January Transfer Window - The Verdict.

[Percy McCarthy]

Think we should show some faith in Watkins and give him a new deal personally. It's the supporting cast behind him that needs to improve.

I hope he keeps scoring until the end of the season so we can shift him in the summer for a decent wedge. No time for sentiment or blind faith unless you're prepared to waste another 20-30 years wishful thinking midtable-7th to 10th is the dream. Top strikers don't come cheap but IF we could cash in we can seriously upgrade. Will we? I very much doubt it but we'll live to regret it next season.

Why not seriously upgrade and keep a solid 10-12 goal a season striker as well?

That’s what I’d advocate. A massive upgrade on Bailey. Ollie is great for the way the team play. Of course, I don’t know if Emery agrees with me, which is kinda what matters.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Think we should show some faith in Watkins and give him a new deal personally. It's the supporting cast behind him that needs to improve.

I hope he keeps scoring until the end of the season so we can shift him in the summer for a decent wedge. No time for sentiment or blind faith unless you're prepared to waste another 20-30 years wishful thinking midtable-7th to 10th is the dream. Top strikers don't come cheap but IF we could cash in we can seriously upgrade. Will we? I very much doubt it but we'll live to regret it next season.

Why not seriously upgrade and keep a solid 10-12 goal a season striker as well?

A serious upgrade is going to be what, 70m-£80m? It's out of our league unless we can get £35-£40m for Watkins, assuming he carries on knocking them in. That's an amazing price given his performances in 2022.  The other option is going cheaper but bringing in two not one but that will be a risk.

And then we have the cost of replacing Bailey.. I can't see Duran going out on loan in August unless it's to a Spanish/Portuguese side, youth, language and lack of experience limit his options. Then we have Archer who looks like he can play in a two but not leading the line, at least not every week. He's a bloody good footballer though, the type we should be developing not selling for what £10m-15m?

It's a massive summer, Dave and huge decisions need to be made. As I said above, there's no time for sentiment or blind faith, add to that, we need to get it right. I really hope they know what they're doing.

[eamonn]

Sadly I can see us selling Cam, with buy-back and sell-on clauses to soften the blow. I'd rather he be given a run of starts for us though.

[ROBBO]

I think letting him go out on loan was a mistake, with our premiership position being safe it would have been the ideal time to give him some game time ( not just the last ten minutes ) to properly guage if he has what Emery needs.

[brontebilly]

Think we should show some faith in Watkins and give him a new deal personally. It's the supporting cast behind him that needs to improve.

I hope he keeps scoring until the end of the season so we can shift him in the summer for a decent wedge. No time for sentiment or blind faith unless you're prepared to waste another 20-30 years wishful thinking midtable-7th to 10th is the dream. Top strikers don't come cheap but IF we could cash in we can seriously upgrade. Will we? I very much doubt it but we'll live to regret it next season.

I think any thought we can seriously upgrade on Watkins is naive. Firstly, there's this narrative across the MSM that many teams are looking for that iconic 20 guaranteed goal a season striker to be successful. Take Man City, was it Gundogan who was their top scorer with about 13 goals? They invest hugely in Haaland who has been brilliant but the team are arguably worse going forward. Ronaldo scored lots of goals but had a disastrous effect on the Man Utd team. Same for likes of WHU and Newcastle who invested hugely in strikers with good reputations but have all flopped so far. Sure we could possibly get Tammy back but would he make the team any better, I doubt it.

Watkins will never score 20 league goals a season but if he consistently hits 12-15, another 5 or so assists and is resilient enough to play 30 games a season that's more than good enough for me. His general play has improved a lot since Emery came in, or more importantly since Ings was potted. Duran and Archer in reserve and up front is not a priority for me this summer.

Bailey, Coutinho, Traore - I'd expect them all to go. Issues with physical and mental resilience with all three really and not delivering anywhere near consistently enough. Buendia needs to improve but I'd have a lot more faith in him. Aaron Ramsey and Tim Iroegbunam should be in our first team squad next season, if Tim is good enough then there's less of a need for the Donk. 2-3 quality additions and Carlos back fully fit is what we should be aiming for.

