Whites lose star players

Norpig wrote:when was the last time we had a striker who scored 16 goals a season nevermind 20? I would take that anytime.

The last time anyone came close was Michael Ricketts during the 01/02 season when he bagged 15.

Since then, the most anyone has managed is 12.

The average highest goal scorer by season total between Rickett's feat and now is 10.5, so Norpig's point is a good one.

I'd take Juke in a heartbeat.

Play him with Sordell (or someone similar) off him and who knows........?

Breadman wrote:

Norpig wrote:when was the last time we had a striker who scored 16 goals a season nevermind 20? I would take that anytime.

The last time anyone came close was Michael Ricketts during the 01/02 season when he bagged 15.

Since then, the most anyone has managed is 12.

The average highest goal scorer by season total between Rickett's feat and now is 10.5, so Norpig's point is a good one.

I'd take Juke in a heartbeat.

Play him with Sordell (or someone similar) off him and who knows........?

What is the harm in looking around for alternatives first? There may be better buys out there and if not, perhaps a show of "lack of desperation" may influence the price favourably?

Unless you think there's a queue of clubs desperate to sign him.

No harm at all really, but I don't think we'll find one.

(Bird in the hand and all that.)

And I'd hate to be in the position where we say "No thanks" to Boro now, then have to go back, "cap in hand" come August and they say "Ah, just come over here a minute whilst we strap you over this barrel" and try charging us over the odds for him.

Breadman wrote:No harm at all really, but I don't think we'll find one.

(Bird in the hand and all that.)

And I'd hate to be in the position where we say "No thanks" to Boro now, then have to go back, "cap in hand" come August and they say "Ah, just come over here a minute whilst we strap you over this barrel" and try charging us over the odds for him.

Which is why you'd think the club would be working overtime to identify new targets whilst maintaining negotiations with Boro - who already have us over a barrel.
"Bird in the hand" is one proverb but so are "eggs in one basket", "don't look , don't find" and "keep your options open" - although I don't think the last one is a proverb.

The Juke would be a great buy - Most people at the club want him

wanderlust wrote:

Reebok_Rebel wrote:
Shame as he was a 20+ goal a season striker and we desperately need a natural goalscorer, 

One of the reasons I have doubts about Juke is that he isn't a 20+ goals a season striker - and in a team that's going to challenge the main man needs to score at least 20 if not more. That is especially true of our team where we aren't getting loads of goals from midfield to supplement the tally.
For us he scored 7 in 20 which equates to 16 a season - just not enough IMO. 
Dougie would prefer someone in the Jermain Defoe mould for his system if we could find an affordable one i.e. like Beckford but with quality and ruthlessness.
Obviously we can't afford the finished article, but it would make sense to scour the planet for a prospect in that mould before blowing the majority of the budget on a known quantity that isn't likely to improve further.

Can't agree with that, if we got a striker who scores 16 a season but also contributed to our attacking play and hold up the ball as well as Juke then it would be an excellent addition.

Not saying Juke is the man for that, I think we're better with him in the side but I think fitness and consistency are his issues.

Does Juke make the people around him better... Yes IMO. Now getting someone next to him might be stretching the budget a bit.

I've soured on Sordell and I highly doubt he will be back next season but if he is, maybe Juke can make him the player we thought we were getting.

bwfc1874 wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

Reebok_Rebel wrote:
Shame as he was a 20+ goal a season striker and we desperately need a natural goalscorer, 

One of the reasons I have doubts about Juke is that he isn't a 20+ goals a season striker - and in a team that's going to challenge the main man needs to score at least 20 if not more. That is especially true of our team where we aren't getting loads of goals from midfield to supplement the tally.
For us he scored 7 in 20 which equates to 16 a season - just not enough IMO. 
Dougie would prefer someone in the Jermain Defoe mould for his system if we could find an affordable one i.e. like Beckford but with quality and ruthlessness.
Obviously we can't afford the finished article, but it would make sense to scour the planet for a prospect in that mould before blowing the majority of the budget on a known quantity that isn't likely to improve further.

Can't agree with that, if we got a striker who scores 16 a season but also contributed to our attacking play and hold up the ball as well as Juke then it would be an excellent addition.

