Ollie Watkins

[Clampy]

I think some people do tend to be more concerned with the chances he misses too much, well that's how it comes across sometimes anyway. The guy scored in 10 matches in a row last season or something like that, which was superb. We just need someone as well. I do wonder if Emery sees Diaby playing that role as well?

[OCD]

It looks to me like Diaby will play as a 10, off Watkins which takes care of the concerns over the defensive side to his game.

All strikers miss chances that they should be taking. You just have enough creativity in your side, that if they score a reasonable percentage of them they score enough goals.

I think sometimes strikers are a bit rusty pre-season too. It used to be September before Kane would score. I think last season was the first time he's scored in August.

[Risso]

It looks to me like Diaby will play as a 10, off Watkins which takes care of the concerns over the defensive side to his game.

All strikers miss chances that they should be taking. You just have enough creativity in your side, that if they score a reasonable percentage of them they score enough goals.

I think sometimes strikers are a bit rusty pre-season too. It used to be September before Kane would score. I think last season was the first time he's scored in August.

That last bit is very obviously not true, seeing as he scored two against us first game back in the Premier League, in August!

[Drummond]

It looks to me like Diaby will play as a 10, off Watkins which takes care of the concerns over the defensive side to his game.

All strikers miss chances that they should be taking. You just have enough creativity in your side, that if they score a reasonable percentage of them they score enough goals.

I think sometimes strikers are a bit rusty pre-season too. It used to be September before Kane would score. I think last season was the first time he's scored in August.

That last bit is very obviously not true, seeing as he scored two against us first game back in the Premier League, in August!

I think we're the exception to prove every rule.

[Brend'Watkins]

It's been said by me and many before.  If Ollie converts most of those missed chances, the easier ones at least he'd add 10 more goals a season. He also wouldn't be playing for us.  My hope is, this season he does start doing that and because of his age and track record he's still not fancied because it's seen as an anomaly.

[Sexual Ealing]

I have a feeling Spurs might come in for him if Kane goes this month.

[Toronto Villa]

Why would he go to Spurs? A team not in Europe, less chance than us of getting a CL spot or Europa spot at the end of this season. He doesn’t need them to boost his international chances. We have a better squad and manager. We can offer him every bit as good a contract as they can. He’s got a young family settled in the area.

[Clampy]

If Spurs lose Kane, their supporters will want them to buy big to replace him and I don't think Watkins will appease too many of them.

[OCD]

I have a feeling Spurs might come in for him if Kane goes this month.

Expect an offer of Skipp + £2m then.

[Sexual Ealing]

Why would he go to Spurs? A team not in Europe, less chance than us of getting a CL spot. He doesn’t need them to boost his international chances. We have a better squad and manager. We can offer him every bit as good a contract as they can. He’s got a young family settled in the area.

I don't know. It definitely would boost his international chances, because playing for Spurs has almost always guaranteed England call-ups (particularly compared to playing for us). He might like London. They might offer him more money than we want to. Maybe he doesn't like being around his young family. He lives around the corner from my sister at the minute and I can confirm it's properly boring round there. Also we might want to take the money they'd offer.

Any number of reasons really.

[john e]

I’ve never been his greatest fan simply because of his lack of technical ability but we can’t replace him there’s no one out there

he got 15 last season where are you going to bring someone in who’s going to get 5-10 more
just not happening

Archer is a better finisher but can he do the rest of the stuff at the moment
Let’s hope we can bring through one of the younger players because there’s a massive drop in striker talent around at the mo

[Smithy]

In the last three seasons, only five players IN TOTAL have managed to get 20 league goals at least once.  Haaland, Kane, Son, Salah and Toney (who got 20 last season - and that included SIX pens so he scrapes into the list).

This idea that we "need" a 20+ goal a season striker is a myth.  Would it be nice? Oh, absolutely. Can we be successful without one? Definitely. Haaland is phenomenon, but City actually scored five goals fewer this past season than they did the one before, when they won the league despite their top scorer only getting 15, and only three players in the entire squad getting into double figures.

