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Bromley Blue

The artist formerly known as the_saafender
Joined
Jan 6, 2005
Messages
2,992
...would this be too late to change the course of our season?

Ok so this might seem a strange time to post this after a great performance from the lads yesterday. In the first half yesterday we had a spell where we created numerous chances and played some great football and did well to go in at the break 2-0 up.

However I can't see Simpson and Grant scoring screamers like that every game and all good sides tend to have a decent striker that you can rely on to return you at least 15 goals a season. I know this has been discussed to death on here and some people believe its a must and others don't. However for me its a must as you only have to look at sides that have done well in this league in recent seasons to back that up. Bournemouth had Brett Pitman, Peterborough had McClean, we had Freddy and Swansea had Trundle.

With the transfer window for permanent transfers closed til January it seems unlikely we'll be able to find this player until then. Yes there is still the option of loans but who is going to loan out a player capable of scoring that frequently. A Premiership youngster is one option but could we still attract those now we're in League 2?

This season's team reminds me slightly of the squad which was left after Freddy's departure. We were left with Billy Paynter and Matt Harrold up front with some good players in midfield and a half decent defence. In January we brought in Lee Barnard and James Walker and finished strongly to make the playoffs.

So what would you do if you were Sturrock? Gamble on a Prem youngster or unattached player or wait til January and see what's available then?
 
ive got this feeling that this may be it for the squad, seems we have certainly cut our cloth accordingly and another striker may be seen as a luxury that will cost.
 
There's not a Club in the lower leagues who wouldn't want a Freddy Eastwood or a Lee Trundle. People seem to make out that we can just snap one up. The fact is that for every Freddy Eastwood there's ten Luke Nightingales. For every Lee Barnard there's half a dozen James Walkers. As for loaning a brilliant teenager from a Big Club, for every Jermain Defoe at Bournemouth there's an Eric Odhiambo at Southend.

We can't afford to buy guaranteed quality which means that every transfer we make is a gamble. Even if you bring in a quality player there's no guarantees that that player will score goals. You just need to look at Charlie MacDonald, Gary Hooper and others to see that.

Scott Spencer, Matt Paterson or Harry Crawford could go on and score a lot of goals for us. Or Sturrock could go out and spend money we don't have on someone who could score a lot of goals. In either case it's a gamble. The pragmatic approach would be to play players up front who will do a job for the team so you're not relying on gambles but you're playing to a system which will keep things tight and will provide a few chances per game throughout the team. It won't be pretty but it'll likely get results.
 
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Thought I'd bump this considering that there's been yet more Blair Sturrock debate today and yesterday.

Or we're signing a striker to play in a 4-5-1/4-3-3. So who is out there who we could realistically get to play that role?
 
Febian Brandy is still on a free...

There are loads of talented players available on loan from the Prem, that haven't made the 25 man squads.

Problem is Luggy does not like the loan market and it seems he will only move for a loanee, if we have a chance of securing him permanently if he impresses.

For that reason, I expect our next loan signing to be another unknown foreign import, rather than a household UK name...
 
The fact remains that even if we sign "a decent striker" it's going to be difficult to win games if we need to score three times.

Good teams win far, far more games 1-0, than 3-2. Yet we could lose 5-4 and people would be on here saying we need to score more goals.
 
Who could we get from the Prem? If it's that easy, Smiffy, surely other Clubs higher up would be going for these players? Remember that U21 players can be picked from outside the 25 man squad, therefore it's probably less likely than normal that decent youngsters will be available for loan.

If we sign someone I'd have thought that a Leon McKenzie style free-agent would be most likely.
 
I think Fabien Brandy is a decent example of what I was talking about earlier in this thread. He's had a number of spells at various Clubs yet according to Wikipedia he's only got 8 goals in 55 games. Now Freddy Eastwood and Lee Barnard had both been bombed out of bigger Clubs and Barnard had had a number of unsuccessful loan spells too. They worked out. Brandy could sign and could work out too. But it would be a gamble and certainly wouldn't be a guaranteed success.
 
Who could we get from the Prem? If it's that easy, Smiffy, surely other Clubs higher up would be going for these players? Remember that U21 players can be picked from outside the 25 man squad, therefore it's probably less likely than normal that decent youngsters will be available for loan.

If we sign someone I'd have thought that a Leon McKenzie style free-agent would be most likely.

I did not say it would be easy snagging any of these Prem players that didn't make the cut....

Which is why I think we will go for another unknown european, who is probably coming towards the end of his season..
 
Said on ceefax this weekend that Paul Sturrock was off on another player hunting mission in Europe this week. Suggests that the more likely route will be foreign unknown. If he picks up another Mohsni it will add to the excitement created by the team whether for good or bad.
 
Brandy is being eyed up by a couple of Championship sides I believe.

I'd be extremely surprised if a striker of some kind wasn't brought in before the November deadline.
 
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