JazzG I agree Durán would've been a better target. I'm strongly against us signing stars in the 29+ age bracket. Watkins would be an excellent signing if he were 25 or even 27. At 29 if he signs a 4 year contract here, chances are he'll spend a couple of years of it pulling high wages from the bench while we bemoan that we haven't signed a striker again.
He's not coming though so it's a moot point.
USArsenal Villa are still in the CL, still in contention for CL places in the league so I'd be shocked if they sold both their strikers this window.
USArsenal Gone quiet on that front but it sounds like a deal structure is being worked on and most importantly we've convinced Zubimendi. Getting him to leave was the hard part!
He is very reliable this guy....
Tactics Yeah true, I remember Mario Jardel hitting insane numbers in Portugal but no serious club put in a bid for him
Think Jardel had some bigger issues than just his talent.
The Times also saying the bid was £40m.
Burnwinter I understand where you are coming from, I have also been very against signing players over 26 and we've built up a good age profile in the squad as a result. But the striker market is hard and like I said the club might think it is worth throwing a bit of money to try and solve our problem. I don't think he will be on the bench that often, he is a very versatile forward. Good link play, good at pressing and he sets up a lot of goals as well. We need two players to share the load of that position.
With Duran we are competing with Saudi wages which is a non starter if his head is turned.
No-one touched Hulk, either.
Look how bad Darwin Nunez turned out.
Mehdi Taremi won the golden boot twice and he's scored 1 goal in 16 appearances for Inter Milan.
Pedro Goncalves? Who?
Pizzi - What?
Carlos Vinicius ermm
Haris Seferovic
Jonas
Bas Dost
Jackson Martinez
Oscar Cardozo
Lima
That's the Portuguese Golden Boot winners over the past 15 years -
Ange the inverse of Arteta they barely have any fit defenders but signing forwards for €60m 
i wish i was a striker. people will pay whatever.
Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert who knows why. Maybe Bayern have already tapped him up. Wouldn't be the first time.
Tactics Seems to be a lot of media talk about him being an option for clubs but no real solid links to him going anywhere. He seems very settled to me. I also think he's not as good as people think and that league has a habit of making players look amazing when they are not. See Joao Felix and Darwin as a recent examples.
Panda yeah and their wingers have being doing alright. Tel needs to bench 2 of Kulu, Johnson and Son. Silly move. Probably not serious anyway and just a distraction from their on pitch mess.
@"JazzG"#
Having a hard time taking our £40m bid seriously, and I would imagine Villa felt the same.
MistaT it’s an anchoring tool. If you want to pay £60m, you don’t bid £60m. You put in a low number - first to lower expectations and also to establish if there is actually an intent to sell. You can always pay £60m eventually. What you don’t want is to be rejected at a first offer of £60m. That’s the worst possible situation.
Claudius mate, the guy who has replaced Edu seems very amateur. Why would you bid when you know they are selling Duran and no way in hell they will sell both?
Sicario2 - Tier 1 rumors are the leaks of the bid didn’t come from either club so it might be Watkins and his agent pushing the move.
Sicario2 - Tier 1 Think he is waiting for the best offer
Sicario2 - Tier 1 when was the bid made relative to the Duran situation?
