[Albion] Neal Maupay *** SIGNED from Brentford - 4 year deal - undisclosed fee ***

[Napper]

would really like this one to happen

 

[Albumen]

But it’s fine if a striker doesn’t score goals from outside the penalty area (I don’t remember Murray ever scoring one) as long as they are contributing to the team generally. Maybe Maupay does, don’t know never seen him play. If a team plays one up front the striker needs to have a good all round game.

Oh and 15 would be an incredible return of goals. First he has to displace, Murray, Andone and Locadia, (and possibly hold off Connolly) for probably a single striking slot. It’s far from clear that Maupay would jump to the front of the queue, whereas if we signed, as an example, Rondon, they almost certainly would. To me, Maupay would represent a speculative, might come to something at some point, signing. How many of those do we need? My instinct, and like I say I’ve never seen him play, is that we should be aiming a little bit higher.

Not to be rude but don't you think that sounds a little silly?

 

[brighton_tom]

I like the look of this one, scored a lot of goals last year and only 22 so room for improvement. At that age he'd also have a good resale value.

Starting to think we need one more in the door within the next few days if we're really going to hit the ground running in the new season, the others could be deadline day.

 

[B-right-on]

Not to be rude but don't you think that sounds a little silly?

Don't be ridiculous. Where would we be without NSCers posting their detailed and knowledgeable posts based on squat.

 

[blue-shifted]

Not to be rude but don't you think that sounds a little silly?

Fair challenge Albumen. I suppose the point I'm making is that we currently have 4 strikers who are good at some things but not others, so for example,

Murray can hold it up and score a header, but isn’t mobile,
Locadia can show talent in flashes but not consistently and famously owned up about not being that strong in the air
Andone moves intelligently in the box, but can drift out of a game
Connolly has promise as a fox in the box, but doesn’t have height or experience.

What I’m saying, is that if we are only ever going to play one striker at a time, it’s a better strategy to have 2 in the £25m+ bracket who have a strong all round game than 4 or 5 in the £10 to £15m who have some strengths and some obvious weaknesses.

I’m also trying to say that it’s not numbers up front we’re short of, we need someone who is demonstrably better than what we have. Now maybe Maupay will turn out to be that player, but to me his record of quite a few similar goals in one championship season suggests to me that he’s someone who would be challenging for, rather than walking into a first team berth.

I look at players like Jiminez at Wolves, Wood, Llorente, Mitrovic. I mentioned Rondon. I’m not saying we could or should sign any of them, but they are examples of strikers who have an allround game. They can all hold it up, run in behind, volley, head, score from inside and outside the box. Expensive, but this is the level of signing we need to kick on.

 

[Barham's tash]

Neal Maupay

I like the look of this one, scored a lot of goals last year and only 22 so room for improvement. At that age he'd also have a good resale value.

Starting to think we need one more in the door within the next few days if we're really going to hit the ground running in the new season, the others could be deadline day.

Would be very happy to secure his services on these factors alone. I would say to him and Connolly that they’re in the 25 alongside Andone and Murray to challenge for the starting position.

If the end result was say 2 of them starting 20/30 games a season and the other 2 rotating around and playing 0/10 games a season excluding cups then I’d say that gives equal change for two to become the first choice pair.

I would also suggest we’ve been priced out of a move for McBurnie - similar age/profileand obviously admired by Potter and moved on to Maupay.

Edit: I have of course forgotten Locadia I guess because He never actually played CF!

But forgetting sentiment and the possibility that he may break the all time scoring record this year IF a suitable offer came in for him would we listen to offers for Murray? Maybe if we landed our first or second choice replacement. Sacrilege I know to even mention this but if the financial argument makes sense I’d suggest we’d be stupid not to...

 

[northstandsteve]

Not sure if we have been priced out of McBurnie (20M) wanted by Swansea, as Maupay is quoted at the same price.

 

[SeagullCrow]

Would be very happy to secure his services on these factors alone. I would say to him and Connolly that they’re in the 25 alongside Andone and Murray to challenge for the starting position.

