JazzG Duran who just came from MLS and has 10 top class goals to his name total is going for 77m. That feels like an enormous risk at that price - but also highlights the lack of options at that position if these are the prices people are willing to pay.

I will admit, there is no particularly outstanding characteristic that Watkins brings. He is a guy who does everything 80% well, which makes him a great all rounder. So he is a bit underwhelming from that end. It's usually great to see someone who has an edge quality like speed, strength, dribbling. He just does everything well enough. But the numbers over a few seasons are good. And with all our injuries, I just like the idea that if I sit Havertz, I can have a veteran Watkins on the field next to Nwaneri, etc.

      I didn't realise that uefa had changed its registration rules in 2018 to allow players to switch clubs for hte knockout stage. So we can register up to 3 players who have already participated in the contest. We can sign Gyokeres, Sesko and Watkins for the games. Thought we could only use them domestically

      QuincyAbeyie

      Except, your interpretation is clearly wrong. We bid for Sesko in the summer and failed. We tried to convince him (apparently) to move in January and failed again. We also failed to sign Watkins.

      Clearly, the club is aware of the need for a striker. Nothing has changed since the summer. This isn't some sudden u-turn. We are still in pursuit of a striker, the issue is we keep failing to convince/land our man.

          QuincyAbeyie

          We did try for Sesko who is a striker, so it's not some sudden realisation.

          Watkins is clearly us going further down our target list, given our desperation now that Saka and Jesus are potentially out for the season and Sterling has turned out to be trash. That was not the case in the summer, it is now, hence my question did you just wake up from a coma. We are desperate, we need to sign someone.

          What are we discussing here? You want to criticise the club for not signing a striker, and now you want to criticise for wanting to sign a striker. Lol.

              daredevil What are we discussing here? You want to criticise the club for not signing a striker, and now you want to criticise for wanting to sign a striker. Lol.

              I'm not. I'm saying that if Wakins is someone of interest, it wasn't the right call in the summer to hold off because our wanted targets weren't available. "Lol."

              But you're saying it was right to wait in the summer because our players hadn't become injured yet at the time, while now they have. I guess we just disagree about whether we should build our squad based on the possibility of injuries or not.

                  QuincyAbeyie

                  Injuries have clearly forced our hand. I don't think we'd be going for Watkins if we didn't have injuries. We'd probably be waiting out for Sesko to finally join us in the summer, but we can't afford to wait for that now. We need to sign someone. Circumstances have drastically changed.

                      • Tam

                      • Post #1079

                      I like the look of Rogers from Villa. He's more exciting than Watkins is. Different role/position, but he's got a bit of growing to do and if he continues to build on his form this season he'll get a bigger move soon enough. He was magnificent in their game against City a few months back.

                        and Orny with the finish:

                        • JazzG

                        • Post #1081

                        Claudius Striker markets have always been tough, very few top class ones around so even the ones who aren't top top tier or top prospects go for stupid money.

                        Jhon Duran is averaging a goal every 90mins I think in this league, the money is crazy but if clubs cough it up they'll have seen the guy and watched him carefully in this league for 3 seasons now so will have a good idea if he'll step up or not. I think around £60m would have been fair for him in this market but Saudi's paying stupid money for their project

                        I think @Sicario touched on it earlier, Fergie signed RvP basically to win them the title. Different circumstances as Fergie was about to retire so desperately wanted that last title. Maybe Arteta thinks Watkins can be the one to get us over that phycological barrier and win us the title? Even if it is a waste of resources and we might have to bin him in a few years. I don't know I'm just throwing that out there.

                          • Qwiss

                          • Post #1082

                          To me it looks like Sesko isn't interested. We tried last summer, tried again this window and he's not moving. Time to move on.

                            • JazzG

                            • Post #1083

                            Qwiss That is a possibility, sometimes you get a vibe that a player isn't all that committed to joining so you need to move on.

                            Doesn't look like Watkins is possible now so I hope we have other options!

                                Tam Yeah Rogers does indeed look good, he ran rings around our midfield at Villa park this season but Boubacar Kamara tops my wishlist among Villa players. He doesn't have any hype but he's a genuinely good footballer. Hope we bring him in for Partey this summer.

                                    Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert maybe he's seen all the young strikers who've gone to Chelsea and United and farted away their careers, and thinks better of it to stay in a place where he is a priority

                                      Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert He probably feels he isn't good enough to start for us and would rather develop his game at Leipzig before moving to a big club. I have seen bits of him and he does seem raw despite having some interesting qualities.

                                      The Gyokeres situation is the one that intrigues me. This guy is banging them in left, right and centre and he did look a player when we played Sporting few weeks ago, but we don't seem to be making any effort to sign him. I must admit I haven't seen much of him beyond the match against Sporting, so maybe scouts that watch him regularly don't think he has what it takes to excel in the PL.

                                          • JazzG

                                          • Post #1090

                                          Tactics The Gyokeres situation is the one that intrigues me. This guy is banging them in left, right and centre and he did look a player when we played Sporting few weeks ago, but we don't seem to be making any effort to sign him. I must admit I haven't seen much of him beyond the match against Sporting, so maybe scouts that watch him regularly don't think he has what it takes to excel in the PL.

                                          Something about him makes me think he won't step up, there are always one who do well at clubs and sometimes score 20+ league goals but they never make it to the top clubs. I remember back in the day on the forums loads of fans thought Darren Bent and Defoe should have played for top clubs but even though they put up numbers for the like of Spurs they'd never be able to step up. Arsenal & Chelsea are both actively looking for a CF, I'd argue both clubs have good recruitment in general and neither club has shown any interest in him.