Cisse Gone

[Johnny]

Rafa: Michael, we'd love to take you back to the club, you're just what we're looking for.

Owen: Thanks Rafa, I'd be delighted to go back, I should never have left.

Rafa: How does £100,000 a week sound?

Owen: Oh that would be great, I can almost see it now, Champions league final, last minute penalty, Owen no.10 steps up...

Rafa: Erm, I think Voronin might have already commandeered that number Michael.

Owen: WHAT? You expect me to join LIverpool and take a 13 / 15 shirt. No way, deal is off sorry.Anyway,i want to to win medals.

[Kopite_Colin]

the fact that voronin was given the #10 shirt confirms owen will not be back anytime soon

The shirt number isn't important. Having a PROVEN goalscorer is.

[Alpha]

The shirt number isn't important. Having a PROVEN goalscorer who doesn't have cheesestrings for ligaments and hamstrings is.

[Revo]

Michael owen will be PROVING it elsewhere it wont be with us, thank ****

[Kopite_Colin]

Maybe , maybe not. The fact remains if we start the season with Torres as our only true striking addition, then we're exposed as ****. One injury to Torres or a poor start for him and/or Voronin (who isn't a true striker by all accounts) and we're back where we started.

We still need a proven goalscorer and 2 quality wingers before anything else. Then a LB and CB.

[dww]

Maybe , maybe not. The fact remains if we start the season with Torres as our only true striking addition, then we're exposed as ****. One injury to Torres or a poor start for him and/or Voronin (who isn't a true striker by all accounts) and we're back where we started.

We still need a proven goalscorer and 2 quality wingers before anything else. Then a LB and CB.

None of the other top sides have more than four options up top. We couldn't possibly keep people happy if we bought them in.

We do need more people capable of scoring goals from midfield but I think spending money on another striker would be a waste.

[Revo]

Maybe , maybe not. The fact remains if we start the season with Torres as our only true striking addition, then we're exposed as ****. One injury to Torres or a poor start for him and/or Voronin (who isn't a true striker by all accounts) and we're back where we started.

We still need a proven goalscorer and 2 quality wingers before anything else. Then a LB and CB.

peter crouch,fernando torres and dirk kuyt are all proven goalscorers

[paulcooper4]

Michael owen will be PROVING it elsewhere it wont be with us, thank ****

[Kopite_Colin]

peter crouch,fernando torres and dirk kuyt are all proven goalscorers

Not in the Premier League they're not. The closest we have is Kuyt and he only got 14 in 1 season (yet to be proven in my book, and I'm a Kuyt fan), and Crouch's record in the league is very average (17 in 2 years). So we're exposed. Who knows what Voronin and Torres will do? Very well I hope, but we have no proven back up, especially without upping the creativity in the wide areas to the top level.

[Revo]

with enough games and im not a fan but peter crouch can score 15. dirk kuyt will have a better season this year and score 15. with penalties, torres should score close to 15 and if voronin can chip in with 5, thats 50 goals in a season for a defensive minded team. if another forward is signed, it will be milito and not michael owen and that might come at the expense of crouchie

[Kopite_Colin]

3 of our forwards will not score 15 each, especially if we don't sign TWO top class wingers. Pennant & Kewell (the more likely of the 2) aren't up to it, so we need 2 top class widemen.

[Revo]

Are We Talking Strictly Prem Or All Comps?

[lfcruleus]

with enough games and im not a fan but peter crouch can score 15. dirk kuyt will have a better season this year and score 15. with penalties, torres should score close to 15 and if voronin can chip in with 5, thats 50 goals in a season for a defensive minded team. if another forward is signed, it will be milito and not michael owen and that might come at the expense of crouchie

Spot on that, with the chip ins from defense and midfield it should pull our league goals to 75 or so which is a major improvement.
Rafa doesnt want a 25 goal a season striker he wants 3 15 goals a season strikers.

[rushscored4]

As Brian Reade said this morning, the best teams don't always have a 20 goal a season striker. Only once during our glory years of the 70s when there were 42 games in the league did a forward score more than 20 and that was King Kenny with 21 in 1978/79. Rushy scored over 20 a few times in the 80s but he got 30 in 1986/87 and we finished second to Everton...

Last summer Man Utd sold a 20+ a season striker, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and everybody thought they'd struggle. Obviously the *******s went on to prove people wrong and won the league yet their top scorer was a midfielder, Ronaldo with 17 goals. However, Didier Drogba got more than 20 goals and Chelsea finished second...

[lfcruleus]

As Brian Reade said this morning, the best teams don't always have a 20 goal a season striker. Only once during our glory years of the 70s when there were 42 games in the league did a forward score more than 20 and that was King Kenny with 21 in 1978/79. Rushy scored over 20 a few times in the 80s but he got 30 in 1986/87 and we finished second to Everton...

Last summer Man Utd sold a 20+ a season striker, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and everybody thought they'd struggle. Obviously the *******s went on to prove people wrong and won the league yet their top scorer was a midfielder, Ronaldo with 17 goals. However, Didier Drogba got more than 20 goals and Chelsea finished second...

Is the right answer