Leon best [signs on a half-year loan]

[Blue Valkyrie]

I wouldn't rule out that we are bringing in 2 strikers this window, and that Best maybe just 1 of them.

 

[Icy Gull]

I'm not summing anything up but I can't deny I'm totally confused. I've watched COG all season and he has looked useful ... strong, got good control and can pick out his man ... not a bad shot either. But he got no chance under Hypia, eratic game time and often played out wide. But he's given a bit of a chance this past 4 games and he's shown that he has got something.

Speculation is he wants away (my thinking is why not when he's not being given a chance) but I haven't seen anything saying he's put in a request

Now it seems like we are dumping him for a like for like player who has had opportunities but from what I can see has done pretty well nothing since his days at Coventry

Just bloody confusing, no more than that

You are missing something very dear to the club...we will be getting a transfer fee for COG whilst taking Best on loan. All good business.

 

[Gritt23]

We should be aggressively pursuing Chris Wood. 5th choice striker at Leicester, previously did fairly well with us, fit the exact mould of the striker we need, young and still improving.

Agree with this.

£4-5m being quoted, but that seems high. If they get that, then ok, we are out of the running, but I do hope we have lodged an offer with them of circa £3m, and told them it's there if they want it.

We spent a couple of million on Ulloa, and made good money selling him off. From a "business" perspective, I think that is what we need to do. IMHO Chris Wood IS the sort of player that could turn that sort of profit again. If he has a 20 goal season in The Championship (and he's looked capable of that) then with age on his side, he could be the next £8m sale. In the meantime, we'd have a very good striker who is proven at this level.

 

[northernseagull]

You are missing something very dear to the club...we will be getting a transfer fee for COG whilst taking Best on loan. All good business.

How on earth is selling a striker who is better than Best for a transfer fee of help to the club right now? We're still in a dog fight to stay in the league and downgrading the strike force even further is hardly wise! I could end up eating my words and gladly so if he's a hit BUT on recent performances and seasons Best is absolute crap. Blackburn fans mock him.

Right now the most important thing is to consolidate our position in the league and spend as little as possible in doing so - followed by the re building process in summer. But selling Ogrady is short sighted, sure the guy has hardly set the Amex alight but like Hughton said earlier we need a player of his ilk and qualities. Genuinely fear for our position in the championship if Best is the 'best' we can do in the Jan transfer market.

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

How on earth is selling a striker who is better than Best for a transfer fee of help to the club right now? We're still in a dog fight to stay in the league and downgrading the strike force even further is hardly wise! I could end up eating my words and gladly so if he's a hit BUT on recent performances and seasons Best is absolute crap. Blackburn fans mock him.

Right now the most important thing is to consolidate our position in the league and spend as little as possible in doing so - followed by the re building process in summer. But selling Ogrady is short sighted, sure the guy has hardly set the Amex alight but like Hughton said earlier we need a player of his ilk and qualities. Genuinely fear for our position in the championship if Best is the 'best' we can do in the Jan transfer market.

Quite agree

 

[JBizzle]

How on earth is selling a striker who is better than Best for a transfer fee of help to the club right now? We're still in a dog fight to stay in the league and downgrading the strike force even further is hardly wise! I could end up eating my words and gladly so if he's a hit BUT on recent performances and seasons Best is absolute crap. Blackburn fans mock him.

Right now the most important thing is to consolidate our position in the league and spend as little as possible in doing so - followed by the re building process in summer. But selling Ogrady is short sighted, sure the guy has hardly set the Amex alight but like Hughton said earlier we need a player of his ilk and qualities. Genuinely fear for our position in the championship if Best is the 'best' we can do in the Jan transfer market.

These are the 2 key things in this:

1. O'Grady was a laughing stock here for the majority of this season and his upturn in form is still not exactly world-beating. His also benefits in comparisino to our other "strikers"
2. So Hughton has said we need a striker of his ilk, he knows Best and knows he's exactly that. Where's the problem? I fail to see the benefit of writing Best off until at least 10 minutes into his debut. If he hasn't scored 3 by then, bin him off...

 

[Stato]

To be fair to him, Blackburn are offloading because they cannot afford to pay him, just like Bolton did with Andrews last year. Derby have not started him in any league game this season. His goal return doesn't look as bad if you know that he generally plays 15 minutes at the end.

When he started regularly for Wednesday last year, he scored 5 in 16. http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=38733&season_id=143 A goal every three games is considerably better than any of our current strikers and not far off what Bent managed when with us.

 

[Monsieur Le Plonk]

Looking at the dates it seems that Houghton managed Best at Newcastle. Think we have to have a little bit of faith in what is most likely a direct recommendation from our new manager. No?