The game has evolved from having a poacher getting on the end of things, and though it would be GREAT to have one in the side who can snap up half-chances for fun, what's more important is how many goals we get as a team.  I'd much rather see us get 70+ goals next season, than I would see our striker get 20+.   If the striker Unai chooses to play helps us get to 70 goals in the season, despite only scoring 10-15 himself, I'll be delighted.

I absolutely think we still need some top class competition for Ollie, but I really don't think it needs to be a 20+ goal machine for us to be successful.

[Risso]

In the last three seasons, only five players IN TOTAL have managed to get 20 league goals at least once.  Haaland, Kane, Son, Salah and Toney (who got 20 last season - and that included SIX pens so he scrapes into the list).

This idea that we "need" a 20+ goal a season striker is a myth.  Would it be nice? Oh, absolutely. Can we be successful without one? Definitely. Haaland is phenomenon, but City actually scored five goals fewer this past season than they did the one before, when they won the league despite their top scorer only getting 15, and only three players in the entire squad getting into double figures.

The game has evolved from having a poacher getting on the end of things, and though it would be GREAT to have one in the side who can snap up half-chances for fun, what's more important is how many goals we get as a team.  I'd much rather see us get 70+ goals next season, than I would see our striker get 20+.   If the striker Unai chooses to play helps us get to 70 goals in the season, despite only scoring 10-15 himself, I'll be delighted.

I absolutely think we still need some top class competition for Ollie, but I really don't think it needs to be a 20+ goal machine for us to be successful.

We just need to score more goals. You're right that it doesn't matter as such where they come from, but if you add 5 goals onto Ollie's total last season on a random basis, then it could easily have yielded a few more points. Similarly our too attacking back ups to Ollie in Bailey and Buendia got 9 between them, which just isn't enough, although the signing of Diaby should help this. McGinn's form improved a lot, but he still doesn't score enough goals considering how attack-minded he is.

I'd say this season we need 15+ from Ollie, 10 from Diaby, 6 from Luiz (last season's total), similar from McGinn, Ramsey and Tielemans, and a few more from the defenders from set pieces. Do that and we should be looking top 6 at a minimum, assuming the defence stays as tight as it has been, which is obviously the other half of the equation.

[paul_e]

In the last three seasons, only five players IN TOTAL have managed to get 20 league goals at least once.  Haaland, Kane, Son, Salah and Toney (who got 20 last season - and that included SIX pens so he scrapes into the list).

This idea that we "need" a 20+ goal a season striker is a myth.  Would it be nice? Oh, absolutely. Can we be successful without one? Definitely. Haaland is phenomenon, but City actually scored five goals fewer this past season than they did the one before, when they won the league despite their top scorer only getting 15, and only three players in the entire squad getting into double figures.

The game has evolved from having a poacher getting on the end of things, and though it would be GREAT to have one in the side who can snap up half-chances for fun, what's more important is how many goals we get as a team.  I'd much rather see us get 70+ goals next season, than I would see our striker get 20+.   If the striker Unai chooses to play helps us get to 70 goals in the season, despite only scoring 10-15 himself, I'll be delighted.

I absolutely think we still need some top class competition for Ollie, but I really don't think it needs to be a 20+ goal machine for us to be successful.

We just need to score more goals. You're right that it doesn't matter as such where they come from, but if you add 5 goals onto Ollie's total last season on a random basis, then it could easily have yielded a few more points. Similarly our too attacking back ups to Ollie in Bailey and Buendia got 9 between them, which just isn't enough, although the signing of Diaby should help this. McGinn's form improved a lot, but he still doesn't score enough goals considering how attack-minded he is.

I'd say this season we need 15+ from Ollie, 10 from Diaby, 6 from Luiz (last season's total), similar from McGinn, Ramsey and Tielemans, and a few more from the defenders from set pieces. Do that and we should be looking top 6 at a minimum, assuming the defence stays as tight as it has been, which is obviously the other half of the equation.

For me the problems last season were that we didn't score enough from Defence and the support strikers/wingers.

[Flin5tone]

We need another striker .
The two most important positions that needed strengthening *striker competition for Ollie. * GK no.2  both look like they won't be looked at . Ridiculous