DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
Can't help but chuckle at the optimism in this thread. Signing someone like Benteke in January, classic.
We'll see a Holtby situation: some poor schmuck with six months on his contract whose club will be desperate to get something for him and thus will probably let him go for cheap. It won't be a big name on an expiring contract, either: those players will be wanted by the big clubs, and thus will be out of reach of our lurking, scrabbling fingers (I include Rodriguez in the category of 'big name': being English, home-grown, young and cheaper than he otherwise would be due to his contract situation, I'd wager at least one of the bigger boys like City or Arsenal will definitely swoop for him come January). It'll be a cheap, under-the-radar buy who'll fill in for a bit, do a just-about-passable job and then find himself farmed out on loan or disposed of come the summer.
Expecting anything else is setting yourself up for disappointment. The best we can expect is that Ade leaves on a free in the summer and that the subsequent sale of either Lloris or Verts will give us enough money to find a replacement up front + fill the gap left by said star player gratefully leaving.
Some candidates:
Giampaolo Pazzini
Dame N'Doye
Goran Pandev
Fred
Artem Dzyuba
Nikola Kalinic
Mustafa Pektemek
Khouma Babacar
Andre-Pierre Gignac
Bear in mind that a significant number of those players will likely still have more value to their clubs than what we'd offer for the remaining six months on their deals, so even that list might be a bit too far-reaching. Still, some fine candidates there for the 'hapless January buy' role. And most of them seemingly even better than Saha.
We'll see a Holtby situation: some poor schmuck with six months on his contract whose club will be desperate to get something for him and thus will probably let him go for cheap. It won't be a big name on an expiring contract, either: those players will be wanted by the big clubs, and thus will be out of reach of our lurking, scrabbling fingers (I include Rodriguez in the category of 'big name': being English, home-grown, young and cheaper than he otherwise would be due to his contract situation, I'd wager at least one of the bigger boys like City or Arsenal will definitely swoop for him come January). It'll be a cheap, under-the-radar buy who'll fill in for a bit, do a just-about-passable job and then find himself farmed out on loan or disposed of come the summer.
Expecting anything else is setting yourself up for disappointment. The best we can expect is that Ade leaves on a free in the summer and that the subsequent sale of either Lloris or Verts will give us enough money to find a replacement up front + fill the gap left by said star player gratefully leaving.
Some candidates:
Giampaolo Pazzini
Dame N'Doye
Goran Pandev
Fred
Artem Dzyuba
Nikola Kalinic
Mustafa Pektemek
Khouma Babacar
Andre-Pierre Gignac
Bear in mind that a significant number of those players will likely still have more value to their clubs than what we'd offer for the remaining six months on their deals, so even that list might be a bit too far-reaching. Still, some fine candidates there for the 'hapless January buy' role. And most of them seemingly even better than Saha.