 

[Grombleton]

How on earth is selling a striker who is better than Best for a transfer fee of help to the club right now? We're still in a dog fight to stay in the league and downgrading the strike force even further is hardly wise! I could end up eating my words and gladly so if he's a hit BUT on recent performances and seasons Best is absolute crap. Blackburn fans mock him.

Right now the most important thing is to consolidate our position in the league and spend as little as possible in doing so - followed by the re building process in summer. But selling Ogrady is short sighted, sure the guy has hardly set the Amex alight but like Hughton said earlier we need a player of his ilk and qualities. Genuinely fear for our position in the championship if Best is the 'best' we can do in the Jan transfer market.

What you're forgetting is that we might not want to sell him for footballing reasons, but it's been widely mentioned that his family have struggled to settle in the south so he may want to go to be back up north.

It's not always about whether they're good enough or not.

 

[perseus]

Look at the first Newcastle game on video for how to miss good chances.

 

[northernseagull]

Looking at the dates it seems that Houghton managed Best at Newcastle. Think we have to have a little bit of faith in what is most likely a direct recommendation from our new manager. No?

Just because Hughton is the manager doesn't mean I'll agree with every transfer that comes in to the club. The stats clearly illustrate a significantly poor ratio of goals to games. We need a finisher. If I had a choice, I would spend on getting Bennett back to the Albion, and put Baldock up front alongside CMS or Ogrady. And possibly look at a loan signing for attacking central midfield (not that any names come to mind!) I think we've got 3 decent strikers, but they are low on confidence after a miserable start to the season. New manager brings a new perspective. Signing a crap striker sends all the wrong signals to a strike force that is already depleted of confidence when playing at the Amex.

 

[BLOCK F]

I really get the impression that we will not see any "big" signing for the forseeable future, the club is putting all its eggs in the youth development side for the future, any permanent signings will be either bargain basements or ones for the future. Other than that I think we will be using the loan system to the full - and I hate loans!

And as for Leon Best totally uninspirational this is a player that cannot get in the Blackburn team when they might offload Gestede and was sent home from Derby for being crap.

I hate loans too; well,I will qualify that slightly. I hate loans on the scale that they happen these days,it makes the ethos of supporting a club and building up a collective spirit amongst the players a bit of a farce.
Call me old fashioned but I would rather we had loanees as rarities,like they used to be years ago.

 

[Icy Gull]

How on earth is selling a striker who is better than Best for a transfer fee of help to the club right now? We're still in a dog fight to stay in the league and downgrading the strike force even further is hardly wise! I could end up eating my words and gladly so if he's a hit BUT on recent performances and seasons Best is absolute crap. Blackburn fans mock him.

Right now the most important thing is to consolidate our position in the league and spend as little as possible in doing so - followed by the re building process in summer. But selling Ogrady is short sighted, sure the guy has hardly set the Amex alight but like Hughton said earlier we need a player of his ilk and qualities. Genuinely fear for our position in the championship if Best is the 'best' we can do in the Jan transfer market.

I was being sarcastic

 

[brighton_tom]

The problem is that no club in the country would want to sell a striker that is scoring goals. So unless we're prepared to pay £5million and up then we're going to have to make do with a loan or in this case a striker that CH has worked with in the past, and so is willing to take a chance on. It will be temporary fixes like this until the summer i think.

Midfielders is a different scenario. Premier League and even top end Championship clubs have squads overflowing with midfielders, even we at one point could have fielded a squad made entirely of center midfielders, so in January it may well be a little easier to lure one away. I wouldnt be surprised if Tony's january plan is to spend money on the midfield, get in a temporary striker for the remainder of the season, and then in the summer see if we can get a little better value for money.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Got to be worth a punt in a squad where Lewis Dunk is putting all of our so-called strikers to utter shame. Might even know where the goal is.

Leon Best
Possibly Better Than All The Rest

 

[northernseagull]

I was being sarcastic

Congratulations

 

[bristolseagull]

16 goals in his last 85 appearances


#prolific

 

[Peter Grummit]

I am distinctly underwhelmed by the prospect of Best. At least we know O'Grady will try his best.

I know the Arsenal game is not the be-all-and-end-all, but Best is Cup tied (he played 63 goalless minutes for Derby against the mighty Southport in Round 3) so won't be a replacement for O'Grady on Sunday.

Ho hum.

PG

 

[Dave the OAP]

Who is actually doing the recruitment now with burke having gone?

 

[leigull]

Who is actually doing the recruitment now with burke having gone?

Barber.