So Mr Bloom, when do you show your hand?....

[Finchley Seagull]

Exactly right, we know the players who are available it's just a case of whether Tony decides to push the boat out...

As said elsewhere, why not name them then? If you mean Rhodes and McCormack, they are clearly not realistic options. They are not pushing the boat out, they are probably risking our future and certainly an issue with FFP. If not them, who do you mean?

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Yep. The quote from Barber is pretty clear. The club are explicitly looking for a striker and have said that several times in public.

“We’ve still got a little bit more to do…maybe one more , maybe two, to try and increase our firepower up front. I don’t think there’s any secret about that. But those strikers are in high demand. We’re not the only club …looking to do similar things. We have our particular targets. We’ll work through what we need to do , to try and land one of them. “

via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0SDxi6RLEU


Also Naylor (presumably from a well informed club source) wrote yesterday "The Seagulls still intend to sign a striker to boost the promotion push."
http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/albion/14231894.Albion_are_set_for_busy_end_to_window/

The part in bold is the key, there are players we hope to sign but it isn't as straightforward as some fans think it is and we may fail to land any of them (not due to a lack of trying)

 

[Icy Gull]

PS: Icy - apart from Zamora - have we signed any players this year who are the "quality of player we need" ? - interested in your view.

Yes, the club have signed plenty of quality apart from BZ, but we are still very light in the striker department, surely you agree? An injury to BZ will be a disaster without a quality replacement who is wily and knows where the goal is. Hemed and Baldock (who spends most of his time injured) clearly do not. Wilson is a kid who needs to play off an experienced player. Who else do we have? Signing a decent quality striker will be the difference between possibly getting auto and not even making the playoffs if BZ gets injured for too long or runs out of steam.

Not sure why you seem to imagine that I don't think that we have signed quality players elsewhere though:

Bong, Rosenior, Knockaert ( one of THE signings in this division this year imo), Sidwell, Wilson, and Goldson who I think is a gem in the making, The only one I have reservations about is Hunemeier, who is nowhere near dominant enough in the air at this level imo.

 

[dwayne]

As said elsewhere, why not name them then? If you mean Rhodes and McCormack, they are clearly not realistic options. They are not pushing the boat out, they are probably risking our future and certainly an issue with FFP. If not them, who do you mean?

I really don't see how a striker of that calibre is harming our future. We will recoup most of the transfer fee down the line and we can pay over 3/4 years like other teams do. Tony bloom is already owed over 100 million.

Fair enough if he doesn't want to push the boat out, its his money, its just frustrating that we are so close to the promised land and we can't seem to get it over the line. And its not just this year it's the last few years.

Fingers crossed that we can get that goalscorer in this season

 

[lizard]

#sameoldalbion

 

[Guy Fawkes]

We do tho eh? What we don't do is retain strikers. Well not the good ones anyway. We sell those on earlydoors. The shit ones we always hang on to until well past their sell by date.

We hung onto Murray who was "shit" until his last season with us, and even then some fans were glad to see the back of him and didn't think he'd cut it in the Championship because he hadn't played at that level. It's only once he joined Palace that it became a mistake and he was a good player (he was poor in his first season with Palace)

Seeing how quickly our strikers are written off by fans, is it a surprise that we struggle to find and then keep these players? You can put together quite a long list of forwards we have had over the years that were deemed as being of a lower league standard then the one we were playing in at the time they were here, only for the player to leave and play at a higher level than when we had them.

Maybe if the fans got behind our strikers rather than look for reasons to slate them and write them off as soon as possible then they might have more success with us?

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

I think we are hoping for Leicester to sign a better version of Ulloa so that Ulloa can be sent back to us.

 

[The Sock of Poskett]

Murray back on loan is my guess, unless there's an overseas option under the radar.

 

[chaileyjem]

I think we are hoping for Leicester to sign a better version of Ulloa so that Ulloa can be sent back to us.

True. Leicester are going to sign another striker. But thats because they only have three at the mo.
Ulloa isn't going anywhere.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

I really don't see how a striker of that calibre is harming our future. We will recoup most of the transfer fee down the line and we can pay over 3/4 years like other teams do. Tony bloom is already owed over 100 million.

Fair enough if he doesn't want to push the boat out, its his money, its just frustrating that we are so close to the promised land and we can't seem to get it over the line. And its not just this year it's the last few years.

Fingers crossed that we can get that goalscorer in this season

Inflated transfer fee cost and inflated wage demands, (better value out there) not guaranteed to succeed here and unlikely to want to join us as they are more likely looking to do what Charlie Austin did and move to a ready made Premier league club rather than one that may or may not make it this season so even if we did try to sign them, they may decide to stay put or turn us down in the hope of a PL club comes calling

 

[Icy Gull]

We hung onto Murray who was "shit" until his last season with us, and even then some fans were glad to see the back of him and didn't think he'd cut it in the Championship because he hadn't played at that level. It's only once he joined Palace that it became a mistake and he was a good player (he was poor in his first season with Palace)

Seeing how quickly our strikers are written off by fans, is it a surprise that we struggle to find and then keep these players? You can put together quite a long list of forwards we have had over the years that were deemed as being of a lower league standard then the one we were playing in at the time they were here, only for the player to leave and play at a higher level than when we had them.

Maybe if the fans got behind our strikers rather than look for reasons to slate them and write them off as soon as possible then they might have more success with us?

Which strikers that the fans have slated have gone on to an equal or higher level and flourished?

Murray aside ( and I don't agree that most fans slated him) I can't think of a single one. Barnes was not slated by most fans either.

We have had an appalling record of striker recruitment since we got to the Amex given the level we are at. Ulloa and Zamora are the only two who have been of the required standard that we have signed permanently, unless I have overlooked any?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Which strikers that the fans have slated have gone on to an equal or higher level and flourished?

Murray aside ( and I don't agree that most fans slated him) I can't think of a single one. Barnes was not slated by most fans either.

We have had an appalling record of striker recruitment since we got to the Amex given the level we are at. Ulloa and Zamora are the only two who have been of the required standard.

I strongly disagree. He was slated by a large proportion of fans.

 

[atomised]

Maybe Bloom has refused to unleash the.cheque book until the honey badger is defeated

 

[atomised]

I think we are hoping for Leicester to sign a better version of Ulloa so that Ulloa can be sent back to us.

We need leicester to sign 2 better versions of ulloa on that basis

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Murray back on loan is my guess, unless there's an overseas option under the radar.

That'll be the fallback replacement for Wilson if he's recalled, won't it ?

 

[Ecosse Exile]

This is completely hypothetical, but how would people feel if Dunk and Ince were sold to Fulham and in return we signed McCormack plus say £7.5 million?

In view of my thread the other day about McCormack's disgraceful attitude towards Fulham, I am going to say no, but if he'd carried on giving his all to Fulham until the end it would definitely have been a yes from me.

I wonder if Blackburn would be interested in a swap + cash for Rhodes?

As for the original post, I think we're done, no more signings, and I think the squad is good enough.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Which strikers that the fans have slated have gone on to an equal or higher level and flourished?

Murray aside ( and I don't agree that most fans slated him) I can't think of a single one. Barnes was not slated by most fans either.

We have had an appalling record of striker recruitment since we got to the Amex given the level we are at. Ulloa and Zamora are the only two who have been of the required standard that we have signed permanently, unless I have overlooked any?

3 quickly off the top of my head:
Sam Vokes
Ashley Barnes
Craig Davies

 

[Surf's Up]

Vote Honey Badger

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Vote Honey Badger

Can it play left back ?

 

[Surf's Up]

Can it play left back ?

Yes of course