I would've thought the same, I took a little bit of a deeper look at their defensive activity. If we compare the areas in which Raj + Bayo (excluding Dennis from this as he's often played out wide and hasn't played many mins which skews it a fair bit) press the ball, it looks as if Raj is actually better at pressing the defence, whereas Bayos intensity looks to be focused more around the keeper. So I wonder if there's some sort of bias around what we see with the eyes - to me Bayo is great at pressing - but does really pressing the keeper (when not much in open play is really happening) stand out to the eyes more than pressing the defence in the relative chaos of more open play? Interesting thought imo.
Not both of them, only one was for sale, not most clubs but a few but only Watford openly told him he wasnt better than what they already had. Someone must have a very high opinion about Bayo. Scouting at it's very best.
More like Asprilla considering that Whittaker is more of a right-sided forward than a lead the line #9.
Yeah there's no way he's going for 15-20m. The record transfer from a non Rangers/Celtic SPL team is Craig Gordon for £9.5m to Sunderland from Hearts back in 07/08....
Yeah that seems in line with my initial observations - Miovski doesn't seem quite as much of a goalscorer than Rajovic but has a slightly more rounded general game, but still not one that's good enough to make him overall a clearly more attractive proposition than Rajovic and worth spending a sizeable fee on.
Maybe, though personally I feel it is us trying to constantly unearth the next Pedro/Richarlison. Decisions are made on how much they might be worth in 3 years time and that stops us sometimes buying talent at what they are worth in the current market and getting someone more near the finished article not someone based on how much we could possibly make in 3 years time. We can get the rough diamonds from countless Premier clubs onloan. That was my original point. As a side note, the said player, won't be in the Championship next season, contact with 3 Prem clubs in last 2 months about a move in Summer (including one up the road who contacted on the basis that they don't go down, Lol).
Seeing how Latte Lath has been in fine form for Middlesbrough lately after joining them off the back of a good season in the Swiss Super League (they did pay €5mil for him mind!), I thought I'd take a look and see if there are any other strikers currently over there who might be worth picking up. It looks slim pickings, but there is one intriguing player: Kevin Carlos of lowly Yverdon. Spanish, only just turned 23, and on loan from Huesca where he never really seemed to be given a chance. He started the season mostly a sub for them, but has since found his feet and is now in fine form with 7 goals this year, and overall his 10 open play goals from 1899 minutes is close to the best goals per minute in the league. Yverdon supposedly have an option to buy, but I very much doubt it'll be for much money at all and almost certainly less than he's now worth. Yverdon seem to almost never pay any money at all for players, or have ever sold them for more than €500k. Maybe he could be easily snatched away from there somehow? He is a fast and powerful striker with a good strike and good leap. He'd be a bit of a risk still considering this is only the first time in his career he's started producing and so shouldn't be brought in as the obvious starter every week (Hountondji is currently my first choice for that). However, you can definitely see how can he can develop as a player given his age and some of what he's shown, and for the relatively tiny fee he should cost he's the kind of player who'd be worth a punt and should at least be a good option off the bench against tired legs. He's shirt number 11 and scores the first goal at the start here vs Young Boys: He also scores the first goal at the start of the video here, then in the next clip gets the opponent a red card with a skill to beat the last defender who then brings him down: (for those who want more, here's 2 goals off the bench against Zurich, starting at 1:55 in the video :
Slight correction to the above - it seems Yverdon made the deal permanent already from Huesca in January - for the measly sum of €250k. I'm sure they'd be happy to double or triple their money on him in the space of a few months. Here's him scoring a good header at 2:20 :
One I really like just across the Swiss/Austrian border is Mika Biereth. 21 years old and on loan from Arsenal (where he has a year left on his contract in the summer). Was on loan at Motherwell in the first half of the season where he scored 6 goals and nabbed 5 assists in 14 games (just over 1000 mins played). In Scotland he showed his creative side of the game, before being recalled in January. He was immediately sent back on loan to Sturm Graz in Austria, where he's scored 5 goals and got 2 assists in just 762 minutes in the league, as well as 3 goals in 4 games in the Conference League and shown the clinical side of his game to compliment the more creative side he showed at Motherwell. With Arsenal likely buying a striker in the summer (that'll further block his pathway to the first team) and potentially looking to recoup some money (as that striker ain't gonna be cheap) and a year left on his contract Biereth is a likely candidate to be sold. Will probably have a bit of interest considering his record this season but hopefully wouldn't put us out the running. Goals this season: Watching his goals shows his great positioning - he always just seems to be in the right place and right time, has a nice range of finishing - both with his feet and aerially. The goal at 1 min shows he's more than just a poacher, nice pace and desire to win the ball, a deft little flick to take it past the defender and a superb finish at the end. The assists also show nice link up play and general technique. Would easily be an upgrade on what we've got up front, just depends on the competition for him and the price that Arsenal set.
