The path of least resistance would be to look at the Championship or Scotland. TBH, I have not followed these leagues at all this season so have no idea if there are any players worth bothering with.
There isn't a single player on that list I'd be interested in or who'd improve our squad significantly, not one of them would come in as a starter for me (although in the case of Giroud that's only down to his age).
Quote from: Proposition Joe on December 02, 2020, 08:38:34 AMThe path of least resistance would be to look at the Championship or Scotland. TBH, I have not followed these leagues at all this season so have no idea if there are any players worth bothering with.Back to the Xi tactic of glancing at the Championship top scorers list and just chucking money at it I reckon.Ivan Toney come on down.
Quote from: paul_e on December 02, 2020, 12:09:24 AMThere isn't a single player on that list I'd be interested in or who'd improve our squad significantly, not one of them would come in as a starter for me (although in the case of Giroud that's only down to his age).I think Charlie Taylor is a decent fullback; but whether he's a significant upgrade is debatable.
Quote from: Mister E on December 02, 2020, 09:02:30 AMQuote from: paul_e on December 02, 2020, 12:09:24 AMThere isn't a single player on that list I'd be interested in or who'd improve our squad significantly, not one of them would come in as a starter for me (although in the case of Giroud that's only down to his age).I think Charlie Taylor is a decent fullback; but whether he's a significant upgrade is debatable.He'd be an upgrade on our own Taylor as the backup but I don't think he'd improve our 11 or put a massive amount of pressure on Targett to improve. That's my problem with the whole list, there's no one on there that I look at and think they'd come in and be a first choice, and every one of them is either at or past their prime (oh, except Gray, he's just completely failed to deliver on the promise he had as a teenager and will be lucky to get another premier league club).
Quote from: paul_e on December 02, 2020, 10:45:48 AMQuote from: Mister E on December 02, 2020, 09:02:30 AMQuote from: paul_e on December 02, 2020, 12:09:24 AMThere isn't a single player on that list I'd be interested in or who'd improve our squad significantly, not one of them would come in as a starter for me (although in the case of Giroud that's only down to his age).I think Charlie Taylor is a decent fullback; but whether he's a significant upgrade is debatable.He'd be an upgrade on our own Taylor as the backup but I don't think he'd improve our 11 or put a massive amount of pressure on Targett to improve. That's my problem with the whole list, there's no one on there that I look at and think they'd come in and be a first choice, and every one of them is either at or past their prime (oh, except Gray, he's just completely failed to deliver on the promise he had as a teenager and will be lucky to get another premier league club).Not every player needs to be an immediate upgrade though. We need a back up to Watkins as I've said before. There's still no sign of Wesley being ready for a return, and Davis simply can't be relied on, either to score goals or simply stay it.
If we were looking for an upgrade on Keinan then I would look for us to sign Woodrow from Barnsley - looks like a proper centre forward
I agree, but what's the point of signing older players if they aren't? If you want players to create pressure from behind the current 11 then you do it by buying players who will improve quickly and that means looking at the 21-25 age range which is where you generally get those big bumps in performance. If you sign players older than that then they need to come in to compete for the shirt immediately, pushing the current starter into a rotation/cover role (like Barkley with Hourihane for example). Signing 27+ aged players to sit on the bench is the main reason MoN wasted so much money and opportunity when we could've broken into the top 4 with a better transfer policy and we definitely wouldn't have had a decade of shit trying to recover from the problems he created either.
Quote from: paul_e on December 02, 2020, 11:15:22 AMI agree, but what's the point of signing older players if they aren't? If you want players to create pressure from behind the current 11 then you do it by buying players who will improve quickly and that means looking at the 21-25 age range which is where you generally get those big bumps in performance. If you sign players older than that then they need to come in to compete for the shirt immediately, pushing the current starter into a rotation/cover role (like Barkley with Hourihane for example). Signing 27+ aged players to sit on the bench is the main reason MoN wasted so much money and opportunity when we could've broken into the top 4 with a better transfer policy and we definitely wouldn't have had a decade of shit trying to recover from the problems he created either.Agreed, but I'd take older players on loan for the rest of the season in certain circumstances.