Demba Ba

[destinydude]

He's 27. Will be 27 if we buy him in Jan or 28 in the summer. Dempsey will be 30 next summer.

[the rev leeroy brown]

Where? Really, give me an example of how you could cure our goalscoring woes for £7m better than bringing Demba Ba in.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (goalscorer, more prolific than ba, and worth around the 7 mill mark with contract expiring), Fernando Llorente (28 mill release clause will never be met. he's in last months of a contract and the parent club are desperate for cash. Easily see him go for 7-9 mill), Christian Tello or Bojan (both young and not playing - tello more so now - but easily available on loan for fees well less than the 7 mill), Daniel Sturridge (see previous - we wanted loan deal in summer, he's interested - apparently - and would cost 7-10 mill not the 15 some media reporting), Theo Wlacott (contract expiring etc...)

IMO all these players above are either more prolific, more experienced, better suited to our game than ba.

[red g]

All these players are all highly regarded, So the contract expiring issue will not reduce there market value as much. I don't think any of them would go for under 10, Specially not Llorente!!

[Eric Swindler]

His knee is a timebomb apparently. We'd sign him and he'd blow out his knee first run out at anfield. You know it would happen

[RedReet]

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (goalscorer, more prolific than ba, and worth around the 7 mill mark with contract expiring), Fernando Llorente (28 mill release clause will never be met. he's in last months of a contract and the parent club are desperate for cash. Easily see him go for 7-9 mill), Christian Tello or Bojan (both young and not playing - tello more so now - but easily available on loan for fees well less than the 7 mill), Daniel Sturridge (see previous - we wanted loan deal in summer, he's interested - apparently - and would cost 7-10 mill not the 15 some media reporting), Theo Wlacott (contract expiring etc...)

IMO all these players above are either more prolific, more experienced, better suited to our game than ba.

Played 6 times already, scoring twice. Think that ship has sailed.

[Pablo]

All these players are all highly regarded, So the contract expiring issue will not reduce there market value as much. I don't think any of them would go for under 10, Specially not Llorente!!

Head in the clouds

[James P]

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (goalscorer, more prolific than ba, and worth around the 7 mill mark with contract expiring), Fernando Llorente (28 mill release clause will never be met. he's in last months of a contract and the parent club are desperate for cash. Easily see him go for 7-9 mill), Christian Tello or Bojan (both young and not playing - tello more so now - but easily available on loan for fees well less than the 7 mill), Daniel Sturridge (see previous - we wanted loan deal in summer, he's interested - apparently - and would cost 7-10 mill not the 15 some media reporting), Theo Wlacott (contract expiring etc...)

IMO all these players above are either more prolific, more experienced, better suited to our game than ba.

Huntelaar - never really lived up to his promise, isn't as prolific, unproven in the Premiership, and wouldn't fit into our system any better. Despite that would probably still command more than £7m.

Tello played and scored last night, not sure what's happening with Bojan, but how is a loan deal a better solution than buying a decent striker for a relatively low fee?

Sturridge - he's English and scores the odd goal, so will likely go for £15m, and certainly not £7m, plus his strike rate is way lower.

Wlacott [sic] - not a striker, way lower strike rate, would take him to play one of the wide roles but suggesting that he's a like for like replacement for Ba is way off the mark.

Simply put, if Ba passed a medical I'll bite their hand off for £7m. He scored goals in a Newcastle team who didn't dominate games in the way that we have and do. Get him on the end of some of the 75 or whatever attempts on goals that we've had so far in just 4 games and I reckon he score 20 a season easily.

[Tee]

Ba...Humbug!!

[James P]

His knee is a timebomb apparently. We'd sign him and he'd blow out his knee first run out at anfield. You know it would happen

Yeah, look at what happened when United stupidly signed Van Nistleroy and his dodgy knee. Oh, hang on....

[RedReet]

Huntelaar - never really lived up to his promise, isn't as prolific, unproven in the Premiership, and wouldn't fit into our system any better. Despite that would probably still command more than £7m.

Tello played and scored last night, not sure what's happening with Bojan, but how is a loan deal a better solution than buying a decent striker for a relatively low fee?

Sturridge - he's English and scores the odd goal, so will likely go for £15m, and certainly not £7m, plus his strike rate is way lower.

Wlacott [sic] - not a striker, way lower strike rate, would take him to play one of the wide roles but suggesting that he's a like for like replacement for Ba is way off the mark.

Simply put, if Ba passed a medical I'll bite their hand off for £7m. He scored goals in a Newcastle team who didn't dominate games in the way that we have and do. Get him on the end of some of the 75 or whatever attempts on goals that we've had so far in just 4 games and I reckon he score 20 a season easily.

No way that theory could fail.

[James P]

His knee is a timebomb apparently. We'd sign him and he'd blow out his knee first run out at anfield. You know it would happen

He's only £7m. The first time that Carroll ran on to the pitch for us we lost more than double that, and he didn't even get injured.

[James P]

No way that theory could fail.

Thanks, I'm glad that you agree. This football manager lark is piss easy, isn't it?

Edit: sorry, just noticed your predictions for the year. Maybe it's just piss easy for some of us, and not others.

[Lee]

Huntelaar - never really lived up to his promise, isn't as prolific, unproven in the Premiership, and wouldn't fit into our system any better. Despite that would probably still command more than £7m.

Tello played and scored last night, not sure what's happening with Bojan, but how is a loan deal a better solution than buying a decent striker for a relatively low fee?

Sturridge - he's English and scores the odd goal, so will likely go for £15m, and certainly not £7m, plus his strike rate is way lower.

Wlacott [sic] - not a striker, way lower strike rate, would take him to play one of the wide roles but suggesting that he's a like for like replacement for Ba is way off the mark.

Simply put, if Ba passed a medical I'll bite their hand off for £7m. He scored goals in a Newcastle team who didn't dominate games in the way that we have and do. Get him on the end of some of the 75 or whatever attempts on goals that we've had so far in just 4 games and I reckon he score 20 a season easily.

Well said.

[Chazza]

Huntelaar - never really lived up to his promise, isn't as prolific, unproven in the Premiership, and wouldn't fit into our system any better. Despite that would probably still command more than £7m.

What ever anyone thinks of him I would say 189 goals in 276 games at club level and 33 in 58 for Holland is fairly prolific.

[RedReet]

Thanks, I'm glad that you agree. This football manager lark is piss easy, isn't it?

Edit: sorry, just noticed your predictions for the year. Maybe it's just piss easy for some of us, and not others.

Let's see how this looks after Sunday, and then we'll look at this again.