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The new number 9…

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Hansern said:
No doubt, but the striker market will dry up quickly. That’s my point.

85 mill for Ekitike isn’t a good deal.
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Its one of those. It might be a bad deal this summer but an excellent one next year. I understand our team is risk averse, but surely a greater risk is relying on Jota and Nunez.

We can't act all big bollocks for wirtz, and then half set the team up to fail with a glaring weakness up top.
 
Fabio said:
We won't go for an stop gap, but we will absolutely go for an alternative. Slot would have been presented a list and given a sign off I reckon. Perhaps a veto on one or 2.

I reckon under 25, around 70-90m. There's a few options and as said, there's no outlandishly good options. I reckon between the main 3 linked (Pedro, sesko, Ekitike), we'll get one of them. If we get rid of Nunez and Elliott that's immediately any of those paid for.

I believe we're going all in or wirtz to make up for the fact the striker we get won't be as electric as people hoped. Even if we kicked the cam down the road a year, who is all of a sudden going to be this mercurial striker? The ones we're linked to are the ones primed to explode and perhaps need to be in better sides to see them explode.

You can't buy what's not on the market, you just have to buy the closest to it.

If we sold Nunez and then relied on Diaz to be the false 9 (as Jota will be dead), that leaves us short LW unless we plan to push Rio up that quickly. So then the issue becomes "who's a LW to buy" and there's not exactly any available brilliant talents there either.
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It depends entirely on Wirtz - His 3 positions could be LW, 10 or false 9 - we’d have Gakpo, Diaz & Jota who can fill the LW & False 9 with Dom, Mac & CJ that can fill the 10 - even if, as likely, Harvey & Nunez are sold. Christ knows what the plan is with Chiesa.

It’s not ideal.

The problem with “alternatives” is they’re not really quite good enough and we end up with someone no better than Darwin.

Ekitike feels like he should be half the quoted price or given another year to develop.

I think Alvarez is available next summer, zi think if Ekitike does stay, he’s not necesssrily going to cost much more and we’ll know more about where he’s at.

Maybe someone else emerges that isn’t really ridiculously expensive - I’m not entirely sure.

It’s an issue, for sure, but I don’t think it necessarily gets solved by signing someone that either massively overpriced or as much of a risk as Nunez.

Maybe Isak’s a realistic option in a year.
 
Fabio said:
We will absolutely buy a striker this summer.
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I have a feeling we won’t.

I hope we do, but….

Star Wars GIF
 
StevieM said:
I have a feeling we won’t.

I hope we do, but….
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If we don't then I couldn't understand it in the slightest. You don't set this team up to be this creative and then blunt the blade. We needed a new 9 last summer and didn't act. Thankfully this season all the other teams around us needed a 9 as well. That won't be the case going in to next season
 
peekay said:
We might make a Divock Origi or Carvalho-level punt on a number nine and see where that takes us. Bring someone whose stats are promising for the age, fit the system, and is available for 10 million or so due to contract issues.
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That's Delap, imo. Won't be 10 million but will be affordable and a reasonable punt on talent.
 
I'm just chucking out ideas here because I don't really have a strong preference for any of the options, but PSG are the best attacking team in Europe (well, probably) and they repurposed a not particularly prolific winger as their centre forward, and it's gone spectacularly well.

Are there any suitable candidates for similar treatment? What about Semenyo? I like him as a player but he does kind of have the physical attributes of a striker more than a winger. Two good feet. I haven't watched him enough to know how he'd handle the subtler parts of the role, but I wouldn't be against trying someone like that.
 
Worst thing is that the one that is starting to look like a decent option now, is Gyokeres.
Sporting want 60 mill £. Which means that it can probably be negotiated even more favorable.

It felt like a trap at 80 mill £, but if it was possible to get him for 50 odd mill then its a fair gamble I guess.

Ekitike - 85 mill
Sesko - 80 mill
Isak - Wont move
Alvarez - 120 mill
Delap - 30 mill
David - Free
Guirassy and Watkins - 29 years old
Osihmen - Saudi

There aren't many strikers to target. Gyokeres might be the best option if the fee is favorable.
 
