then Rashford and Zirkzee might have to leave UNLESS Rashford is able to do well as WB or no 10
A problem with your analysis is that you're trying to use market value as a stick to beat Gyokeres with but then the same website has Gyokeres as the 42nd highest player in the world in terms of market value. So if you're using market value as a way to analyse players in a squad then in terms of individual players, Gyokeres is the 42nd best player in the world.
Another reason market value can be bollocks - Lewandowski due to his age is 15m yet he's still a top 5 in the world striker.
Last edited:
Is there a source for this? Because he was the technical director at Brighton.
Edit: all those new fangled job titles confuse me. Bring back jumpers for goalposts.
Last edited:
Shit happens. The Don Corleone of United's academy once told a kid that he has no future in football. He ended up England's captain with great spells in Italy ie a league that at the time made the likes of Ian Rush look silly (David Platt)
Arsenal forum: buy buy buy
Chelsea forum: buy buy buy
Newcastle forum: buy if we sell Isak
Liverpool forum: Top man
Redcafe: He is 27 and only scored over 60 goals in 50 games. Purple patch over 2 seasons.
Chelsea forum: buy buy buy
Newcastle forum: buy if we sell Isak
Liverpool forum: Top man
Redcafe: He is 27 and only scored over 60 goals in 50 games. Purple patch over 2 seasons.
Like I said take all City numbers with a pinch of salt because they could be understating their buys and overstating their sales. Also remember that City were spending on a title winning side so they could take chances and therefore their transition has been seamless.
It's very easy to bring in Bernado Silva for £40m odd when you still have David Silva or to take a chance on Gundogun when you have the likes of Fernandinho. If they don't work you still have the spine of your title winning side intact and if they do you look like a genius. Very different when you need a top striker and the one you have can barely manage 10 in the league, we did something similar with Zirkzee and we look like we will get burned again. We can't compromise on the striker and CB, we just can't.
If you were to summarize the Redcafe view into a single one, it would be "buy buy buy".
In the past 5 years Arsenal made 1 signing which was 80m+, same as Liverpool. They also spent less then we do. We also top the list in terms of negative net spend
Quite frankly I don't understand record signings for United. Since SAF retired we rarely got those right (Maguire, Di Maria, Pogba,Antony). Irrespective of that big fee signings are rare and are hated for good reason. It had crippled every manager's career since SAF's retired (fellaini for moyes, ADM for lvg, Pogba for Mou, Maguire for Ole and Antony for ETH). If I was Amorim I'd avoid them as the plague
Exactly, going by market value United should be a great team and playing great, not really the case so far.
Either United get him or someone else will, it's a gamble but you either right and dodge a bullet or be fuming you missed on a great striker.
No risk, no reward.
Generally speaking it's much better to err on the side of missing out on a great player than signing a mediocre player for great-player money. Because in the former case you still have that money to spend on an alternative who might also be excellent. Whereas in the latter case you get have neither a great player nor the resources for the alternative.
Not every signing have to be amazing, but we've got to start avoiding the big expensive misses.
But then it all depends on just how much Gyokeres would go for. There's certainly a price point where the risk is worth it.
Thing is though, even if Gyokeres was mediocre I still think he'd get 15-20 goals a season for us minimum.
Put it this way: Viktor for 65 is far more attractive than Nunez at 70m was a couple of years ago
£49-58 Million is a good price for me.
In terms of the player you're buying, probably.
But Nunez will be 26 years old if Liverpool look to sell him next summer, whereas if Gyokeres flopped in the same way he'd be 30 at the equivalent point. The implications that has on resale value is one of the reasons younger players like Nunez cost more in the first place.
Yeah think people are underestimating how expensive strikers really are in todays market. Solanke had one solid year and went for 60 and he’s not that special.