Ollie Watkins

[sickbeggar]

Don't think anyone knows how he will turn out. You cant judge a players chances of success at the prem by  the championship anymore than you can judge a player from the Belgium 1st division and i heard the same arguments last summer. All we know is Smith has bet the farm on him, and in 12 months time, he'll either be gone or people will be aiming plaudits at him for buying a player no-one else would gamble on.


place your bets now....

[paul_e]

Don't think anyone knows how he will turn out. You cant judge a players chances of success at the prem by  the championship anymore than you can judge a player from the Belgium 1st division and i heard the same arguments last summer. All we know is Smith has bet the farm on him, and in 12 months time, he'll either be gone or people will be aiming plaudits at him for buying a player no-one else would gamble on.

place your bets now....

This is true of almost any signing, I've seen us sign players with experience (at the level we're playing) for big money who flop a lot more often than youngsters with big reputations.

I think character and attitude, and how they match the rest of the squad, are far more important than experience because they have a bigger effect on how players settle into the club. Both signings so far fit with the squad as it was at the end of the season.

[sickbeggar]

Don't think anyone knows how he will turn out. You cant judge a players chances of success at the prem by  the championship anymore than you can judge a player from the Belgium 1st division and i heard the same arguments last summer. All we know is Smith has bet the farm on him, and in 12 months time, he'll either be gone or people will be aiming plaudits at him for buying a player no-one else would gamble on.

place your bets now....

This is true of almost any signing, I've seen us sign players with experience (at the level we're playing) for big money who flop a lot more often than youngsters with big reputations.

I think character and attitude, and how they match the rest of the squad, are far more important than experience because they have a bigger effect on how players settle into the club. Both signings so far fit with the squad as it was at the end of the season.

yeah don't disagree. this summer at least,  i believe Smith really wanted watkins which is probably more than you can say for the last two striker we've bought.

[hilts_coolerking]

Didn't we have this exact argument last year?  I thought at the end of the season just gone there was consensus that we erred too far towards potential + inexperience and badly needed a few experienced heads.  So far we've spent what £43M+ on two lads with no PL experience whatsoever.  Okay, you lose money on older players with no resale value but that's not why you're buying them.  You're buying them because the team - particularly the inexperienced lads - needs them.  In fact, you really shouldn't be buying one without the other and I fully expect us to bring in a couple before the end of the window.

[SoccerHQ]

What I do like about Watkins coming in is he offers more flexibility across the forward line, he can drift wide from central positions and so would King if we signed him so we might actually have one of those mythical flexible front 3 formations all the clubs who actually win stuff and play in europe do.

I imagine he'll start the season against Sheffield as central striker but if he dosen't hit the ground running then we can move him out wide and given him more time to adapt to premier league without him having the pressure to score.

It's a must we bring in another striker given the three we started with last year alll missed significant chunks of last season injured. Would be good to have a decent attacking option off the bench aswell.

[Footy-Vill]

Deano knows what he's doing he's looked at things and got his appropriate striker.
Last season we needed a centre forward to score from all those chances  Grealish created -2nd most in league after KDB.

Ollie Watkins scored  26 goals last season.
Expected goals XG  :25 goals
Watkins outperformed his XG.

Last season Watkins displayed outstanding finishing ability. Scoring every chance expected of him +1! 
In the centre forward role he's shown to take his chances.

So basically if we create chances OW will be expected to score- literally!

[SoccerHQ]

He missed a total sitter v Barnsley on final day. Inch perfect cross came into the box, no one was marking him and he did a complete air kick. I should know as I had 200 quid riding on it!

Was 1-1 at the time so if he'd scored there Brentford would've made the premier league. Struggled to make an impact in play off final aswell.

[kippaxvilla2]

A player that had he signed him MO’N would have referred to as Oliver.

[robbo1874]

I thik the video linked earlier is very misleading. It shows him scoring a lot of 'fox in the box' style goals, and that will be welcome, but if you look at how he was playing before last season where he was a winger more often you get a much better understanding of his overall game:

very impressive montage. Didn’t even know who he was before the transfer chat started. I don’t wish to jinx the lad, but there’s a few similarities with Collymore and Savo in that little lot! I like how a lot of them are smashed into the roof of the net and the ‘tap ins’ are taken very cleanly and instinctively. I can see why people are calling for more pace out wide.

[robbo1874]

Imagine if we hadn’t sold Traore...

[mr underhill]

i wish someone had taken Brian Green's advice three or four years ago and bought him then.

[Villafirst]

Spurs Forums are angry at missing out on Ollie. Saddled with a massive £1bn debt to pay for their new stadium means a small transfer budget. I think Ollie will be worth £50m+ in a couple of years...

[frank black]

i wish someone had taken Brian Green's advice three or four years ago and bought him then.

We were linked with him before he went to Brentford (I think).

[Sexual Ealing]

Didn't we have this exact argument last year?  I thought at the end of the season just gone there was consensus that we erred too far towards potential + inexperience and badly needed a few experienced heads.  So far we've spent what £43M+ on two lads with no PL experience whatsoever.  Okay, you lose money on older players with no resale value but that's not why you're buying them.  You're buying them because the team - particularly the inexperienced lads - needs them.  In fact, you really shouldn't be buying one without the other and I fully expect us to bring in a couple before the end of the window.

We also had an argument about whether we were definitely getting relegated a couple of months ago.

[ldavfc4eva]

Good video montage of last season, what I noticed though was Benrahma made only 1 or 2 of Ollies goals.

I thought they were a bit of a package, as in Benrahma sets them up and Ollie finishes them.

Not the case at all based on last season.