I'm not saying he wouldn't be an excellent addition. I'm saying that as we know we're skint and that Boro are likely to put a price on him that would significantly eat into our limited budget (and thereby restrict our options for other signings) we should look around elsewhere just to make sure that overall he's the best we can get for our money. If we don't look we'll never know.
£2 million got Michu who is a 20 goal a season striker - at premiership level. There could be better deals than that around if we look hard enough.

"£2 million got Michu who is a 20 goal a season striker - at premiership level."


Sorry to be a pedant, but he's scored 2 league goals this season and his overall record for them is 20 in 52 games.

wanderlust wrote:
I'm not saying he wouldn't be an excellent addition. I'm saying that as we know we're skint and that Boro are likely to put a price on him that would significantly eat into our limited budget (and thereby restrict our options for other signings) we should look around elsewhere just to make sure that overall he's the best we can get for our money. If we don't look we'll never know.
£2 million got Michu who is a 20 goal a season striker - at premiership level. There could be better deals than that around if we look hard enough.

Ha ha, because obviously we can afford players who guarantee you more than 16 goals a season.

If we had a striker who scored 15 and another striker or midfield who scored 10 we'd finish inside the top 6.

Breadman wrote:"£2 million got Michu who is a 20 goal a season striker - at premiership level."


Sorry to be a pedant, but he's scored 2 league goals this season and his overall record for them is 20 in 52 games.

...which is better than Juke (18.2 per 52 games) and against Premiership defences.

I've no idea if anyone could score more than 16 goals with this shite squad, but this is the opposite of the Trotter situation. Trotter played shit while on loan, but looks like he's being signed - Juke scored more goals than anyone else yet you think we can do better?

Natasha Whittam wrote:I've no idea if anyone could score more than 16 goals with this shite squad, but this is the opposite of the Trotter situation. Trotter played shit while on loan, but looks like he's being signed - Juke scored more goals than anyone else yet you think we can do better?

Are you really that thick that I have to explain it to you again?

OK then.
I don't know if we can do better or not - but if we don't look around we'll never know. Therefore I suggest we look around. So we'll know.

wanderlust wrote:

OK then.
I don't know if we can do better or not - but if we don't look around we'll never know. Therefore I suggest we look around. So we'll know.

But how do you "look around" for a goalscorer? Juke had scored bugger all for Boro but scored a few for us. Sordell scored shitloads for Watford but couldn't hit a barn door for us.

Wouldn't it be better to sign the guy who has proven he can score goals for us?

Natasha Whittam wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

OK then.
I don't know if we can do better or not - but if we don't look around we'll never know. Therefore I suggest we look around. So we'll know.

But how do you "look around" for a goalscorer? Juke had scored bugger all for Boro but scored a few for us. Sordell scored shitloads for Watford but couldn't hit a barn door for us.

Wouldn't it be better to sign the guy who has proven he can score goals for us?

A very valid point - although you do contradict your own argument by citing the Sordell example as we could sign Juke and he could also turn to shit as soon as the ink is dry.

I guess a good place to start would be to set up an international scouting system capable of unearthing bargain signings that have been overlooked - like Medo for example.

If only we had one of those we could check that we were getting the best possible VFM in a tight financial situation.

Once the "due diligence" has been done and it turns out there isn't a better option, then we'd be a lot happier about signing Juke in the full knowledge we got the best deal possible.

For them that don't realize ...this is a team game.  The team has to create the goal scoring opportunities so that the strikers can bask in the glory.  Any of the strikers mentioned above will score if we provide enough chances.  The problem is we don't.  The ones that are created and hoofed over the bar seem more important to us because we are not going forward enough. Liverpool create piles of chances and they miss a good few also ....as do all the good teams.  Certain players like Suarez create their own chances, that's why they are world class.
Pressing forward, applying pressure, attacking inside the box all leads to bad back passes, penalties, goal keeper howlers.  Some say that is luck ...but its not.
So Juke signing will not guarantee goals ....the whole team needs to be going forward.  With Doogie sitting back...I can't who would make a significant difference at the moment.

The Juke does hold the ball well so that will also at least will mean the ball will be kept in the right area.  He'll need a good strike partner to work with, we should already have that in Beckford, but he has been disappointing of late.