Players (and agents) are getting more savvy.
He doesn’t sign for Ipswich without the release clause, so Ipswich fans should be thankful.
Liam Delap | In Manchester for talks (Athletic)
- Thread starter BuzzKillington
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He doesn’t sign for Ipswich without the release clause, so Ipswich fans should be thankful.
I think he would be well worth spending 30m on, improves the starting eleven and if doesn’t work out would be easy to move on.
We’re not getting Osimhen or Gyokeres and there’s no point bringing in someone as average as David. We are shopping in the younger, unproven market but even those players will cost £60m odd so half that on Delap is a decent deal, but even he may have better offers.
We’re not getting Osimhen or Gyokeres and there’s no point bringing in someone as average as David. We are shopping in the younger, unproven market but even those players will cost £60m odd so half that on Delap is a decent deal, but even he may have better offers.
We're stuck between the place where we wish we were and where we really are. Due to the idiocy of the Glazers and the bankers who ran the club into becoming a midtable side, we can no longer snap our fingers and acquire a Rooney, a Berbatov or even a past-peak van Persie. We have to bet on young, affordable talents. We got it wrong with Hojlund, who never set the world on fire in Serie A and was nowhere near ready for the prem, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't take a punt on a decent, somewhat prem-proven striker like Delap. Yes of course we want a near-world class striker but under the present circumstances that's just not possible.
And since we're not getting rid of Hojlund, perhaps with less pressure on him he might develop into something as a squad man for us.
And since we're not getting rid of Hojlund, perhaps with less pressure on him he might develop into something as a squad man for us.
It’s a no brainer for 30m. I wasn’t crazy about this first but I am liking the idea of Delap more and more.
I really like his ability to carry the ball and aggression in every duel.
He reminds me of Harry Kane. Everything he does looks quite slow but you still can’t get the ball off him.
Jackson, always injured Broja and 19 year old Guiu.
I'm not sure another young striker is what we need but we don't really have a "tonne" of them.
For 30m it’s a no brainer we won’t have 60m+ and 250k a week to spend on a striker this summer
Maybe Chelsea will move on from collecting midfielders to collecting strikers?
£30m is a no brainer. He glides with the ball like Grealish did at Villa.
We need to keep buying goalies. Eventually we'll get a good one.
I'd be surprised if you don't sign Emegha from Strasbourg, considering your connection, or try again for Aghehowa.
Fair enough, I can see you going for a bigger name anyway, we don’t have the cash though.
For 30m starts to make sense, still think if we sign him we need to shift Hojlund
Yup - I don’t see signing both as a realistic option. Suspect we push for Delap.
For £30m he'd be a sensible purchase, clear upgrade on Hojlund and Zirkzee and being so cheap allows us to bring in a couple of badly needed midfielders.
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Nah, the season afterwards I reckon. The goal for next season is to get top 4 - £30m gets us a cheap and competent striker that can help us do that. Then we replace Hojlund with a someone even better the year after.
If we can sell Hojlund in the summer and get two strikers in then im all for it, but we have a lot of areas we need to improve on
£30m would be a steal. Think we'll have a lot of competition for him. Especially if Isak stays at Newcastle. Can see all the big PL teams in for him.
Place is doing Delap alot of disservice by comparing him to Hojlund.
He's alot friggin better than Hojlund.
He's alot friggin better than Hojlund.
I'm not Hojlunds biggest fan at all but we would be wanting rasmus last season based on his pl form. Delap isn't proven
I can't think of a PL striker who's worse at this moment to be honest.
Objectively, he is a good finisher. He outperforms his xG, but the problem is his xG and his poor hold up play.
People chosing to take ridiculous shots instead of pass to him says more about players like Garnacho than him, to be honest.
Earlier in the season on here, I was told we'd be better off with Maddison than Bruno because of Bruno's flaws and Eriksen is a better 10. You can check the Hojlund perform thread, I also was one of the first to say how much he stunk up the place. I think trying to use him as central no 9 expected to bring people into play isn't going to get the best out of him, but he has qualities that can be very effective if we stick to his strengths.
If it really is £30M then the line of clubs after him will be as many as they are in the league table.
He can pick from any of them…would be a little strange if he chose the team that finished 14th.