If the end result was say 2 of them starting 20/30 games a season and the other 2 rotating around and playing 0/10 games a season excluding cups then I’d say that gives equal change for two to become the first choice pair.

I would also suggest we’ve been priced out of a move for McBurnie - similar age/profileand obviously admired by Potter and moved on to Maupay.

Is Connolly not young enough that he doesn't have to be included in the 25? He's only 19, so we can have him over and above the 25 that we register.

 

[B.W.]

Fair challenge Albumen. I suppose the point I'm making is that we currently have 4 strikers who are good at some things but not others, so for example,

Murray can hold it up and score a header, but isn’t mobile,
Locadia can show talent in flashes but not consistently and famously owned up about not being that strong in the air
Andone moves intelligently in the box, but can drift out of a game
Connolly has promise as a fox in the box, but doesn’t have height or experience.

What I’m saying, is that if we are only ever going to play one striker at a time, it’s a better strategy to have 2 in the £25m+ bracket who have a strong all round game than 4 or 5 in the £10 to £15m who have some strengths and some obvious weaknesses.

I’m also trying to say that it’s not numbers up front we’re short of, we need someone who is demonstrably better than what we have. Now maybe Maupay will turn out to be that player, but to me his record of quite a few similar goals in one championship season suggests to me that he’s someone who would be challenging for, rather than walking into a first team berth.

I look at players like Jiminez at Wolves, Wood, Llorente, Mitrovic. I mentioned Rondon. I’m not saying we could or should sign any of them, but they are examples of strikers who have an allround game. They can all hold it up, run in behind, volley, head, score from inside and outside the box. Expensive, but this is the level of signing we need to kick on.

I kind of agree, but are we willing to splash the kind of cash needed to bring in someone with a greater guarantee of success... I suspect not, so Maupay, or similar, it is...

 

[Albumen]

Fair challenge Albumen. I suppose the point I'm making is that we currently have 4 strikers who are good at some things but not others, so for example,

Murray can hold it up and score a header, but isn’t mobile,
Locadia can show talent in flashes but not consistently and famously owned up about not being that strong in the air
Andone moves intelligently in the box, but can drift out of a game
Connolly has promise as a fox in the box, but doesn’t have height or experience.

What I’m saying, is that if we are only ever going to play one striker at a time, it’s a better strategy to have 2 in the £25m+ bracket who have a strong all round game than 4 or 5 in the £10 to £15m who have some strengths and some obvious weaknesses.

I’m also trying to say that it’s not numbers up front we’re short of, we need someone who is demonstrably better than what we have. Now maybe Maupay will turn out to be that player, but to me his record of quite a few similar goals in one championship season suggests to me that he’s someone who would be challenging for, rather than walking into a first team berth.

I look at players like Jiminez at Wolves, Wood, Llorente, Mitrovic. I mentioned Rondon. I’m not saying we could or should sign any of them, but they are examples of strikers who have an allround game. They can all hold it up, run in behind, volley, head, score from inside and outside the box. Expensive, but this is the level of signing we need to kick on.

I get your well posted point but how do you know this player you've never seen doesn't have the potential to do all this?

Btw, I'd argue Mitrovic has many weaknesses (and incredibly overrated on here), and Wood can't do all that either but that's not the arguement.

 

[Brian Fantana]

I get your well posted point but how do you know this player you've never seen doesn't have the potential to do all this?

Btw, I'd argue Mitrovic has many weaknesses (and incredibly overrated on here), and Wood can't do all that either but that's not the arguement.

I'd argue that Jiminez is the only player in the list who has a decent case of being an all round player.

 

[Pavilionaire]

The fact is that Maupay has had one good season with Brentford. Indeed,he only managed 12 in 42 league matches with Brentford in 2017/18 after his move from France, so took a while to settle. This concerns me because we need a striker who will hit the ground running here at the Albion.

The lad Samatta from Genk has also only had one big season - 2018/19. Prior to that he scored 14 in 47 matches in the Belgian top flight. The same with McBurnie - one good season.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

The fact is that Maupay has had one good season with Brentford. Indeed,he only managed 12 in 42 league matches with Brentford in 2017/18 after his move from France, so took a while to settle. This concerns me because we need a striker who will hit the ground running here at the Albion.