He does seem quite good. His play in Scotland looks better than Miovski at least. He has the added bonus of currently being English Qualifying as well. His movement and heading seem good, and he has good general technique. However, the reservation I'd have regarding him being "easily an upgrade on what we've got up front" is that at least at the moment he looks pretty lightweight, including a general lack of pace and power. As with JP after he joined it could take a season before he's up to the rough and tumble of the Champ. At the moment I doubt his hold-up/back to goal play would be that good and he generally looks like he'd currently get bullied by Champ defenders. On the Arsenal note, there looks a touch of Havertz about him with his play and languid style. Similar to Havertz one wonders if he wouldn't rather be more suited to a second striker/number 10 role, where he can avoid physical duels, but rather focus on finding pockets of space and making late runs in to the box to get on the end of crosses. Most of his goals do seem like poachers' goals I must say. The one you highlight at 1 minute didn't show much pace really to get beyond the defender and he had to shoot quickly as the defender was getting back at him. I wouldn't be adverse to signing him if the fee isn't huge as there seems a lot of possible upside with him, but he might need a bit of time with his lack of physicality.
Ha, I just noticed that Sturm Graz are the only side (along with Ludogorets Razgrad) I've seen recently linked with my current favourite potential striker pick in Andreas Hountondji - to be a potential replacement for Biereth. We could just really pi55 Sturm off by signing them both - I think their playing styles would complement each other with Hountondji stretching the back line plus being better with the ball on the ground, and Biereth dropping deeper plus being better in the air. https://abseits.at/fusball-in-oster...greifer-steht-beim-sk-sturm-auf-wunschzettel/
With Andreas Hountondji, looking at how much Caen usually sell players for, and how much Graz usually buy players for, my guess would be €2-3mil. Considering he's in the last year of his contract and was out on loan I'd hope for the lower end of that. But I think he could in reality be easily worth double that, so I think there's potential for someone to get a bargain. For Mika Biereth it's a tad trickier to gauge given that he's being sold by Arsenal. He is also in the last year of his deal, but has performed well in two leagues with a decent profile this season and is also English. Maybe reids has a different idea but my guess for him would be closer to €3mil. When you have Man City selling a player like Morgan Rogers for £1mil with add-ons though you never know, maybe it could also be a decent amount less.
Strikers at Sturm Graz are always worth a look, they've had an uncanny knack of flipping strikers for good profit (especially for Austria) in recent seasons: 23/24: Bought Emegha for €3.2m and sold him to Strasbourg (Chelsea) for €13m within a year 22/23: Bought Hojlund for €2m and sold him to Atalanta for €20m within 8 months 21/22: Bought Yeboah for €1.2m and sold him to Genoa for €6.5m within 18 months
We should sign him, if he's anything like Tony he'd fit in well with his screamers from outside the box!
Cleverley quoted in interviews this morning about perhaps having to be creative and look at loans from former clubs and PL sides.
Don't suppose you or anyone else has the full article you can please send my way? One would think Cleverley's Man Utd links could be a good thing to leverage, but looking through their squad there really don't seem many obvious players there at the moment who they are likely to loan to us and who would really benefit us. One of the few possible players would be 21 year-old CB Will Fish, who is currently doing quite well at Porteous' former club Hibs and is a regular starter. But Pollock was seemingly doing a bit better with Aberdeen and we'd surely prioritise his development over a similar loan player. I doubt Fish would be sent somewhere on loan next season to mostly sit on the bench. 19 year-old Tyler Fredricson may make a bit more sense as a back-up CB coming in - he is very highly rated having once been captain of England youth teams, but has been out injured almost the whole season and so is in need of now being eased in to senior football. He's one Utd may wish to assess and keep around their first team squad though. They have a couple of promising young GKs in Vitek and Harrison who might be loaned out - Vitek is currently on loan at Accrington in League Two where he's first choice and doing very well - but again they won't be sent to just sit on the bench. Both seem very good prospects though who will be worth keeping an eye on as permanent signings should the opportunity arise in the coming years though. Maybe 18 year-old Habeeb Ogunneye would come as a back-up RB/RWB, but he's not that great. Not as good as Laird was anyway. Or 20 year-old CM Toby Collyer, but again he's not that great and might not play much; I'd have thought a League One loan would make more sense for them both. 18 year-old Ethan Williams is a promising winger, but a Champ loan could be too much for him already and we might not even be using his style of winger. 18 year-old striker Ethan Wheatley is a very good prospect, but Utd will prob keep him on their bench next season, rather than send him to be on our bench. There really don't seem to be any Amad Diallo-level potential loan signings there and he's surely too good to go back to the Championship again. Hannibal Mejbri hasn't been getting a sniff on loan at Sevilla after playing for Birmingham last season, but one would think he'd also be looking to get minutes in a top 5 European league next season.
Amad Diallo would be very useful signing but as you say I can't see him back in the Championship. But fingers crossed.