Both wide forwards will be coming more infield now we have (well expect to have) proper overlapping full backs. For the width of the 18 yard box will mostly be Gakpo/Diaz, Wirtz and Salah. My default position is if we can’t get our primary targets, don’t waste money getting sub-standard players.
 
Hansern said:
Worst thing is that the one that is starting to look like a decent option now, is Gyokeres.
Sporting want 60 mill £. Which means that it can probably be negotiated even more favorable.

It felt like a trap at 80 mill £, but if it was possible to get him for 50 odd mill then its a fair gamble I guess.

Ekitike - 85 mill
Sesko - 80 mill
Isak - Wont move
Alvarez - 120 mill
Delap - 30 mill
David - Free
Guirassy and Watkins - 29 years old
Osihmen - Saudi

There aren't many strikers to target. Gyokeres might be the best option if the fee is favorable.
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I don't think there's any doubt he can finish and would score goals in the PL. Relatively low risk given his age and price.

Part of the problem we're having as fans is that it's not really clear what sort of striker Slot would want in this new team, or even if Wirtz will play as a false 9. It's kind of hard to tell.
 
peterhague said:
I don't think there's any doubt he can finish and would score goals in the PL. Relatively low risk given his age and price.

Part of the problem we're having as fans is that it's not really clear what sort of striker Slot would want in this new team, or even if Wirtz will play as a false 9. It's kind of hard to tell.
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Agreed. I think Wirtz will mainly play as a 10 but can be used in different attacking positions obviously.
Darwin is leaving so we're definitely signing a 9 imho.
 
We're told Wirtz was really impressed with our understanding of his game and Slot's plans for him for next season. I reckon Slot will have covered off various options, including us signing a new number 9 and not. He will have a plan, whether or not we sign a new number 9 this summer.
I've talked in the past about building from a position of strength. Mamardashvili is the classic example of this. We had the best no. 1 in world football, and the best number 2. We saw an opportunity to sign a guy we think will be the mutt's nuts for the next 10 years and we bought him,
We're doing the same with Wirtz. We're champions of England, we've got money to spend, we are buying the most-prized, available player in Europe. Building from a position of strength. Making a statement.
I don't see a situation where we go out and buy a 9 who isn't exactly what we want. The players who are available aren't risk-free. The players who are risk-free aren't available. The price clubs are paying for goals is nuts. Here's a lad who scored 10 goals last season. £50m plus add-ons please? What? Nah. If we sign Delap then he's not going to be our first-choice starter. If we don't then we need to go big or go home. We get what we want, and pay for it (funded, if necessary, by off-loading some players who aren't first-choice) or we pad the squad with a Delap and wait for the right player. Darwin shows why we shouldn't take a reckless gamble. Everything we're hearing says that's not how Hughes works - he identifies the right player, does his background work, builds a relationship, convinces the player, seals the deal. We won't be signing some unknown who looks shit-hot in pre-season and turns out to be the next Patson Daka.
Wirtz shows what we're doing - meticulous planning, matched to ambition and spending power. I expect the same from our 9. If it's not a big, exciting signing in that position, then any guy who comes in is just a plan B.
 
Thats the thing though. I think we already know which 9 we want. Will be interesting to see who we go for.
 
I feel like it’s Alvarez and he’s not on the table till next year.
 
Alvarez should be our main priority hopefully with Darwin going the other way. Delap would be my option #2 for his age & price. The remaining i.e. Sesko, Ekitike or Gyokeres are very high risk due to cost & not being a guaranteed success.

Beyond these two, what does everyone think of Wissa (28) or Mateta (27) who both have one year on their contracts. There is also Evanilson (25) at Bournemouth who I have a sneaky feeling will do well next season & beyond.
 
StevieM said:
I feel like it’s Alvarez and he’s not on the table till next year.
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Why what happens next year?

I think we should go for him if we can afford the buyout clause of £125m. Yes it's way more than he's worth but I'd just suck that up.

Can we possibly afford it though? That's the question. We'd need to find at least £150m in sales, you'd have thought.

Kelleher 30
Elliott 40
Nunez 50
Doak 25

Maybe it's just about doable.
 
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