Ollie Watkins

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Movement, strength, running, technique, decision-making, finishing.

Any striker who ticks all those boxes is already playing for Real Madrid or Manchester City.

Watkins still ticks enough of them to be sufficiently good for us.

And that's how to Know Your Place.

We should probably chuck £70m at someone who would obviously do much better, like Gyokeres, or Woltemade, or Sesko, or Ekitike, or...

..Bryan Mbeumo and some change.

[Nunkin1965]

Movement, strength, running, technique, decision-making, finishing.

Any striker who ticks all those boxes is already playing for Real Madrid or Manchester City.

Watkins still ticks enough of them to be sufficiently good for us.

And that's how to Know Your Place.

We should probably chuck £70m at someone who would obviously do much better, like Gyokeres, or Woltemade, or Sesko, or Ekitike, or...

..Bryan Mbeumo and some change.

Liverpool splashed 125 million on one of the best there is and look how that's worked out, so there are never, ever any guarantees about spending big.

[Ian.]

Even if some are a success at 70m or so, what’s the chances of us spending more than 30 million on a player again for long time coming?

[Sexual Ealing]

Maybe it's time for Jermaine Beckford in that case.

[PeterWithesShin]

We don't have 75m available to spend on 1 player, and the reality is that even if we did then getting them to join us is another issue. Despite how well we're doing I reckon most 75m players would view us as a fair way down the list of clubs they want to join. I have little doubt that if it was a choice between us or ManU in the summer Mbeumo would still be a ManU player.

[Mister E]

The heavy touches stick in people's heads but we actually played to his strengths today by sticking the ball in behind them and his movement was exceptional. It would have been a lot harder to win without him, even ignoring the goal, and that's the conundrum.

That's the point - play to his strengths. I bet Botman and Thiaw will be thinking tonight that they had a pretty rough day at the office today: Watkins have them a right runaround, creating space for others.

[PaulWinch again]

Yup, Ollie is a classic example of some people will realise how valuable he is once he’s gone.

[Beard82]

Its been such an amazing signing for us.  Hes been brilliant for so long - particuarly given how few good CF there are in the world (Which is why I think Tammy is a good signing). 

Today - when he was having a bit of mare - I thought "I bet he scores" because hes head just doesnt drop. 

Its crazy hes led the line for us in our most successfull period in 25 years, is our PL all time top scorer, had some of the best stats in the PL over a 5 years period, and not that long ago scored an outstanding last minute goal to send England to the final of the Euros.

But hes not good enough

[Ian.]

Maybe it's time for Jermaine Beckford in that case.

Or a Tammy Abraham?

Over the last year or so, we all would have loved to have signed Mbeumo, Eze or Semenyo. The reality is due to the rules and revenue, we’re not even close to this sort of signing for a long time. We’re in the market for players who are most likely just like Ollie or hoping to find a gem at a lower cost and younger age.

It’s not that we don’t want to improve and want for better, but it’s not us or our owners preventing it.

[PaulWinch again]

Point of order, we might have wanted Mbeumo all things being equal. Not sure he’s necessarily better than Watkins.

[Ian.]

I don’t think so either. Would love us to have been able to buy Semenyo or Cunha though!

[Smirker]

Movement, strength, running, technique, decision-making, finishing.

Any striker who ticks all those boxes is already playing for Real Madrid or Manchester City.

Watkins still ticks enough of them to be sufficiently good for us.

And that's how to Know Your Place.

Yep spot on.

Same fans who would have thought today we had no chance cos we always lose at Newcastle and described it as a *free hit'.

[PeterWithesShin]

The rules are in place to stop us signing a 75m striker on a 75m players' wages. And using Mbeumo as an exmple does anyone really think he'd gave chosen us over ManU even if were able to spend the money. As much as we laugh at them trailing us they are still a far bigger draw for a player at that profile than we are. It's not "knowing your place" it's just knowing how the deck is stacked against us currently.
That Buendia is still our, I think, 4th most expensive signing is something that I doubt is by choice.

And it's not like we've settled on Ollie and that's it. Duran, Malen and now it seems Tammy have been brought in as well as Rashford on loan.

[paul_e]

Movement, strength, running, technique, decision-making, finishing.

Any striker who ticks all those boxes is already playing for Real Madrid or Manchester City.

Watkins still ticks enough of them to be sufficiently good for us.

And that's how to Know Your Place.

We should probably chuck £70m at someone who would obviously do much better, like Gyokeres, or Woltemade, or Sesko, or Ekitike, or...

..Bryan Mbeumo and some change.

He's not a striker though, he'd offer similar to Malen, and we ended up selling him because we couldn't fit him into our system consistently enough.

[RamboandBruno]

The rules are in place to stop us signing a 75m striker on a 75m players' wages. And using Mbeumo as an exmple does anyone really think he'd gave chosen us over ManU even if were able to spend the money. As much as we laugh at them trailing us they are still a far bigger draw for a player at that profile than we are. It's not "knowing your place" it's just knowing how the deck is stacked against us currently.
That Buendia is still our, I think, 4th most expensive signing is something that I doubt is by choice.

And it's not like we've settled on Ollie and that's it. Duran, Malen and now it seems Tammy have been brought in as well as Rashford on loan.

Exactly right.
We’re Aston Villa massive club etc etc, but have we ever been that team who’s in a position to sign that centre forward. Andy Gray first time around was an emerging talent, Little and Shaw homegrown, Withe bought to compliment Shaw and the overall team, but never seen as that top draw player. Yorke a young talent, that after a few seasons of getting better and better, went to the bright lights. Saunders felt like a marquee signing when i was a teenager, but in hindsight was he any better than Watkins.
Rashford was a bit marquee but i think we all knew he was only here for a few months.
Its not about us knowing our place, its about reality. Saying all of that, none of this seems to matter, as I’m pretty convinced Unai could get me off the couch and away from the Guinness and given a good account of myself, superhuman tactical genius that he is!