The lad Samatta from Genk has also only had one big season - 2018/19. Prior to that he scored 14 in 47 matches in the Belgian top flight. The same with McBurnie - one good season.

The biggest issue is that if you leave them and they have another extremely profitable season, their price will be even higher. One good season in the Championship got Daniel James a £15million move to the Manchester United and he didn't even play the full season! But if they hadn't pulled the trigger and he played a similar season this to last, he would have been close to double the price. If we're going to start trying to get the best players from the Championship, we're going to be regularly going after players who have only had one really strong season.

 

[stss30]

The fact is that Maupay has had one good season with Brentford. Indeed,he only managed 12 in 42 league matches with Brentford in 2017/18 after his move from France, so took a while to settle. This concerns me because we need a striker who will hit the ground running here at the Albion.

The lad Samatta from Genk has also only had one big season - 2018/19. Prior to that he scored 14 in 47 matches in the Belgian top flight. The same with McBurnie - one good season.

It’s easy to say that we need a striker to hit the ground running, but strikers who have been scoring goals year on year in reputable leagues are going to cost significantly more and will likely be out of our price range. Prices are always premium for strikers, hence ours and others struggles in recruiting good ones.

 

[Gazwag]

The fact is that Maupay has had one good season with Brentford. Indeed,he only managed 12 in 42 league matches with Brentford in 2017/18 after his move from France, so took a while to settle. This concerns me because we need a striker who will hit the ground running here at the Albion.

The lad Samatta from Genk has also only had one big season - 2018/19. Prior to that he scored 14 in 47 matches in the Belgian top flight. The same with McBurnie - one good season.

Interesting we signed a player last season on exactly this basis, who also took a season to settle with his previous club and was then on fire the next season, he has now had his first "settling" season so fingers crossed.

 

[pishhead]

I'd argue that Jiminez is the only player in the list who has a decent case of being an all round player.

Agreed, Wolves had to pay 30 million for his services. Which shows what the going rate is, I can't see a time in the foreseeable future where we will be paying 30 million for a 27 year old.

 

[Audax]

The fact is that Maupay has had one good season with Brentford. Indeed,he only managed 12 in 42 league matches with Brentford in 2017/18 after his move from France, so took a while to settle. This concerns me because we need a striker who will hit the ground running here at the Albion.

The lad Samatta from Genk has also only had one big season - 2018/19. Prior to that he scored 14 in 47 matches in the Belgian top flight. The same with McBurnie - one good season.

Isn't that what you often see with young players, though? They show enough to get themselves a run in first team football, gather up some experience, and then (if they genuinely have the goods) something clicks and you have a top player on your hands. Or it doesn't click and they drift back out of regular first team. Or it clicks for a while, goes to their heads, and unclicks. Thing is ... if you don't grab the ones that click and have a great season *before* they follow that season with a second or third great season, the asking price goes up and it'll be a top tier team sniffing around rather than us.

We have to take the risk, and hope we pick the right one that clicked and then stays clicked. So for me, I like that we're being linked with young players with one quality season behind them. It's a risk, but it's a risk worth taking when you're shopping on a budget.

 

[Barham's tash]

Is Connolly not young enough that he doesn't have to be included in the 25? He's only 19, so we can have him over and above the 25 that we register.

Sure I guess I clumsily put the 25 when in fact as both U23 they don’t count anyway. I guess it was more that with both of them there we could maybe lose one or two >25 and channel the wage saving into other areas?

 

[Nigella's Cream Pie]

As lazily stated (from me), he's a lower prem Aguero type.

Aguero only has a 10% outside the box ratio (excl pens). That means if we hope Maupay scores 15, he only needs to score 1-2 goals from outside.

Hernandez must have an even lower rate, whether at West Ham or anywhere else

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Maupay, get away
Got a good move with good pay now he's okay
Maupay, He's a gas
Grabbed that cash with both hands now watch him dash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy him for my Football team.