He can pick from any of them…would be a little strange if he chose the team that finished 14th.
His trajectory seems to have more parallels with Andy Carroll than anyone else. Carroll was thought to be the next big thing in English football at the time and had 11 league goals for Newcastle at roughly the same age before Pool broke the British transfer record on him. Once at Pool he had 11 goals in 49 fixtures before being shown the door on loan to West Ham. You just never know what you're going to get with some of these guys.
£30m? I thought it was £40m?
We still have prestige.
There's other factors also like wages, starting minutes, European football, getting into the England team.
I'm unsure about him but he might surprise us.
Part of me thinks we're pretending to show interest in him and we're really after another striker and it's to show we're not desperate.
It's a negotiating tactic.
Maybe we're after the guy in Portugal, not the Swedish guy but the African-Spanish striker.
What? Managers who care for their players will always advise their players to choose the best team for their career if they want to leave.
Can we contact agent McKenna to help us out with this?
I don't think any United fan would be against that. Although ideally Delap is coming, not as our main striker.
At that price he'll have his pick of several clubs I imagine and we'll definitely be one of them. It'll be down to us to sell the club to him
I've been really impressed with him this season. He''s got bags of potential
I've been really impressed with him this season. He''s got bags of potential
Why would he come then? Very much doubt he's moving to sit on a bench.
Nailed it. This is a realistic solution we will likely have to resort to in the summer. Much of the comments here and elsewhere on the cafe seem to miss two fundamental problems we have - that our pulling power is diminished, along with our ability to outbid and offer huge wages, and generally compete intensively with other big clubs for the likes of Osimhen, Gyokeres and even Delap (should Chelsea make a bid for him). Compounding this will be Forest's new-found ability to attract proven attackers in the PL or elsewhere.
If I was Delap, I'd be thinking 'yes, Man Utd - a world beast of a club where I could be the no.9 probably starting each week'. I'd also be thinking 'they score hardly any goals, who's going to supply me? Am I going to be under massive pressure immediately (wouldn't be the case at Chelsea where Palmer and others chip in loads). The team is struggling, atmosphere at the club might not be great/other strikers have left because they hated it' etc etc.
We can wish for proven goalscorers, but our financial situation hampers us and we're really up against it. Affordability and having to 'sell the environment' will be new challenges for Wilcox/Berrada.
I'm still very sceptical that Delap is who we should be going for this summer. I'd really rather not make another bet on a young striker who has had one season of high output in a top league. Osimhen would still be my top pick I think, although if there's interest from Saudi Arabia his wage demands may end up being unaffordable.
Having said that, at £30m I'd be a little less concerned. That is at least a reasonable fee for him. At that fee, I'd hope we could also bring in a player in one of the wide forward positions who's capable of getting to double figures or close to that amount for goals. I still believe that, if Delap is our choice for the striker position, we need another player to lighten the goalscoring burden on the striker.
Having said that, at £30m I'd be a little less concerned. That is at least a reasonable fee for him. At that fee, I'd hope we could also bring in a player in one of the wide forward positions who's capable of getting to double figures or close to that amount for goals. I still believe that, if Delap is our choice for the striker position, we need another player to lighten the goalscoring burden on the striker.
Exactly. For 30 mil it is a no brainer. Also not a lot of good strikers available at the moment. Send Hojlund on loan and add another veteran striker and we will be in better shape striker wise for next season.
The system we play doesn’t get the best out of him.
I’ve come round to the idea of Delap at that price. McKenna I’m sure would share his development with us too
How is his holdup and link play?
Overperforming xG isn't a good thing in the context of a potential buy. Because it means the player is less likely to keep scoring at his current rate than if he was performing at or under xG.
I think when Erik played him on the right towards the end of last season, I saw what he could bring. With a proper RWB behind him instead of Dalot, he'd be able to run that right channel and in behind. Lumping it up to him in the air and playing it into him with his back to goal is not conducive to getting the best out of him.
This sort of stuff:
Sold me on him. If he can even replicate his goals from this year with us, that would be cracking first season and we'd improve massively. For £30m, it's extremely hard to argue better value and it would allow us to invest in more areas.
This isn't true though, because pretty much every elite striker outperforms their xG.