[algy]

Think we should show some faith in Watkins and give him a new deal personally. It's the supporting cast behind him that needs to improve.

I hope he keeps scoring until the end of the season so we can shift him in the summer for a decent wedge. No time for sentiment or blind faith unless you're prepared to waste another 20-30 years wishful thinking midtable-7th to 10th is the dream. Top strikers don't come cheap but IF we could cash in we can seriously upgrade. Will we? I very much doubt it but we'll live to regret it next season.

I think any thought we can seriously upgrade on Watkins is naive. Firstly, there's this narrative across the MSM that many teams are looking for that iconic 20 guaranteed goal a season striker to be successful. Take Man City, was it Gundogan who was their top scorer with about 13 goals? They invest hugely in Haaland who has been brilliant but the team are arguably worse going forward. Ronaldo scored lots of goals but had a disastrous effect on the Man Utd team. Same for likes of WHU and Newcastle who invested hugely in strikers with good reputations but have all flopped so far. Sure we could possibly get Tammy back but would he make the team any better, I doubt it.

Watkins will never score 20 league goals a season but if he consistently hits 12-15, another 5 or so assists and is resilient enough to play 30 games a season that's more than good enough for me. His general play has improved a lot since Emery came in, or more importantly since Ings was potted. Duran and Archer in reserve and up front is not a priority for me this summer.

Bailey, Coutinho, Traore - I'd expect them all to go. Issues with physical and mental resilience with all three really and not delivering anywhere near consistently enough. Buendia needs to improve but I'd have a lot more faith in him. Aaron Ramsey and Tim Iroegbunam should be in our first team squad next season, if Tim is good enough then there's less of a need for the Donk. 2-3 quality additions and Carlos back fully fit is what we should be aiming for.

I agree. I can't see us selling Ollie. He's been fantastic since Emery came to the club. Think it's quite plausible, given his improvement lately, that next season he'll be in the 15-20 goal range. Only needs a couple of runs like the one he's just been on, and the odd goal elsewhere. He's one I've more faith in to improve with better coaching. And as brontebilly has said pretty much, there's Archer-Ramsay A-Iroegbunam coming through and you'd hope at least one of those would start to make inroads in to the first team next season.

[Footy-Vill]

It does demonstrate a ruthless streak that Ings started and played nearly an hour vs Leeds and then sold.
Interesting the next game was Southampton and perhaps there was a monetary clause if he appeared against them.

[Risso]

It does demonstrate a ruthless streak that Ings started and played nearly an hour vs Leeds and then sold.
Interesting the next game was Southampton and perhaps there was a monetary clause if he appeared against them.

Oh god, another one of your mysterious fictitious clauses!

[pauliewalnuts]

It does demonstrate a ruthless streak that Ings started and played nearly an hour vs Leeds and then sold.
Interesting the next game was Southampton and perhaps there was a monetary clause if he appeared against them.

Oh god, another one of your mysterious fictitious clauses!

I am no expert in football law but I'd imagine clauses of that type, "we'll sell you him, but you can't use him against us" would be illegal.

[Bully2345]

Definitely in the Premier League rules that you can't influence other teams' selections.

The only urgency in the Ings deal might have been West Ham putting the cash on the table and saying they had other targets if we didn't accept within a timeframe

[OCD]

I'm not sure you can argue that such a clause would be a restraint of trade. I think it's more that no buyer would agree to that and knowing this, selling clubs would be unlikely to demand it.

[Risso]

I'm not sure you can argue that such a clause would be a restraint of trade. I think it's more that no buyer would agree to that and knowing this, selling clubs would be unlikely to demand it.

It would be against the Premier League's "unsporting" rules.

[coreyfeldman]

Footy-Vil's level of invention when it comes to these clauses is unrivalled

[eamonn]

His creativity knows no bounds!

[Simon Page]

I thought it was common knowledge that Ings or Mings had to be sold because it's impossible to distinguish between the two names when said in Spanish. This led to tactical confusion with Mings thinking he had to find the attacker and Ings believing he was being told to give it to the nearest defender. This is why we will only be buying Spanish speakers except in goal when Scouse-Skandies are the exception that proves the rule agreed to by 83% of us... I mean me.