Some (unsubstantiated) noise on Twitter/X that Ipswich want Rajovic. Would be very surprised if we gave up on him already, even if we could turn a quick 100% profit. Just think his goals mean he will be very much in and around the team for a while to come. But it’s a tricky one - £3m-£3.5m that you can go and get someone better for? I can’t see Rajovic getting much better myself but he does score and if he get another handful of goals, would any of us turned down a 15 a season striker for less than £2m? And you just know he’d go to Ipswich and suddenly find all the attributes he’s so far lacked here and we’d end up looking like we have sold him dirt cheap.
He gets goals but clearly doesn’t offer enough in general play and that won’t do for a team like us. If we can find someone who fits the style of play more and is available now then I think it’s worth pulling the trigger. That said, I think he’ll always get goals with service and as such I think we’d similarly be able to sell at a profit in the summer.
I honestly think he's worth keeping for goals alone. The alternatives at the moment are so poor that it would only mean trading down if we were to sell him.
Yup. He's dire but somehow scoring regularly enough to make him unsellable. Or least impossible to replace even if we turn a decent profit on him.
Agreed. Getting a good ‘all-round’ striker is very hard…even harder in January. Would baffle me if we sold someone who gets goals because we want to ‘roll the dice’ on getting someone better and somehow doing it cheaply. I see people claiming this AFC Wimbledon striker online - and he may well be the answer. But should we give up on someone who gets goals based on signing a striker from L2 who has done it for less than 6 months?! I still remember the clamour to sign Luke Jephcott under the same circumstances who did exactly the same and is now **checks notes** on St.Johnstone’s bench barely getting a kick. I’d rather a club that buys players and tries to make them better and doesn’t give up after a few months, than a club that thinks it can just pick up the finished article for peanuts. When you read Twitter etc, (terrible barometer, I know)I think some of our fans just wants transfers because the window is open - and to hell with the fact of it actually making much sense beyond ‘new player, exciting!’.
No way this is true, but if it was we should sell him at the first chance of making a profit! He’s League Two standard at best and no spring chicken either. I’d be surprised if he ever commands a fee of more than 500k for the rest of his career.
I'd sell him, doesn't fit our system ... he may well do well at Ipswich - but he wont for us. If this rumour is true I would cash in, I just don't think he is good enough
Also think if he can get another 4-5 goals we could probably sell him in the summer for a profit and replace him then.
The link doesn't exactly surprise me as Hirst has just had surgery on a hamstring injury so will be out for a while and they are trying to buy another striker They way things are going I think Ipswich are on course for missing out on automatics, even without Hirst getting injured. Can Ipswich pay him more than we can? Probably not. I doubt they have much of a budget and would be amazed if they could offer anywhere near £5mil. In the summer they only signed Hirst for £1.5mil and Taylor for £1.5mil. They're probably going around making maybe £2mil offers for lots of players in the hope that one of them is successful. I don't think they'll be offering a good fee for him and I think he'll only improve with a full pre-season, so I hope we hold out. It took long enough to even find him and get him through the door.
Not sure 24 is old if you are saying that . His goals might be worth something to us and bump up his price in the summer so unless it’s a silly fee might as well keep the guy as there isn’t anyone else really .
Terrible at pretty much everything apart from the hardest part of all, scoring goals. I'm not sure he will ever be good enough for this league but trying to replace a guy who, if he keeps on scoring at the current rate, will end up around the 15 goal mark is extremely difficult. If we were to sell him I imagine it will be to a club with a bigger wallet than Ipswich as can't see them offering an amount we simply can't turn down
I'm hearing the funds raised from this sale will be used to fund a £3m bid to Udinese for Keinan Davis.
Further to this, seemingly the same source as the Rajovic link has them making bids to sign Gallagher from Blackburn with bids of £1mil and £1.5mil rejected. With his contract expiring this summer that deal is surely more likely to happen. Rajovic is probably only mentioned so they don't get held to ransom by Blackburn.
I think Ipswich are bankrolled a decent amount these days - they may see this as an opportunity at promotion they can’t miss and spend a bit to grasp it. But I’d be asking for £4m+ in today’s market at least. (I’m not sure this raw version of Rajovic is worth anywhere near that - but it’s January, and it’s here’s a base to work with if we keep him. Just think selling him sends the wrong message and would be a backwards step towards the club we have been prior to this season.)
Don't sell him. For 2 simple reasons; He would score a hat trick v us in the play offs if we got there. We would probably replace him with a similar style player who doesn't score any goals. But what do I know? I wouldn't have swapped Helguson for Henderson.
Bayo is everything Raj is not, and Raj is everything Bayo is not. Probably why they suit how we approach games. Healy was given a real chance to make a claim for a starter last weekend and flopped (although not all his fault the service to him was pitiful) so I can see him still being third choice when Bayo comes back from injury. Unless we have somebody lined up around 3M mark as a replacement and it's already a practically done deal then we should keep him. His general hold up play is getting better slowly, and does score goals. Before this season I knew goal scoring was going to be our problem but I think despite his limitations he has done very well so far at the job he is paid to do.
My bet would be: Healey leaves on loan and goes to Sunderland/Toulouse/Charleroi… Hurtado goes to lower league Spain or Pafos (under Giaretta) on loan. We sign a striker that isn’t quite a ‘big No.9’ but is closer to that people than Healey has ever been. It won’t be Kieffer Moore or someone guaranteed to start over Bayo/Rajovic though. Other deals: Louza will leave and we will sign someone like Alex Mowatt or Callum Styles to replace him. Pollock/Udinese reserve deal will get done. Someone will try and get Bachmann on deadline day.
I’d take all of that, although I’ve no issue with Healey being given the second half of the season to try and find his feet. I don’t think we’re going to challenge for the playoffs, so unless we’re able to get somebody in up front who could be our 9 for the next few years, I’d be okay with seeing out the season with what we have. Selling Bachmann would be a huge bonus.
In fairness he proved to be an able player in the top flight at Fulham and QPR, which is more than could be said for Henderson. Interesting to think how a King-Helguson partnership would've worked out...
I’d also be happy sticking with what we have and just telling Louza to grow a pair. Bachmann I’d bin off - poor GK and fake passion merchant. Healey is an odd one - feels like he should be up and running by now, even with the injury. After all, it’s not like he’s new to English football or scoring goals here. He either needs to go or be given a run of games and not dropped at the first bad game.
Double our money on the worst striker to ever grace our pitch? Yes please. Anyone who says otherwise has clearly just been beaten down by our ownership and the podders. Or don’t actually watch us and see how truly awful he is.
